Cover #40: Blue Öster Cult covers "Kick Out The Jams" by MC5

 If you are going to cover a truly iconic song, you really should bring something completely new to the conversation.  Here is another BÖC cover of a classic rock classic done basically the same as the original.  It's probably just as well that these guys use the PG spoken intro, because you are not going to get anything exciting with the rest of the cover.  Like their Animals cover, this is executed well, and suits the sound of BÖC just fine, but in the end it's exactly that-  just fine.  ✅✅

Cover #39: Blue Öyster Cult covers "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" by The Animals

 Everyone's favorite head-scratcher hard rock group leaves the cowbell untouched for this cover, which is barely different from the original.  Their version starts out with a slightly Santana sounding guitar solo, and they do bring a more 70s hard rock crunch, but otherwise there isn't much unique going on.   ✅✅

Cover #38: The Dick Carpenter Trio covers "Dancing In The Street" by Martha & The Vandellas

 Dick Carpenter would be the elder brother of the soft pop superstars The Carpenters.  A couple of iterations before the hit duo, the two Carpenter siblings teamed up with a bass/tuba player (you heard that right) and performed some jazzy covers and at least one original.  This stuff is miles away from the Carpenters familiar sound folks, so give it a try.

I don't think this version has been issued officially, but you can find it easily on YouTube from a 1968 performance on a TV show called "Your All American College Show."  So how is it?  It's really good!  This trio puts out a sort of jazz-meets-go-go (not Washington, DC Go-Go, but the 60s kind) with some nifty short little solos including Karen on drums.  She was just 18 when they performed this, right after the trio won a local Battle of the Bands competition.

Who'd a thought?    ✅✅✅✅

Cover #37: We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It! covers "Spirit In The Sky" by Norman Greenbaum

 This is a perfect example of "it's so bad it's good."  I absolutely loved this group when I first heard them in the C-86 era- they were just so different from everything else.  This group embraced the entire "we're not going to let the fact that we've never been in a band or played any instruments before stop us" punk and post-punk ethos- very much in the spirit (ahem) of The Slits and X-Ray Spex.  So, here they put their unique spin on the old classic rock hit.  It is definitely a unique take- it only sort of sounds like the original.  Good stuff.  ✅✅✅✅

Cover #36: Low covers "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" by The Smiths

 It's not easy to cover The Smiths.  The gallery of truly good Smiths covers is meager, and I'm not exactly sure why.  This cover by Low is a good effort- they strip off the superfluous intro (isn't it super obvious that The Smiths turned in this uneven final album to satisfy the record company?) and remake the song into a very quiet, somber lament.  The vocal delivery is magnificent, and the mid-song dramatic change adds emotion rather than distraction.  I wish the recording quality was higher, but I'll take it.  ✅✅✅✅

Cover #35: Los York's cover "Sunshine Of Your Love" by Cream

 Yes, the band does have an apostrophe in its name, and they put out a very sinister cover of the old Cream classic.  It's sung in Spanish, and the title is "La Alegría De Tu Amor."  There are little touches like the guitar dropping out of a few notes at the end of the famous riff in the beginning, and a much more subdued drumming performance that makes this version somehow more nervous.  Turn down the lights, turn this cover up gradually louder and louder, and scare the crap out of anyone within earshot.    ✅✅✅✅

Cover #34: Elliott Brood covers "Runaway" by Del Shannon

 This cover by a little-known Canadian band sticks pretty close to the cover.  One thing I do like better about this cover is the keyboard solo is less annoying than the one in the original (a "Musitron" inflected keyboard, which is too whiny for my ears).  This is really a 2.5 star cover, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.   ✅✅✅

Cover #33: The Lillingtons cover "Blitzkrieg Bop" by Ramones

 Well, hey!  It's a burst of pop-punk out of Wyoming, of all places!  I'm checking out a complete discography album of material from The Lillingtons, who have the Warped Tour, Blink-182 style pop-punk down pat.  They perform a cover of the Ramones classic in what's basically a straightforward manner, though slightly sped up.  The faster pace keeps this version from sinking into karaoke, and I have to imagine it is/was a crowd pleaser live.  

✅✅✅

Cover #32: Devo covers "Head Like A Hole" by Nine Inch Nails

 There is something perhaps natural about new wave pioneers Devo covering an epic Nine Inch Nails song; after all, groups like Devo, Cabaret Voltaire, and Kraftwerk paved the way for later industrial titans like Ministry and NIN.  But while the inter-generational re-passing the torch might make sense, Devo mostly wastes an opportunity with this version.  The verses work better than the chorus, but don't expect any cool Devo surprises here like some of their other cover songs.  If they had done something creative and unexpected with the chorus, this could have been magic.  Instead, it sounds like a Devo cover band covering NIN.  Darn.  ✅✅

Cover 31: Bonzos cover "You're The One I Want" by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John

 For the past couple of years Spain has been a hotbed of really good power pop and pop-punk, and this is no exception.  Here we have Bonzos (a good name for this kind of music, by the way) with their zippy cover of the classic hit from the Grease soundtrack.  These guys don't mess with the song much, but they add a really cool pop-punk update, complete with male and female vocals.  Super fun.  ✅✅✅✅

Cover #30: Gravehuffer covers "Inca Roads" by Frank Zappa and "Children Of The Grave" by Black Sabbath (mash-up cover)

 There are a lot of Frank Zappa covers out there (he probably has more dedicated tribute albums than any other artist except maybe The Beatles), and there are quite a few Black Sabbath covers, but a mashup of the two?  I don't think too many people saw that pairing coming. This is really a Sabbath cover with a portion of "Inca Roads" at the beginning and just a quick refrain at the end.

The Sabbath cover is pretty good.  It is a dark and slightly slower version, nice and heavy.  I have a hard time taking the vocals seriously, but at least it's not Cookie Monster vocals- more like Beetlejuice.

The Zappa partial-cover is terrible.  If you have never heard Zappa's "Inca Roads" before, please don't let this influence you.  ✅✅

Cover #29: Richie Stephens covers "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want To Be Right" by Luther Ingram

 It sure is funny how the mind works.  Just this morning I started thinking about some cheesy easy listening songs from the 70s, I wondered if any of them had generated good cover versions.  Just like that, my iTunes random play landed on this old warhorse of a song, covered by Jamaican artist Richie Stephens.  Mr. Stephens specializes in a sort-of easy listening reggae, so his cover isn't a leap at all- more like a baby step.  I'm afraid it will take something a lot more imaginative to turn this tune into a worthwhile cover.   ✅✅

Cover #28: Tears For Fears covers "Ashes To Ashes" by David Bowie

 I admit, I know very little about Tears For Fears other than the couple of gigantic radio hits from the 80s that you could not escape.  I also admit that I definitely scrunched up my nose when I saw this cover before I hit play.  Seriously?  This sure seems like an odd pairing.  Well, TFF do a decent job, if not terribly original.  They do a pretty good job keeping up musically with the original, but the vocals, while not bad, sound out place.  I give these guys credit for putting themselves out there, but I can't see why you would proactively seek this version out.  ✅✅

Cover #27: Cheap Trick covers "Rebel Rebel" by David Bowie

 Soooooooo...... this is not vintage Cheap Trick doing an unexpected Bowie cover at the height of their Budokan era powers.  This is 2020 Cheap Trick, who looks to be joining a sizable group of 70s and 80s stars who are putting out all cover albums or at least cover songs (I have my theories as to why, but I'll save that for a different blog).  This version is not very good.  It adds nothing to the original, and it doesn't even sound like a good Cheap Trick song if you pretend that they wrote the song.  No thanks.  ✅✅

Cover #26: Bauhaus covers "Ziggy Stardust" by David Bowie

 I might as well give a brief mention of the aforementioned Bauhaus cover.  Their version sticks very close to Bowie's original, with an updated sound that is a little meaner than the original.  Part of the charm of this cover is how well it matches Bauhaus the group-  you just can't imagine Bauhaus covering any other Bowie song.  A good match and a good cover.  ✅✅✅

Cover #25: Corpus Delicti cover "Suffragette City" by David Bowie

 This song was always one of favorite of David Bowie's radio hits, so I was happy to check out how another artist interprets this song.  I recently picked up a 4-cd box set of Corpus Delicti, which is quite good, and it includes this cover on the fourth disc of rarities.  Corpus Delicit occupies the same approximate sonic and thematic real estate as Bauhaus, so if you like the latter's cover of "Ziggy Stardust" then you should like this cover as well.  I think this cover is even better-  it has some small touches (especially the little drum rolls throughout) that keep it a little different from the original.  My only complaint is the mix- you can barely hear the guitar and the solo is barely audible.  Otherwise, this is a solid cover.  ✅✅✅

Cover #24: The Jam cover "Batman" theme song by Neal Hefti

 I might as well finish up this thread by talking about the other cover song The Jam perform on their first album, In The City.  Here we have an updated version of the Batman theme song.  It is quite an update, as the original version unfortunately has a very thin tone.  The Jam's version is more muscular and thankfully lacks the little horn-based "Pow!"s that permeate the TV original.  With this cover you can better appreciate the basic riff, which honestly is pretty much the whole song.  ✅✅✅✅

Cover #23: The Jam cover "Slow Down" by Larry Williams

 Since I just wrote about a cover of this song, I figured I might as well talk about another version.  This is one of two cover songs that appear on the debut album by The Jam, and this version smokes.  The Jam perform this in a cool early rock-'n-roll style with just a bit of punk aggression, and it really works.  The mix on this album is really good- you can easily pick out the bass, guitar, vocals, and drums and yet the whole blend sounds good.   ✅✅✅✅

Cover #22: Torment cover "Slow Down" by Larry Williams

 I ran across this version today and I am glad that I did.  I have the original version, plus another version Larry Williams did with Johnny "Guitar" Watson, and I am very familiar with the cover done by The Jam.  Here we have Torment taking on this song in a straightforward punkabilly version that matches the song quite well.  What the cover lacks in creativity it makes up in attitude and energy.  Nicely done.   ✅✅✅✅

Cover #21: Architorti cover "Stay Free" by The Clash

 Since these guys and gals have a whole album of (mostly) classic punk song covers, I thought I'd go ahead and review another song from it.  This cover of the tune by The Clash is easily my favorite of the bunch.  Of all the original songs attempted on this record, "Stay Free" is probably the one best suited for what Architorti are trying to do.  While I give this group credit for not just trying to be another Apocalyptica, this is not working.    ✅✅✅     (✅✅ for the album overall)

Cover #20: Architorti cover "God Save The Queen" by The Sex Pistols

 The string quartet ensemble thing has been done before, and this is one of those genre shifts that gets old very quickly unless something unusual is done with the arrangement or instrumentation.  Architorti, who I guess are a string quintet, have a whole album of punk covers, including this one.  "God Save The Queen" was an event as much as it was a classic punk song, and therefore this may not be the wisest choice of a song to cover, even on an album full of well-known punk tunes.  Sorry, but there is nothing about this cover that would make me want to hear it again.    ✅✅

Cover #19: The Caravans cover "Know Your Rights" by The Clash

 I have this track from one of those compilation CDs that comes with copies of Uncut magazine from the UK.  A few years ago Uncut had a cover story about The Clash, with two different magazine covers and two different tribute CDs available.  As a lover of both cover songs and The Clash, I bought both.

This version sticks pretty close to the original, but they put a more of a rockabilly spin to the song along with a slightly longer ending.  I like the bass sound to this cover.  

 

✅✅✅

Cover #18: 10,000 Maniacs cover "Peace Train" by Cat Stevens

 Natalie Merchant has such a rich, powerful tone that any cover song she performs will have at least some unique quality.  Even if she tried phoning in a performance it would still stand out.  Today on the radio I heard the 10,000 Maniacs cover of Cat Stevens's "Peace Train."  This used to be just a harmless, eye-rolling, hippy-dippy song (as I remember hearing it in the 70s) but now "Peace Train" (no matter who performs it) is just a sickening, hypocritical roadkill of a song.  It's a shame that Natalie Merchant's wonderful voice was wasted on this.   (four stars for the performance; a million turds for the song itself).

Cover #17: Deep Six covers "I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement" by Ramones

 Here we have Deep Six, an early 80s American band with a Madonna connection (go look it up) doing a studio session for the great Brent Bambury at CBC Radio (now available digitally on the Bandcamp Artoffact Records site).  They do an interesting cover of the Ramones standard, though the release has it listed as just "Basement."  Their version begins with a radio in the background playing Dionne Warwick's "You'll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart)," uh, for who knows what reason.  This goes on for more than a full minute (again, who knows why) before the actual song kicks in.  Their version spends most of the time in a sort of 60s sounding soul-inflected pop flavor with the post-chorus riff rocking out harder.  Great job for the actual performance; it would be a lot better if the Dionne sample did not last so long.     ✅✅✅

Cover #16: Halifx covers "Straight Up" by Paula Abdul

 As mid-2000s Warped Tour emo/screamo bands go Halifax doesn't seem so bad; I honestly don't know their portfolio that well.  I heard this song today from a covers compilation and it is just okay.  I always kind of liked the original song- it had some quirks and squiggles that made it stand out, but this cover version washes them out.  Yet another music industry "hey let's get xxx type artists to cover yyyy types of songs" kind of endeavor.  Musical cafeteria fish sticks.

✅

Cover #15: Bebe Buell covers "Get It On" by T. Rex

 This turd of a cover is only slightly more polished than the Iggy cover.  The backing music is still terrible, but her vocals are better.  Not good, but less noticeably bad.  I leave it to your powers of deduction how in the world this lady secured a recording contract in the first place (though Rhino Records wisely contained the damage by keeping this down to a four song ep).

💩

Cover #14: Baby Buell covers "Funtime" by Iggy Pop

I get quite a few emails from record labels announcing new items and reissues, and I try to give most of them at least a quick look see just in case.  I saw one today about Baby Buell, a name I haven't heard in decades.  Apparently she did an ep of covers back in 1981, and there is a reissue with two extra tracks.  I can't imagine there are many people craving Bebe Buell reissues, but as it turns out she is promoting a book about her life running around with rock stars, and the Hozac label (why, guys?) are selling the book along with a digital reissue of these not in demand tracks.  

 

I'm not familiar enough with some of the originals, but I am with this one, and her cover is dreadful.  The music is devoid of all life, the exact opposite of what you expect in an Iggy song.  The vocals are flabby.  This song was produced by Ric Ocasek, and while he was responsible for some really incredible songs, this is not one of them.  

 

💩

Cover #13: The Dollyrots cover "Walking On Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves

 The Dollyrots do a lot of covers, don't they?  In this instance their cover is performed very straight up, but without the exuberant horns of the original.  Barry would never put this version on his Monday Morning mixtape.  He'd surely opt for the Sad Bastard music to just keep playing.

✅

Cover #12: Ace Frehley covers "Space Truckin'" by Deep Purple

 Well, if ever there was a song tailor made for Ace to cover it would be this one, right?  This comes from Ace's second album of all covers, and this is one of the better covers.  Ace sings this one nice and cool, without the great rock and roll screams of the original, but both versions work.  This cover swaps the drum solo for a short and sweet guitar solo, and the band is in good form. 

✅✅✅

Cover #11: Wölfhead covers "The Munsters" theme song

 I suppose you would have to work hard to screw up a song this good, or else be a Grammy nominee.  Fortunately Spanish neo-classic rockers Wölfhead did not mess this cover up, nor are they in any danger of attracting notice from Grammy Inc. or the "Rock and Roll" Hall of Fame.  The arrangement is very similar to the treatment Gary Hoey gives Christmas classics, and Wölfhead resists any temptation to overstay their welcome.  Though this may not be the flashiest of covers, it is admirably well done.

✅✅

Cover #10: The Damned cover "Pretty Vacant" by The Sex Pistols

 Someone or something posted a link to a YouTube clip for The Damned playing this song live in 1979.  I don't remember hearing or seeing this before, so just now I checked it out.  It is wonderfully chaotic, a true souvenir of the time and place.  As for the cover version itself?  Well, you have a first wave punk band covering another first wave punk band, which did not happen all that much, so that itself is a treat.  This is sloppy, fumbly old punk at its best.

✅✅✅