Grounds for Appeal

Lolling around on a recent Sunday, I found myself listening to an old single some of you might remember – The Flying Lizards doing their rather minimalist, mechanical version of “Money“, a ditty penned by a gent named Barrett Strong (a Tamla Motown artist) that most people know through a jaunty rendition recorded by some muckers called The Beatles for their “With The Beatles” album.

That led me to dig out The Lizards’ stop/start, robotic version of “Summertime Blues”, another cover but with a better cover.

That dodgy old 7″ single , in turn, led me into a whole world of cover versions and the glories and criminal acts of defilement that loiter therein.

I ended up enjoying myself so much I put together a mix consisting entirely of cover versions (which you can download elsewhere – details below)  and a collection of covers that mixes the sacred with the profane without regard to taste, sensibility or …. well, pretty much anything, really!

That’s the one you get here.

I call it “Rumpled Covers, Vol. 2; Another Cool to Tepid Array of Strange Bedfellows“.

It’s yours to download for a song.

Seventeen songs, actually, and completely free.

Here’s the link:

http://www.filesonic.com/folder/17489535

A front and back cover should come with the link but just in case ….

The front cover:

And your back cover with track listing:

Cover versions can be a touchy issue between friends. I’ve witnessed more than a few heated exchanges over such trivialities as whether Johnny Cash should be deified or shot for his take on Leonard Cohen‘s “Bird On A Wire“, or whether U2 should just be shot, period!

Certainly there are the passionate fans out there who can be observed beginning to visibly vibrate with righteous indignation when, for example, some twat announces something along the lines of “that Pink Floyd group really started to get good once they were shot of that Barrett guy”.

If you are unfortunate enough to be down the pub with that Floyd purist, you must then be on alert to ensure your mate doesn’t go utterly postal on the entire place. Assuming you avoid that calamity, you just know that, at best, you are condemned to an entire night of semi-coherent muttering from your lank-haired pal about “Barrett = genius = God = obvious” or lengthy diatribes about how you must clearly be certifiable if you really, actually, honestly prefer “High Hopes” to “Lucifer Sam“.

This is the sort of individual that must be kept closeted from all Pink Floyd covers as exposure to any such object will cause an extreme reaction. If you know any human that fits the above description, for God’s sake skip track 3 of the compilation whenever he’s in the vicinity.

Apart from that, none of the included tracks should place you in immediate danger. Beefheart fans can be touchy but The White Stripes manage a fairly presentable swamp scum boogie on their version of “Party of Special Things To Do”. Dylan fans used to be a little intense but it’s been 45 years since the Acoustic/Electric Riots that swept the world after Dylan plugged in at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, causing cable sweaters to unravel in their thousands across the globe.

Since Dylan doesn’t appear to give much of a fuck about anything these days, why should his devoted fans? Anyway Beth Orton and M. Ward do a stellar job on their version of “Buckets of Rain“.

Some pairings may, initially, cause you to reel back in horror but, really, why can’t Leonard Cohen do a Bee Gees number – everything he does is touched with class so give it a try ….

You might find he can turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse!

Your immediate reaction to the notion of Jefferson Starship covering Fairport Convention, specifically Richard Thompson‘s beautiful “Genesis Hall“, is more likely to be silk to sow. If so, I could hardly blame you, given that I’m still not completely over the anguish of watching Jefferson Airplane disintegrate into an unholy swill of ghastly Big Hair perms, silk shirts, cream slacks and caterpillar-like droopy things on upper lips.

As if that wasn’t enough, they disgraced their former selves by inflicting utter bilge on an unsuspecting public. When they declared they “built this city with rock ‘n roll”, it was the darkest of days for popular music. Toilets overflowed nationwide and several innocents were decapitated by vinyl copies of “After Bathing at Baxter’s” frisbee-ed at high velocity from Haight-Ashbury windows in venomous disgust.

