Fashion Board 3-5-04 to 4-6-04

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
Apparently MTV has a project called "Album Covers" in which they ask current bands to cover an entire classic album. So far, they've had Dashboard Confessional (ick) cover REM's "Automatic for the People (1992)" with Michael Stipe sitting in, and they had Guster (yay)* cover "Violent Femmes (1982)" with Gordon Gano and Brian Ritchie sitting in. The results are apparently on an MTV2 show and are available for purchase on iTunes.

Your poll, should you choose to accept it: Have a presently performing band cover a classic album of your choice.

This shows a shocking lack of imagination, but I would like to hear The Darkness cover "Frampton Comes Alive." I may think of others as the day progresses.

*I have loved Guster since they pranked the entire community of KaZaa users by releasing the "Meow Mix," a fake version of their album to deter piracy of the real release. The lyrics were all substituted by a guy singing "meow" over and over again.

L'il Kim doing Grace Slick & The Great Society, Conspicuous Only in its Absence.

[Oliver_Wendell_Ramone]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
I generally detest covers. What's the point of listening to an imitator try to imitate a great album?

Covers are worthwhile only when the covering artist transforms the original into something distinct. Bowie's cover of "Let's Spend the Night Together," for example. Or Aztec Two-Step (I think that was the name) doing Van Halen's "Jump." In contrast, Van Halen's cover of the Kinks cover of Pretty Woman was utterly pointless.

Thus, my poll response. I would like to see Outkast do a cover of Zoso.

I wouldn't completely discount more straight-up/tribute covers, which can be fun, but I generally agree.

I'd like to see Wilco's take on "The Love Below."

[greatwhitenorthchick]

Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
Kids today.

Ha - I am hardly a kid and have had my spaced out moments. I stared at and talked to Christmas ornaments for 5 hours straight at Alex Lifeson's house. I just don't think activities of that nature are particularly worthwhile, that's all. Too solitary and none of the big ideas you have or that are given to you by the wooden snowflake are ever worth remembering, if you can remember them.

[notcasesensitive]

Originally posted by bilmore
Listen, then, to Easy Star's All Stars do "Dub Side of the Moon." Awesome stuff, making it an entirely new concept.

Is it possible to listen to that without smoking some pot? Good stuff.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
I generally detest covers. What's the point of listening to an imitator try to imitate a great album?

Covers are worthwhile only when the covering artist transforms the original into something distinct. Bowie's cover of "Let's Spend the Night Together," for example. Or Aztec Two-Step (I think that was the name) doing Van Halen's "Jump." In contrast, Van Halen's cover of the Kinks cover of Pretty Woman was utterly pointless.

Thus, my poll response. I would like to see Outkast do a cover of Zoso.

I really love the compilation cover of Springsteen's Nebraska, with Deanna Carter, Ani DiFranco, Los Lobos, Johnny Cash (doing a truly inspired version of I'm on Fire, which was written to be on the Nebraska album but ended up on Born in the USA), Chrissy Hynde, Dar Williams, and Aimee Mann.

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
The Doors have some great moments, but Morrison was embarrassing.

Agreed, mostly, but this is a little unfair to Morrison. To amplify Bilmore's point a bit, Morrison was ROCK STAR when he first started doing what he was doing, and that certainly has to go into the equation of what makes a great band. He was way out there for the time. I kind of dig the whole Lizard King schtick. The thing is, we have all seen the second half of the The Doors movie, and so it is hard to filter out the Fat Elvis part of Morrison, The Later Years. But was he any more embarrasing than Perry Farrell or Jerry Garcia? Good call on Jane's, by the way. I don't know about top ten, but certainly a contender.

[Alex_de_Large]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch Your poll, should you choose to accept it: Have a presently performing band cover a classic album of your choice.

I'd like to hear:

Radiohead covering Led Zeppelin's Zoso;

OutKast covering Purple Rain;

Dzihan & Kamien doing Eno's Music for Airports



BTW, Guster's "Add It Up" is pretty cool...

