The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: Golfhaus on January 16, 2008, 03:32:17 am
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Surely one of the biggest bands in the world, a band who has indisputably left its mark on music, a band that defined a genre in the 1980's, a band that fought off aneurysms, homophobia, and one of the worst unibrows ever... couldn't be shown up by a bunch of Internet nerds who, for geographical reasons, could never hope to get into a studio together. Surely they would never be shown up with one of their own songs.
I'm not so sure. (http://music.metafilter.com/1708/Metafilter-Orchestra-Its-the-End-of-the-World-as-We-Know-It-And-I-Feel-Fine)
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um, I love REM. Their style is, to a large degree, what I want the band I am in to sound like. Jangle! Murmur(ing)! Arpeggios!
I want to be somewhere between them, the Violent Femmes, and the Feelies.
(Un)fortunately, by definition a band has more than 1 person in it, and the drummer, other guitarist, and bass player have other ideas.
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So this is just a bunch of kids on the intarwub who did a cover of ITEOTWAWKI(AIFF)? What's the newsworthiness of this? I don't get it.
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Nothing terribly newsworthy about it. I just really really really like it. It helps that I like the "real" version too, I suppose. I think I'm jealous of the talent it must've taken to coordinate the effort. I know jack shit about music, but I know enough to realize the undertaking it took to do it - for no other reason than "just because."
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I 100% percented "Orange Crush" on medium-bass in "Rock Band" last night... my first perfect score on medium ever.
Realistically, this is basically as relevant in terms of REM news.
(I bought the REM Best-Of CD and my brother accused me of no longer having a c*ck because of that. I pretty much had no comeback... I don't like most REM but a few of their songs are pretty good.)
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fuck, seriously LFM? My roommates refuse to play Orange Crush because apparently the drum part is really hard. I really like playing Bass on that song, and I get a little too into it I think... I make hell of rock star poses. Or, not really poses, but I do the broad-legged stance thing, swing my arm, etc.
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I sit down and play, very placidly, Robert Fripp-style.
The more emotion I put into it, the less good I am.
I am on the cusp being being really good at medium and getting competent at hard, right now, but my big problem is that I do not practice much because I do not own the game... I play on my friend's X-Box maybe twice a week.
Drumming on "Rock Band" is insanely hard, too insanely hard.
It is the underwater levels on TMNT for NES of the 21st Century.
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I mean, it is basically like real drumming. 2 of my roommates are actually pretty good at it now. A guy on the other end of the hall bought a drum kit and these really thick pads so he can play it and have it be really really quiet... and half a dozen guys on my floor can basically play really basic real drums now, because playing Rock Band teaches you the hand/other hand/foot coordination you need to play drums.
It is interesting to me how horrible almost everyone is at singing. Also, for some reason the parts I can't do on that game are the parts where... you just have to consistently hit one "note" with an even rhythm. I am horrible at that.
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Oh, I am horrific as a singer too... and this is the biggest flaw with "Rock Band" still...
A computer still can't judge you on how well you sing, it can only judge you on how close you sing to the track on the computer. I can't sing without vamping and ad-libbing.
Technically perfect singing is nothing like really good singing.
Drums are tough as hell, the way it scores singing is counter-intuitive and the guy who owns the X-Box can play some songs on expert so... that leaves me playing the bassamatar.
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Back on topic: Man, I dunno. There's some really nice instrumentation on this cover, but I honestly don't like the vocals. They seem like Hong Kong Bootleg Stipe at their best, "some dude desperately trying to get through karaoke" at worst.
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What's the point of a cover?
Surely it's not to sound a much like the original as possible? If there's any "art" to be derived from singing someone else's song, it's gotta be found in the way the performer makes the song their own.
I didn't think this version added, changed or improved much.
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I'm with you, there, Auggie-Doggie.
There should totally be some kind of twist involved in the cover or else don't do it.
Jimi Hendrix, for example, put the twist on "All Along The Watchtower" insofar as actually being a good singer and guitar player.
An all-female rock group did a cover of "Fat Bottom Girls" that I heard on a friend's myspace and... though they were only meh as performers, there was something to be said for the twist of having a song written by a gay man, obstensively about the benefits of heavier ladies when actually about heavier men, being sung by a lady.
It was a good twist.
GNR taking McCartney's kinda orchestral kinda standardy "Live and Let Die" and turning it into a hard-arena-rock song is another good example.
The Wallflowers' twist on "heroes" was making it terrible, as a negative example.
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the things that are different are places where the thing I like is missing. Guitar less ringing and twangy, voice less awesome...
