MUSIC HAUL #9.

So the decades hauls are over but that's okay because I intend to do some really kooky-themed hauls some time.

Even though it's the middle of winter we've had some stunning days where every hour is like the Golden Hour and the sun is streaking through all the leaves and the breeze is light and you just want to run up to an old friend on the beach then give them a hug all while listening to Fix You by Coldplay with your hair flowing down your back and all that Foxtel-esque glossiness.

Sure, it's been bucketing. But I seriously hope all of spring is like this - golden and magical and unicorny.

The rain was incessant for about a week and my dad was getting so frustrated (he hates the rain and the cold) but then the sun came out and I'm going to make the most of this weather (apparently tomorrow might rain. boo.)

This haul is going to start off with a really groovy song.

Lovely Day - Bill Withers

Bill has the most epic voice ever (he sings that Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone) and all the songs he has performed are really lovely. This is a little funky number which is so ridiculously catchy (the lovely day lovely day lovely day mantra through the song does get really irritating after a while) that I can see the Village People bopping to as they visit a wind farm on a sunny day with their picnic baskets and tequila.


That was strange. Carry on reading your books.

YOU GOTTA LOVE THAT AFRO HAIR DO.......... gurrrrrrrrl poot ya rehkords on


Ok. Next song.

Ray Tsa - Electric Feel (MGMT cover)

This has got to be one of the most covered songs ever. Everywhere I look somebody covers it. Katy Perry has, it's been covered on Triple J, I think Gabrielle Aplin covered it, people remix it all the time - there are a lot of covers and remixes out there.

And of course there are some really bad ones (shudder) but even some of the palatable guitary acoustic covers get lost in the swamp of versions out there. There are some really nice soft covers but when there's thousands of them it's really hard to find good ones.

I found a good one.




Ray is the voice of The Sweet Apes, a post-hardcore band from Sydney or something or other. They're very good. Ray is amazing.
She's like Hayley Williams but with a more raw, rock-y voice and this arrangement is simply perfect. If anyone is good with these things TAB IT OR CHORD IT PEOPLE.

K enjoy.

Sam Berridge - Twice (Little Dragon cover)

So we met the most amazingly talented Sam Berridge when we did the London Grammar song two weeks ago but I thought I might feature another of his wonderful covers.
Yukimi Nagano of Little Dragon has such a stunning voice especially when she slips down to the low notes in this song. Sam has a stunning voice when he bounces around the higher registers (which isn't that high but oh well).
There are two versions of this cover (a Soundcloud one and a Youtube one) but I prefer the Youtube one - I just like how it's a little more grainy and not-so-polished.
Here it is. Swooning mode activate.

LOOK AT DAT FACE

Here Comes The Sun - The Beatles

Well when the sun first came out after the rain I was so excited I simultaneously cried tears of joy and exploded (because I am a creature of the night, you know, so sunlight kind of makes me sparkle.)


That's right. But it was also Ringo's birthday PEACE AND LOVE so I felt inclined to do a Beatles song.
Speaking of which I MISSED THE 3RD OF JULY 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF ZIGGY STARDUST'S DEATH I spent the entire time tossing up whether to do it on the Australian July 3 or David's July 3 and I just ended up missing it but uh what do the young people say oh yeah yeloswig. Something like that.

Did you know that the first time I heard this song it was actually being performed by Georgie Parker on some ad for Play School? Play School was the most pathetic thing ever unless they were cooking but I liked Hi-5 and The Wiggles better.

Copthrone King's - Justice For The Damned

Ok I know many of you guys will not enjoy this song because you think it's accursed and it's anathema and people that listen to it should be burnt at the stake but honestly it's really good. The laughing at the beginning and the triangle in the interlude make this such a hilarious, clever song, and there is no need to hate on metal. It's energetic, powerful and rather exhilarating.
Here it is. But if you have really scary parents I wouldn't play it too loudly otherwise they'll try to spray your computer with holy water (not recommended).

 

See? You survived. I think everyone kind of dislikes this music when they first hear it (unless you were raised in a metalhead family) but when you really listen and get into it it's quite beautiful.

 

So there we have our haul. Tomorrow I'm seeing Gatsby! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH carey mulligan

SONG OF THE WEEK #13.

This week's song is Hey Now by London Grammar.

Hannah Reid has the most dreamy, powerful voice - it's like Florence + the Machine but with a darker tone. It's less bright and grainy and rather floats over the backing than hitting it head on. The guitars are very xx and the whole minimalistic feel is ethereal.

But that's not it! There's more!

