"I don't care if he's Muhammad-I'm-hard-Bruce Lee."

Two very little discussed items that merit more than I have time or space for today is the cultural impact of both the Chinese immigrant population and action movies on Jamaican culture. Fusing the three together however and voila, you have reggae covers of chopsocky exploitation one hit wonder Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas.

Kicking ass and taking names today are The Cimarons, Lloyd Parks and Pluto (aka Pluto Shervington) who showcases his funkier side of JA.

The Cimarons - Kung Fu Fighting

Lloyd Parks - Kung Fu Fighting

Pluto - Kung Fu Fighting

Enjoy!

LS

Eyez on the Prize

When I die, I want to come back as Bobby Gillespie.

The man's got stylist Katy England as a wife, Kate Moss as arm candy and muse and pals around with and gets kitted out by Nobuhiko Kitamura (aka Hysteric Glamour). He also has the dubious distinction of being a founding member of Jesus & Mary Chain during Psychocandy back when they were actually good, having Andrew Weatherall on speed dial, and has probably done more drugs than all the Rolling Stones combined (and I'm including Brian Jones).

I'm sure none of this was lost on London electronic duo AutoKratz who have done a rather mean version of Primal Scream's Swastika Eyes.

Autokratz - Swastika Eyes

Enjoy!

LS

Wouldn't hold out much hope for the tape deck though. Or the Creedence.

Not quite sure why, but this morning I woke up with Creedence Clearwater Revival's Fortunate Son stuck in my head. Maybe repeated listens of

Cat Power's rather sultry version will clear it out.

Cat Power - Fortunate Son

Enjoy!

LS

Percentage Points

In my last post I said I was going to be out of town for a few days. Well it didn't happen.

My Thanksgiving turned to shit, literally. The night before I was planning on leaving I was outside watering roses when *it* happened. First an unholy aroma of death starts to waft, then, like a cross between the bleeding walls of the Amityville house and a Port-o-John, sewer water starts pouring through every crack in my driveway. 2 days, a busted sewer main and couple of thousand dollars later, it got fixed. But, no turkey day for me plus I've got a great view of several huge piles of toxic sludge drying in my back yard (which will eventually be carted away a MONTH from now). Staring at the pile o' shite out my studio window it dawned on me; a good 10% of that belongs to various friends and family. So parentals and chums feel free to drop by with a baggie and come claim what is rightfully yours.

As for the other 90%, well today I guess I can let the rather radiant and soulful Gwen McCrae sum that up for todays entry, 90% of Me is You. Some good dubbiness comes in the form of The Dynamics as well as Karime Kendra. Amral's Trinidad Cavaliers Steel Drum Orchestra (trying saying that 10 times fast, I can't even say it once) beat a mean metal sheet, while Vanessa Kendrick turns out a rather faithful soul version. All in all a nice way to end a very Crappy Thanksgiving.

The Dynamics - 90% Of Me Is You

Karime Kendra - 90% Of Me Is You

Amral's Trinidad Cavaliers Steel Drum Orchestra - 90% Of Me Is You

Vanessa Kendrick - 90% Of Me Is You

Enjoy!

LS

Tour Guide

So I'm out of town on a five day Thanksgiving festive feast freakout, but I won't leave you hanging. I'm figuring that this roundup of Tour De France by Kraftwerk covers should keep you satiated while I'm gone. Tour, incidentally was  one of the first handful of 12" I ever bought (along with Paul Hardcastles' 19!)  and that I still have gathering dust somewhere in the basement. Tour also marks the beginining of  Kraftwerk's interest in cycling. Hey anything to get out of being couped up in the studio all day,  right? 

BTW anyone know why this slice of genius isn't the official TdF theme song???

So today's covers. If the tour has it's Lance Armstrong then that honor clearly goes to The Simonsound, whose  funky-garage homestyle-electronics version, titled Tour De Mars is clearly in the lead  (and a strong contender for the throne of Add N to X, I might add).  Be sure to check out more audio (and video!) madness at their site here.

Riding close on those coat tails is a brilliant electronic and violin take from Powerplant as well as los favoritos de Versions Galore, Senor Coconut Y Su Conjunto.

If they ever decide to make an NES Tour De France side scroller then 8-Bit Tunes are their men.