Many abandoned all hope right there and then. I certainly buried all my Airplane albums in a remote corner of Montana, had the site cursed by a Haitian voodoo priest (Baron Samedi Jr.) to guard against Starship mutation and repaired to the tropics to cleanse my soul.

My first re-exposure to Starship since that black day was about a month ago when I stumbled over their “Genesis Hall“. I feared the worst but, sweating and shaking, sampled a little bar or two.

I’m happy and certainly relieved to report it didn’t cause an outbreak of boils and so is included on “Rumpled Covers, Vol. 2“.

I won’t keep you any longer. None of the other tracks are unduly virulent, unless you are repulsed by spouses of world leaders crooning Bowie or find guitars on a Kraftwerk song to be in breach of international law.

Yes, there is a Toto song on there, which should be unforgivable, but it’s not Toto doing the Toto song. It’s worthy indie morose merchants Low working hard to make “Africa” palatable.

And My Friend The Chocolate Cake might be about the most absurd band name ever but don’t judge a band by their cover – their version of John Cale‘s “Chinese Envoy” is nifty enough but their own material is sparkling. Check ‘em out and, assuming you will like them, avoid the chortles of your friends by referring to them as MFTCC. They’ll assume you’re banging on about some smokin’ new techno sensation and shut their gobs!

See you next weekend!

….

So, Where is Vol. 1?

Hoping “Rumpled Covers, Vol. 2″ has caught your interest and you’re intrigued as to where Vol. 1 could be, the latter can be found over at the estimable podcast site Radio Etiopia to which I have the honor of contributing.

“Rumpled Covers, Vol. 1″ is in mix form so all the cover versions flow into each other in one continuous 80 minute “groove” (at least I hope they do).

Here’s the cover for Vol. 1:

And, if you click on the track-listing below, it will take you right to the mix.

The tracks:

While I presumably have your attention (since you’re reading this), allow me to say a word about Radio Etiopia.

Founded by two gents named Tony Justerini and Anatoly Brooks and operating out of Lisbon, Portugal, Radio Etiopia is a podcast which specializes in eclectic and esoteric mixes loosely inhabiting the post rock, ambient, electronica, trip-hop and world genres but capable of wandering far and wide over the musical map. Justerini and Brooks (The Cardinal and The Bishop) post new mixes each alternating Monday and I can honestly say that neither of them seem capable of posting a bum mix. Their taste, wide-ranging knowledge of music and expertise in creating a uniform mood within each mix ensures that Monday mornings are now a delight with a Cardinal or Bishop mix to begin your week.

Towards week’s end is when guest contributor mixes are posted and I am fortunate enough to be accorded the privilege of having a mix published on Radio Etiopia every 3rd Friday. You’ll find mine listed under my “Mix” identity of Fray D. Jay, with the latest one, “Last Stop Before Ruin“, brand spanking new this week and featuring the likes of The White Birch, Massive Attack, The Black Angels, Nico, Mogwai and much, much more!

A bit of shameless self-promotion, sure – but you don’t have to listen to my mixes. I urge you to check out any Justerini and Brooks mix on Radio Etiopia. They really are superb.

All the mixes on Radio Etiopia are fully downloadable or you can stream them if you prefer. You can subscribe to the podcast for free, either on the site or through ITunes and, once you’ve done that, you can simply open your ITunes and, twice a week, find a new mix of the highest quality awaiting your ears.

Come have a gander!

See you here or there!

….

~ by neil53 on December 17, 2011 . Tagged: anatoly brooks, barrett strong, beth orton, bob dylan, captain beefheart, david bowie, fairport convention, fray d. jay, haight ashbury, jefferson airplane, jefferson starship, john cale, leonard cohen, low, m ward, massive attack, mogwai, montana, my friend the chocolate cake, newport folk festival 1965, nico, pink floyd, podcast, radio etiopia, richard thompson, rumpled covers vol 1, syd barrett, the beatles, the bee gees, the black angels, the flying lizards, the white birch, tony justerini, toto