Artist: Every Mother's Son / Meeting of Important People / The Rare Breed
Song: "Come On Down To My Boat"
Like many other vinyl fans in Pittsburgh, I trekked to Jerry's Records this past weekend after hearing he was planning to give away 33,000 records in boxes of LPs and 45s. (Why 33,000? He just likes the number, although I think 33,333 would have made more sense.) He's done giveaways like this before, and I've lucked into some good stuff (check out my "vinyl find" series for some of those). I was already needing to stop by the store and pick up some auction wins anyway (super clean copies of Fresh Cream and Bob Dylan and, as Jerry noted upon pickup, not quantity but definitely quality), so I looked around to see if anything caught my eye. While walking through the "rock" area, one album was sitting at the front of the "miscellaneous E" section and it grabbed my attention: the album Every Mothers' Son by the band Every Mother's Son (note the subtle apostrophic difference). The name was familiar, and in case I couldn't remember, a sticker on the album cover notes the inclusion of "Come On Down To My Boat". Aha! This song was covered by my fave local band, Meeting Of Important People, on last year's Quit Music EP! I don't think I knew for a couple of months after the release that it was even a cover song, but I learned the band's name at some point and it stuck in my head until now.
Based on the cover photo, this is a band of preppy dudes who write bubblegum pop songs, and some web research supports this hypothesis. Wikipedia notes the band's signing to MGM in 1967 was "supposedly because management saw the band's clean-cut image as an antidote to the hippie influx". Haha. But it's strange that the back cover of this album has silly band member bios, and one says "Lary can out-drink the toughest guy on the block" and Christopher is clearly reading an issue of Playboy in his photo. Maybe it's funny because Lary is chugging milk from the carton with a straw, and Christopher is grimacing at the magazine? I dunno. It's also strange that the song is really called "Come On Down To My Boat" yet the back of the album lists it as "Come And Take A Ride In My Boat". The album copy I grabbed is a little scratchy, but it just adds to the nostalgic feel, and the tunes are pretty solid for what they are: sweet and simple pop. ("For Brandy" is a particularly lovely little ditty.)
Enough chit-chat, here are two versions of this pretty and fun tune: Every Mother's Son's 1967 original version first (recorded live for some TV spot, in this particular video; here's a link to the album version), and then Meeting Of Important People's garage pop take on it 43 years later!
"Old garage song about a completely harmless man and his boat."
Hey now, hold on there! I just learned that Every Mother's Son aren't even the original recorders of this song! The Rare Breed (later known as The Ohio Express) hold that title, releasing a version entitled "Come And Take A Ride In My Boat" (aha, whence the confusion mentioned above) in 1966, but it never hit the charts. Somehow, Every Mother's Son's version did. There ya have it, folks, the fickleness of the listening public …
Artist: The Kingsmen
Album: "Louie, Louie" b/w "Haunted Castle" 45 RPM 7" single
Label: Wand Records
Released: 1963
The concept of a B-side to a hit single no longer seems relevant in the digital era, does it? Remember when that shit mattered? I don't --- before my time, ya know? Do you think I can start this post with four questions in a row? Hell yes, I can, can't I? Oh shit, that's five, isn't it? Damn, I might as well go for six, eh? Is anyone still reading?
