Cover Song

HAPPY HALLOWEEN: AFI- ALL HALLOWS EP

I’ve had a tradition for many years that when it’s Halloween, I have to listen to AFI’s All Hallows EP. It’s really a great Halloween companion. It sets the mood oh so sweetly. Released in October of 1999, All Hallows features three new songs and one cover. The three originals are damn good. “Fall Children” really captures the energy of AFI at the time. “The Boy Who Destroyed The World” is one of those songs that shows a bit where the band was heading into The Art Of Drowning. “Total Immortal” is one of my favorite AFI songs. I love the rawness of this song. It’s got such a great punk feel mixed with the right amount of goth/post-punk to make it quite memorable. And who can forget their awesome cover of The Misfits “Halloween.” I mean AFI and The Misfits is a perfect match. Some more fun history about this EP and era of the band is after the release, AFI would tour with Sick Of It All. Then concluding that tour, they went on to tour with Danzig. Talk about a tour!!! I’d love to see that now even. “The Boy Who Destroyed The World” was featured in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skakter 3 video game. The Offspring would go on to cover “Total Immortal” and that was featured in the Jim Carrey movie, Me, Myself and Irene. By the way, AFI’s version is way better than The Offspring’s. I really miss when bands would do one off’s like this. AFI is on quite the roll right now as their new album, Silver Bleeds The Black Sun is out and it’s fantastic! So when you’re done listening to the All Hallows EP, be sure to check out my review and listen to Sliver Bleeds The Black Sun. You can thank me later!

AFI- All Hallows EP:

SONGS IN FILM: SID VICIOUS (FRANK SINATRA)- MY WAY FROM GOODFELLAS

I love watching movies and TV shows and having those moments when a song really brings a scene or moment to life. It’s genuinely a really great experience and those that last in your mind for quite some time. The other night I was watching the classic and one one the best mob movies of all time, Goodfellas. This movie is downright fantastic. Sometimes I wish it were a longer movie like Casino is. The scene at the end of the film and how things play out is one of those that should be studied in film school. The way it’s shot, the actors, and of course the song. Martin Scorcese has always had a great ear for picking songs for his films and his inclusion of “My Way” the Sid Vicious version not the Frank Sinatra one really adds to this even more. The attitude in the Sid version has always stood out to me and it comes even more to life with being a part of this scene.

Sid Vicious (Frank Sinatra)- My Way in Goodfellas:

MEMORABLE TV PERFORMANCES: ADAM SANDLER (NEIL YOUNG)- LIKE A HURRICANE ON LETTERMAN

Let’s travel back to 2009. Warner Brothers Records was putting together a compilation album to celebrate their 50th anniversary. A bunch of different artists and bands were chosen to cover a myriad of bands and artists that have been on the label. There are some really interesting choices on this album as to what song was picked and who is doing what. For example Mastodon does a rad version of ZZ Top’s “Just Got Paid.” The one that I really want to highlight is Adam Sandler taking on “Like A Hurricane” by Neil Young & Crazy Horse. As a big Neil fan since I was a little kid as well as an Adam Sandler fan, this was quite the great one to hear. Adam is quite underrated as a singer and guitarist and he really does a great job on this. To promote the album, Adam was a guest on The Late Show with David Letterman in 2009 and performed this on the show. What a tremendous performance it is. Enjoy this one!!

Adam Sandler (Neil Young)- Like A Hurricane (Live on Late Show w/ David Letterman, 2009):

Cover Song: The Cure (Joy Division)- Love Will Tear Us Apart

Over the past few weeks I’ve been on a mini kick of listening to The Cure. Mainly I’ve been listening/watching live shows from different eras. While on this journey, I came across a show of theirs from 2000 in Australia. The recording of The Cure’s version of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” was recorded backstage. This version is very much more aligned to The Cure’s structure without losing the integrity of Joy Division’s original. There are only a handful of bands that can do Joy Division justice, The Cure being one of them (Nine Inch Nails is an obvious other one). Robert Smith channels Ian Curtis in a way that is hauntingly beautiful and very much Robert.

The Cure (Joy Divison)- Love Will Tear Us Apart:

Cover Song: Placebo (Tears For Fears)- Shout

This is actually pretty funny in my own mind. For years I’ve been talking about how Placebo should do a cover of a Tears For Fears song (my go to for the longest time when discussing this idea was “Everybody Wants To Rule The World). Then a few months back this idea actually came to fruition in that Placebo did cover a Tears For Fears song and they chose “Shout,” and it’s actually really good. I love that not only Brian Molko sings on it but Stefan Olsdal does as well and his voice is the one that sounds best on the track. No to take away from what Brian does but, getting to hear Stefan out in the forefront is awesome. Also, if you haven’t heard Placebo’s latest album, Never Let Me Go, you should check that out too. It’s quite good and reminds me a bit of Sleeping With Ghosts meets Loud Like Love.

