Happy Halloween

So it's Halloween and I didn't go overboard on yearly spooktacular cuts like I've done in previous years but I sure as hell wasn't going to miss out on posting something today and in thinking of just what to post I realized I get to see one of the best new bands to come along in quite a while today and they also have a fondness for the horror punk deities known as The Misfits so with that in mind here's a fucking bad ass cover they did a few months back Happy Halloween people....

Sam Suggest A Song: Walk off the Earth-Cheerleader

So there's this kind of sleeper hit starting to get some steam by a guy named Omi called Cheerleader which is this kind of semi island inspired smooth little jam that for whatever reason or another in utter simplicity manages to be one fairy amusingly memorable tune about how he's with a girl so good that he has no reason to ever want to cheat on her.

It's a simple number with fairly basic production that just kind of floats along at a simple pace and doesn't really seem to build up to anything super spectacular but for some reason it works and today as I was just kind of hopping around on Youtube and ended up on this cover of that track done by Walk off the Earth who if you don't remember did this really cool Gotye Cover on one guitar because you know gimmicks are the key to get yourself out there in this music market, and ever since then they've seemed to keep busy maintaining a fair amount of views and releasing more and more music as they go along and apparently they've decided to do another gimmicky video with a more Jason Maraz sounding rendition of that song and the end result is actually kind of charming.

It's pretty cool from the beginning that they seem to decide to use their entire tour bus as both an instrument and performance space by doing some Stomp style banging around for production before adding more traditional instruments and then sitting around a drum set simultaneously banging it which is a pretty cool effect to look at and vocally this is actually a really strong showing from these guy's because the years of getting better touring dates and more of a chance to work in real studios seems to have made them all gel even better and their harmonies are pretty on point especially with a fairly soft tune like this one which just kind of gives them a whole lot of room to really do a fair amount with.

This really is quite a good showing and while I'm not super big on promoting Youtube covers this one's still pretty good....

You know what grinds my gears?!?!?!

Yes you read that right I'm a steal this bitch right from Family Guy because there's a topic that's been on my mind for a minute and I wanna bitch about it so bear with me because I'm a hella go on a bit of a vulgarity laden romp through my opinion people and the topic that's got my gears grinding today.....Covers.

Ok now I'm not saying that I dislike the idea of one artist covering another artist music at all in fact I've covered that topic plenty of times on here just look back at the old two-fer Tuesday post and you'll see plenty of covers that I found to be very interesting and in many cases pretty fucking good but too often these day's I'm running into many of the uninformed masses of individuals that seems to constantly parade this idea that some cover version of a tune is better then the originals in one to many cases and that shit really annoys the fuck outta me.

My problem with that is simple...people are wrong there's a very VERY small list of songs that I could fully consider to be superior to the originals and after that about 98 1/4% of every other cover isn't as good and it's simple really because there's no reason that you should say person A isn't as good as person B's because if person A didn't kick so much ass then why would person B cover them and also in most cases covering a song is only really done to boost any particular audiences attention to any act because you're showcasing your talents with a tune they don't have to really put a whole lot of thought into and it's a quick dollar.

So in conclusion if you think that Metallica did any song better then anyone else, you think Shinedown's rendition of simple man is good, or you feel like telling me that any cover you heard on the internet by some schlub who couldn't get the views on the merits of their own music deserves to not be allowed to leave the house without an accompanying helmet because you're wrong and the fact that you think you're right really grinds my gears....

Sam's Message to Vance Joy...

So 96.5 the Buzz’s yearly prom themed show is coming up and this year’s headliner is Vance Joy and while that’s pretty damn sweet I had this idea that I need to convince people to start pushing to have him perform his cover of All my Life at this show because well…it’s fucking prom so to the world hashtag the shit outta this video and get him to put it into his prom set god damnit!

#playatpromvance

Song of the Day 1-10-15

Running Up that Hill- Placebo (Originally Kate Bush)

So rounding out this week of covers is one of my favorite forgotten and underappreciated 90’s acts in the form of Placebo in one of their more successful tunes in the form of this dark and dreary electronic heavy rendition of a Kate Bush classic. This cover is a good example of slowing a very 80’s synth pop tune and doing it well because I’m not often a fan of slower kind of sinister rendition of tunes but this one works because Molonko’s vocal delivery is in the more matured then his 90’s output and their penchant for adding more electronics to their music is executed well to make this a great cover to end this week of covers with…

Song of the Day 1-9-15

Heartbeats- Jose Gonzales (Originally by The Knife)

OK so in the shorthand list of covers that I’d honestly say has to be one of the best this would most certainly be on that list because here’s a guy taking what’s a semi-forgettable little electronic euro pop tune and makes it something special. The stripped down and minimal approach from a very soft and subtle vocalist kind of adds a bit of importance and intrigue to the lyrics and really takes this song to a place that’s really hard to describe and at times feels like when Jimmy did Dyllan and basically made another person’s song his own….

Song of the Day 1-8-15

Easy- Faith No More (Originally the Commodores)

So this is easily the more interesting things I’ll probably cover considering it’s a very experimental kind of funky metal act in the form of Faith No More showcasing the fact that Mike Patton is infact one of the most talented and versatile vocalist to ever walk the face of the earth because he did the most straightforward and to the point cover of an already easy listening classic and not only managed to match Lionel Richies buttery smooth and soulful delivery but at times kind of do it in an oddly more gratifying style which is kind of strange to say but this is really an amusingly great little cover by a band that is lead by one of the more interesting frontman to come out of the 90’s….

Song of the Day 1-6-15

SO I was trying my best to come up with methods of making the new year a smooth and consistent thing and realizing that I’m not too good at just posting random tunes that just kind of hit me at the most random points I decided it’d be easiest for the time being to have my week’s all follow a theme because while the scheduled weekly things like Tuesday Two-Fer and all that was good for me I think I got to take this blog in a more consistent direction by at the very least having the first few weeks be these themed series of songs while I start really listening to the newest music and albums coming out and start to really get a feel for things considering I just spent a whole month thinking back of the best songs I’ve heard all year.

Now with that in mind I thought to myself what would I do for my first week what could I possibly cover, and that’s when it occurred to me when I’m at work one of my co-workers enjoys having these light hearted bit’s of arguing about how he seems to think every cover version of a song is better than the original to which I often disagree because he seems to enjoy really shitty covers like Limp Bizkits Behind Blue eyes and Shinedown’s rendition of Simple Man which are both Cringworthingly terrible compared to the acts their poorly imitating.

While I do often defend the original tunes it’s not that I’m completely against covers in fact I’ve spent PLENTY of time covering covers on this blog and since their a pretty amusing topic I figured I’d post some halfway decent to pretty damn great covers that I’ve heard but upon coming up with a list I figured I’d not write about songs that I’ve written about MULTIPLE times when Covers come to mind so sadly I had to exclude both Die Die Die My Darlin and Hanging on the Telephone from this week’s list but even so I still managed to come up with some truly interesting  cuts so without any further adoo I figure I’ll start this week with the shortest cover in the form of this amusing little interpretation of the Misfits courtesy of one Guns N’ Roses…

Attitude-Guns N’ Roses (Originally the Misfits)

So  while I find this bands output after GNR Lies to be pretty junky they still managed to pump out a few interesting tunes here and there and even if I find the Spaghetti Incident to be a REALLY poor album it’s most certainly full of its fair share of interesting cuts namely this snarling little dirty punkish number and it’s true to form speedy no-fucks-given sound that’s pretty much note for note like the original but that’s also why the song is so good because it’s the best example of taking a good thing and not fucking it up…