Uncovered on Monday?

So, as you may have noticed today is not Friday. There were no blog posts at all last week, even the regular three.

There's no real, interesting reason for this, it's just that I happened to be very busy on Friday and Saturday evening and then on Sunday my monitor stopped working. I did try and post something on Thursday, but mediafire declined to host the mp3s I wanted it to. So you can blame mediafire for there being no posts at all.

Anyway, the plan is to get caught up this week, and with some luck I'll be able to post the live music and cover posts tomorrow.

Either way, here are six original tracks by artists previously covered in Covers for Sunday.

Be Gentle With Me - The Boy Least Likely To

Another World - Antony & The Johnsons

Grounds For Divorce - Elbow

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart - Wilco (alternative version from the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sessions)

Atoms For Peace - Thom Yorke

One By One - Jeff Tweedy

Covers for Sunday

Here we go again. Before the songs a quick mention that mediafire is playing up for me. It [i]seems[/i] to be hosting the files properly but the files page on my account is all screwed up. So if you're having problems let me nknow and I'll find an alternative way to host the files.

Anyway, enough of that and on to the music.

Wall Of Death - REM (originally by Richard and Linda Thompson) I first heard this song years ago, it was the b-side to one of the New Adventures in Hi-Fi singles (I think E-Bow The Letter), but it was only today I found out it's a cover.

Blue Hawaiian - Gold Sounds (originally by Pavement). Like Son Volt Pavement is one of those bands I keep getting reccomended but have never really listened to. This recording is immense though.

Waiting Room- Emm Gryner (originally by Fugazi). I had a live female a capella cover of Waiting Room that somehow got deleted. I've never been able to find it again, but I came across this while I was looking for it, so it's not a total waste.

Green River - M Ward (originally by CCR). Totally different from the previous M Ward cover featured here (Rave On) but just as good.

Moments - Spoon (originally by The Kinks) I'm starting to view Spoon and The Kinks as an unbeatable combination.

Postcards From Italy - Florence & The Machine (originally by Beirut). Given how many songs she's covered I'm surprised I haven't featured more of them. Debut album Lungs will be released soon as a 3 disc set.

Live and let live

You know, I can't think of anything to write in the introduction to this post, so let's just go straight to the music.

In The Summertime - Rural Alberta Advantage. From the Luxury Wafer sessions this recording just features Nils Edenloff on guitar and vocals. On the album this song is lead by the superb drumming. This stripped down version works just as well.

Jet Pilot - Son Volt live at Lollapalooza, 2007. Son Volt are one of those bands people tell me I'll love but I never get round to properly listening to them so they get added to the list of bands that, some day, I will dedicate some time to listening to.

Fresh Feeling - Eels, live in concert in Manchester, 2005. A feel good song by Eels? Almost. The album this comes from, Souljacker, was my first ever Eels album and pretty much the first new release I bought after I'd left home.

Ball and Biscuit - The White Stripes. Annoyingly I do have, somewhere, the information for where this track was performed but I can't find it.

Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear, live on Later with Jools Holland. There's a Grizzly Bear quota blogs have to fill, so here's my latest contribution to that.

All We Have Is Now - The Flaming Lips. As with yesterdays post this excellent live session version is included as part of my efforts to feature more original songs by The Flaming Lips since I noticed my blog was shamefully lacking in them.

Enjoy the songs, see you tomorrow for Covers.

Uncovered on Friday

It's busy week at work, so I didn't have a chance to do proper introductions to last Sunday's covers. I'm sure in time you'll all come to forgive me though.

This is the second week of Uncovered where artists that have been featured in Covers for Sunday have an original song featured. Neat, eh?

Homes Still Your Bones - Jason Bajada. Before today all I had by Montrealer Jason Bajada was his cover of Wolf Parade's You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son. A bit of looking around and listening and I've found a couple of tracks to listen to. Neither o0f them are as good as the cover of You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son on first listen, but given how good the cover is that's hardly a big negative.

The End - The Sarcastic Dharma Society. This is one of my favourite band names ever. This song is a very short piano and vocal song. It's also very good, Mat Vuksinich's voice is so distintive and always a pleasure to listen to.