Sam Berridge does a spectacular, raw cover of this song.
It's stripped down, emotional, and just reaches into your heart and latches onto the most solid, metallic, steel-like thing there and tugs, leaving nothing but spongy hammy bits listlessly bouncing around inside you. Something like that.
I'm pretty bad with expressing poignant emotion.

IT'S BEAUTIFUL I KNOW.

It also helps that his face is a rather fortunate one - it's always good to have something nice to look at when you listen to nice things.

So that's this week's Song of the Week. And now don't bully me about it being the wrong song - same song, different people!
Oh dear I've gone insane haven't I, old sport?
Yeah baby.

GET LUCKY/TREASURE COVERS.

Is it just me or is every single musician covering Get Lucky by Daft Punk?

Sure, their new album is awesome. Sure, it's a brilliant song. Sure, they celebrated the Australian premiere with a freaking bush doof. But not everyone actually has to cover this song!

Same as that Bruno Mars jam, Treasure. On my email and Youtube playlists and goodness knows what all I have is 'Treasure cover', 'I do Bruno Mars' and 'Martian Luther Sing' popping up and I want to throwback thursday myself off a cliff.



It's Throw Yourself Back Into Your Mother's Womb Turdsday!

I really hate them. But back to these covers. Get Luckily for me, there are a heap of fantastic covers (the Isaac Evans cover and the Sound Of Seasons Treasure cover) and today I'll feature some of these.

Get Lucky - Daft Punk

This is a pretty good song by itself and it's great hearing those French boys rhythmically spasm again. Here are the top two covers I've taken a whole ten minutes to scour the internet for (hard work I know.) These versions are good enough for me to overcome my allergies to these songs. It's like semantic satiation but even worse because it goes for a whole three minutes.

Runner Up: San Cisco

These indie four piece are amazing. Their male singer Jordi Davieson is probably the Jordan Catalano of young indie hipsters nowadays. (I loved Jordan Catalano until Jared Leto had to release that new Thirty Seconds to Mars albums ewww more Mars songs Treasure is enough and ewwww album).

San Cisco have really had some fun with this cover and have created this awesome cover. It's their natural electro tone meets their cheery demeanour meets a heck of a lot of fun. I'll shut up now and you can listen.

aaaaaaand this was on Like A Version! My Sarah Blasko cover one was too :) it's probably the best thing about triple j because some of those unearthed acts should've stayed unearthed. Shudder.

Ah and I got this link from my wonderful friends at frumplr.tumblr.com - it's also Amy's birthday tomorrow so go say something nice or whatever. Cool.

Winner: George Barnett

From the first, I don't know, five seconds of listening, you're hooked. It's so addictive. The beats are spot on and the keyboard is jazzed up and groovy and I almost danced except as we all know Naomie does not dance. It's more a graceful algospasm. In fact I have tried to come up with a frumpy dance move each day and I've turned up with some very, very odd ones. Please do not press further.

George's singing is perfect - short and snappy and energetic. Please listen.

So there you have the Get Lucky covers. I wouldn't even bother with the original - these covers are way better.

Treasure - Bruno Mars

This is the only song I like from Bruno's new album (yeah go ahead and shun me mates) but at least it's a good song. It's got a catchy melody and it's plain fun to sing. Although these guys sing it better.

Runner Up: Sezairi Sezali

This act has such a cool name and although this cover isn't anything too out of the ordinary as such, I still think it's great. I do really like the Sound Of Seasons cover but it would make more sense to just feature a wider variety of music on this blog.

It's still pretty good! Listen.

Winner: DC Wonder

DC Wonder's new album Limitless is a pretty good album for you dance fans out there but this cover is just great. Their bass player is brilliant and not to mention hilarious. This video is cute and I've never actually seen a dance/techno act 'live' - kind of just performing their music before. It's great.

And so that's the end of these Get Lucky/Treasure covers! I've been going through a lot of covers lately and I'm excited to get back to originals. If you have any suggestions of blogs, songs, albums, Youtubers and movies please comment :) till then adios.

COVER FEST #2.

So I'm too lazy to sleep and instead I like to blog. Right. Tomorrow morning I will wake up looking like I was an extra on the Walking Dead.

Here are some lovely covers that have probably circulated round the Internet more times than I've woken up half dead.

Too Close - Shannon Saunders (Alex Clare cover)

This is a great song per se. But the way Shannon sings it makes it seem even more raw and yet nuanced and you can tell she's got great control over her voice. The guitar gets a bit boring but I frankly do not care because she's brilliant.

