Yeah, I'm alive.

Sarah Gregg Millman (of the Girl Guides) "Oooh This Love is So" (Al B. Sure cover)
Words cannot express how excited I was to see this covered. Sigh. Al B.

The Chipmunks "Good Girls Don't" (The Knack cover)
I still can't believe that such a dirty song was reworked (and barely, at that) for a kids album.

The Gwen Stacys "Alive" (Oasis cover)

Tiffany "Panic (Hang the DJ)" (The Smiths cover)
Yes, THAT Tiffany. And, yes, THOSE Smiths.

Julie C "Breathe" (Pink Floyd cover)

The Vibrators "Liza" (NOFX cover)
If I meet someone and he or she hears my name and makes an immediate NOFX reference, I never know whether to smile politely or run the other way. In retrospect of the times it's happened and the people who've done it, I'm wishing I'd have chosen the latter more frequently.

Watch the Men Fall "Venus in Furs" (The Velvet Underground cover)

The Dollyrots "Be My Baby" (The Ronettes cover)

Los Chicros "Changes" (David Bowie cover)

The Bam Bams "Kids in America" (Kim Wilde cover)

Olive "My Sharona" (The Knack cover)

Numbers "Cry" (The Birthday Party cover)
 

Please don't stop the music.

Yeah, I fell off the face of the earth for a second. New post up by Wednesday.

Speaking of Wednesday, before then, Chicagoans who love live music, theatre, comedy and the arts in general should contact their alderman (alderperson?) and tell them to vote NO to the proposed promoter's ordinance. You can also sign the petition against it here.

If it passes, our access to the things we love will be severely stifled.

Update: If you're willing to go to the City Council meeting tomorrow at 10 am in protest, sign up here.


Another update: Thanks to public outcry from promoters, performers and fans, the ordinance has been tabled for now for reevaluation purposes.

Like the sun, chasing all of the rain away.

I've been posting lots of YouTube videos lately, but it's become my insomnia-fuled, late-night pastime to randomly browse for covers by everyday people. This one was a pleasant surprise:



And remember adorable Anthony Hill, whose videos I posted about a year ago? Well, he's covered my favorite Syd Barrett song (I'm in a weird Pink Floyd et. al. phase lately), and he's charming as ever. Someone sign this guy already!

There will be feasting and dancing in Jerusalem (or Hinsdale) next year.

I just learned via a MySpace bulletin that Heathers, a Dublin folk-punk-pop duo releasing an album on Plan-it-X Records sometime soon, will be touring the States with other Plan-it-Xer folk-punk-pop favorites (whose covers have been featured here in the past) Ghost Mice. Sadly, they do not have a show planned in Chicago proper (as of yet, anyhow), so I won't be able to catch them, but I still thought some of you might be interested in learning about them because they're pretty damned good and you might want to check them out if they're playing near you. Here are two videos of them performing The Mountain Goats' "This Year" and Tegan and Sara's "Nineteen," respectively. The quality of the videos might not be that great, but the talent shines through.





Update: I have to add their live version of this Spice Girls cover too because it's my jam!

Let's admit I made a mistake, but can we still be friends?

Welcome to my late-night/early-morning post inspired by the purchases I made earlier today (technically yesterday) for $1 or less at the used record store:

Paul Young "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (Joy Division cover)
I feel over the years I've divulged a lot of personal information about my past with music of a somewhat embarrassing nature. I believe what I'm about to admit far surpasses all previous embarrassment. You ready? Okay, here goes: This is the first version of this song that I ever heard. Oh, god. And I didn't much care for it—or didn't much pay any real attention to it, anyhow—as you might imagine. I don't judge myself too harshly because I was only 8 when the original track was released. I was 10 or 11 when this version rolled around and pretty much didn't realize that the album this was on was nearly, if not completely, all covers. By the time I was 12 or 13, I'd heard the original and made the connection and most likely played it all cool like I was always in the know. But really? No one else around me knew either version, so I think I won that round.

Tim Curry "I Will" (The Beatles cover)
Let's just say the last thing I expected upon purchasing two Tim Curry records was a reggae version of anything, let alone a Beatles ballad.

Robert Palmer "Can We Still Be Friends?" (Todd Rundgren cover)
I'd totally forgotten about the Robert Palmer version of this song, which (again) might have been the first version I heard. It's difficult to say. Regardless, it's not really different enough a version to warrant a cover only a year after the release of the original. Whatever.

Leif Garrett "Bad to Me" (The Beatles cover)
I already have a digital copy of this mildly horrifying (yet strangely soothing) album, but how could I turn down the prospect of owning a 12x12 photograph that includes a cameltoe in the clouds? Again, I'm only human, you know?

