So I what I did was compiled a few songs that I really liked that were covers. Each one of the songs has the cover bands’ style all over it and it sounds like it could be an original. I apologize in advance for the sloppy examples. What I’m trying to do is let you compare the originals to the remakes, but they’re all in different formats. So, let’s get started.

Blue Flower – The original band that performed this was Slapp Happy in 1972. They were an avant-garde band formed in Germany by an an experimental English composer. Now that sounds avant-garde to me. Two remakes that were most noticeable of this song were Mazzy Star’s version from the album She Hangs Brightly and Pale Saints off the album In Ribbons.

Slapp Happy – Blue Flower

Mazzy Star

Pale Saints

Vapour Trail – This song I hold dear and so does every other shoegazer fan. Ride’s Vapour Trail off the album Nowhere was a song that captured it all and was one of those songs that was always on a British Indie / Shoegazer compilation album.  Now the band that covered the song were originally from Southern California, but relocated to a much cooler Seattle, Washington. In cooler I mean a great place to live type of cool. The cover band’s name is Trespassers William. My friend had this song playing on his Itunes and I was like ” Who the hell is this?! This is a Ride song!” After calming down I thought this was actually a pretty good cover and I like what they did with it.

Ride

Vapour Trail – Trespassers William

St Swithin’s Day – The original was written and performed by an English musician named Billy Bragg. He’s more of a mix between folk, and rock and he knows how to write a damn good song. Without this song I may have never heard of a band called Dubstar. Their version of St. Swithin’s Day is epic with its electronic pop grooves and Sarah Blackwood’s voice is just icing on the cake. This is such a good song and has been on many of my self made compilations. The video for Billy Bragg’s version is not the real video, but I wanted the full song to compare to and it’s the only example I can find.

Billy Brag

St. Swithin’s Day – Dubstar

Everybody’s Talkin’ – Harry Nilsson’s 1969 song was made popular by the movie Midnight Cowboy starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman. For some reason whenever this song comes on everybody just has to sing it, and you know which part I’m talking about. Now the cover version done by the English band Moose is another great remake. Moose may of started as a shoegazing band way early in their career, but they definitely moved on and found their own unique sound. They’re a great band if you are into the whole British indie / rock scene.

Harry Nilsson

Everybody’s Talking – Moose

Stay tune later in the week for part 2 of My Favorite Cover Songs.

This past weekend reminded me why I love the winter months coming up ahead; however, here in California there’s not really a true winter season. To me winter is just a reminder of those calendars in elementary school with the image of the snowman and leaves being swirled up with a bunch of lines symbolizing the cold wind. So, when there’s an actual day of dark overcast skies, a touch of sprinkles and a cool breeze, I tend to enjoy it more.

There’s always been certain songs that I listen to through the years that reminded me of winter, or I should say a California winter. So What I’ve done is made a playlist of songs that reminded me of cool winter bliss. I decided to use the Yahoo Music Player instead of the usual links to the Apple ITunes store. I searched around for a music plugin for Word Press, but couldn’t find one that I trusted and have heard of. I did some research and the Yahoo Music Player was suppose to be real easy to use and it actually really was. I wanted you, the listeners, to experience more than just the 30 second clip of music. Those measly tidbits is not a good representation of what I’m trying to get across here.  Just make sure that you have your javascript turned on and you should be good to go. You can either click on the play arrows, or on the music player that will show up on the bottom of the page. I hope you enjoy the playlist titled Cloudy Days.

• Plainsong – The Cure
• But Not Tonight – Depeche Mode
• Just Like Honey – The Jesus and Marychain
• Atmosphere – Joy Division
• Primal – Slowdive
• Sarah – Mojave 3
• This River Will Never Run Dry – Moose
• Sometimes – My Bloody Valentine
• Ballerina Out of Control – The Ocean Blue
• The Process – Saint Etienne
• Here’s Where the Story Ends
• Vapour Trail – Trespassers William
• Catch The Breeze – Slowdive
• Blue Moon Revisited – The Cowboy Junkies
• Flowers in December – Mazzy Star
• Kinky Love – Pale Saints
• Asleep – The Smiths