Waitin' For A Superman - The Flaming Lips. I've posted covers by The Flaming Lips on a few occasions and even a cover of a Flaming Lips song but never The Flaming Lips playing one of there own songs. Shame on me. I wasn't sure if I should post this or the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Song. In the end I think there's more chance of you not having heard this before so it got the nod.

For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti - Sufjan Stevens. I had no idea which Sufjan Stevens song to select, so I chose this because, as well as being awesome, I love the title.

When It Started - The Strokes. The song that replaced New York City Cops on the US release of Is This It. I think in a lot of ways this sounds more like it comes from 3rd album First Impressions of Earth.

Even Flow - Pearl Jam. Originally in Covers for Sunday I posted The Strokes feat. Eddie Vedder covering Mercy, Mercy Me. However I don't have any Eddie Vedder solo tracks on my hard drive that aren't covers so instead you're getting a fairly well known Pearl Jam song. I know it's deviating from the rules somewhat but I don't care because they're my rules and it's a great song so the rules can and will be bent.

Covers for Sunday

Only a quick post I'm afraid. It's already past midnight and I've got an early start a work. What this means for you is less of my talking to navigate through to reach the songs.

All These Things I've Done by Vitamin String Quartet (originally by The Killers)

Electric Avenue by Woodhands (originally by Eddie Grant)

Heroes by TV On The Radio (originally by David Bowie)

The Logical Song by Steven Mark (originally by Supertramp)

King Of Wishful Thinking by William Fitzsimmons (originally by Go West)

Kids by Dr. Fox's Old Timey String Band (originally by MGMT)

That's it. I'll add some words to this tomorrow, all being well. For now enjoy the music.

Live and let live

Sivad - Miles Davis. Not really what you expect when you hear the name Miles Davis, except of course it is excellent. This is an edited version of the track for a Best Of release. The full, original recording is on Live-Evil.

It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - REM. In my rant about REM in last night's blog I forgot to mention that I do really love their music. They were probably the first band I did fall in love with.This track is from Glastonbury 2003.

Say Please - Monsters of Folk. This was recorded live on the Conan O'Brien Show. Talking about M Ward and how I hadn't got this album yet prompted me to post this. I promise it'll be the last time I refer to last night's blog in this post.

Love Letter To Japan - The Bird and The Bee. I've got a thing for two piece bands (electronica aside), how they get around the logistics of only having two people to play instruments and sing.

Black River Killer - Blitzen Trapper. The band's name sounds like an American Football defensive system, at least to me.

There's Too Much Love - Sufjan Stevens. Really high up on my list of artists I'd like to play a gig locally, even though I think the chances of this are really low.

Uncovered on Friday

I thought this would make a nice companion to Covers on Sunday. The idea is all the bands I've featured covering songs will, as far as possible, be included doing an original song.

I intend to follow the Covers for Sunday order fairly closely. The exceptions will be bands that I can only find covers by (Redbird for example) and bands that have been featured more than once in Covers for Sunday.

I Felt Like Smashing My Head Through a Clear Glass Window - Of Montreal. The first track by Of Montreal I ever heard, I think it's fitting it's the first original track by them I post here.

Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying - Belle and Sebastian. I was going to post a little selection of lyrics from this song, but I can't narrow it down at all, this is just a phenomenal pop song.

Hope - REM. After Automatic For The People and Monster came out there were somewhat look receptions for New Adventures in Hi-Fi and then Up. I loved them both, and I still do. This comes from Hope, which reached number 2 in the charts, REM's previous 4 albums had all reached number 1. Their next album, Reveal, reached number 1. personally I thought it was a weak album rescued by a few decent tracks. An example of a band trying to move back a decade or so and recreate a sound they'd evolved away from. And then came Around the Sun which was utter shite and reached number one as well. It's too late for me to turn this into anything coherent so on to the next song.

Al otro lado del río - Jorge Drexler. Let's keep it short and sweet. This is only the second non-English language track to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song (it features in Motorcycle Diaries).

Hate To Say I Told You So - The Hives. To properly understand why The Hives were so popular in 2001 you only have to listen to some of the music that was being played on alternative radio stations post Britpop. On second thoughts, don't.

Fuel for Fire - M. Ward. This reminds me, I still haven't bought the Monsters Of Folk album, I must fix that.

Covers for Sunday

I Gotta Get Drunk - Redbird (originally by Willie Nelson). Redbird have been one of the bands I've featured most in this blog, especially if you include Peter Mulvey's solo recordings. Partly that's because I really enjoy listening to them, but also it's because I only discovered them just before I started this blog thanks to the excellent Cover Lay Down

Think For Yourself - Yonder Mountain String Band (originally by The Beatles). I think the name of this band makes them sound like a country string quartet. They are however a really rather good bluegrass band.

The Origin Of Love - Jonathan Richman (originally by the cast of Hedwig and the Angry Inch). Any excuse to post something by Jonathan Richman. I'm ashamed of myself for not posting more of his work earlier.

I Can't Help Falling In Love - Eels (originaly by Elvis Presley). Just in case your an Elvis man rather than a Beatles man.

Ballad Of El Goodo - Counting Crows (originally by Big Star). Listening to this reminds me of why I fell in love with The Counting Crows when I heard August and Evrything After.

Knives Out - Brad Mehldau Trio (originally by Radiohead). Judging by the downloads the Brad Mehldau Trio's take on Exit Music (For A Film) was popular so here's another superb interpretation of a Radiohad song by them. Enjoy.

Live and let live

Another busy week, sorry about the lack of posts. Sometime next week I'll be starting a new regular weekly series and hopefully have a random post or two to throw in.

Here's your six live songs.

A Design For Life - Manic Street Preachers, live on Later With Jools Holland. The Monday morning after this performance was shown on TV everyone I knew was talking about it. Everything Must Go apart I've never been a huge fan of the Manics but the whole album just seemed perfectly in sync with everything going on around at the time.

Take It Or Leave It - The Strokes, live on The Late Show with David Letterman. Another band that defined a period of time, for me at least, this is pretty much The Strokes at their peak.

Common People by Pulp, live at Glastonbury. When I came home from school I used to go and liberate Different Class from my brother's room and listen to it before he got home from work. The joys of being the youngest child.

Crying Lightning by Arctic Monkeys, live session version.

Glass by Bats For Lashes, live session version.

Spanish Dance Troupe by Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, live session version. I don't think anywhere near enough people have heard have these. They've got such a lovely sound, kinda like a Welsh Belle and Sebastien. I realise that may be a terrible comparison, but it's 1:30am so if it is I hope you'll forgive me.

Covers for Sunday

1st of November, and an absolutely awful day. Autumn has begun in earnest. I console myself that if I still lived where I was born the weather would have been worse than this earlier. Enough talk of the climate, here are your covers for this week:

Take It Or Leave It - Artic Monkeys (originaly by The Strokes)

Denial Twist - Nikka Costa (originally by The White Stripes)

O Dana - Okkervil River (originally by Big Star)

I Don't Want To Get Over You - Mary Lou Lord (originally by Magnetic Fields)

Tell Me Now So I Know - Holly Golightly (originally by The Kinks) I'm always pleasantly suprised by how popular songs by The Kinks are, regardless of who is covering them or how well known the song is. Such good taste should be encouraged so I've decided to include another Kinks song. They will, eventually, have a post all of their own.

99 Red Balloons by Kevin Davis (originally by Nina) Some songs get filed away in obscure categories. The original version of 99 Red Balloons is one of those, it's my second favourite song about nuclear holocaust. What can I say, I grew up in the 80's, they were very odd times. In case you're wondering my favourite song about nuclear holocaust is John Cale's Dr. Mudd which is, subject matter aside, the complete opposite of 99 Red Balloons. It's in one of my earlier blogs, so if you want a listen you can find & download it here.

Live and let live

Apologies for the lack of posts this week, but I've spent most of the week painting and decorating while listening to Phrazes For The Young, which is immense.

Here's your usual 6 live songs, a little bit later than usual, enjoy:

Lisztomania - Phoenix, live on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Judy and the Dream of Horses - Belle & Sebastian live on KCRW

Dry The Rain - The Beta band live in concert at Shepard's Bush

The Prowl - Dan Auerbach live on KCRW

Hang You From The Heavens - The Dead Weather live on the Zane Lowe Show

Matador - Ornette Coleman, live Sound Grammar concert. I've been listening to quite a bit of Ornette Coleman today, starting out with a desire to hear bassist Charlie Haden. So I decidedd to include this even though it's nothing like the sort of music that normally gets posted in my live track selections.