November Reviews From Sid

So there! I posted something. This is my first post on a blog. Hope it was as good for you as it was for me.

BB King and Friends – Hey, it’s the blues performed by the single most important blues artist of all time. And he’s got some pretty good guests. He’s also got some pretty sketchy guests, people I wouldn’t walk across the street to see. It is on those songs that you realize how great BB King is. Nobody seems to really drag him down. As always, I have issue with the presence of strings, especially on The Thrill is Gone. You have Clapton and BB, you don’t need strings. This is one I’ll probably listen to again when I’m in the mood for some Blues light.
3 stars

Tiger Mountain – This is a CD that I should like. Came highly recommended by Not Lame dot com, the best pop music website around. And it starts out great. Shouldn’t be Long is a great pop song with a decent hook. At first I couldn’t figure out why the rest of it didn’t resonate. I think it is two things. It’s just not that well written. The hooks come close, but never really materialize into the kind of catchy hooks that we’ve heard with Kaiser Chiefs, Deathray Davies and Franz Ferdinand. And it is also the lack of energy. It often sounds like a bunch of guys trying to make a good record rather that and band putting energy into well crafted songs. Oh, and the Drumming is atrocious. 2 stars

Linda Perry – In Flight – Yup it is and I’m sure it is still going because I gave it a mighty toss about 5 songs in. Maybe I just don’t get it because I’m a fat, old, white male, but this is unlistenable. ½ star because I don’t think I’ve given anything a 0

Jimmy James and the Vagabonds – First thing that hit me was here is the CD that Southside Johnny must have listened to a thousand times. I know it is somewhat unfashionable to like Southside, but he has a great voice and tremendous feel for soul and R&B music for, as politically incorrect as it sounds, a white guy. Anyway, the phrasing and style are identical to Jimmy James, so for me this record is important on that level at least. And it’s fun in the same easygoing style that the BB King record is. Easy to put on, well done versions of some classic songs. Nothing to dislike, but I’m still going to pull out my Stax box set or my James Brown records when I want to hear R&B. 3 stars

Hot Rod Circuit – What a frustrating band. Songs start out great - just the kind of lo fi guitar stuff I like, but eventually this guy is screaming at the top of his lungs. And I think I know why. He doesn’t know how to write hooks or at least he doesn’t think he does, so instead of a good chorus, he just yells. Stop already. Go listen to Guided by Voices. Come back when you’ve learned your lesson.

Question

Rather than address the question of what songs should be covered, I’m going to broaden the discussion into what bands should be covered most and why a good cover is a good cover. Eddie Cochran is a good place to start for any rock band.
Simple songs, easy lyrics – hard to fuck up as long as you play them with energy. Gram Parsons is another good place to start although you have to be a good singer to get away with it. Big Star songs are always a welcome addition to any show – it shows someone in the band was paying attention in pop school. Replacements are always cool to cover for the same reasons.

The common theme for me isn’t “did they do a good job?”, It’s more “OK they were cool enough to know this was cool, so it was a good choice.” At a show I guess that’s what defines a good cover. And it is totally subjective of course, because my cool is someone else’s uncool. I guess one of the key things is - Does the cover say something about where this band comes from? For instance, if you cover a lame band, it’s a lame cover. Think Journey. No way to make those songs good and if you were influenced by Journey, by definition, you suck.
The exception – and this is another thing that defines a good cover – Did you find something in some lame band’s catalog that lends itself to re-interpretation. The entire first Me First and the Gimme Gimme’s CD is what I’m talking about. Leaving on a Jet Plane, Fire and Rain, Uptown Girl, Seasons in the Sun, Mandy, Rocket Man…one song lamer than the next turned into punk pop scorchers that reveal great songwriting that unfortunately was performed by lame artists first.

One cover song no no – don’t cover tremendously successful songs by best selling artists. Nobody needs to hear you play I Wanna Hold Your hand just because you were influenced by the Beatles. Go deeper into an album or cover Badfinger or Big Star because if the Beatles were an influence then those two bands were too.

Favorite covers

Messin with the Kid - Rory Gallagher

Cortez the Killer - Matthew Sweet

Summertime Blues - Springsteen

Everything by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes on Have a Ball

Replacements – Another Girl, Another Planet