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I hated the cover. REM are not a band to cover. But since I was a kid, I always thought REM were pretty boring. Maybe they were just overplayed on the radio. I remember going on car trips, half hour each way, and hearing REM three times in the day.
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Jimi Hendrix, for example, put the twist on "All Along The Watchtower" insofar as actually being a good singer and guitar player.
This was the default example my mind immediately clicked on. Great Dylan song, greater Hendrix cover version.
"I Shot the Sherriff" also comes to mind. Like or hate Clapton's version, it's clearly his own.
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REM are not a band to cover.
Why not?
But since I was a kid, I always thought REM were pretty boring. Maybe they were just overplayed on the radio. I remember going on car trips, half hour each way, and hearing REM three times in the day.
Weird. I can pretty much pinpoint the first time I heard "Radio Free Europe" and it was pretty obscure and esoteric at the time. They were cutting edge when I was 17. So it's hard for me to think of them as boring.
But you're absolutely right -- REM became the band of the 90's. Losing My Religion? Shining Happy People? Great songs, no doubt, but not obscure or esoteric in any way shape or form.
Hell, people say The Beatles are boring these days. The kids don't appreciate JS Bach anymore. What are you gonna do?
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Why not?
Hm. Well I guess the interesting thing, to me, about covering a song is deconstructing it, make it more ambiguous, add a little garnish. All the REM I'm familiar with is already pretty deconstructed. There isn't much you can do with the songs without making them new songs
Hell, people say The Beatles are boring these days.
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Oh, now you're just talkin' crazy. No kids in this town say any of that. Plus, the data collected by Facebook claims that of my university's favorite music, the Beatles are in the top two most often listed. Possibly number one, I can't remember.
If anything, the decreased attention span of the internet generation has made the Beatles more popular.
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It was ok, I probably would have liked it more if they'd played up the banjo (I think it was banjo) sound a bit more, I always dig bluegrass style covers of pop songs. There's a good version of 'I don't feel like dancing' floating around somewhere.
Edit: Apparently I'm referring to 'Hayseed dixie' and bluegrass pop appears to be their thing. It may be I'm the only person who was not aware of this.
On a tangent: looking at all the people listed in the making of it reminded me how much I like screen names. I'm fairly sure as more and more people go online actual names will eventually become more common than pseudonyms and it kind of depresses me, I like the idea that the internet still allows one to be whoever you want.
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The thing about REM is that it's like a lot of bands -- the really interesting stuff doesn't hit the singles. I like "Losing My Religion" as much as anyone, and I'm even prepared to defend "Shiny Happy People," but the real gems are stuff that's buried on the albums. I need to get off my ass and actually make my two-disc all-REM no-single mix.
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Yeah, I am meh on the song.
The cover example though, The Clash- Police and Thieves or (only because it is R.E.M.) R.E.M.- King of The Road.
Also, very pro R.E.M., the ony albums I can listen to all the way through are the first two though. After that they have some very good songs (orange crush, what's the frequency Kenneth, etc.) and some not so great but passable songs.
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A year or two a go a guy named Matthew Taylor released a bunch of Pixies covers that he'd recording as other bands. So it's him imitating Sinatra doing Monkey Gone to Heaven. Or Tina Turner doing River Euphrates. They're actually pretty entertaining. And since he only did like 6 of them the concept didn't get too old.
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My first band (the one that lasted about four months, not the one I really consider "my band from college" that stayed together three years) covered "Orange Crush."
I sang "Peanut Buuuu-huuutter" during the chorus, because really who knows what the hell Stipe is saying there.
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Best covers ever:
Johnny Cash: Personal Jesus
Nina Gordon: Straight Outta Compton MP3 HERE (http://download.wbr.com/mirror/ninagordon.com/media/sounds/covers-straightouttacompton.mp3)
Sheryl Crow: Sweet Child O' Mine
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Also, Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt." As far as I'm concerned, that's the only version of the song there ever was.
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Nina Gordon: Straight Outta Compton MP3 HERE (http://download.wbr.com/mirror/ninagordon.com/media/sounds/covers-straightouttacompton.mp3)
I head that one on the Brewing Network the other night and it had me howling. Such a sweet voice - such a raw song. I thought it was Jewel at the time - the mental image of her all gangsta was probably the best part. I'll have to find a pic of Nina Gordon to update my impression.
Sheryl Crow: Sweet Child O' Mine
I liked that one too, but I like a lot of her stuff. I was a big GNR fan, and the contrast of her melodic voice vs Axl Rose's scratchier howl is amusing. Also, its always intriguing when women sing love songs that have other women as the subject.