Anyhoozle, you absolutely know the A-side of this single by The Kingsmen. If you don't, you are not a human being who has ever owned a radio or seen a television program, so why the hell are you on the internet reading this? I don't think I have much to say about "Louie, Louie" except that it doesn't seem to have lost any of its luster as a straight-up rock 'n roll hit single. There's something about the way the singer yelps out those half-mumbled, fully-obscured lyrics and the keyboard chords chime with just the right amount of off-kilter melody and rhythm that sounds so perfect, and it probably will forever. Hearing it doesn't have quite the shock value as it must have back in 1963, and I don't think I will ever think of it as a covert "drug song" with "obscene lyrics" (although the singer may have been on some shit during recording, who's to say?), but it certainly endures as a classic garage rock single, worthy of its timelessness, for sure. Now, for five bonus points, can you name the original composer and performer of "Louie, Louie"? 30 second pause That's right, it was Richard Berry! You can collect your bonus trivia points if you buy me a beer at a show. In the meantime, relive the magic of The Kingsmen's "Louie, Louie" below (with all the lyrics!), and check out some famous and not so famous cover versions here: Richard Berry, Beach Boys, Paul Revere & The Raiders (my fave version of these, FWIW), Motorhead, Toots & the Maytals, Joan Jett, and finally Pittsburgh's very own 1960s scuzz punk band Swamp Rats (I got a compilation of their singles recently, been meaning to write something about them; keep your eyes peeled). Also, the crazy (and unverified) find of the day: this youtube user claims to have audio recording from the first ever Nirvana show, including some random bass riffs that sound like the intro to "Louie, Louie". Hmm, judges?
That song was pretty popular, staying at #2 on the charts for 6 weeks. (Seriously, it was never #1? My mind is blown.) The B-side to this song is a 2:45 instrumental entitled "Haunted Castle" and I wonder if anyone ever listened to it. I'd never heard nor heard of it, but I really like the sound. It has the same driving organ/guitar melody of the A-side, with a fun guitar solo right in the middle, and some punchy drum fills, and the dreamy organ chords that just seem to hang on the ends of the measures before picking up into the next beat are oh-so-catchy.
The weird thing is that I feel like I just keep waiting for the singer to chime in, like he keeps missing his cue verse after verse and then, after almost 3 minutes, the band just calls the whole thing off and calls it a day. Or a song, as it were.It's a catchy tune, for sure, but I can see why it's a B-side. Maybe I'm beginning to understand this whole B-side business after all... In any event, I'm glad to have randomly come across this record in a giant box of 45s, even if it does have big Xs draw in sharpie over the copyright info on both sides, and the letters "WAG" written on side B, too. Curses, past owner!
Artists: Woodpigeon & Weathered Hand, and Yo La Tengo (covering the Velvet Underground)
Song: "I'm Set Free"
A big part of the reason I love the VU is that they can play a song like "Sister Ray", a 17-minute hard-rockin' jam of a tune about a busted drug-addled orgy in a NYC hotel room, but they can also play a gorgeous, flowery tune like "Sunday Morning". It's almost not fair that they had the talent and wherewithal to flip-flop like that from song to song on their recorded output, but sobeit. The reason I bring this up is that it is Sunday morn-.... well, it's Sunday afternoon, but I started thinking about this while it was still technically morning, and I was out late last night to see Deerhoof and then hang out drinking with some friends, so cut me some slack. But I was just sitting here sipping coffee and scanning Google reader and Facebook and I saw that Daytrotter had posted the VU song "Sunday Morning" on their Facebook page, appropriately enough, and then I starting thinking about similar sweet-sounding songs of theirs and then I remembered I found this Woodpigeon cover on their blog a few weeks ago and have been meaning to share it, and then I found this YLT version when I typed "I'm Set Free" in Banshee since I forgot they even recorded this one! Yikes, that's a lot of thinking, but the conclusion is that you get to hear/see three different versions of this song.
The original has some nice, soft, melodious guitar strumming from Lou and Sterling, plus Lou's lead vocals and some backing "oohs" and "aahs" leading into the choruses (from Doug Yule, I'm guessing), and all the while Mo's metronomic drumming alternates from fast/loud to slow/quiet in just the right way to match the mood of the song. It's perfect and uniquely VU-ish.
