There was nothing in the world that I ever wanted more.

Still working out the details of the new blog in the midst of my job hunt, etc. Until then, I just couldn't wait to share this:

Like the sun, chasing all of the rain away.

I've been posting lots of YouTube videos lately, but it's become my insomnia-fueled, late-night pastime to randomly browse for covers by everyday people. This one was a pleasant surprise:



And remember adorable Anthony Hill, whose videos I posted about a year ago? Well, he's covered my favorite Syd Barrett song (I'm in a weird Pink Floyd et. al. phase lately), and he's charming as ever. Someone sign this guy already!

There will be feasting and dancing in Jerusalem (or Hinsdale) next year.

I just learned via a MySpace bulletin that Heathers, a Dublin folk-punk-pop duo releasing an album on Plan-it-X Records sometime soon, will be touring the States with other Plan-it-Xer folk-punk-pop favorites (whose covers have been featured here in the past) Ghost Mice. Sadly, they do not have a show planned in Chicago proper (as of yet, anyhow), so I won't be able to catch them, but I still thought some of you might be interested in learning about them because they're pretty damned good and you might want to check them out if they're playing near you. Here are two videos of them performing The Mountain Goats' "This Year" and Tegan and Sara's "Nineteen," respectively. The quality of the videos might not be that great, but the talent shines through.





Update: I have to add their live version of this Spice Girls cover too because it's my jam!

More than merely surviving.

Posting American Idol performances is not something I'd normally do, but I fear that many of you have written it off, which I understand. But every now and then, a phenomenally talented star will be a guest and take the stage and remind you how awesome he or she truly is. Annie Lennox singing Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers to Cross" (from the "Idol Gives Back" spiel) simply blew me away. And to think I almost chose not to set the DVR!

She could go for miles, if you know what I mean.

My Internet friend Lauren just posted about this video of old-school diva extraordinaire Dame Shirley Bassey singing Pink's "Get the Party Started," and I am in camp heaven. The drag queen inside me is already plotting her lip-synch routine...

Feet on ground, heart in hand.

As many others did, I fell in love with Jay Brannan and his music after seeing Shortbus. Here he covers Jann Arden's "Good Mother," and it's pretty beautiful.



Longer post with MP3s coming in the next day or so.
 

Better, better, better, BETTER!

If you've seen this elsewhere, my apologies, but frankly? It's far better than a lot of "Hey, Jude" covers.

Kings, cocaine and Irish puppets.

The only road they've ever known.

Rose Polenzani, Sharon Lewis, Dinty Child, Dave Champagne, Jess Fox, Kimon Kirk, Joel Ninesling, and Ry Cavanaugh

They could knock me off my feet until I'm flat on the floor.

A little over a year ago I posted a great country cover of Mariah Carey's "My All" by Chicago band Devin & The Straights and said that I couldn't wait to see them live. Well, I did wait quite a long time. I had just missed their set the night I saw Textbook Committee and Farewell Captain at the Beat Kitchen, so my next option was to head to Chicago's big gay street festival, Northalsted Market Days, in August to see them. Besides, their adorable former band member and longtime Copy, Right? reader and subsequent Internet friend Landon joined them on vocals and harmonica, so I felt particularly driven toward my goal. They did not disappoint. Charming, funny, gay, straight, talented and prone to performing covers? If that's not up my alley, I'm not sure what is. Luckily, I got some video. Hooray for modern technology and digital cameras with halfway decent video recording capabilities!

D&TS; covering "Jackson" (comp. Lieber/Wheeler):



D&TS; covering Cher's "Just Like Jesse James":

Labour of lust.

What a post delay, huh? I'm very much the type of person whose interests come in waves and the blog wave just didn't hit me for a while there. Longtime readers are accustomed to this pattern, so I won't necessarily apologize, but I felt a warning was necessary for newer readers. Blah, blah, blah, but now the weather smacks of fall (and fall's my favorite) and the wave crashed into me today and here I am.

Another wave that's pummeled me (aside from a momentary desire to use annoying Internet abbreviations) the past week is the delightfully crushing force of power pop both old and new—hence the theme of today's post and, quite possibly, the next few posts to come. Let's all live in fear (and glee!) of a probable future of an all-"Without You" post, shall we? And an onslaught of YouTube-found videos of varying quality. (See below.)

The covers you'll find will either be A) power pop acts covering non-powerpoppers B) non-powerpoppers covering power pop acts or, in many cases, C) power pop acts covering other power pop acts. You know how I roll.

The Diodes "Red Rubber Ball" (Cyrkle cover, comp. Paul Simon)
"Red Rubber Ball" is near the top of my very long list of favorite songs of all time. You never suspected I was an optimist, did you?

Candy "She Loves You" (Beatles cover)
Ah. LA. Power pop and big glam-rock hair. It sometimes makes me wish I was born on the West Coast.

The Lambrettas "Somebody to Love" (Jefferson Airplane cover)
Leaning a bit more into new wave than power pop, IMHO, but they have their moments.

The Cokes "Cheri" (20/20 cover, comp. Paul Collins)
Dear Japanese power pop act: Please be the band in my dream prom that enters through the fog on a team of black unicorns with silver reins and glittery rainbow-striped horns. KTHNXBYE!

Velvet Crush "Remember the Lightning" (20/20 cover)
I'm getting tired of writing and can't think of anything to say about Velvet Crush or 20/20 except that I like the former and I love the latter. But the cover art for VC's Teenage Symphonies to God is on a list of my favorites. I want to date that cartoon boy. If he's straight.

The Rubinoos "Little Willy" (Sweet cover)
I never write these silly snippets in the order the tracks are listed and it's almost 5 a.m. and I can't sleep so I've nothing to say here except that it's a good thing I'm not wealthy because, if I were, my house would be full of insane "I can't believe this exists" crap like this. As my current financial situation stands, it's not in the cards for me. But, hey, there are still about 102 shopping days until Christmas, you know...

Lush "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend" (Rubinoos cover)
I would let the Lush gals be my girlfriends. I miss them.

Note to Avril Lavigne: Hey! (Hey!) You! (You!) This sounds exactly like that song you and your co-songsmith "wrote"! Oh, that trend-setting Kelly Osbourne/Linda Perry collabo!

Dar Williams "All Men are Liars" (Nick Lowe cover)
Nick Lowe's acerbic lyrics? Check. Dar Williams's similarly sardonic glint and irresistible charm? Check. Rick Astley getting pwned? Check. What more could you need? Srsly.

The 27 Various "Great Big World" (Plimsouls cover)
Kicking off this creamy Plimsouls-related center is a track I only remembered existed after I started thinking about The 27 Various for another reason. Earlier today I went to the local used record shop and spotted their album Approximately for $4.99 and I didn't buy it because I thought I already had it on vinyl. On the walk home I thought to myself, "Wait... I have that one, right?" When I returned, I checked my records and, duh, it's the only vinyl LP of theirs I don't have (not to mention one I realize I didn't even think was on vinyl at all)! Well, I know where I'm headed tomorrow afternoon.

Anyhow, I've mentioned before that I love The 27 Various, a band most people have never heard of, and this cover is simple but pleases me immensely. It seems to come from a radio show performance replete with witty pre-song banter, which makes the early 90s fangirl in me even more giddy about its existence.

The Aquabats "Zero Hour" (Plimsouls cover)
I don't know much about the Aquabats except they're a ska band in the jam-packed "my, aren't we wacky?!?" subset of the genre. Therefore I will share a conversation with myself that took place in my head earlier.

