a great great sound from our boy shugo. it’s off the first of a pretty interesting series of EPs called ‘vicious circles’ being released by this canadian record label called hand drawn dracula. basically they take a couple of great bands, and get them to cover the crap out of each other. in volume 1, we get shugo tokumaru covering black moth super rainbow and holy f**k, black moth super rainbow covering holy f**k and shugo, and of course a great shugo cover by holy f**k. this track is the standout for me, but the entire effort is pretty solid. certainly worth the facebook like required to download the EP for free. i mean, f**k. -d

in which we discuss yet another cover of willow smith’s timeless dance hall anthem that leaves the original so far in the dust it’s hard to remember it exists at all.

also, i adore this trend of actual artists covering top 40 nonsense. i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again: the best way to undermine a crap song is to validate it completely. mocking something stupid by making something wonderful out of it. i’m so glad i was born in a post-modern world.

i know i’ve posted these guys before. from the same album even. but this song shuffled up yesterday and i have to say. it’s one thing to cover a song. it’s quite another completely dismantle a happy pop song and rebuild it into stalker anthem barely reminiscent of the original. and it’s still another to do it so well that you when it’s over, you can barely remember how the original went in the first place. -d

okay, bear with me here: yes, it is a cover of that atrocious willow smith song. and yes, it takes them a bit to get going, but stick with it. by verse 2, you’ll be all in. according to the artist, it’s actually a mashup w/ a track of theirs called ‘drowning in blood’, which i haven’t heard. but if the tune is quality enough to not only save that willow smith disaster from its irritating self, but to elevate it to something that’s actually enjoyable, the band deserves not only our patronage, but our sincerest gratitude. -d (from RCRDLBL)

as i’ve said before, i don’t pretend to know anything about brasilian music. i just know what i like. and this bossa nova cover of the Beatles’ staple is just about the hottest thing i’ve ever heard. -d

i always defer to my little bro when it comes to brasilian music, so i won’t try and sound too smart on this one. i’ll just say that a) i like seu jorge and b) the man knows how to cover a song. toss in a bassist who’s one of my favorite film composers, and a tracklist full of great covers, and baby, you got a stew going! -d

oh man. this project could have been so cool. these are two of the most interesting musical minds america has ever produced. and the album is not without inspired moments. ‘i got rhythm’ and ‘nothing but love’ could have been ‘little deuce coupe’ b-sides. i mean, straight up, golden era beach boys tunes. but with the exception of those two (and this intriguing if entirely too short ‘rhapsody in blue’ snippet), pretty much everything else feels like an afterthought that somehow manages to sound simultaneously over- and under-produced. (for some of the tracks they brought in this truly meager orchestra to fill them out, and it sounds musaky and awful.) anyway, an interesting idea with a mostly failed execution. but still an interesting idea. -d

i realize i’m running a bit of a risk here. i know how strongly some people feel about radiohead, and i know how strongly some people feel about a cappella groups covering songs they like. that said, i like radiohead. i also like good a cappella music. but i’m wary. very wary. that said, i trust these guys. yes, the album is all covers, but it’s covers of fleet foxes and bon iver and rufus wainwright and björk. and yes, the production is a bit overdone (which is sad b/c they don’t need it at all). i’ve seen these guys live — at the hotel cafe, no less — and they’re real. now whether or not they’re real enough to cover his holiness St. Thom of Yorke, ultimately depends on you and how high you hit on the r-head crazy scale. either way, i’d like to know where you land on this one. -d

so saturday was record store day. hope you got to go do something musical. around here, amoeba was the place to be. i was a little bummed i couldn’t make it, especially with all the sweet hotness they were passing around. but sadly my musical adventures for the day began and ended with singing the national anthem at the LA galaxy game. (not sadly at all. it was dope. i’m now convinced you haven’t sung till somebody syncs pyrotechnics to your lyrics.) but luckily this morning the web was awash with free wonder. among the bright spots was this 7-inch shared by PG and JV. granted, ‘flume’ has been available for a while on gabriel’s cover project ‘scratch my back’, but to be honest i was never too keen on this cover. but something about justin’s reciprocal (and vastly superior) back scratching makes more of pete’s reaching earnestness, and the two ultimately make a fine pair. (and no amazon links today. come on, record store day. go find yourself a hard copy. you know, like i did.) -d

been waiting since last weekend to post this. saw these kids at the El Rey w/ mar last friday. at the show they premiered the tracks from their new hall & oates cover project entitled, with no trace of irony, ‘interpreting the masters’. but a fun little show escalated from indie to epic when, about 2/3 of the way through, john oates appeared on stage and proceeded to play the rest of the show with them. it was unreal. just one of those random, radical things that could only happen in LA. like being Halle Berry’s pool boy for the day. -d

*they livestreamed the show at the El Rey. you can watch it here.

i picture a horde of hyper-frenetic mexican dwarves, probably in lucha libre masks, maniacally swinging mini pickaxes at piles of rock. like the beginning of ‘o brother where art thou’ on fast forward. and in spanish.* -d

*it’s images like this that get me through the day.

i’m a man who loves his covers. as luck would have it, i’m also rather fond of grapefruit, french and mooses, making this prolly the most fitting sotd ever. honestly, i think covering a song well is one of the hardest things you can do. done poorly, it’s embarrassing for everyone. but done right, it’s so right. it’s like adapting a book into a movie. striking a balance between respecting the original material and finding your own voice and all that. a good cover of a good song is usually a sign of a good musician. the sign of a great musician, however, is when you can take a song that maybe wasn’t so great originally and turn it into something spectacular. case in point. these guys are nuts. girlfriend + boyfriend + room full of instruments = righteousness. to really do the song justice, tho, you owe it to yourself to go to their youtube page and watch the VideoSong that accompanies the track. (VideoSongs are little music videos/pieces of performance art that accompany their tracks. they follow 2 rules: what you see is what you hear [no lip-syncing for instruments or voice], and if you hear it, at some point you see it [no hidden sounds].) pretty sweet stuff. -d

incidentally, this isn’t my favorite pomplamoose song. it’s this one. but i didn’t post it here b/c it’s for sale on their myspace page and these guys are talentatious and very deserving of your money and mine. (i think maybe they can’t sell the beyonce one cause they didn’t write it. or maybe cause they left out the unbearable bits.)

how else are you supposed to feel about a 75-degree national holiday in February devoted entirely to bikes, boxing and the beach? -d

ps. this might be my favorite cover of this song ever. that’s right, michael buble & pussycat dolls, ever.