Hey Ya! - Sarah Blasko (OutKast cover)

Now this has been recycled around triple j and iPods everywhere but that doesn't make it any less bad at all. It's a wonderfully stripped back cover of that hilarious track and Sarah's voice could make even Nicholas Sparks sound good.
Sarah is a really great artist, both songwriting and singing and you should really check out her stuff. But here is an example of her brilliant innovation and epic singing voice.

Treasure - Sound Of Seasons (Bruno Mars cover)

This is a pretty cool track by itself (what's cooler than being cool? ICE COLD wait wrong song) yet these guys somehow manage to make it even more awesome. I went to one of their gigs and it was such a great night. They're hilarious and full of energy. I might feature some of their stuff actually and not to mention their merch is spectacularly cheap and I think they're awesome. I really should feature them actually...
Oh I'm not bothered to write full analysis of the songs because I'm tired and how do you even analyse a cover really

Heartbeats - José González (The Knife cover)

This cover of the song is much more well known than the original because it's generally a little more accessible - it's a wonderfully acoustic cover and when the bass notes of the guitar ring you melt a little inside. The lyrical content is so intimate and beautiful but José's delivery is spot on - it's not mumbled but definitely not spat out. It's like honest, reluctant whisperings. And his guitar playing/arranging has really just hit the nail on the head.
Actually José is quite well known for his covers of not as known songs so everyone thinks it's his song (LIKE SKINNY LOVE AND BON IVER AND BIRDY don't get me started if you even think about it I will hunt you down and eat your yoghurt. And I like yoghurt.)

And also he did a really sweet song with Ane Brun called 'Worship' which is on her album.

There's tonight's... TODAY'S COVER FEST I should sleep. K bye.

 

COVER FEST.

So there's a heck of a lot of good music out there (old and new) but it makes me quite happy when I find a great cover of a great song. It's like when you go to a cafe with an even more delicious version of your favourite food or drink or CAKEEEEEEE

Here is a small collection of some really great covers I've scoured from the depths of YouTube and Moria to bring to you today.

1. 'Get Lucky' - Isaac Evans (Daft Punk)

I stumbled across Isaac when I was looking for different versions of Lucy Rose's 'Shiver'. His cover with a loop pedal was simply brilliant and I am quite obsessed with him now.

This cover of 'Get Lucky', an awkward song to sing with your parents, is fun, energetic and pretty cool. Isaac uses loop pedals quite a bit in his covers but it sounds amazing.

Isn't it amazing? Moving on.

2. 'Walking On A Dream' - Imogen Kars (Empire of the Sun)

This is a lovely cover of an epic song. Empire of the Sun are really fantastic songwriters and I'm so excited that they're releasing an album that wasn't planned - they broke up. Now it sounds like they were married and have a kid now =_=
But it's truly beautiful. I think it's awesome.

I LOVE IT

3. 'Flightless Bird, American Mouth' - Lorna Rose (Iron & Wine)

This is an okay song by itself - I personally find it a bit slow and only nice in the chorus with the harmonies and instruments and all that jazz. But Lorna's cover, a folky guitar affair, is raw and beautiful and has drive and all but it still captures everything good about the song. She distills it until it's pure and asdfjdskljfasho

It was perfect I know

4. 'Settle Down' - Level (Kimbra)

This is one of my all time favourite songs. There's heaps of production, yes, but it has such a strange quality to it that you can't help but love it. Kimbra's voice is heaven.

This cover is an a capella cover (only voices, although there is clicking) and it's as varied and unpredictable as the original. Fun.



The man singing bass has such a low voice ohmygosh.

 

 

So there's four different, but awesome covers! I want to poop here - wait, I want to do another of these cover fests. They just don't seem to fit in with Song of the Week, although they do sorta suit Music Haul. Whatever.

NEW LOVE

Ryan Henderson

Ok. I go through A LOT of phases. But I've discovered the most amaaaaaaaaaaaaazing musician from Brisbane, Australia - Ryan Henderson.
Ryan pretty much makes acoustic covers of acoustic songs but his voice is just AH asdfhjklafjsdlf.

I also love his hair. He's like a Harry Styles meets Carrot Top :3 continue.

This cover of The Paper Kites' 'A Maker Of My Time' (CRAZILY good song, check it out) is amazing. His voice is quite unexpected, really.

Neil Young's 'Heart Of Gold' is pretty much only known by people currently going through their mid-life crisis and 70s hipsters.

So far I don't think he has a website or anything and because I don't have facebook (fancy that, hey?) I don't really know if he has a page. If you enjoyed it I guess you should subscribe and like or do whatever people that actually leave their house do. I'll be here with my imaginary cat.