It would be even hotter if she had covered Anything Goes.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltjbnyvq_SI
Best cover of Baby Got Back ever.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltjbnyvq_SI
Best cover of Baby Got Back ever.
I liked this one too. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkJdEFf_Qg4&feature=related)
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I don't remember when the music industry changed from "Lots of people singing the same songs" to "covers," but I think it happened in the early seventies.
So by that standard, Wilson Pickett's "Land of a thousand dances" doesn't count as a cover, but it is still awesome. I also enjoy his version of "Hey Jude."
The Bangles' "Hazy Shade of Winter" is a great cover that few people know is a cover.
Snoop Dogg's cover of "We will rock you" is horrible, but still interesting in a train wreck kind of way. Queen is a band that shouldn't be covered, in my opinion... but their version of "Crazy little thing called love" is pretty good. I guess Muse has the chops to cover Queen. Have they?
Man, someday I'm gonna make that all-covers mix disc. Right after I get over the fact that I can't make a perfect mix disc (what with levels and bit rate and correct tags and such).
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The Bangles' "Hazy Shade of Winter" is a great cover that few people know is a cover.
really? Hazy Shade of Winter is fantastic, I love that song. I have not heard their version, though.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltjbnyvq_SI
Best cover of Baby Got Back ever.
I liked this one too. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkJdEFf_Qg4&feature=related)
Or this. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCv2cgIlnHA)
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good lord. that cover of Hazy Shade of Winter is another case where... everything I love about the original song is gone.
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good lord. that cover of Hazy Shade of Winter is another case where... everything I love about the original song is gone.
Well, you can't have gone into that with your hopes high.
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I like how it's basically almost an entirely different song. But seriously, people don't know it's a cover?
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It's a completely different song, but it's still a good song. Most like that I don't even try to process as covers, really.
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The kids don't appreciate JS Bach anymore. What are you gonna do?
Yeah, all the kids these days are blastin' that DANGED Mahler on their fancy cat stereos. What has the world come to?
My brother does this to confuse people.
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Well, you can't have gone into that with your hopes high.
I gotta defend the Bangles here. After rereading the Martha Quinn thread, I must say I would kick her to the curb for Suzanna Hoffs.
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I gotta defend the Bangles here. After rereading the Martha Quinn thread, I must say I would kick her to the curb for Suzanna Hoffs.
Hey, hey! Don't make me out to be dogging on Suzanna Hoffs - she might read this! I just meant if you are a big fan of the S&G, you might be disappointed by the Bangles' version of the song. Also, inev just seemed like the type of guy who might really find the cover to be lacking.
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yeah, for real, there are some Bangles songs that are awesome.
For some reason, though, I just remembered that my parents told me when I was a kid that they were the first band with only women in it.
Even then, I said "there's no way that can be true."
But of course at the time, they just said that I didn't understand, people didn't used to believe in equality for women, blah blah.
The current version of that is when my dad tries to convince me that the music he liked in college was "edgy."
My favorite my parents moment, though, in regards to rock music, is when my dad asked me to turn down the Hendrix album I was blasting, said "daniel... I always knew once you were in high school, you'd like loud, obnoxious music that I hate. I just... I never thought it would be music that came out when I was 12 years old."
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The current version of that is when my dad tries to convince me that the music he liked in college was "edgy."
My favorite my parents moment, though, in regards to rock music, is when my dad asked me to turn down the Hendrix album I was blasting, said "daniel... I always knew once you were in high school, you'd like loud, obnoxious music that I hate. I just... I never thought it would be music that came out when I was 12 years old."
Well, based on the second part, it's possiible that he was listening to edgy music in college - Clash, Talking Heads, Television . . . he didn't mean Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles, did he?
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he listened to Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles, but mostly he was talking about Bruce Springsteen. "I don't care what you say, daniel, Springsteen was the edgiest thing around when I was your age."
And Neal Young, so I guess he gets a plus for that.
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he listened to Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles, but mostly he was talking about Bruce Springsteen. "I don't care what you say, daniel, Springsteen was the edgiest thing around when I was your age."
And Neal Young, so I guess he gets a plus for that.
Is that Cowboy Neal Young?
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yeah, for real, there are some Bangles songs that are awesome.
For some reason, though, I just remembered that my parents told me when I was a kid that they were the first band with only women in it.
Edgy band with all girls? Previous to the Bangles (1975!!)? How about the Runaways (http://www.therunaways.com/)?
Now I gotta pick between Lita Ford, Suzanna Hoffs and Martha Quinn?
GOD BLESS THE EIGHTIES!!!