Daybehavior and Tahira vs. Vera Medina take some time to admire the scenery with some nice downtempo cuts.

Prof. Krupky, Monohm and Terre Thaemlitz decide to veer off into the woods with some rather abstract versions.

The Galaxy Sound Orchestra, Basskraft, Ed Starink, Interfaith and 10 Speed, all keep a steady pace with their faithful covers. (Fun bit of trivia from wikipedia: The piece was also included in the 1984 film, Breakin';Although the song did appear briefly in the film, Kraftwerk did not let the song appear on the movie soundtrack; instead, a cover version of the song was released by a group called “10 Speed”.)

And pullin up the rear are Ionic Vision and Inertia with some industrial misgivings.

The Simonsound - Tour de Mars

Powerplant - Tour de France

Senor Coconut Y Su Conjunto - Tour de France (Merengue)

8-Bit Tunes - Tour de France

Daybehavior - Tour de France

Tahira vs. Vera Medina - Tour de France

Prof. Krupky - Tour de France

Monohm - Tour de France

Terre Thaemlitz - Tour de France

The Galaxy Sound Orchestra - Tour de France

Basskraft - Tour de France

Ed Starink - Tour de France

Interfaith - Tour de France

10 Speed - Tour de France

Ionic Vision - Tour de France

Inertia - Tour de France

Enjoy! (and see you in a week)

LS

PS In case you missed it first time round here's The Model post I did a while back.

Feeling Light Headed

I've done the work for you today and gone ahead and cherry picked through some great covers of yet another of Moz's thinly veiled love letters to James Dean There Is a Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths.
Despite Morrissey's loathing of all things synth, I'm leading with some great electronic covers by Schneider TM, Dalminjo as well as a rather winsome version from Andromakers, who lace their confection with a bit of xylophone and melodica.
The Divine Comedy get epic while James Eric and The Magic Numbers realize that if you have an acoustic guitar that, ah well, end of crap metaphors for now.

Schneider Tm - The Light 3000
Dalminjo - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Andromakers - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
The Divine Comedy - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
James Eric - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
The Magic Numbers - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

Enjoy!
LS

That's Just Super

Like most American kids, I went to camp during the summer. From age 7 to 10 I did all the usual camp things; rode horses, shot arrows, rock climbed and made lumpy ashtrays for the non-smoking parentals in ceramics. Another campfire tradition, in between state-mandated Kum Ba Yas, were ghost stories. Yet another year where our counselor attempted to give us the Gold Arrow camp canard about the B-17 pilot who plunged into the lake, and now whose ghost still haunted the area. By 9 years of age our cabin wasn't buying it, we we're jaded pre-teens. So our counselor, some hipster college kid, tried a different tact; let's try esoteric, let's try macabre.

Mid way through the soggy pilot story, who this year now mysteriously had a hook for a hand, through our coughs of 'coughcoughbullshitcough' he conceded.

'Yeah yeah your right, ghost stories are kinda BS, you kids are way to old for that kind of stuff. I guess you guys are grown up enough for us to tell you what REALLY happens around here.' Intrigued that he seemed to think we possessed highly sensitive bullshit detectors, we let him press on. 'Camps, secluded in the middle of the woods much like this one, are perfect targets for Brazilian kidnapper-pornographers. They fly secret midnight missions to remote areas, not unlike here, land on the water and sneak into camp to kidnap kids to take back to South America. While you're eating your cereal, wondering where all those kids on the back of milk cartons disappear to, they're all being held in seedy basements in Buenos Aires. You guys are grown kids so I know you can handle hearing this kind of stuff .'

None of us slept that night. Or the next. Or the even the next. 22 sets of ears open for the menacing bossa-nova sounds of Latin American perverts with their covert sea-planes.

The cool thing, like I mentioned above, was that he also got kind of arcane. Also replacing the ghost yarns, and I can't begin to make this up, were existentialist stories about IRA snipers who accidentally kill their long lost twin Protestant brothers. But the one piece of odd culture he left us with one night, that will forever be etched into my brain is the night he played us O Superman by Laurie Anderson. I'll never forget the staring up at the stars, with Anderson's 8 minute opus of 'Hah hah hah hah' playing in the background blowing my little mind. Hearing the robotic 'Here come the planes...' with the Milky Way stretched out above, very clearly staring back at me, and I'll never forget how small and insignificant I felt. Yet oddly at the same time it felt very warm and comforting.