Liza: I wonder where this resurgence in my love for power pop began.
Liza: It was probably Labor Day weekend when Encore was showing all of those crappy-but-awesome '80s movies.
Liza: Yeah, I think the soundtrack music seeped into my head and made me long to be a Los Angelean teen trying desperately to party and get laid.
Liza: Ah, to be in a scene with Eric Stoltz or Andrew McCarthy with the Plimsouls or the Nerves playing in the background!
Liza: Right? That would rule, but you know what?
Liza: What?
Liza: You're too old for that now. I mean, you're about the same age now as the Jacqueline Bisset character is supposed to be in Class.
Liza: Holy crap!
Liza: Not exactly related, but isn't it weird that REM had a song on the Bachelor Party soundtrack?
Liza: Yeah, that is weird. But that REM song doesn't even really sound like REM in retrospect. It's actually perfect for the Bachelor Party soundtrack.
Liza: Hmm. I just thought of something: Maybe the obsession with power pop happened because it seems as if Peter Case is suddenly everywhere in magazines.
Liza: Yeah, isn't he though?
Liza: Well, maybe not everywhere. Maybe only in the past few issues Paste.
Liza: Heh. Yeah. That doesn't exactly constitute everywhere, but Paste certainly had a hand in it.
Liza: Word.

Scene.

Ingram Hill "A Million Miles Away" (Plimsouls cover)
Ingram Hill sounds like the name of the name of the fictional publishing company where the chubby, sassy heroine of the chick lit book I'll never write works. The band Ingram Hill sounds like a roots rock/country/adult contemporary blend with just a slight aftertaste of emo. (Speaking of blends and aftertastes, I could totally imagine them as one of many Starbucks featured performers.) I'm afraid Ingram Hill—which is the name of the band, not the name of a person in the band—might not be enough of either to fit in anywhere. But good luck to them in their market (which is unsurprisingly admittedly not my thing) as I was very surprised to enjoy this cover far more than I thought I would.

The Plimsouls "Time Won't Let Me" (Outsiders cover)
Oh, wait. This is the last snippet I have to write. Damn, just when I was about to finally go to sleep. Like many gals and guys of my generation, I was introduced to the music of the Plimsouls through the new wave/power poptacular movie, "Valley Girl. Hooray for that.

Unrelated to music but related to my long-running obsession with Valley Girl, last month I could have seen this remake of "Valley Girl," at the Chicago Underground Flim Festival but I didn't because I just learned today that it existed. I'm so fired. Those interested can see the a snippet of it around the 23-minute mark here. If you have an hour to kill, you can also view snippets of the artist's Velvet Underground and Runaways mini, um, biopics and hear her talk about her process and other stuff interesting to art students. She's doing the kind of stuff I always talk about doing but never do because I thought no one but my friends and I would find it worthwhile or amusing. Apparently I overestimated the taste of the powers that be in the art world. So, yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. You'll either find the videos annoying or hilarious or both. You've been warned. (Note to self and anyone willing to take on the endeavor: 1. Try to find out the bands covering the soundtrack songs and acquire them somehow AND 2. Get to work on that all-sock-puppet version of Solarbabies.)

The Records "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?" (Rolling Stones cover)
The British Big Star. (I'm not coining that, FYI. It's how people have described them and my use does not imply my endorsement as such.)

Material Issue "I'd Wait a Million Years" (Grass Roots cover)
It kills me that I somehow never managed to see Material Issue live. Hopefully Jim will serenade me when I get to Blogger heaven.

She Blonde Swede "Crazy" (Material Issue cover)
I know nothing about She Blonde Swede except you can download a slew of live covers they've done at various gigs over at the Internet Archive and that they seem to have good taste. Have I mentioned lately how much the Internet rulz?

Bowling for Soup "Sick of Myself" (Matthew Sweet cover)
I have to admit the few anachronisms in the song and video for their cheesy hit "1985" still annoy me because I'm a geek, but it was a pleasant surprise to find they're MS fans.


It's kind to be cruel*, so I now subject you to this:




*Preemptive strikes: 1. Please no e-mails correcting this wording. I did it on purpose. 2. I know this is not a list of every cover ever of or by every power pop band in history. I can only do so much at a time.
 

