sunday covers

i'm a big fan of covers. i don't yell out for them at shows or anything, but it's always nice to hear a cover done well. last night clap your hands say yeah played neil young's helpless as one of their encores (conrad totally had to tell me what song it was, but i knew it was a cover!) and last week slowlands played neutral milk hotel's holland 1945. both an example of covers done well.

today, i noticed that ray lamontagne does a cover of gnarls barkley's crazy. the cover of a new song is always sort of gimmicky, but enjoyable none-the-less (ted leo's cover of since u been gone? yes please!) however, ray lamontagne really turned this in to a completely different song. focusing on the lyrics, which i otherwise hadn't really listened to that well. give them both a listen:

crazy.mp3- ray lamontagne
crazy.mp3 - gnarls barkley

related: read about how free bird, one of the most covered songs, became a pop culture cliche.

UPDATE: apparently i didn't read the blogs on friday. this was on stereogum/village indian already! this is why i don't post mp3's anymore.

bonus covers:

sweet dreams.mp3 - *the slack republic (eurythmics cover)
two headed boy.mp3 - mountain goats (neutral milk hotel cover, live)
since_u_been_gone.mp3 - ted leo (kelly clarkson cover)

*the slack republic is playing at movable hype monday monday monday!