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AV Club Undercover

post #1 of 80
3/26/10 at 8:26am
Thread Starter 
Just wondering if anyone besides DaveB, Jake, and myself were following this new feature over at the AV Club. Here's the run down, right from the site:

25 bands will cover 25 songs in The A.V. Club office

The first two installments are up, and they are both quite good.

First up is Ted Leo and the Pharmacists covering Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears.

They followed up the next week with Fruit Bats doing a cover of One On One by Hall & Oats.

I think it's going to be very interesting to see who they get to cover the rest of the songs, and whether or not they can keep the quality up as the pool of songs dwindles. Also, I'm really hoping they release a CD featuring all the tunes, as I know it's something I'd pick up in a heartbeat.
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post #2 of 80
3/26/10 at 10:19am
I'm also following that. Another great feature by the AV Club.
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post #3 of 80
3/26/10 at 11:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Olson View Post
Also, I'm really hoping they release a CD featuring all the tunes, as I know it's something I'd pick up in a heartbeat.
With Starbucks as a sponsor, it seems likely that they would.
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post #4 of 80
3/26/10 at 11:24am
The one cover I'm dreading is Enjoy the Silence. I've never heard a good a cover of it.

The one I wanna hear most is Starship.
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post #5 of 80
3/26/10 at 11:37am
Thread Starter 
I think I'm most curious to see who covers Paper Planes.
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post #6 of 80
3/26/10 at 11:47am
It's a cool concept, but as the resident Cover Song Maven, I'm not impressed by the covers so far. The thing it reminds me most of is the BBC's Live Lounge. I like the twist of the list getting narrower and narrower, though.
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post #7 of 80
3/26/10 at 12:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
It's a cool concept, but as the resident Cover Song Maven, I'm not impressed by the covers so far. The thing it reminds me most of is the BBC's Live Lounge. I like the twist of the list getting narrower and narrower, though.
Sorry, Rath, the Ted Leo cover was pretty damn good. Tears for Fears were always in dire need of a more stripped down sound and they got it here. It lets you know that the song is actually pretty good.

BTW, the sound in that room is fucking phenomenal. I saw the video on them putting it together and my immediate thought was "That'll sound like shit!"
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post #8 of 80
4/20/10 at 2:56pm
I rather liked Cursive's cover for We Built This City. I just wish these were released/done quicker though.
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post #9 of 80
4/20/10 at 3:04pm
Thread Starter 
I don't know. The once a week format works for me. Speaking of which, this week, the Retribution Gospel Choir covers Kokomo.
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post #10 of 80
4/20/10 at 3:12pm
"19th Nervous Breakdown" I'm waiting for this cover.
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post #11 of 80
4/20/10 at 3:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Savage View Post
The one cover I'm dreading is Enjoy the Silence. I've never heard a good a cover of it.
Nada Surf is releasing an album of cover songs and they did a great take on Enjoy The Silence.
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post #12 of 80
5/4/10 at 11:52am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Savage
The one cover I'm dreading is Enjoy the Silence. I've never heard a good a cover of it.
Don't know if you missed it or not, but this song was last week's installment, covered by Maritime. It was pretty good, actually.

Also, this week saw The Clientele cover MIA's Paper Planes, and it may very well be my favorite cover thus far in this series. Great stuff.
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post #13 of 80
5/4/10 at 12:16pm
Missed it. Is it me who's out of touch, or is it normal I've never heard of ANY of those bands before?
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post #14 of 80
5/4/10 at 12:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Savage View Post
Missed it. Is it me who's out of touch, or is it normal I've never heard of ANY of those bands before?
You must be, because I'm way out of touch and have at least heard of most of them.

You might want to check out The Clientele's Strange Geometry. It's a rich, sedate, and infectious slice of melancholia that goes down perfect with glass of wine and a few fading memories.
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post #15 of 80
5/4/10 at 8:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Olson View Post
Don't know if you missed it or not, but this song was last week's installment, covered by Maritime. It was pretty good, actually.

Also, this week saw The Clientele cover MIA's Paper Planes, and it may very well be my favorite cover thus far in this series. Great stuff.
Just catching up on these last two. "Paper Planes" is pretty great, but the title still goes to Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. "We Built This City" is the only one I haven't liked so far on some level. It's a terrible song, yeah, but Cursive should have put some effort into it or just gone with something else.

The Maritime cover's okay, but on the lower tier of these (still quite a bit better than Cursive's*) - it's weird how when Davey Von Bohlen slips into his lower register, it sounds kind of like They Might Be Giants.

* Don't mean to sound like a have a particular beef with Cursive, because I'm a fan of most of their original stuff (the latest album less so). But that cover really sucked.
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post #16 of 80
5/4/10 at 9:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Savage View Post
Missed it. Is it me who's out of touch, or is it normal I've never heard of ANY of those bands before?
Not even Ted Leo? Get on that shit, dude!

I'm loving the series and I'm looking forward to the eventual CD release. The Cursive song bothered me too but I chalk that up to the awfulness of the song in general. Not sure what they could do it to make it work (maybe slow it down?). The Paper Planes cover is pretty nifty. The Clientele is a band that I'm hot and cold on, some songs/albums work better than others, but they're on here.
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post #17 of 80
5/4/10 at 9:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Parker View Post
Not even Ted Leo? Get on that shit, dude!
Yeah, Ted Leo's essential stuff. I've been sort of impressed by the level of bands they've been able to rope into this. Most of the less-known names have solid pedigrees (Justin Townes Earl through his dad, Maritime through the Promise Ring, Retribution Gospel Choir through Low).

Quote:
I'm loving the series and I'm looking forward to the eventual CD release. The Cursive song bothered me too but I chalk that up to the awfulness of the song in general. Not sure what they could do it to make it work (maybe slow it down?).
Rehearsed it more than once, I'm thinking. Having seen Cursive once perform a set after they spent the afternoon drinking (due to the cancellation of an earlier all-ages show that day), "loose" just isn't their strong suit. The tighter they are, the better they are.

Hope you're right about the CD release. And I hope they maintain the relative streak they've had so far. With "Kokomo," Hall & Oats, and Starship out of the way, there are only a couple of cheeky selections left in Journey and Squier. Hope the artists stay unpredictable in their picks, too. It would kind of be a shame if "Say Yes" ended up going to an earnest folkie with an acoustic guitar. We've already got a version like that, and there's really no matching it.
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post #18 of 80
5/4/10 at 10:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveB View Post
Yeah, Ted Leo's essential stuff. I've been sort of impressed by the level of bands they've been able to rope into this. Most of the less-known names have solid pedigrees (Justin Townes Earl through his dad, Maritime through the Promise Ring, Retribution Gospel Choir through Low).
I thought Earl doing Springsteen was a little obvious but damn if he didn't do a nice version.
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post #19 of 80
5/5/10 at 11:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Parker View Post
Not even Ted Leo? Get on that shit, dude!
Correction: I know Ted Leo. That's it so far. Not that I don't like the bands, I just know fuck all about them. And like Dave pointed out, We built this City is the only bad cover so far.
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post #20 of 80
5/5/10 at 6:51pm
I was really impressed that Retribution Gospel Choir made Kokomo listen-able.
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post #21 of 80
5/11/10 at 1:27pm
New one's up - Ben Folds doing "Say Yes."

Not a drastic makeover or particularly revelatory, but as I expressed worry about above, I'm glad it's not some earnest folkie with an acoustic guitar doing that song. Folds has some genuine affection for Smith and the song, and it shows. Another win for the series, I'd say.
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post #22 of 80
5/11/10 at 5:03pm
Yeah, it's a nice, non-essential cover of the original, which is one of best songs of the 90's. I'm glad he didn't do anything crazy with it. Kinda hard to improve on that song.
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post #23 of 80
5/11/10 at 5:15pm
Side note: in the comments, Josh Modell notes that there won't be an Undercover album.
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post #24 of 80
5/11/10 at 6:29pm
Well, that blows.
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post #25 of 80
5/18/10 at 7:39pm
For those keeping up Wye Oak absolutely kill it on "Strangers" by The Kinks. http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-kinks,38871/
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post #26 of 80
5/18/10 at 8:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Fuchs View Post
For those keeping up Wye Oak absolutely kill it on "Strangers" by The Kinks. http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-kinks,38871/
True, and that little smile Wasner gives the camera just as they cut to the credits is one of the cutest things you'll ever see.
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post #27 of 80
5/18/10 at 9:33pm
I was unfamiliar with Wye Oak. Thanks to this series, I will now become familiar with Wye Oak.
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post #28 of 80
6/8/10 at 10:50am
OK, I'm not the biggest Final Fantasy/Owen Pallet fan. So when I saw that he picked "Game of Pricks" by Guided by Voices, I was a little worried. The original GBV version is one of my favorite GBV songs, and therefore one of my favorite songs ever. I think it's perfect in all it's fuzzed out lo-fi glory. So one guy doing it with a violin? Especially a guy with a violin that I'm not a huge fan of?

But I love this version. Love it so much. I really want a copy of it and I'm more disappointed then ever that they're not going to release a CD from these sessions. If anyone can find out how to make a rip from the AV club video, I'd be forever grateful.
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post #29 of 80
6/13/10 at 5:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Parker View Post
OK, I'm not the biggest Final Fantasy/Owen Pallet fan. So when I saw that he picked "Game of Pricks" by Guided by Voices, I was a little worried. The original GBV version is one of my favorite GBV songs, and therefore one of my favorite songs ever. I think it's perfect in all it's fuzzed out lo-fi glory. So one guy doing it with a violin? Especially a guy with a violin that I'm not a huge fan of?

But I love this version. Love it so much. I really want a copy of it and I'm more disappointed then ever that they're not going to release a CD from these sessions. If anyone can find out how to make a rip from the AV club video, I'd be forever grateful.
Finally caught up with the last few of these. That Pallet/GBV cover's up there with the Ted Leo, Wye Oak, and Clientele performances as the best of the series. If there's no official album release, I hope the AV Club at least makes the audio of these available for download.
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post #30 of 80
6/15/10 at 2:13pm
I dig The Antlers. I liked their album Hospice OK, even if I think it was seriously flawed. They were pretty good live a few weeks ago when I saw them open for the National, (they were certainly loud) but I feel like they're cover of Wish You Here highlights some of their weaknesses as well as they're strengths. They can be a seriously spooky sounding band; drenched in reverb they sound like ghosts that are finding a channel through your ear buds or stereo. But they also don't have a ton of energy, even on some of their more "enthusiastic" tracks. Live, I feel like they overcompensated for that by just playing louder, ending most of the songs with feedback drenched reverb jams that did them a disservice, droning out their songs even longer and turning so me of their subtle songwriting into monotony.

I like the cover, but I feel like it loses something without the earnestness of the vocals. The guy just sounds way to disassociated and that doesn't work. I don't really believe he misses anybody. I
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post #31 of 80
6/15/10 at 5:38pm
I've ripped a few of these to mp3 for my car. I know it's technically piracy, but it also appears they aren't going to be available in any other format, so it seems to be enough of a grey area that I'm not having problems sleeping at night.

Would it be a banhammer worthy offense to share the files?
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post #32 of 80
7/6/10 at 9:57pm
http://www.avclub.com/articles/journey,38879/

Bump for my favorite band being a part of Undercover.

Clem Snide, to clarify, not Journey.
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post #33 of 80
7/7/10 at 7:59am
It's a fun feature. I have particularly enjoyed Motion City Soundtrack covering Pavement.
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post #34 of 80
8/3/10 at 2:08pm
Well, arguably the song that music snobs were anticipating the most has been covered.

Hear Mates of State perform I Will Dare by The Replacements.

I gotta admit, I like it, slowed down chorus and all. It's a real departure, but an interesting one. It's the type of cover that takes both the original and tweaks it for the band covering it.

All of the comments at the AV Club rip it apart though, so I'm probably going to be in the minority.

Whatever. At it's heart, it's a pop song through and through. So I think this works.
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post #35 of 80
8/10/10 at 10:09am
The Swell Season does "Two Headed Boy."

My man-crush on Glen Hansard continues unabated.
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post #36 of 80
8/10/10 at 10:23am
Best cover yet!
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post #37 of 80
8/10/10 at 10:37am
Thread Starter 
Yeah, this one was absolutely great, and I loved the little extra they threw in at the end. Also, I'm even more pissed that we're not getting an Undercover CD out of this. The handful of shitty covers don't negate the awesomeness of the whole project, and I really want to be able to fire them up on my iPod whenever I want. Sigh.

ETA: I also really liked the Mates of State cover from last week, and thought they did a really good job of honoring the original while tweaking it for their sensibilities. Good stuff all around.
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post #38 of 80
8/10/10 at 10:46am
Surely somebody somewhere is using 21st century technology to rip mp3s of these, right?
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post #39 of 80
8/10/10 at 11:06am
Just discovered this. Great feature. Swell Season Killed it this week.

My personal favourite thus far has been Coheed's cover of the Smiths. Nicely stripped down.
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post #40 of 80
8/10/10 at 12:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt M View Post
The Swell Season does "Two Headed Boy."

My man-crush on Glen Hansard continues unabated.
I can't believe it took this long to get to. Such a fantastic song.
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post #41 of 80
8/10/10 at 1:59pm
The Two Headed Boy cover is one of the best of the series, for sure, but I really don't like how they end with the coda from King of Carrot Flowers parts 2 and 3. Just doesn't seem to fit into that song at all.

I would have rather they tacked on some lines from Two Headed Boy part 2. Especially maybe the last line of the album, which is one of the best album closers ever.
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post #42 of 80
8/10/10 at 3:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Parker View Post
The Two Headed Boy cover is one of the best of the series, for sure, but I really don't like how they end with the coda from King of Carrot Flowers parts 2 and 3. Just doesn't seem to fit into that song at all.

I would have rather they tacked on some lines from Two Headed Boy part 2. Especially maybe the last line of the album, which is one of the best album closers ever.
Yeah, that ending seems a little off, but "Two Headed Boy" shows what a little nerve and some slight adjustments can do for a pretty straightforward cover. Up there with Ted Leo, Owen Pallett, and Wye Oak (is it weird that a Kinks cover from a band I've heard nothing else by* may be one of my favorite songs of the year?).

I thought Mates of State's "I Will Dare" suffered from a little too much adjustment placed in exactly the part of the song that didn't need it. I'm a huge 'Mats fan and I generally like Mates of State a lot, but that 6/8 chorus just didn't do justice to Westerberg's writing or even to Gardner's and Hammel's own strengths as musicians and singers. Liked the trumpet on the opening hook, though.

* Still need to get around to their other work.
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post #43 of 80
8/10/10 at 4:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveB View Post
Yeah, that ending seems a little off, but "Two Headed Boy" shows what a little nerve and some slight adjustments can do for a pretty straightforward cover.
Especially when expectations would have you think Hansard and Irglova would do a pretty, strummy acoustic version. I'd buy the shit out of a Swell Season cover of Aeroplane in it's entirety.

Quote:
(is it weird that a Kinks cover from a band I've heard nothing else by* may be one of my favorite songs of the year?).
Nope, that cover is an earworm of Wrath of Khan-level proportions. One of my favorite covers ever.
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post #44 of 80
8/10/10 at 4:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Louris View Post
Especially when expectations would have you think Hansard and Irglova would do a pretty, strummy acoustic version. I'd buy the shit out of a Swell Season cover of Aeroplane in it's entirety.
I was just thinking to myself how much I'd love to hear Hansard belt out "Oh Comely."
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post #45 of 80
8/10/10 at 5:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Louris View Post
Nope, that cover is an earworm of Wrath of Khan-level proportions. One of my favorite covers ever.
Yeah, I fall into the same boat. It's one of the best and I'd never heard of the band before it. The great thing is that now that I've gotten into Wye Oak a little more, (and how great that this series introduces people to new bands), it's an even better cover because while it's totally faithful to the original song, it also gives a very good demonstration of what the band sounds like.
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post #46 of 80
1/11/11 at 5:14pm

They're going to start round two in March, so vote for the songs and bands you want to see.

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post #47 of 80
1/12/11 at 6:51am

Can't wait and thanks for the heads up, I suggested some normal run of the mill songs for the write ins but I think they'd be interesting to hear others do them (Life on Mars? Like A Prayer and Bulletproof).

 

Edited to add: Haha! And to show what an idiot I am, I clicked off on telling them to bring all new people in and one of the performers I suggest was Justin Townes Earle, having forgot he participated in last years version of this.

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post #48 of 80
1/12/11 at 6:03pm

I wrote in Neko Case, Local Natives and Andrew Bird for bands.  

 

For songs, Neutral Milk Hotel's "Holland, 1945", RHCP's "Soul To Squeeze" and The Band's "Opehlia".

 

Little chance the songs will make it, but I so, so, so hope they can rope Case into an appearance.

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post #49 of 80
1/12/11 at 8:56pm

For bands, I put The Gaslight Anthem, Janelle Monae and Okkervil River. 

 

For songs, "Another Girl, Another Planet" by the Only Ones; "Leave Me Alone" by New Order and "Crazy In Love" by Beyonce. 

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post #50 of 80
1/12/11 at 9:12pm

I accidentally hit enter too early, but I'm glad someone else wants Okkervil River to do this.

 

I was able to complete one write-in song, though...

 

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