On Monday, Ryan Adams released a track-by-track cover of Taylor Swift’s smash hit album “1989” to mostly rave reviews.Ryan Adams & The Cardinals do an acoustic cover of ‘Times Like These’ by the Foo Fighters. It was done for some radio show.UK Broadcast on 8th November 2008 by BBC Radio 2 for “Dermot O’Leary”live Lounge.
On Monday, Ryan Adams released a track-by-track cover of Taylor Swift’s smash hit album “1989” to mostly rave reviews. Ryan Adams has a huge back catalog and has always ripped out quite a few covers, so over the next few posts here are some of the favourites
dating back his earliest days with seminal alt-country outfit Whiskeytown in the early 1990s.
This list also wholly omits Adams’ huge catalogue of Grateful Dead covers (there were simply far too many on my “Ryan’s Dead” compilation from which to pick).
This list also does not include live songs performed in one-off settings, like Madonna’s Like A Virgin, Bryan Adams’ Summer of ’69, Dio’s Holy Diver or the Backstreet Boys’ I Want it That Way.
Chris Cornell sat down for an in-depth interview and acoustic performance in the SiriusXM Studios for an Artist Confidential where he performed a cover of Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U.
There have been plenty of Prince covers throughout history, but perhaps none more memorable perhaps than Sinead O’Connor’s take on “Nothing Compares 2 U” 25 years after that iconic song’s release, someone surprising just gave O’Connor a run for her cover money: Chris Cornell the Soundgarden frontman has been out on the road supporting his latest solo effort, “Higher Truth“, and he’s apparently been work shopping his own take on “Nothing Compares 2 U” at some gigs. It appears any kinks have been worked out, as he turned in a pretty stunning rendition of the song for SiriusXM’s Artist Confidential series. Backed by a cellist and a second acoustic guitarist, Cornell delivers some chill-inducing vocals on the take. Sure, it might not seem like Prince + Sinead O’Connor Quality Chris Cornell, but this really happened, and it’s really damned good.
Father John Misty covers Ryan Adams’ cover of Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” in the style of Velvet Underground. A a contemporary classic.
Father John Misty must not think much of Ryan Adams’ Taylor Swift fandom. Josh Tillman (who’s Father John Misty the same way Justin Vernon is Bon Iver) has released two Taylor Swift covers of his own, only they’re done in the style of Ryan Adams by way of the Velvet Underground. Tillman’s versions of “Blank Space” and “Welcome To New York” are incredibly layered and intricate—both as tracks and as jokes—with Tillman both paying subtle tribute to the artists and commenting, as hetweeted, on “what a dumb world” we live in, or at least produce and consume music in. More than anything, the two cuts prove that Tillman is just really great at impersonating Lou Reed.
18 years ago the Minnesota slowcore vets, Low, released their Transmission Ep. At six tracks it housed two covers – “Jack Smith” (a Supreme Dicks cover), and a glacial rendition of Joy Division’s “Transmission“, from which the Ep took its name.
Ezra Furman has been on a quest to cover some of the most beloved songs of all time, both old and contemporary, and the last one we heard from him was of LCD Soundsystem’s “I Can Change.” Today, Ezra Furman’s presented us with his rendition of the Replacements’ “Androgynous,” which to this day remains one of the band’s most quoted works. It’s a song that loosely narrates the physical appearance of a non-conformist punk couple, and though Paul Westerberg’s lyrics might not necessarily seem all that revolutionary in 2015, they were absolutely written as a declaration of liberation in 1984, when Let It Be was released. At its core, this is a song about feeling okay with who you are, regardless of whether your androgynous beauty turns heads or makes people wonder: “Is that a boy or a girl?” Listen to Furman’s version here.
Through his Devinyl Splits subscription series, which got underway at the beginning of this year, Kevin Devine has been spotlighting musicians he’s become friends with over his decade-plus career in the underground rock scene. In the two installments released so far, Nada Surf frontman Matthew Cawes and Devine covered each other, and Perfect Pussy frontwoman Meredith Graves put out her first-ever solo track. For the upcoming third iteration — out in September — Devine and Tigers Jaw both provide their own takes on songs by the Cure, an essential touchstone band for anyone picking up a guitar today. A few weeks back, we heard Tigers Jaw’s “In Between Days” cover, and now here’s Devine’s interpretation of “Lovesong” .
Hippo Campus is a young band in a couple of ways: The Minnesota quartet has only been together a relatively short time, its members are barely of legal drinking age, and it’s only released one EP so far, the Alan Sparhawk-produced Bashful Creatures. But the band’s few recordings and live shows have been enough to inspire radio play all over the country, plus tours with Modest Mouse and a slot at this year’s Lollapalooza. Another EP, South, will be out in October. In the meantime, enjoy the band’s cover of Electric Light Orchestra’s classic “Don’t Bring Me Down,” a hit from 1979 that features either the word “Bruce” or “grooos,” depending on who you ask.
Is it possible that Born in the U.S.A. is actually Bruce Springsteen’s best album? The sound might have catapulted The Boss into megastardom some 31 years ago, but it seemed to more commercial to his past work, his lyrical outlook, what we knew of him as a person…was it his pop record, But in terms of songwriting – and this is something I’m starting to come around too decades after first hearing the album but listening to those songs so many times –Bruce was so on point on that record,
Take away all those 80s production trappings and just listen to the music and the lyrics – like in the haunting, Nebraska-esque version of the title song found on Tracks,, or the plethora of versions of “I’m On Fire”…or Lancaster based duo Sympathy and the Lion’s brand new version of “Glory Days”
Sympathy’s John Shavel and Michael Burke take the song down to a moving piano and harmonica, and without the bouncy big band pop, you get to focus on the lyrics – where Springsteen candidly details the psychic trials of aging, of splintering off from old friends, of watching your dreams fade and watching yourself fall from your youthful heights, even if you used to be at the top of the pack. It’s a beautiful, appreciate-what-you-got song, and Sympathy really makes it their own: and makes me appreciate it anew.
Sympathy and the Lion play a set tonight at World Cafe Live when they open for Red Wanting Blue at World Cafe Live.
The sisterly trio of Haim has covered hits from Miley Cyrus (“Wrecking Ball”), Beyoncé (“XO”), and even Sheryl Crow (“Strong Enough” with the added help of good friend Lorde). Now, they’ve turned their attention to one of 2015’s most-talked about artists, Tame Impala. Check out this Haim Remix of Tame Impala’s “Cause I’m A Man,” a single off of his new album “Currents”. Haim take the song and slow it down a bit, add some great reverberating percussion, and a great vocal on top of it. The changes make this song into quite the powerful tune. It is more pop than the original psychedelia tune, but it sounds great!
On Huw Stephens’ BBC Radio 1 show, HAIM debuted a lush rendition/rework of “‘Cause I’m a Man”,
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