Extra thick, extra long, the way we were wasted.

I was MIA there for a while, huh? I guess my plan to accept all affordable social invitations in the face of perhaps being forced to leave Chicago due to lack of viable employment is in full effect. So, yeah, in the midst of Pride weekend, "celebrating" my birthday, trying to get/preparing to go to interviews and having friends cool enough to buy tons and tons of drinks, I almost forgot about the blog. Sorry, kids.

One of the cool things I did recently (as recently as last night, even), was attend the aforementioned cover-fest at the Beat Kitchen. And while the awesome GBV tributalicious Textbook Committee delivered as usual, I was also extremely pleasantly surprised by the musical prowess of a band I'd never seen before: Farewell Captain. Seriously, their all-cover set was so awesome that I remarked to my friend Jessica (who I have to thank profusely because I was initially waffling on whether to go out into the sweltering night with very little pocket money and she offered to be my sugar daddy and encouraged me to go) that if they were a real indie cover band that played every week, I would go see them every time. (Of course, even if they don't play covers, I will check out their non-cover sets should the opportunity arise.)

Among many other favorite moments, their rendition of Teenage Fanclub's "The Concept" was particularly phenomenal. Sadly, I missed the first half the song because we came late, but whatever. What I saw the rest of their set ruled as well. Such as this cover of "Web in Front" by the Archers of Loaf that features a few extra vocals from my new friend John Sellers, author of Perfect From Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life, which you should totally buy:



A good drunken time indeed!

I'll be busy this week as well with job interviews, a visiting friend, Sonic Youth at Pitchfork and karaoke, but I'll try to post a few tracks in the next day or two.
 

Try this trick and spin it. Yeah.

I heart Mr. Hopkinson's Computer.

I remember when I lost my mind.

I hope this doesn't come off bitchy or anything, but I'd really appreciate it if those of you sending MP3s to my inbox would check to see whether or not I've already posted the tracks first. There is a search bar in the upper left corner of the site that should assist you in said endeavor. Granted, chances are good that even if I've not posted it, I already have it, but at least there's a chance I haven't.

Similarly, all of you bands and PR people who tell me you "love my site" and want me to "review" your work? I'm calling bullshit because almost NONE of you seem to realize I ONLY POST COVER SONGS.

Now to offset how cranky I am right now, reader K2 alerted me to this and I think I like it better than any of the tons of other covers of this track out there right now:

You want to see whatever common people see.

As you all know, YouTube is rife with covers by people no one has ever heard of who happen to have webcams, but every now and again you'll stumble on something/someone who isn't total crap and is just plain charming and cute. It doesn't seem remotely possible that it would be legal for me to find someone born in 1987 so damned adorable, but it is. I cannot believe 1987 was 20 years ago.

Anthony Hill covers Pulp and Lily Allen, respectively:

I got nothing to say I ain't said before.

Lambchop "This Corrosion" (Sisters of Mercy cover)
It's a genre I never got too obsessed with, this dark alt-country-meets-chamber-pop stuff, and I'm not sure why since I actually quite like it. Well, I was once temporarily obsessed with 16 Horsepower, but that was about a decade ago. Anyhow, I'm revisiting it, and find that I love it when these type of outfits cover goth staples.


Speaking of 16HP, for your viewing & listening pleasure, allegedly they chose Joy Division's "Heart and Soul" as their final live song ever:

Feels like more than a kiss to me.

One of my favorite so so so so wrong songs ever as performed by the pretty pretty pretty pretty boys of Grizzly Bear. They've covered this a lot while touring and this video recording, although cut off just before the end, is pretty awesome.

Maybe that rehab suggestion wasn't so bad after all, huh Amy?

I know lots of people who won't shut up about Amy Winehouse being the best thing since sliced bread. But let's face it: Sliced bread isn't that fucking amazing either. Gear up for one of the biggest train-wreck covers of all time: