A.V. Undercover

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Tue May 24, 2011 4:09 pm

The Onion's A.V. Club has had this Undercover project where readers select 25 tracks they want to see covered, then open their doors to artists to sign up and cover the tunes.

I was brought in for today's Of Montreal cover of the White Stripes' Fell In Love With A Girl, but stayed for Dum Dum Girls covering Big Star's September Gurls, Baths covering LCD Soundsystem's All My Friends, Telekinesis covering Belle & Sebestian, Titus Andronicus covering Birdhouse In Your Soul...

In fact, I downloaded Audacity and dug up a line-out to line-in cable...

Great stuff for folks who like covers. And I haven't even dug into their first go-'round for the Undercover project.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/of-montr ... pes,53048/" target="_blank

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Tue May 24, 2011 4:18 pm

Dum Dum Girls do a shit ton of covers, don't they?

Titus Andronicus covering Birdhouse In Your Soul

Wow. I can't even conceive of that and so I really want to hear it. I imagine it can't be anything but terrible but I got to know.

Iron and Wine do some killer covers...

I can't wait to get home and give some of this a listen... after I do yard work... after I do yard work... after I do yard work...

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Tue May 24, 2011 4:19 pm

The first series looks pretty stellar as well:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/introduc ... ver,38989/" target="_blank

LordMortis wrote:
Titus Andronicus covering Birdhouse In Your Soul
Wow. I can't even conceive of that and so I really want to hear it. I imagine it can't be anything but terrible but I got to know.

You're right on the money, yet it's so worth it.

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Tue May 24, 2011 5:11 pm

Not to put to fine a point on it but I agree with LM.

Fretmute · Post by **Fretmute** » Tue May 24, 2011 5:31 pm

I'm biding my time for She Drives Me Crazy.

silverjon · Post by **silverjon** » Tue May 24, 2011 5:42 pm

Fretmute wrote:I'm biding my time for She Drives Me Crazy.

I have a demo tape of that covered by the Ladder Day Saints back in 1990-something.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Tue May 24, 2011 5:43 pm

Fretmute wrote:I'm biding my time for She Drives Me Crazy.

Maybe we can complete the circle and resurrect the Buzzcocks?

silverjon · Post by **silverjon** » Tue May 24, 2011 5:51 pm

Think they'd be surprised to hear they're in need of it....

Scuzz · Post by **Scuzz** » Tue May 24, 2011 6:18 pm

Dum Dum Girls do a shit ton of covers, don't they?

Is a "shit ton" your standard 2,000lbs or does it just seem like more......

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Tue May 24, 2011 6:24 pm

silverjon wrote:Think they'd be surprised to hear they're in need of it....

triggercut · Post by **triggercut** » Tue May 24, 2011 6:43 pm

Thanks for the link. Some great covers (Telekinesis doing "Dylan In The Movies") and some execrable ones (the Smith Westerns, who I sort of very much like are now a band that I'm going to be very wary of given their uninspired, can't be bothered reading of "American Girl").

I noticed a couple of things--Brendan Benson is coming in to do a cover, it appears (his name is on the wall).

Also...someone is going to cover Gary Numan's "Cars".

"Cars" has received its definitive cover, and you can watch it performed live right here by The Leisure Society. Good luck topping that, unnamed band!

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Tue May 24, 2011 6:50 pm

triggercut wrote:"Cars" has received its definitive cover, and you can watch it performed live right here by The Leisure Society. Good luck topping that, unnamed band!

Maybe it'll be Poi Dog Pondering?

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Tue May 24, 2011 7:41 pm

coincidentally, i was just viewing these last night - favorites are low doing Toto's "Africa" and Ted Leo + The Pharmacists version of Tears For Fears "Everybody Wants To Rule the World".

on the bad side, Maritime's cover of Depeche Mode wasn't too good. and i third that Titus Andronicus's reading of TMBG makes me not want to hear anything else from them.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue May 24, 2011 9:51 pm

Remus West wrote:Not to put to fine a point on it but I agree with LM.

Dear lord, that was pretentious and crappy.

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Tue May 24, 2011 9:53 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:
Remus West wrote:Not to put to fine a point on it but I agree with LM.
Dear lord, that was pretentious and crappy.

My comment or the cover. If the cover I agree. If the comment, I'll agree it was bad but I wouldn't call it pretentious.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue May 24, 2011 9:56 pm

Yes, the cover. I enjoyed the comment.

rrmorton · Post by **rrmorton** » Tue May 24, 2011 11:14 pm

Yeah, Undercover is great fun.

For a season 1 highlight, check out Clem Snide covering Journey. This was "our song" when I was going with Jenny C. in 6th grade so I was happy that Eef managed to make those memories a bit less embarrassing with this performance.

noxiousdog · Post by **noxiousdog** » Tue May 24, 2011 11:57 pm

Scuzz wrote:
Dum Dum Girls do a shit ton of covers, don't they?

Is a "shit ton" your standard 2,000lbs or does it just seem like more......

It depends on whether it is a metric shit ton or not.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Wed May 25, 2011 9:02 am

Totally didn't think about this last night. Hopefully I remember (and make time) tonight.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Wed May 25, 2011 9:51 am

Nice find. I enjoyed some of those covers way more than I would have expected, though I am a bit sad that Coheed and Cambria didn't cover Huey Lewis.

Also: No one can cover that song in a way that will live up to my expectations. No one.

I was impressed with the Ukelele work on the Journey song. I had no idea it could be played with such precision - I always thought of it more as a strum-strum-strummy instrument.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Sat May 28, 2011 2:03 am

The Meal wrote:The first series looks pretty stellar as well:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/introduc ... ver,38989/" target="_blank

LordMortis wrote:
Titus Andronicus covering Birdhouse In Your Soul
Wow. I can't even conceive of that and so I really want to hear it. I imagine it can't be anything but terrible but I got to know.
You're right on the money, yet it's so worth it.

Wow. While the music was "good" asn an actual song was absolutely horrible.

So not representative of them. The Monitor may have been may favorite album of 2010 and that.... um, sucked. I didn't think they;'d pull it off, but wow.

On the bright side, She Wants Revenge were really really good tonight before ending at 22:00. (22:00 serously? All ages show get to 23:00 WTH?) On the not so bright side, my first ever"rave" and, well, I'm home before 02:00 with Taco Bell in hand... Raves... Not so much for this old man... If there had been more hooping and fire poi, I'd have probably stayed like a kid with his first bic at picnic table until they kicked me out, but without people playing with fire to the rhythm of the same dutDUTdutDUTdutDuTduDUT beat all night, the music, not so much my thing and the people watching, not nearly as cool as my tine little mind imagined. Sadly, that probably says more about me than it does the music and the people enjoying it for what it was. After twenty some years, I finally appreciate the talent of "house DJs" but it still doesn't float my boat; much in the same way it didn't in the late 80s when I tired through it to get to music I loved... Which She Wants Revenge did a great throw back to. It's like they set our to rip off Joy Division, Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, Swans, Depeche Mode, and I don't know what else all in one fell swoop and they somehow succeeded. Kudos to them.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Sat May 28, 2011 9:50 am

Grrr. None of the videos will load for me. Turned on all scripting. Page basically has all rights. Video player is loaded, but the videos won't load.

Annoyed.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Sat May 28, 2011 10:08 am

The Meal wrote:
Fretmute wrote:I'm biding my time for She Drives Me Crazy.
Maybe we can complete the circle and resurrect the Buzzcocks?

I have a tribute album or some such and Porn Orchard does a great "Why Can't I Touch It" complete with Larry King.

However, the absolute shit is Naked Raygun doing Running Free.

Iron and Wine do some killer covers...

According to some, he wrote Love Vigilantes.

Good cover though.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Sat May 28, 2011 10:14 am

LordMortis wrote:I'm home before 02:00 with Taco Bell in hand...

That's a perfect evening.

silverjon · Post by **silverjon** » Sat May 28, 2011 1:21 pm

GreenGoo wrote:Grrr. None of the videos will load for me. Turned on all scripting. Page basically has all rights. Video player is loaded, but the videos won't load.

Annoyed.

I had to switch to IE for that site to work, which also turned it into a giant Starbucks ad. It was annoying, but I could at least see the videos.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Sat May 28, 2011 6:05 pm

silverjon wrote:
GreenGoo wrote:Grrr. None of the videos will load for me. Turned on all scripting. Page basically has all rights. Video player is loaded, but the videos won't load.

Annoyed.
I had to switch to IE for that site to work, which also turned it into a giant Starbucks ad. It was annoying, but I could at least see the videos.

Didn't work with Chrome, but works fine in Firefox 4.0.1 (no plugins) for me.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Mon May 30, 2011 2:24 pm

The Meal wrote:
silverjon wrote:
GreenGoo wrote:Grrr. None of the videos will load for me. Turned on all scripting. Page basically has all rights. Video player is loaded, but the videos won't load.

Annoyed.
I had to switch to IE for that site to work, which also turned it into a giant Starbucks ad. It was annoying, but I could at least see the videos.
Didn't work with Chrome, but works fine in Firefox 4.0.1 (no plugins) for me.

I'm still on 3.6.x at home I think. I'll try something else later.

rrmorton · Post by **rrmorton** » Tue May 31, 2011 8:53 am

Fretmute wrote:I'm biding my time for She Drives Me Crazy.

Your wait has come to an end. Here's a slow and twangy version of She Drives Me Crazy courtesy of Sharon Van Etten and Little Scream.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Tue May 31, 2011 5:25 pm

GreenGoo wrote:
The Meal wrote:
silverjon wrote:
GreenGoo wrote:Grrr. None of the videos will load for me. Turned on all scripting. Page basically has all rights. Video player is loaded, but the videos won't load.

Annoyed.
I had to switch to IE for that site to work, which also turned it into a giant Starbucks ad. It was annoying, but I could at least see the videos.
Didn't work with Chrome, but works fine in Firefox 4.0.1 (no plugins) for me.
I'm still on 3.6.x at home I think. I'll try something else later.

And today, magically, 3.6.17 works on that web page. Looking forward to listening to them.

Fretmute · Post by **Fretmute** » Tue May 31, 2011 9:56 pm

rrmorton wrote:
Fretmute wrote:I'm biding my time for She Drives Me Crazy.
Your wait has come to an end. Here's a slow and twangy version of She Drives Me Crazy courtesy of Sharon Van Etten and Little Scream.

That was pretty disappointing. Between that and the awful cover of Driver 8, I'm pretty let down by this whole thing.

Thank God Eef Barzelay was there for me. Not only does he have the best name in music, he was the best of the lot.

Tscott · Post by **Tscott** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 11:30 am

They Might Be Giants cover Chumbawamba with some help from the A.V. Club staffers.

(big grin)

rrmorton · Post by **rrmorton** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 10:10 pm

Yeah, that's a fun one.

Madmarcus · Post by **Madmarcus** » Wed Jul 06, 2011 6:22 am

Thanks for linking to that Tscott. I'd stopped watching the Undercover videos but that one was really fun.

triggercut · Post by **triggercut** » Wed Jul 06, 2011 8:03 am

triggercut wrote:Thanks for the link. Some great covers (Telekinesis doing "Dylan In The Movies") and some execrable ones (the Smith Westerns, who I sort of very much like are now a band that I'm going to be very wary of given their uninspired, can't be bothered reading of "American Girl").

I noticed a couple of things--Brendan Benson is coming in to do a cover, it appears (his name is on the wall).

Also...someone is going to cover Gary Numan's "Cars".

"Cars" has received its definitive cover, and you can watch it performed live right here by The Leisure Society. Good luck topping that, unnamed band!

What if one of the few bands you adore even more than the Leisure Society covers "Cars", smart guy? What then huh?

Yep. Sloan decided to do "Cars":

http://www.avclub.com/articles/sloan-co ... man,53064/" target="_blank

Now, cool enough that they totally fucking nailed it. That'd be enough for mere mortals.

But not enough for Sloan.

Nope, watch the video, and realize this:

Drummer Andrew Scott is playing rhythm guitar.
Rhythm Guitarist Jay Ferguson is playing bass.
Bassist Chris Murphy is playing drums.

Only the Most Punk Rock Human Being To Ever Play Catchy Guitar Pop, one Patrick Pentland, stays on his regular instrument, handling lead guitar and vox.

Sloan is everything that can be great about rock and roll, and they manage to be that way effortlessly. If you have never seen them live, try to do so at some point before they decide to retire.

rrmorton · Post by **rrmorton** » Sun Jul 10, 2011 7:44 pm

Awesome.

That drummer tears it up. Can't believe he's not even... their drummer.

I think the second commenter said it best:

"SLOOOOOOOOOOOANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:18 pm

GWAR covering Kansas? Epic - some NSFW language sprinkled in there...and...uh...giant fake wiener...stuff.

WYBaugh · Post by **WYBaugh** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:47 pm

Smoove_B wrote:GWAR covering Kansas? Epic - some NSFW language sprinkled in there...and...uh...giant fake wiener...stuff.

That was f$%^ing awesome!!

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 8:31 pm

GWAR still nuts.

disarm · Post by **disarm** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 9:05 pm

Just found out tonight that I'll be going to see Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson on 10/20. I've seen RZ before and he puts on a great show...curious to see what Manson is doing these days...

Fretmute · Post by **Fretmute** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 10:47 am

The comment threads at the AV Club are horrendous. It's as if they've weaponized hipster elitism.