So all of that leads to this, O Superman, covered today in a few forms. We have two folk covers by Andre Herman Dune and Josh Millard, who likes his peppered with a little banjo twang. From 1982 have a couple of electronic/electro versions from A.P.O.. Also on the dance tip is a techno version from Silverspin. Side note, really wanted to feature the Booka Shade version but it turns out its a remix :-(. Lastly, and mostly for posterity, is a handful of live drum & bass versions from David Bowie (?!?!). FYI warning most are of dubious bootleg quality, the first 'Live' cut is probably the best sounding of the lot.

Andre Herman Dune - O Superman

Josh Millard - O Superman

A.P.O - O Superman (Slow Dance Version)

A.P.O - O Superman (Long Beat Version)

Silverspin feat Zoe - O Superman

David Bowie - O Superman (Live)

David Bowie - O Superman (Ft Lauderdale)

David Bowie - O Superman (Live in Amsterdam)

David Bowie - O Superman (Live in Newcastle)

David Bowie - O Superman (Live with Laurie Anderson)

David Bowie - O Superman (Live in Los Angeles)

Enjoy!

LS

Police & Twees

So todays entry, Police and Thieves, is not some half-baked attempt to do a back to back Clash feature on VG, even though they did a brilliant job covering it back in the day.

Nope, it's a so-cute-you-want-to-hug-the-shit-out-of-it twee-pop cover of Junior Murvin's best and brightest, by France's Get Back Guinozzi.

Get Back Guinozzi - Police & Thieves

Enjoy!

LS

Ghetto Superstars

One of the more underrated gems from Combat Rock, Ghetto Defendant by The Clash gets an electronic-dubby makeover from Birmingham's

finest, Rockers Hi-Fi.

Rockers Hi-Fi - Queen of the Ghetto (Ghetto Defendant)

Enjoy!

LS

What's the Frequency Luke?

In another one of those 'pinch me I'm dreaming' moments, 10x even more trainspottery than my coveted Warp Records bag, we got

Luke Vibert covering LFO by eponymous UK techno outfit LFO.

Luke Vibert - LFO

Enjoy!

LS

Cash Rules Everything Around Me

Here's another great way to wake up on a Sunday, Sunday Morning Coming Down, a perennial Versions Galore fave. Done originally by the Convoy drivin, one time Streisand fondler, Kris Kristofferson, it's covered here rather beautifully by Johnny Cash. Is it me or does anyone else still do a double take when JC belts outs "I wished Lord that I was STONED."

Johnny Cash - Sunday Morning Coming Down

Enjoy!

LS

Better Fred Than Dead

Perhaps the other day's artwork was a tad harsh on dolphins. I actually love dolphins (and the ocean in general). Maybe not so far as getting a dolphinoplasty, or hanging glass trinkets from the rear view mirror, but they're pretty damn amazing creatures.

Someone even more passionate was Fred Neil, who after spending the 60s and 70s penning classics like, Everybodys Talking and today's ode, Dolphins, decided to take it even further by setting up The Dolphin Research Project to protect them.

Eventually over the years he would abandon music altogether to devote himself to the DRP full time. Go Fred!

Today's Dolphins are a collection of modern takes. Leading is my favorite version and first introduction to the track by Heights Of Abraham; an ambient/acoustic affair by 1/2 of Fila Brazillia. Speaking of halves we also have 1/2 of Dead Can Dance (the better half IMHO) Brendan Perry as well as one version when they were still together. William Orbit protege Beth Orton, duets alongside jazz legend Terry Callier. And hugging the tailfins is the angst ridden one man act that is The The.

Heights of Abraham - Dolphins

Brendan Perry - Dolphins (Scala 1999)

Brendan Perry - Dolphins (Paris 1999)

Brendan Perry - Dolphins (Live in ???)

Brendan Perry - Dolphins (Washington 1999)

Brendan Perry - Dolphins (Seattle 1999)

Brendan Perry - Dolphins (Bruxelles 1999)

Dead Can Dance - Dolphins (Live in Frankfurt)

Beth Orton & Terry Callier - Dolphins

The The - Dolphins

***Last minute addendum: Brilliant live version from Nick Cave...

Nick Cave - Dolphins (Dublin 2003)

Enjoy!

LS

Playing the Fool

With another entry comes another ill-advised youthful fashion anecdote.

Dressed in oversized baggy pants, 10x too large hoodies and XL, when I clearly was an 'M', sized Stone Roses shirt, I believe I was the only (self-identified) scally roaming the thriving metropolitan streets that was San Mateo, California. Again cutting a rather fetching target for the local 'hesher' population to lob insults (as well as various kinds of produce) at during the late 80s.

Oddly enough 10 years, and 10 dozen silly looks later when I moved to NYC the oddest phenomena started happening. Not only would I constantly see Ian Brown walking about, but he would always give me the head nod, sometimes with an 'awwwright mate' thrown in for good measure. I'm not sure who he seemed to think I was, but on a few occasions he went as far as stopping me and asking 'arright hows it goin mate?'. And in return all I could respond with was 'Er good, y'know. Uh, hows the new album coming along?'. To which he would launch into some diatribe like 'Yknow its at Bob's bein mastered and all, with Pete. Not Pete-Spring Street-Pete but Pete the Geek Pete'.

"Er, oh yeah, Pete!'. Practically wearing the same matching uniform of Bape (back in 98' when it was good) and rare Adidas' kicks, I think he mistook me for one of his bandmates or some as yet unsigned Mo' Wax artist.

Regardless, today's entry is for you Ian, thanks for all the great conversation!

So VG is tackling Mr Brown's cultish alma mater, The Stone Roses. Their first biggie Fools Gold, gets the retro-funk treatment courtesy of Wheedle's Groove as well as not quite chip tune, yet not quite electro either, bizzaro cover from Mr. Hopkinson's Computer.

Wheedle's Groove - Fools Gold

Mr Hopkinson's Computer - Fools Gold

Enjoy!

LS

Gone to the Dogs

I guess there comes a point in every artist's career when it's time to feature their own dog. I have officially have reached that crescendo, so congrats, Ira, 10 lb terror of a Mini-Dachshund, you're a star.

If you haven't guessed today's mash up of art yet, it's I Wanna Be You Dog by the Iggy Pop driven madness that was The Stooges.

I've pooled a small collection of electronic cover versions from the likes of Ascii Disko, Bozz@nova, Futon, Dakar & Grinser and 'France's answer to Bjork' Emilie Simon.

Ascii Disko - I Wanna Be Your Dog

Bozz@nova - I Wanna Be Your Dog

Futon - I Wanna Be Your Dog

Dakar & Grinser - I Wanna Be Your Dog

Emilie Simon - I Wanna Be Your Dog

Emilie Simon - I Wanna Be Your Dog (Live)

Enjoy!

LS

Stayin' Power

Founding Skatalite and go-to session piano player for the likes of Coxsone Dodd, Richard 'Jah' Ace catches some Saturday night fever with a funky reggae reworking of Bee Gees' white suited hit Stayin' Alive.

Somewhere the folks at Soul Jazz Records must be kickin themselves for letting this one slip through their dusty fingers.

Richard Ace - Stayin' Alive

Enjoy!

LS

Zee Best

Here's something nice to wake up to on a lazy Sunday morning:

An acoustically armed Zee Avi ever so sweetly covering Slow Hands by Interpol.

Zee Avi - Slow Hands (Acoustic)

Enjoy!

LS

And When She Was Good...

It's kinda uncanny how the UK just keeps churning out killer Stax-era sounding vocalists and today's entry is far from an exception.

Frank Sinatra's saudade classic, It Was a Very Good Year (originally written by Ervin Drake for my pop's favorite band The Kingston Trio) get's a neo-soul retrofit by the hotness that is Lizzy Parks.

Parks' channels her inner Bassey over a Hammond drenched beat so hysteric, by the end of this track I'll guarantee you'll be playing air drums.

Lizzy Parks - It Was A Very Good Year

Enjoy!

LS

Ain't That a Kick...

Have I ever mentioned one of my favorite pastimes is stalking David J of Bauhaus? The man lives somewhere in the vicinity and I have seen him skulking around in his signature specs at shows, in bookstores, on a well known P2P network and hell even once meandering past my house. What most poet shirted peeps don't know is that while Peter Murphy was off shopping for man-thongs and appearing in Maxell commercials, was that David J was in the studio doing all the work. That man was the brains of that outfit. Bela Lugosi's Dead? Terror Couple Kill Colonel? Nerves? He wrote most of them shits. Plus he bestowed unto us probably God's greatest gift ever (at least under this roof) Crocodile Tears and the Velvet Cosh. As you can see I am gushing. Perhaps that's why, despite having many mutual friends (both famous and otherwise) in common, that man still runs for the hollow hills every time he sees me, armed with old Glass Records EPs and felt markers in hand looking for an autograph.

So today's cover du jour finds Fernando of 2020Soundsystem fame putting some of the haus back in Bauhaus with his rendition of post punk classic Kick in the Eye.

Fernando - Kick In The Eye [Vocal Mix]

Enjoy!

LS

Feelin' Good

So, I'm on a juice fast for the next 3 days, as old Leopold has gone and overdone it again on food, drink, cigars and other things recreational.

If I we're to pick a Rocky-like anthem for my mini de-tox, I would have to go with Feel Good Inc. from the yet-another-amazing-Damom-Albarn-side-project The Gorillaz.

While I'm sure at this point you've probably heard the Editors version (included today simply for posterity), I'm really digging Cookin on 3 Burners rare funkified version. Also along for the ride today is an electro cover from the aptly nom'ed Electromix.

Cookin on 3 Burners - Feel Good Inc

Electromix - Feel Good Inc

Editors - Feel Good Inc

Enjoy!

LS

Tha Who

All right got a quickie for you today, Snoop Dogg's atomic classic Who Am I (What's My Name) brilliantly reblown by The Hot 8 Brass Band, who tragically enough, have seen as much action as the LBC, by losing no less than 3 of it's members due to handgun violence. Sometimes it's hard being the dee o double g-clef.

The Hot 8 Brass Band - What's My Name?

Enjoy!

LS

It's Good To Be The King

King's Lead Hat, another Brian Eno vocal classic is an anagram for 'Talking Heads'. Not only was Brian obsessed with what was then these new New Wave upstarts, he would later go on to produce them as well and in the process dragging lead head David Byrne away for the sublime My Life in The Bush of Ghosts (much to the others chagrin.)

Starting off with my personal fave we have Detroits' The Dirtbombs, which includes some odd little tangent of intro dialog. 80s synthpop staple Ultravox apparently used to love rounding out the end their live sets with it, as evidenced by the plethora of live versions included today. Data-Bank-A goes semi industrial and Manishevitz is well, probably what Manishevitz is to real wine.

The Dirtbombs - Kings Lead Hat [End]

Ultravox - Kings Lead Hat ( Oregon November, 1979)

Ultravox - Kings Lead Hat (1979-12-30)

Ultravox - Kings Lead Hat (Dec 13 1980 Hammersmith Odeon London)

Ultravox - Kings Lead Hat (Live At The Lyceum, 17 Aug 1980)

Ultravox - Kings Lead Hat (live Boston 79)

Ultravox - Kings Lead Hat (Nov. 4th. 1980 Champaign, Illinois)

Ultravox - Kings Lead Hat (San Diego, 24th September, 1980)

Ultravox - Dislocation - Kings Lead Hat (Milwaukee 29th Nov 1979)

Data Bank A - Kings Lead Hat

Manishevitz - Kings Lead Hat

enjoy!

LS

Baby, Come Back

So I'm going to try a little experiment. For the last 11 months or so the Stotch mailbox has been filled with many a 'Please come back'. And while I missed doing VG so very terribly, my tiny little feelings get hurt real easily (like when Blogger starts deleting your posts). So I'm going to give it another go and see how it pans.

New rule unfortunately is VG isn't going to be a daily-ish affair as Leopold's got a day job he'd like to keep. That said expect the same usual cover goodness.

I figured since this is a rebirth of sorts I'd re-tackle my very first post, Jacob Miller's Baby I Love You So, a perennial Stotch desert island track (if that island was Jamaica of course). Just as perennial is my favorite cover version of it by the long defunct Colourbox; the 4AD dancefloor anomaly who would later be spotted Pumping up the Volume as 2/6 of MARRS. Be sure not to miss all the great Escape from New York samples. I've also included the Radikal Roots Re-Edit version.

This time around I'm also including a few other versions. Jamaican music masters abound with versions from Joe Gibbs, Sly Dunbar, Ernest Ranglin, and Augustus Pablo who revisits his old audio alma matter with Dawn Penn.

Versions, I love you so.

Colourbox - Baby I Love You So [12inch]

Colourbox - Baby I Love You So [Radikal Roots Re-Edit]

Joe Gibbs & The Professionals - Chapter Three

Sly Dunbar - Rasta Fiesta

Ernest Ranglin - King Tubby Meets The Rockers

Dawn Penn with Augustus Pablo - Night & Day (Baby I Love You So)

Enjoy!

LS

- - - THE PARTY'S OVER - - -

NOTE: VERSIONS GALORE READERS
Looks like this may be the end.
Been a long time coming but the DMCA finally caught up with us and has started deleting posts. Now that I'm on their radar, it's only a matter of time before this starts spreading like cancer to the rest of my entries.
I may return, who knows, but I'm going to need a decent chunk of time to think it over. For now I can't sit back and watch as they dismantle, post by post, the site I've worked so hard on building up. To those who followed regularly and posted comments, I can't begin to thank you enough and for the rest, I hope you enjoyed the music anyway.

Adieu
Leopold Stotch

Presidential Parton

Dressed head to toe in black, creepers, cloves and all, in high school I remember being somewhat mortified to find out that Strawberry Switchblade's Jolene was actually a Dolly Parton cover. Never mind of course that all the eyeliner in world couldn't disguise the fact that, musically speaking, SS's synth pop barely passed for goth. Bah, youth!
Did I mention we also got a couple of versions from The White Stripes today
as well?

Strawberry Switchblade - Jolene
Strawberry Switchblade - Jolene (Extended Mix)
The White Stripes - Jolene
The White Stripes - Jolene (2003-20-04 - Live in Boston)

Enjoy!
LS

While My Fish Gently Sleeps

If you think you're staring at a cover for the new Residents album, you may be a bit disappointed.
When I was around 4 my parents owned a charming pet piranha inexplicably named Prudence. As I would wander around the outside of the aquarium, Prudence would follow alongside, eyes fixed on me the same way Sylvester the Cat's would when he saw Tweety; imagining him as a succulent roasted hen with all the fixings still swinging on his perch. And despite being underwater, so help me I could see the fish salivating. Whenever I would get too close to the tank, to which I came just about chin high, he would go ballistic. BAM! BAM! BAM!, he would furiously start smacking his nose(?) into the glass in a vain attempt get to a bite of the would be appetizer wrapped in Casper pajamas. Ironically however, when my parents ever came close to his watery domain, he would hightail it, cowering behind his little coral castle. Odd, my parents thought, why our son and not us? It took my dad, quick as Columbo, two minutes to figure it out. Getting on their knees,to about my height, they re-approached tank. Sure enough Prudence rushed right back out and proceeded to bang his head against the glassy border, seeing an opportunity not just for a 4 year old h'ordeuvre but a two course meal.
Prudence's tenure in our house was unfortunately cut short and reluctantly had to be given back to the pet shop from whence he came. We were moving to Florida, where they had laws against any kind of aquatic carnivorous pet that you couldn't make fall asleep by flipping over and rubbing it's belly. Needless to say I was bummed beyond belief that my watery little pal, who in my mind was smacking his face against the glass in is eagerness to greet me, was gone. It was only a few months later when my mom and I were at the grocery store when I spotted my recently missing friend. There, in the fish section, lounging on a bed of ice between his buddies Mr. Salmon and Mr. Halibut was what I thought was Prudence (actually a recently expired Flounder). 'HEY MOM HEY MOM! LOOK IT''S PRUDENCE, HE'S SLEEPING!!!! HEY PRUDENCE WAKE UP!!'.
So as you can imagine it's pretty much impossible for me, when hearing
The Beatles' Dear Prudence, not to recall my toothy, sub-aquatic, long lost childhood friend, rather than Mia Farrow's sister, to whom the song is actually dedicated to.
While I will always have a soft spot for Siouxsie & The Banshees' cover and it's arguably the best version of Prudence, I'd have to say Songs of The Green Pheasant are quick on her spiked heels with their delightful, rather spaced out, rendition. If you're looking for something to replace that tired Mario Bros. background music, 8 Bit rockers The Hunt For Yoshi do a great chiptune cover. DJ Kazimir manages to squeak out a not half-bad drum & bass version featuring Carol C of Si*Sé fame on vocals. We also have some good jazzy funk cuts from Ramsey Lewis, The Five Stairsteps, Gabor Szabo, Atlantic Bridge, Brad Mehldau and Hysear Don Walker (which sounds like a dead ringer for Air). Lastly we have a few straight ahead, somewhat psychedelic versions from Fury In The Slaughterhouse, Feet Of Clay, Radio Stars, Sound Foundation and John A. Roberts.

Siouxsie & Banshees - Dear Prudence
Siouxsie & Banshees - Dear Prudence (Live - Nocturne)
Siouxsie & Banshees - Dear Prudence (Live in Lausanne 91')
Siouxsie & Banshees - Dear Prudence (Live Paris 91')
Siouxsie & Banshees - Dear Prudence (Live in Europe 95)

Songs Of Green Pheasant - Dear Prudence

The Hunt For Yoshi - Dear Prudence

DJ Kazimir (with Carol C) - Dear Prudence

Ramsey Lewis - Dear Prudence
The Five Stairsteps - Dear Prudence
Gabor Szabo - Dear Prudence
Atlantic Bridge - Dear Prudence
Brad Mehldau - Dear Prudence
Hysear Don Walker - Dear Prudence

Fury In The Slaughterhouse - Dear Prudence
Feet Of Clay - Dear Prudence
Radio Stars - Dear Prudence
Sound Foundation - Dear Prudence
John A. Roberts - Dear Prudence

Enjoy!
LS

The C.R.E.A.M. Of The Crop

10 man strong jazz/funk outfit El Michels Affair channel their inner
Wu-Tang Clan with their instrumental rendition of C.R.E.A.M.
Dolla dolla bill y'all!

El Michels Affair - C.R.E.A.M.

Enjoy!
LS

Catching Some Z's

Murray Hewitt: You can't just neglect your old fans like that. What happens when your new fans fly the coop? You'll end up like Zed-Zed Top.
Bret: What are you talking about?
Murray Hewitt: You know, Zed-Zed Top?
Bret: Yeah.
Murray Hewitt: They sang the song about the woman with the legs. Anyway, they grew big beards, their old fans didn't like it, their new fans didn't like them without the beards, and then they had a "Do we have a beard or not?" situation.

Ah Murray. Can't get enough of that guy.
If you haven't figured it out by now today's cover is ZZ Top, more specifically
Sharp Dressed Man. We got two well kitted out versions; a great synth-pop/electroclash cut from Dragonette and a down home bluegrass slide guitar rendition from the appropriately nomenclatured Beardhead.

Dragonette - Sharp Dressed Man
Beardhead - Sharp Dressed Man

Enjoy!
LS

Getting Into Trouble

Jamaican favorites Prince Buster, taking some time off from washing pum pum, as well as the ever soulful Jimmy London tackle Simon & Garfunkel's warmhearted classic Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Prince Buster - Bridge Over Troubled Water
Jimmy London - Bridge Over Troubled Water

Enjoy!
LS

Monkey Business

Overnight NME garage rock furors The Arctic Monkeys get the cover treatment today with four cuts of their big hit I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor.
Good contender for the throne of Sharon Jones and best in this lot by a long shot is Baby Charles with her neo-Stax sound version. Also following in that northern soul vein is a live cut from Karen Taylor (btw any info on her would be great. Google turns up way to many Karen Taylors). Tummy Touch odball duo Patrick & Eugene go for a curious minimal jazz treatment, be sure to check out their even weirder video. And lastly, and don't hate, but the Sugababes manage to turn out a great garage rock-lite version too.

Baby Charles - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
Karen Taylor - I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor (live)
Patrick & Eugene - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
Sugababes - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor

Enjoy!
LS

Making a Killing

Is it me or was anyone else out there quite perplexed why Ian McCulloch, at the height of his career in Echo & The Bunnymen, was being compared to Jim Morrison? On one side you had a loud, drug fueled, shirtless American wild child and on the other a waifish new waver with perfectly primmed hair, hiding behind his mic and oversized trench coat nursing a pint. While The Bunnymen were draped in 60s nostalgia and no disrespect to either them or Morrison, I love em both, but leather trousers is where similarity begins and ends.
Thankfully McCulloch had his own voice (which didn't sound like the expired
peyote vacuum) and nowhere did it get a better workout then on their
sublime ballad, The Killing Moon.
As you can imagine covers abound of this one, including many a bedroom belladonna belting it out on YouTube, evidenced here, here and here. And as usual goth versions got left on the Versions cutting room floor making way for some other great covers. Playing favorites, I'll start with The Quakes rockabilly version, which sounds discordant on paper but trust me, it works. I've also included perennial VG faves Nouvelle Vague with both studio and a plethora of live cuts. Pavement, Grant Lee Phillips and Something for Kate all turn out some fairly faithful versions. Pre-Mazzy Star group Opal, featuring their new fresh faced replacement singer Hope Sandoval, do a rather dark, neo psychedlic/space rock live rendition. Fans of Tori Amos, Kate Bush et al will enjoy Wendy Rule's rather plush version. And lastly for our Brazilian friends I've tacked on Os Replicantes portugese cover A Lua que Mata.

The Quakes - The Killing Moon
Nouvelle Vague - The Killing Moon
Nouvelle Vague - The Killing Moon (Live - Aula Magna 07.12.07)
Nouvelle Vague - The Killing Moon (Live - 12.02.06 Montpellier)
Nouvelle Vague - The Killing Moon (Live - Manchester 21.05.07)
Nouvelle Vague - The Killing Moon (Live - 14.6.06 - Le Bataclan, Paris)
Pavement - The Killing Moon (BBC Session)
Grant Lee Phillips - The Killing Moon
Something for Kate - The Killing Moon
Opal - The Killing Moon (Live Vienna 03.30.88)
Wendy Rule - The Killing Moon
Os Replicantes - A Lua que Mata (The Killing Moon)

Enjoy!
LS

Get Up, Get On Up

As you can tell by reading this blog I'm a bit of an old school reggae fanatic. Where the fanaticism quickly descends into snobbery however is when Bob Marley is brought up. Legions of college freshmen, armed with 4 foot bongs, ultimate Frisbees and copies of Legend have kind of soured me on Bob. But I've got to confess, if I didn't discover him in 8th grade there would be no Augustus Pablo, Keith Hudson, Alton Ellis, Joe Gibbs etc etc later on down the road and subsequently this would probably be just an 80's or electronica covers blog. While most Marley covers run trite, and some truly arson-worthy (i.e. Eric Clapton), Munich-based (by way of St Lucia) group Malcolm's Locks turns Marley's classic protest anthem Get Up Stand Up into a nice slice of James Brown-worthy, rare groove funk.

Malcolm's Locks - Get Up Stand Up

Enjoy!
LS

Some Alone Time

Don't know about you but when I hear Alone Again Or by Love I think of the love scene in the Wes Anderson's Bottle Rocket. Well that, and hearing it for the first time on a Damned record in high school, where when I saw the title I thought the 'Or' part was the biggest typo blunder ever. Doh!
For the most part today's covers don't stray far from the original. Like I mentioned above The Damned version was my first, and still favorite introduction to this song.
Belle & Sebastian are here again with their live version as are Calexico, whose Tex-Mex sound overall seems steeped in Alone's blueprint, as well as lending a hand again to Neko Case's live version.
Tennessee indie act Mouserocket wrap theirs in their own "cello-pop" sound.
Proto metal act UFO goes soft, The Boo Radleys and the Oblivians go loud while the instrumental surf band The Shout exercise their vocal chords.
And lastly the aptly named (and mysteriously absent from the web) Da Capo with their beautifully lazy twang and snare rendition.

The Damned - Alone Again Or
Belle & Sebastian - Alone Again Or (live)
Calexico - Alone Again Or
Neko Case (with Calexico) - Alone Again Or (live)
Mouserocket - Alone Again Or
UFO - Alone Again Or
The Boo Radleys - Alone Again Or
Oblivians - Alone Again Or
The Shout - Alone Again Or
Da Capo - Alone Again Or

Enjoy!
LS