The Woodpigeon & Weathered Hand version is even softer and quieter, played on acoustic guitar(s) and viola (I think), sans drums, but adding a little bit of electrified guitar during the solo. I've really enjoyed all of the Woodpigeon albums I've heard so far; they play wonderful folk-tinged pop songs and the singer's voice is lovely. I don't know anything about Weathered Hand, but I will be sure to investigate in the near future. Looks like they've combined forces here to create a wonderful cover version, brimming with wistful, ethereal vocals and folksy strumming and beautiful strings. It's also perfect for Sunday morning/afternoon listening. Check out a live version of them playing this song here.
The Yo La Tengo version is a bit more in line with the original version than the previous one, but just hearing Ira Kaplan sing these lyrics is pretty cool, in my book. I notice that they almost entirely scrapped the drums on this one; I can only hear some soft tapping every once in a while in the beginning and they build a little bit as the song progresses, but not by much. I like their take on the guitar part and solo, too, and Georgia's backing vocals wafting in from the background is lovely. Genius + Love = YLT, indeed, and here's your evidence.
I'm presenting two jams here, one of them a strict cover version by neo-pyschedelic rock-jam band Wooden Shjips of neo-electronic/dance-rock band LCD Soundsystem's upbeat single "Drunk Girls", and one of them a live version of neo-pscyh-synth-tronic rock band The Raveonette's song "Aly, Walk With Me" played by the band and members of the neo-psychedelic rock-pop band The Black Angels. So yeah, that's a lot of genre labeling and bending, but the truth of the matter is that I sincerely enjoy all 4 of these bands; specifically, The Black Angels put out one of my absolute fave LPs in 2010, I've been a Raveonettes fan for a while thanks to eMusic and a Wooden Shjips fan for a while thanks to random interwebz connectionz and an LCD Soundsystem fan-ish for a little while thanks to their last album (the rest? meh, I say). So yeah, I'm saying "So, yeah" again; also, I'm reiterating the fact that these are great bands.
This version of "Aly, Walk With Me" was performed at the Austin (Texas) Psych Fest in 2010. If there is a festival that I would love to attend, it's this one. Fuck Coachella and Pitchfork and Primavera and all that jazz; this shit is right up my alley. And here are two of my favorite bands performing, together, one of my favorite songs. Awesome. Here's the live "cover" version
and here's the original version.
(Bonus track! Here's an acoustic version by the band, posted by my friend Rumi on my Facebook wall tonight, and part of the inspiration for this post.)
And now, let's consider LCD Soundsystem and Wooden Shjips. The latter is an awesomely-psychedelic, guitar-heavy rock band, and I love 'em. And you know all about the former, and if not, just Google 'em. Here's the Wooden Shjips version
and here's the orginal. ("Embedding disabled by request", says YouTube. Says who? The band? YouTube? Google? Big Brother? WTF?) So certainly, the video of the LCD S version is better, as in, it exists, but don't let that detract from the WS version, which absolutely fucking rocks the ghee-tarr.
So there ya have it. Enjoy these jams. And for the future, please share your jams with me, covers or otherwise. I like 'em all.
Artist: Girl In A Coma (covering Joy Division) Song: "Transmisison"
This is a great song. It is uniquely Joy Division and no one else can sound like this: the pounding, piston-pumping drums, the heavy, throbbing bass, the fancy but unassuming guitar solos and, of course, Ian Curtis' unmistakable voice (and dance moves, here). That's why a cover represents dangerous territory (try to mimic their style and you'll likely fail) and also why this version succeeds. In no way does it sound like the original (save for the chords and lyrics, of course) but it siphons all of the raw power and emotion from the original through this reworking of the sound. Singer Jenn Alva's voice starts out with a mere whisper, but by the time of the climactic verse in the middle (corresponding with Curtis' wild dance in the video below) she has to press her hand to her forehead and squeeze her eyes shut to keep from, presumably, becoming overwhelmed. (Or maybe she sang so loud that she gave hereself a headache. I don't know.) Meanwhile, the tambourine, finger-snaps and xylophone give the song a really neat personal touch. This is what a cover song should do.
Watch the band perform it live here:
and here's the original, filmed live on the BBC:
On a related note, I'll recommend the fantastic biopic of Ian Curtis, entitled Control. It's tasteful and artful, all b&w and with fantastic casting and acting. Sam Riley does an outstanding job portraying Curtis' inner turmoil and epilepsy. Really well-done, seriously. (And imdb tells me he's playing Jack Kerouac's persona, Sal Paradise, in the upcoming film version of On The Road!?! Gotta see that.)
[This is a "series" that lets me point out when two songs sound really similar. Its frequency obviously depends on me finding these similarities, so who knows when it will happen again. See the previous entry here.]
I'll admit, I didn't spot this connection/similarity on my own; rather, a friend posted this video (embedded below) on her Facebook wall and I listened to it and thought it was a pretty good observation. I don't think the connection is totally compelling, but it's similar enough that I could see people confusing the two songs if they've only heard them randomly on the radio once or twice while they're in American Apparel or something like that. Anywho, somebody put together a neat mashup called "Sleepykids". The intro is purely MGMT, but then the opening lyrics of "Sleepyhead" come in right over that, and then the synth riff is sped up to match the pace of "Kids", and then they just stay mixed together like that, racing forward at the same breakneck pace. It's pretty interesting, I gotta say. If you know these songs, try to pretend like you've never heard them before and treat this as a standalone single from the latest indie electro-pop buzz band from, I dunno . . . Brooklyn or Philly or some place like that. How does it sound? Does it work? What if Altered Zones named it top track of 2010 or some shit? Would you like it more? If you've never heard either of these songs, well, where the fuck have you been?
[Side note: I forgot how attractive Joanna Newsom looks in the video for "Kids".]
Artist: Pavement (covering Echo & The Bunnymen) Song: "The Killing Moon" Album: Brighten The Corners (Nicene Creedence Edition) (orig. Ocean Rain) Label: Matador (orig. Korova) Released: December 9, 2008 (orig. May 8, 1984)
I like this song. If you've seen Donnie Darko, the film, you undoubtedly like it, too. I was only reminded of this song when it came up as an answer during the "name that tune" section of pub quiz earlier tonight at the Brillobox. I spotted the Echo & The Bunnymen version on the first chord or two, and it immediately reminded me of the Pavement version, for whatever reason. It's not like there are other songs that instantly bring to mind other cover versions, so it was interstingly striking that this one stood out without a second thought.
Anyway, here's the original song:
and here's the cover version:
It's pretty faithful, but it definitely plays the Stephen Malkmus hipster-irony card in a vague sense, somewhat muffling the emo/ghost-story haunting vibe of the original but maintaining the enigmatic intrigue. Yeah, you know what I mean, motherfucker.
Artist: Yo La Tengo Songs: "The Cone of Silence", "Clunk", "Barnaby, Hardly Working", "Can't Forget", "Detouring America With Horns", "Big Day Coming", "Decora", "(Thin) Blue Line Swinger", "Evanescent Psychic Pez Drop", "Nutricia", "Return to Hot Chicken", Everyday", "Nuclear War Version 1", "Beach Party Tonight", "Shaker", "The River of Water", "Stay Away From Heaven", "Today Is The Day", "Tighten Up", "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind", "What'cha Gonna Do About It", "Here To Fall"
Albums: Ride The Tiger, New Wave Hot Dogs, President Yo La Tengo, Fakebook, May I Sing With Me, Painful, Electr-O-Pura, Camp Yo La Tengo, Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo (Disc 1 & 2), I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out, Nuclear War EP, Summer Sun, Prisoners of Love (Disc 1 & 2 & 3), Today Is The Day EP, Yo La Tengo Is Murdering The Classics, I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass, Fuckbook, Popular Songs
I love teaching math, but at the same time, grading exams is a total drag. I put up with it because it's a big part of what I enjoy, but I wish there was a way to just forgo the whole shebang and assess students based on something else. Like personal opinion. Or height. Just kidding. Sort of.
So last weekend, I had to grade a boatload of exams for the class I'm T.A.ing and I holed myself up in my office or the study room and banged 'em out. But I needed the perfect music for it. Typically, I opt for something on the instrumentalish side, so I can pay attention to the words and numbers and symbols I'm reading. In the past, I've had marathon sessions of Deerhunter, Sigur Ròs, and Sonic Youth, but this time I opted for Yo La Tengo. In the process, I realized that part and parcel of having a long list of stellar albums to their credit, the opening tracks on their albums tend to be outstanding examples of the mastery of their instruments and the variety of sounds they can produce with them. So I present to you, dear reader/listener, the opening tracks to every single Yo La Tengo album, ever, in chronological order. I did not listen to all of these during my grading session, so take my claim of stellarness with a metaphorical grain of salt. But still, thinking about the fact that all of these are from one band is mind-blowing.
Note: I skipped over a couple of film score albums/compilations, a handful of EPs, and a bunch of singles. Sorry. That's partly because I don't have those files and don't feel like seeking them out on the interwebz, and partly because this list was already enough of a labor of love to compile/produce. I love this band, don't forget that, but goddamnit they're prolific!
[If you have mp3s of the missing tracks and want to send them to me so I can YouTube-ify them and make this list satisfy all completists then, by all means, let me know! Also, if there's a broken/misdirected link, let me know; I'm bound to have screwed something up.]
This was an interesting (i.e. odd) show for a few reasons. First, this was Bettie Serveert's first time ever in Pittsburgh, which is somewhat improbable for a long-established indie rock outfit but not so improbable given that they're from the Netherlands. Second, given their long-standing-ish popularity-ish, they were booked at Brillobox for $15 tickets. Third, I happened to win 2 free tickets through Opus One. Fourth, my guess is that the average age of the audience members at this show was probably 35ish, with a high standard deviation. Fifth, it was a pretty sparsely-attended show, for such a hyped band. Sixth, the three bands played different styles of rock music, and I never would have thought to put any two of them on one bill, let alone all three. Seventh, I was running late to this show since I had just finished an intramural soccer game at CMU and had to take a quick shower and then head to Lawrenceville. Eighth, I walked all the way from campus to Brillobox, even going out of my way to Craig Street and then up to Centre Avenue and then up Milvale Avenue to Liberty Avenue, just to stay along the route of the 54C bus, among others, only to have not a single bus pass me on my entire lengthy walk which took over half an hour and made me miss most of the opening act. Ninth, this has been a bit more than "a few reasons" so I should just start talking about the show from the beginning, when I arrived there.
Aaron Jentzen was playing when I arrived, sweaty and thirsty. I saw him play at the Brillo once before, so Jim and I hung out by the back bar while I chugged six glasses of water and a beer to cool off. Aaron has a great voice, I'll say that, and the other guitarist has some serious skills, but the overall sound isn't really my cup of tea. (Just went back and reread my other review, and I used that exact same phrase; must be a sign, eh?) Also, the lyrics in that song about Pablo Picasso never being called an asshole were weirdly irksome to me, even though the music was better than the other stuff I've seen. Go figure.
Atlas played next and the major thing that Jim and I agreed on about them is that they are really loud. I mean, REALLY loud. I thought the drummer was going to smash his shit apart. He also had drumsticks that were some kinda dark brown, almost black, color so maybe they were actually made out of some magic material, keeping him from breaking the drum skins. Outside of that, they had a cohesive grungy, gloomy rock sound. I've never really listened to a lot of metal or hardcore music in my life (I honestly can't name one Metallica album, for example, and the only song I can think of involves the Sandman somehow...) so I'm going to fail on spotting comparisons and influences for this band, but bear with me. The singer had an okay voice, but the bassist's voice was way better, based on the one song of his that he sang towards the end. I think if he had sang the whole time, I really would have liked it a lot more. But I have good things to say, too. The guitarist on stage-left was using all sorts of pedals and effects and really crafting some cool guitar sounds throughout their set. I just wish I could have heard him over the drummer. Check out this video of their song "Lucky Soul", it's decent.
I actually had no idea what the band members of Bettie Serveert looked like, except for the strikingly blonde lead singer, Carol van Dyk, and I saw some very Dutch looking gentlemen emerge from the side door and do some silly dancing and mock-shoving of each other during Atlas' set and figured it was the band (it was). I first found the via some feature article on eMusic and downloaded Lamprey and found another album (Attagirl) at the library later. They make some straightforward indie pop-rock with highly melodious guitar and vocals; it's all really infectious and hooky, and the epitome of this is their song "Ray Ray Rain":
(This video is from the mid 1990s, so they all look really different, too.)
At the show, they seemed to stick to songs from their recent release, Pharmacy Of Love. I've only heard a few of those tracks, and they skew more towards guitar-driven rock than the sweeter, vocal-driven pop songs they wrote in the past, but I'm not complaining; I like both styles, and the fact that they can do both, back and forth, in one song is pretty cool. It's also really impressive how much the Dutch accent does not come out in the vocals; some of their between-songs banter was almost unintelligible to my ears, but that may have been because I was still reeling from Atlas' deafening set. We had to skip out just before midnight so I didn't catch the end of their set, but I was really impressed with how they came across live. I've enjoyed the two albums of theirs I have, and have been waffling on whether to dive into more, and now I'm pretty sure I'll get my hands on Pharmacy Of Love somehow. Good stuff. Here are some of my favorite songs of theirs, and singer Carol Van Dyk singing the Velvet Undeground song "Venus In Furs" with a full orchestra!
Artists: The Apples In Stereo (covering Neutral Milk Hotel) and Times New Viking (covering Arcade Fire) Songs: "King Of Carrot Flowers Pt. 3" and "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" Album: SCORE! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers! (orig. In The Aeroplane Over The Sea and Funeral, resp.) Label: Merge Records (of course) Released: April 7, 2009 (orig. February 10, 1998 and September 14, 2004, resp.)
Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan are in a band named Superchunk, and back in 1989 they founded an independent record label to put out their music. Today, Merge Records is one of the biggest, most influential, and fucking coolest indie record labels in the land. To celebrate their 20th Anniversary last year, they released a compilation of awesome bands recording cover versions of songs from Merge releases over the years. I found this compilation at the library a few weeks back and have listened to most of the songs. A few of them I wasn't familiar with and some are mediocre at best but two, in particular, have stuck with me. That's partly due to the fact that the original songs are superb and remind me of the bands I "discovered" during my initial forays into indie rock back in college, but also partly due to the fact they are just really good, interesting, unique takes on another band's song.
First, we have the quintessential Elephant 6 band, The Apples In Stereo, applying their fuzzed-out, spacey, guitar rock-tronica with pounding drums and high-pitched male vocals to a classic cut from other Elephant 6 band Neutral Milk Hotel's seminal album, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. You don't need me to tell you how good the original is and how it fits into the album. So what happens when it's removed and fed thru The Apples' funky filter? It turns into some kinda crazy, bouncy, singalong song that just slightly modifies the rhythm of the "oh-oh-oh-ohhh-oh" part so that I always get a little thrown off when I do try to sing along. Here's the original song (Part 3 starts @ the 3:38 mark, FYI):
and here's the cover version:
[Update: YouTube User Vartex points out the neat fact that this version is sung by Robert Schneider, who actually recorded the album In The Aeroplane Over The Sea and sang backup vocals on the original version of this song!]
(Bonus! Here's Jeff Mangum playing this song acoustic & solo on an XFM radio session way back in May 1998 when the song was called "Up And Over Again" and there's a section in the middle where he sings "This is the part of the song where I didn't write any lyrics" but for the recorded version he sings "The weight it sits on down and I don't know".)
Second, we have the impressively lo-fi garage-punk trio Times New Viking applying their fuzzed-out, reverberating, aggressively grating yet melodic rock formula to the beauteous and touching and powerful song "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)", the first cut from indie rock superstars Arcade Fire's incredible debut album, Funeral. Seriously, the original is so great; it's arguably the best song from their best record (go ahead and disagree with me, I like to debate). The TNV version manages to capture a lot of the emotional power and distill it thru their lo-fi filter, yielding a slightly simpler (i.e. less instrumentation) sound that still retains much of the raw, heartfelt yearning in the male/female voices. You can hear a beautifully soft piano part behind all of the distorted guitar and vocals, too. Even f you don't typically enjoy this kind of scuzzy, garage-rock shite, give it a good listen or two straigh thru and tell me you can't hear something surprisingly pretty underneath it all. Here's the original song:
and here's the cover version:
(While you're here, you should check out my fave song "No Time, No Hope" from TNV's latest album, Born Again Revisited. Really good.)
Artist: Citay (covering Galaxie 500) Song: "Tugboat" Album: Dream Get Together (Today) Label: Dead Oceans (Aurora Records) Released: January 26, 2010 (1988)
I was reminded of this song just last night. I had some friends over to play poker and I was scanning the record collection trying to pick something to put on and I thought, "Hey, I haven't listened to this Citay album in a while", so I put it on. The end of side two came around and "Tugboat" started playing and I couldn't help but sing along. It's a classic Galaxie 500 tune and a good choice for a cover song, I say. I can't recall whether they played it live when I saw them, but seeing those seven band members squished onto the "stage" in the corner of a room reminds me how much their lush, fully-instrumented sound adds to the song, which was originally played by a spare guitar-bass-drums trio. It's a good cover in the sense that it's faithful to the original but it adds a certain je ne sais quoi; that is, it doesn't sound like Citay trying to BE Galaxie 500, it sounds like Citay playing a Galaxie 500 song in the way that Citay plays any song. Hopefully that makes sense. Anyway, I also have Today on vinyl and just played the original version. Man, they were so good. I can't find a video of the original album version, so the live video below will have to suffice, but hey, it's pretty cool that there's YouTube footage of them playing live in 1989, you know? (It's taken from the awesome DVD Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste, a collection of early video footage of the band. The DVD is out of print, but the Carnegie Library has a copy.)
"I don't want to go to your party, I don't want to talk to your friends, I don't want to vote for your president, I just want to be your tugboat captain. . ."
Artist: Lelia Broussard Song: "Don't Let Go" Album: Waiting on the 9 Released: November 18, 2008 Label: Lilyah Music / TuneCore
I saw Allison Weiss, Bess Rogers, and Lelia Broussard @ Garfield Artworks a few nights ago and it was fantastically fun. All three of them have such beautiful voices and are great songwriters. Plus, their live show is so entertaining; they're truly pleased to be onstage playing their songs for an interested audience, and they're so bubbly and personable between their beautiful, emotional songs that you can't help but laugh along with them at their antics. And come on, they knighted someone with a plastic sword and crown!
I was particularly impressed by Lelia's amazingly powerful voice. She completely filled the huge, boxy room inside Garfield Artworks when she belted out some lines, but she could bring it back down to a whisper and make you lean forward in your chair, too. It was mesmerizing. Check out the video below to see what I mean:
Here's the recorded version of that song. I like the acoustic version better; it really lets the voice lead, as it should. Lelia also started to play a cover of Beyonce's "Single Ladies" before she was cut off by Manny enforcing the "strict original music performances only" policy at Garfield Artworks, since he opts not to pay the yearly ASCAP fee. Whatever. However, Bess managed to slip in a country/bluegrass-style cover of Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me" earlier in the evening. That was pretty entertaining.
, I highly recommend them (especially 
). And while you're at it, check out some other random cover versions of this song I happened to stumble on while writing this up: