AV Club Undercover - Page 2

What a great selection of songs to choose from. For my write-ins I went with Soft Boys' I Wanna Destroy You, Brian Wilson's Love & Mercy and Hoople's All The Young Dudes. Bands I asked for were A.C. Newman, Old 97's and Gaslight Anthem.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/iron-and-wine-covers-george-michael,53063/

Not a bad start.  Iron and Wine was one of my write-ins, and having Marketa Irglova singing back up obviously doesn't hurt anything. 

Looking at the song list, it looks like the only of my votes (and yeah, I may have used friends' e-mails to vote several times) that made the cut was "A Shot In The Arm".  Look forward to seeing who does it.

I can't wait to see who does "Runaway".

Between "September Gurls" and their recent Smiths cover, the Dum Dum Girls are becoming the Queens of Covers.  They're new EP is great.  They're a band to watch for sure. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Parker 

Between "September Gurls" and their recent Smiths cover, the Dum Dum Girls are becoming the Queens of Covers.  They're new EP is great.  They're a band to watch for sure. 

Definitely (though I presume they'll spend more time on the harmonies if they actually decide to record the song).

Care Bears On Fire is another (quite) young all-girl band that mixes terrific originals with inspired covers. I can't find the cover songs on Youtube, but not only do they do a great job on Tears for Fears ("Everybody Wants To Rule The World"), but whoever it was that turned them on to the Marbles' "Red Lights" has done a service to humanity.

Considering it's a song I love and a band I love, I was a bit underwhelmed. That might be a matter of expectations though, because as soon as I saw Dum Dum Girls doing "September Gurls" I immedietly assumed it was going to be a Wye Oak/'Strangers' or Swell Season/'Two-Headed Boy' kind of perfect pairing, and instead it was just okay.

I get that in a sense because my expectations were pretty high too, and at first my reaction was a little like "that's it?"  But honestly, I listened to it a second time and appreciated how straight forward of a version it was.  I feel like a lot of bands try to put too big of a spin on it.  If the Dum Dums tried that here, I'm not sure it would have worked.  So they took a great song and played it to their strengths.

Underwhelmed by both Low Anthem and Titus Andronicus, two bands I quite rather like.

The Low Anthem were decent, but that's a song that's pretty hard to screw up

Titus Andronicus was just awful, which is especially bad because it was the song I was most looking forward to they butchered.

I thought the Low Anthem one was okay, but good god that Titus cover.  I've seen them live and they're a hell of a lot better then that.  Just an awful cover.  All the comments are like "I never could get into this band and this just proves why."  I feel like screaming "NO, their albums are BRILLIANT!" but they didn't do themselves any favors with this cover.  Ugh.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/wye-oak-covers-danzig,53066/

The best performer from last year returns, and because I know you're wondering, yes, they came back with a fucking tuba.  Wasner remains super-cute.  WOLF'S BLOOD.

Wye Oak kills it again. First Undercover this year that really made me smile.

I really need to get one or all of their cd's if their own stuff is like this (Wye Oak). Hell, their latest cd is only 3.00 bucks on Amazon!

Their latest album is also really, really good if that helps.  And yeah, I'd been mostly underwhelmed with this year's crop until that one.  So bummed I was out of town when they played here earlier in the month.

Good stuff from Of Montreal. Not necessarily a fresh take on the song, but it's fun to hear them garage it up.

This year has still been disappointing compared to last, but I did really like this version of a rather stupid song.  Got me to download one of Van Etten's albums even.

Man do I enjoy me some Trail of Dead, but they broke the rules for that?

Freaking epic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schwartz 

Freaking epic.

Game over. They Might Be Giants wins.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zak chase 

Game over. They Might Be Giants wins.

I'd say some kind of play-off with Wye Oak is in order, but yeah, can't be envying whoever has to follow that one next week.   Seeing all those nerds having such a blast was infectious.

I've been kind of disapointed with Undercover this year, but in looking back I'm not sure why. Wye Oak, of Montreal, Mountain Goats, and TMBG have all been excellent, and I've really warmed to the covers from Dum Dum Girls, Sloan and Surfer Blood.

Oh Lordy

That's an Onion spoof piece, right?

I want Sufjan Stevens to cover Mungo Jerry.

Undercover has snuck back up on us.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/sharon-van-etten-and-shearwater-cover-stop-draggin,70683/

Pretty good start, although having seen these folks close a great show with this tune a few weeks ago it felt a little low energy.  Can't wait to see who nabs "Danger Zone".

Well, yeah, I'm sure a live audience helped, but as you say, a very nice start.

This year, it seems as though they've gone out of their way to include songs I can't stand, so I'm very curious about some of these choices.

Some of my favorites in the past have been for songs I didn't even like.  But you've got the odd "Heart of Gold" and "Rebellion" in there still.  I'm probably most curious who is going to have the balls to tackle "Chicago".  Not one that lends itself to easy covering.

Not bad, Punch Brothers, not bad.

Weirdly, I still can't get that fucker to play-- been trying off and on all day. Probably my work comp-- looking forward to checking it out tonight. Love these guys.

Love it