Randy Crawford "I've Never Been to Me" (Charlene cover)
Oh, the freaky things you can learn about songs on Wikipedia. For instance, the Japanese version of this song is used in weddings—despite the fact that it's a song about loneliness, despair and (some would say, depending on which version you hear) abortion—possibly as a warning to those who choose not to marry. Yikes! conversely, I plan to reclaim my spinster power via irony by singing a rousing and prideful version of this the next time I'm at a karaoke bar.
 

Catching sparks.

Ben Sollee "A Change is Gonna Come" (Sam Cooke cover)
Usually when a record label sends me a track to promote, I download it and forget about it for a while. Especially if the word "jazz" is anywhere in the press release. But even jaded ol' jazz-fearing Liza has a heart that will melt via R&B-influenced; bluegrass and a smooth-voiced cellist with glasses, So I'm posting this nearly immediately. I'm a human being here, people!

Brand New "Oh, Comely" (Neutral Milk Hotel cover)
This is a live radio recording whose post-song banter references sports or something toward the end. Just so you know.

Candy Planet "You Just Haven't Earned it Yet, Baby" (The Smiths cover)
Unrelated to this song at all: I went to Rory Lake's Karaoke Dreams at the American Legion in Bucktown last weekend and saw a guy do a rendition of Kirsty MacColl's "In These Shoes." Talk about songs you never thought you'd A) see on a karaoke list and B) see anyone actually perform.

Guitar ft. Ayako Akashiba "Just Like Honey" (The Jesus and Mary Chain cover)
I'm a sucker for vocals by Japanese gals, what can I say?

Ida "For Shame of Doing Wrong" (Richard & Linda Thompson cover)
I forgot how much I love Ida. Then I listen to nearly every track they've ever done and I'm instantly reminded.

Ledaswan "Head On" (The Jesus and Mary Chain cover)
JAMC was big with my shuffle play today.

MarthaV "To Sir with Love" (Lulu cover)
I like to sing this at karaoke because it's creepy. Okay, it's sentimental. But in the creepiest of ways.

Mirror Ball Associates "Promise of a New Day" (Paula Abdul cover)
There are some songs that get covered that make me think "even if I don't wind up liking this, I'm ecstatic someone covered it." The existence of a cover of this makes me happy, but mostly because I always pretended she was saying "evil's calling and it's calling your name" instead of "eagle's calling...".

Star 61 "Polegada Irada (Angry Inch)" (Portuguese cover, song from the soundtrack of Hedwig and the Angry Inch)
I think I've been meaning to post this every time I blog, yet I always forgot. That trend ends today.

The Guts "Different Drum" (Stone Poneys cover, comp. Mike Nesmith)
This is another song that I like to belt out at karaoke. It's right in my range and I love the "you're great and all, but let's not commit" message of it, which was pretty rare in the form of poppy hits sung by women in the '60s.
 

You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.

Sometimes I forget I've been (too sporadically, I admit) exclusively blogging cover songs for so long. Or that I might have been the first to do it so, um, popularly. Or something. I'm weirdly modest about it, as it really is just a public extension of an insomniac hobby I conjured up for myself about 8 years ago. Still, I am pretty constantly floored at and excited by the responses I get via comments and e-mails from readers that are overwhelmingly positive. So I thank all of you reading. I'm also often shocked at the respect my cover blogging appears to garner with other music bloggers, both cover-focused and not.

So, as usual, I was surprised to have been selected to be part of a cover blogger roundtable organized and hosted by Coverville's Brian Ibbott and featuring other great bloggers, such as: Steve of Cover Freak, Joshua of Cover Lay Down, Jamie of FongSongs, and Kurtis of Covering the Mouse. You can get the podcast here. I've yet to give it a listen, but I offer apologies in advance for any sweeping generalizations I may have made, which I tend to do after a few beers.

And, just in case this didn't make it into the edit (or in case you don't listen to the whole thing), I remember mentioning that I don't think there are enough covers of ELO's "The Fall" from the Xanadu soundtrack, which has been running through my head on a regular basis for the past, oh, 28 years. So if you're in one of those bands that have asked my opinion on what song they should cover next, hop to it!

(Speaking of "The Fall," it was in my head the other day on which I happened to literally fall on an uneven sidewalk just shy of fracturing my jaw or nose or skull. Apparently even fat girls can have cat-like reflexes, so my hands broke my fall and I'm fine now save for a few scrapes and minor foot and muscle pain that has kept me from the computer. But a new post should surface on or before Monday, so don't fret!)

When the rain washes you clean, you'll know.

I'm working on a new post for later today or tomorrow. Until then, you can download Dirty Power's live tribute to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours here, should you so desire.