I Want To Be Like Them

There are so many amazing cover songs that this task was really difficult. I sorted through about 300 or so before coming up with 42 that I couldn't dispense with. I made two separate mixes (will post the next one in a second) to keep things a little less unruly. Even as I post these mixes, however, I can't stop thinking about songs like "Take Me to the River"; "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?"; "Nothing Compares 2 U"; "All Along the Watchtower"; "The Mercy Seat"; "Korobeiniki"; "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)"; "I Will Survive"; "Three is a Magic Number"; Far's version of "Pony"; Original Hamster's "Notorious DSP." Hopefully those show up on someone's mixes, because I thought it'd be ridiculous to make a third.

Anyhow, before I started working on a mix I thought it would be awesome if I could sequence it where artist A would cover B and B would cover C, etc. This proved impossible out of the songs I'd amassed, but I still had block of artists covering each other, so I decided to just stick with that. Here's the tracklist:

"I Want To Be Like Them"

01. Gnarls Barkley - Gone Daddy Gone (Violent Femmes cover)
02. Violent Femmes - Crazy (Gnarls Barkley cover)

Cee-Lo Green and Gordon Gano are both crazy in their own right, but I love both of these songs and the stylistic choices they each used. The Violent Femmes version of "Crazy" almost sounds like Morricone song on mushrooms. Love it.

03. Thom Yorke - All For The Best (Miracle Legion cover)
04. Vampire Weekend - Exit Music (For A Film) (Radiohead cover)
05. Hot Chip and Peter Gabriel - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (Vampire Weekend cover)
06. Max Tundra - Playboy (Hot Chip cover)
07. Matthew Carroll - Carbon Cones (Max Tundra cover)

These are some of my favorite artists and there's no real story here, with the exception of the Matthew Carroll cover. Oddly enough there's an entire album of Max Tundra covers called "Best Friends." Each artist tackles a track from his debut album "Some Best Friend You Turned Out To Be" and recreates the record. I'm always intrigued by covers of electronic music and it's a fun listen. Oh, it's also fun to hear Peter Gabriel sing his own name.

08. Dump - Yo Yo Bye Bye (Why? cover)
09. Why? - The Wig Master (Xiu Xiu cover)
10. Xiu Xiu - Under Pressure (ft. Michael Gira) (Queen Cover)

I've been working on these mixes for a couple days and just now as I went to write this, I saw that someone else put up this Xiu Xiu track. Oh well. I think it just goes to show how great a remake it is. The Why? cover of Xiu Xiu, however, takes the worst (albiet creepiest) song from Xiu Xiu's best album and turns it into something incredible. Yoni really gets the the heart of Jamie Stewart's original intentions and, by adding lyrics of his own, makes the song really special (and still creepy).

11. The Frogs - Rearviewmirror (Pearl Jam cover)
12. Pearl Jam - Love, Reign O'er Me (The Who cover)
13. The Who - Eyesight to the Blind (The Hawker) (Sonny Boy Williamson II cover)

I felt it appropriate for The Frogs to follow Xiu Xiu as they share some sonic similarities. I love their take on "Rearviewmirror" as they make a fairly straightforward rock song (with overlooked dark lyrics) into the pained tale of abuse that it should be. Pearl Jam is my childhood favorite and I still love them dearly, especially their cover songs. I don't think I've ever heard them take on someone else's music and not do it justic. With that said, their Who covers are in a league all their own due to the obvious fandom of PJ's band members. Finally, this Who song is the only track on "Tommy" not written by a member of the band. Fun fact!

14. Iron & Wine - Waitin' for a Superman (Flaming Lips cover)
15. Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs - Borderline (Madonna cover)
16. The Postal Service - Suddenly Everything Has Changed (Flaming Lips cover)
17. The Shins - We Will Become Silhouettes (The Postal Service cover)

I avoided Iron & Wine's "Such Great Heights" assuming it would show up on someone's mixes, but the Flaming Lips cover is just as good and works in this incestuous little block. The Flaming Lips version of "Borderline" is one of my favorite tracks from them in years. It's well-known fact that the Shins version of "We Will Become Silhouettes" is far superior to the original.

18. Jonah Matranga - Birthday (The Sugarcubes cover)
19. Björk - It's Oh So Quiet (Betty Hutton cover)
20. Death Cab for Cutie - All is Full of Love (Björk cover)
21. Andrew Kenny - Line of Best Fit (Death Cab for Cutie cover)

Jonah is my homie for life and has done so many great cover songs. "Birthday", however, is one of my favorite Björk(-related) songs and Jonah's version is my favorite of all of his covers. I him play it at the Onelinedrawing "reunion" show last year even though he said he was only going to play originals. Andrew Kenny is the lead singer of American Analog Set and his DCFC cover is taken from the "Home V" split he did with Ben Gibbard. That split has some AMAZING songs on it and should be owned by everyone.

All songs are tagged to appear as a single compilation in iTunes. The songs, art, and tracklists for both mixes I'm posting today can be downloaded by following this link:


http://www.minusnumbers.com/mixtape

Happy New Year!

-jp