[Did you just call me Coltrane?]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
I generally detest covers. What's the point of listening to an imitator try to imitate a great album?

Covers are worthwhile only when the covering artist transforms the original into something distinct. .

Not necessarily, and I'll invoke some more Willie here, but "Georgia on My Mind"* is similar yet distinct when both Willie and Ray Charles sing it; same as when Willie and Arlo sing "The City of New Orleans." Willie didn't change the style or the pace of the songs. His voice is just much different from the others.

Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried" was covered pretty well by The Dead.

*written by Hoagy Carmichael & Stuart Gorrell

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Pretty Little Flower
Agreed, mostly, but this is a little unfair to Morrison. To amplify Bilmore's point a bit, Morrison was ROCK STAR when he first started doing what he was doing, and that certainly has to go into the equation of what makes a great band. He was way out there for the time. I kind of dig the whole Lizard King schtick. The thing is, we have all seen the second half of the The Doors movie, and so it is hard to filter out the Fat Elvis part of Morrison, The Later Years. But was he any more embarrasing than Perry Farrell or Jerry Garcia? Good call on Jane's, by the way. I don't know about top ten, but certainly a contender.

Yeh, maybe I was a bit harsh. Maybe it was the fact that he was an absurd character which made Morrison a great "rock star." He did play the hedonist better than anyone to date.

Perry Farrell is a goddamned genius. No two ways about it.

Oh, BTW, U2 is allright, but having them on the top ten is a travesty, even if Pride is a fantastic song, melodramatic lyrics aside.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by Alex_de_Large
OutKast covering Purple Rain;

That's the kind of cover I'd hate to see. They might make it a little funnier and a little edgier, but overall their talent is better spent on their own stuff, and on leaving Prince's stuff alone.

And on covering Zoso, of course. Or maybe Physical Grafitti (in a certain state, I could make a brilliant* argument for how "Hey Ya" derives from the "Ooh-ooh, yeah yeah" in Kashmir).


*I assure you, I would find it brilliant.

[Did you just call me Coltrane?]

Originally posted by Alex_de_Large
I'd like to hear:
OutKast covering Purple Rain;

This would rawk.

[Atticus Grinch]

Weezer doing "The La's" self-titled album.

Rob Zombie doing Foo Fighters' "The Color & The Shape."

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?
Not necessarily, and I'll invoke some more Willie here, but "Georgia on My Mind"* is similar yet distinct when both Willie and Ray Charles sing it; same as when Willie and Arlo sing "The City of New Orleans." Willie didn't change the style or the pace of the songs. His voice is just much different from the others.

Merle Haggard's "Momma Tried" was covered pretty well by The Dead.

*written by Hoagy Carmichael & Stuart Gorrell

On his new box, Johnny Cash nails Neil Young's Heart of Gold. I mean, NAILS it.

And Watchtower would have been nothing if Hendrix hadn't picked it up. That said, please, everyone, put it down. It should never be played again by anyone, especially Bob Weir.

[Not Bob]

Originally posted by Pretty Little Flower
The thing is, we have all seen the second half of the The Doors movie, and so it is hard to filter out the Fat Elvis part of Morrison, The Later Years. But was he any more embarrasing than Perry Farrell or Jerry Garcia?

I think that LA Woman (the Doors' final album, for those keping score at home) contains some of their best stuff. And Morrison's wasted and ravaged voice is part of what makes the title track one of my favorite songs. I especially like the whole it's the end of the Sixties vibe summed up in one line croaked by Jim -- "motel, money, murder, madness/let's change the mood from glad to sadness."

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
That's the kind of cover I'd hate to see. They might make it a little funnier and a little edgier, but overall their talent is better spent on their own stuff, and on leaving Prince's stuff alone.

And on covering Zoso, of course. Or maybe Physical Grafitti (in a certain state, I could make a brilliant* argument for how "Hey Ya" derives from the "Ooh-ooh, yeah yeah" in Kashmir).


*I assure you, I would find it brilliant.

Phish doing anything sucks.