Super Tuesday: Cover Edition

By Justin Cates

Any time spent on YouTube invariably leads to unearthing some strange things. When you're into music, this is a good thing.

It's very easy to get lost on that website, so I'm not even really sure how I got to these but they're all cool.

The first cover is The Avett Brothers taking on a personal favorite of mine "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" by Neutral Milk Hotel.

The brothers laid back style fits the mood of this tune pretty perfectly and the smoother, quieter vocals give it a slightly more somber quality than the original desperate wail of NMH frontman Jeff Mangum.

While there's no one playing a saw or trombone like the original cut, the instrumentation works quite well here.



The next cover comes from the 2010 Halloween show put on by Phish. Every Halloween, the group picks a band they've been influenced by and they do a "Musical Costume" show covering an album by said group.

For this particular concert they chose one of the best live albums of all time, Little Feat's Waiting For Columbus.

The whole show is worth checking out and it's all on YouTube. I've chosen to feature the cover of "Spanish Moon" because I think it's one of the best grooves you'll ever come across and Trey Anastasio alludes to it being one of their favorites too.

A few vocal flubs aside, this rendition is very faithful to the original right down to Trey's solo which is very reminiscent of the tasteful extended melodic lines originally played by Lowell George.



The last one is the biggest surprise here. Don't get mad. It's Miley Cyrus covering Dolly Parton's country standard "Jolene".

It's not shocking that she would cover it being from a country music family. It's slightly more unexpected that I like it and further surprising that's it's actually quite good.

To be fair, I don't think anything about this was recorded in her backyard as the video would suggest.

From the guitar tone to the fact that there's a clear breeze blowing the whole time that isn't noticable, there's a clear coat of studio sheen here.

None the less, the vocal doesn't really sound like it was significantly tampered with and Miley really kills it. I feel like perhaps I've been to hard on her regarding all the garbage pop music she churns out. Hopefully she can make some cool stuff down the line that shows off her natural ability.

Song of The Day- August 14, 2008

Brian's right, Olympic advertising is as American as it gets. My buddy Eric and I went to McDonald's the other day because it "felt American". I bet the rest of the world thinks all the American athletes drink Coke, eat at McDonald's and work at the Home Depot. Strange. My computer appears to be toast officially, it would take over $1,000 to fix it so it looks like I'm in the market for a new one. In the mean time, here's some more Little Feat this time performing one of their classics, "Fat Man In The Bathtub" In the Netherlands back in 1976. See? Olympics, foreign performances, it all ties back together. Now go drink a Coke, watch the video and root for the Red, White, and Blue.

Song Of The Day - July 21, 2008

This one I'm particularly excited about. Little Feat is a band that always sort of flew under the radar, but their musicianship is top notch and the list of bands and artists who called Little Feat friends and influences is long and distinguished. I grew up listening to these songs, my Dad was a big fan and still is. In recent years I've become enamored with them and in particular with lead singer (usually) and lead guitarist Lowell George, one of the pioneers of slide guitar in rock and roll. Lowell was known for his unique style, largely derived from his unusual choice of a slide, a Craftsman 11/16 socket. Look carefully when this video shows his solos and you can clearly see it on his left pinky. This song is "Cold, Cold, Cold" off their 1972 release Sailin' Shoes. This video appears to be from a concert in Holland in 1976 or so. I chose this one in particular for the slide solos. Enjoy the funk.