Placebo- Shout:

Placebo- Never Let Me Go:

Cover Song: Faith No More (Portishead)- Glory Box

Faith No More was never a band to play it safe and that is one of the things I’ve always loved about them. Throughout their history, especially when Mike Patton joined, Faith No More was always a band that pushed limits and tried new things whether they worked or not. Back in 1995, there were a few times while on tour when Faith No More would add a cover to their set and this cover happened to be “Glory Box” by the one and only Portishead. It’s a solid cover and Mike adds his touch to it which makes it all that much more enjoyable. I personally would love to hear Mike cover a couple other Portishead songs as I think he’d do them justice!

Faith No More (Portishead)- Glory Box:

Memorable TV Performances: Placebo- Blind on The Henry Rollins Show (2007)

Way back in the mid 00’s on IFC, Henry Rollins had a really great talk show. It was a really good show with interview guests as well as musical guests. The majority of the episodes are quite good and Henry always had really interesting questions for his guests. One of the best parts of the show was the musical guests. Henry had a plethora of great music guests including Slayer! There is one episode that I’ve always been fond of and that happened back in 2007 when Placebo was the musical guest for the show. During their stop on the show the band played 2 songs “Blind” from their amazing album, Meds, as well as their cover of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” which is still the best cover of this song! I do have to emphasize that the performance of both songs are exquisite but, “Blind” takes the cake on this one. I’ve seen Placebo live a few times in my life but, I’ve never seen Brian Molko sing “Blind” quite like this. It’s otherworldly! This is genuinely one of my all time favorite TV performances ever! Enjoy!


Placebo- Blind (Live on The Henry Rollins Show- 2007):

Placebo- Running Up That Hill (Live on The Henry Rollins Show- 2007):

Cover Song: Nirvana (The Velvet Underground)- Here She Comes Now

I keep finding myself going on these artist catalog deep dives and finding things I’ve forgotten about. I love when that happens. Recently in the past few days, I wound up going on a Nirvana deep dive. I’m not quite sure how I wound up here but, while going through all sorts of their songs, albums, demos, etc, I remembered that they did a cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Here She Comes Now.” When I listen back to the Nirvana version, it’s kind of interesting that at moments, Kurt really does sound like Lou Reed. The cover is a pretty solid and good version. As a huge fan of both The Velvet Underground and Lou Reed, I can get behind this version. Plus it gives me an excuse to take a break from my Nirvana deep dive and go listen to The Velvet Underground!

Nirvana (The Velvet Underground)- Here She Comes Now:

Nirvana- Here She Comes Now (Live 1991):

The Velvet Underground- Here She Comes Now (from the album White Light/White Heat):

Soundtrack Only Songs: Filter- One from The X-Files

What would the 1990’s be like without The X-Files? It was one of the best shows of the 90’s without a doubt. The popularity of the show grew by leaps and bounds and in 1998 there was a feature length film to accompany the series. The movie while decent produced a pretty damn good soundtrack featuring Filter, Foo Fighters, The Cure, Bjork, Noel Gallagher and more. The album’s producer, David Was, intended to match the film’s tone rather than using the songs as content, leading to several of the artists involved contributing material which would seem “uncharacteristically eerie” compared to their usual work. Many of the songs that appear on the soundtrack are cover versions like Filter covering Harry Nillsson’s “One.” This one in particular was deliberately constructed by Was once he realized that Duchovny had ad-libbed the song’s opening line during one of the film’s scenes. Filter’s version of “One” is striking and fits the vibe of the the film.

Filter (Harry Nillsson)- One:

Memorable Live Performances: Stone Temple Pilots- Dancing Days on Howard Stern

Yesterday I had a Stone Temple Pilots song stuck in my head (it was “Trippin On A Hole In A Paper Heart” in case you were wondering). While I had that song replaying in my mind, I found myself delving into the very underrated and unsung masterpiece album that is Tiny Music… From The Vatican Gift Shop (which I will get into on another day because that album is truly great). During that time in 1996, while out promoting the album, Stone Temple Pilots stopped by the Howard Stern show for an interview and performance. Howard, who you can tell is a fan of the band and had them on the show throughout their career, as well as just Scott Weiland, mentioned that he loved their recent cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Dancing Days,” and low and behold, STP would go on to perform it that day on the show (they also performed “Seven Caged Tigers” as well). I truly think this cover is spectacular. I don’t know how many times I’ve listened to this version over the years but, it’s definitely up there. I just love the honest and pure approach STP had to their music and time together. It’s performances like this that make me miss Scott Weiland. What a talent and voice! You are missed Scott!


Stone Temple Pilots (Led Zeppelin)- Dancing Days on Howard Stern: