Cover Wars: (Every Breath You Take: The Singles) Edition

Outlandos d’Amour
Outlandos d'Amour

Roxanne (Fall Out Boy): I’ll tell ‘ya, I heard some BAD covers of The Police while doing the digging around for this week’s tracks, and the covers of Roxanne I found were the absolute worst. But I was excited to discover a tribute album called Policia where I could pull this track off of. Fall Out Boy puts a nice rock edge on it and certainly puts to shame all the other drunken terrible versions of this song that are out there.

Can’t Stand Losing You (Feeder) So this one’s YouTube only, don’t go looking for it on the Imeem playlist. Feeder does a great job with this, the production has an effective use of reverb on the mix and the bass player does a great job holding it down.

[youtube]G54NNk7EN24[/youtube]

So Lonely (Phish): Lots of covers of this have the lead vocalist singing it down an octave, which is understandable, this one’s at the top of Sting’s range. Not Phish though, Page does a good job squeaking out the vocals that are tough for even your strongest of tenors. Can’t say the same for Trey’s harmony vocals, but he makes up for it with his guitar work when they change kicks in. While Phish continues to have their objections to their music being made available on the Live Music Archive, there is no stopping projects like the spreadsheet where I was able to grab this show in just a few minutes. Also be sure to check out Bizzaro Jerry on MySpace, currently archiving 1990 and going forward.

Reggatta de Blanc
Regatta de Blanc

Message in a Bottle (Mr. Blotto): Being inducted into the Cover Wars Hall of Fame means that I’ll still use your tracks as selections, but you are no longer available in the voting. In case you missed it, Mr. Blotto has won 3 different Cover Wars (#1, #2 and #3). We gotta let some other people have a chance you know? Eventually, when we have a few more entries into the CW-HOF, I’ll figure out a way to let such bands get back in the mix. Anyway, business as usual from these guys with this slow version of Message in a Bottle – great work. Check out the whole show (Lots of GD covers) on The Archive

Walking on the Moon (Umphrey’s McGee with Joshua Redman): Umphrey’s McGee and Joshua Redman first collaborated for 4 shows in February of 2004. This track is from night 2 of that run and I fade this out to try and keep the playlist a little more on the concise side. To hear the rest of the track as well as the whole show, check out the KB Matrix on The Archive

Zenyatta Mondatta
Zenyatta Mondatta

Don’t Stand So Close to Me & De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da (MiniskaPolice) I thought this trio of Japanese women did such a good job with both of these tunes off my favorite album by The Police, that I’d use them for both tracks. Ok and I’m lazy. But it’s really well done! The guitarist sneaks some keyboards in when they’re needed, they all sing (the drummer sings lead), awesome all around. Both songs are on the same YouTube video, check it out:

[youtube]9BpICpSewD8[/youtube]

Ghost in the Machine
Ghost in the Machine

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (Blues Traveler): In the intro, John Popper claims this is the first time they had even rehearsed this cover, sounds like a bunch of rubbish to this blogger…but what do I know? His voice certainly lends itself well to The Police covers, he can pull off a good “Eeee-oooo” rehearsal or not. Check out the whole show on The Archive

Invisible Sun (Simplicity):The synth keyboards on this cover are not overdone and that always impresses me. Check out the whole show on The Archive

Spirits in the Material World (Steve Kimock & Friends): This lineup of Steve Kimock & Friends featured Rodney Holmes (Drums), Robert Walter (Keyboards) and Reed Mathis (Bass).

This instrumental rendition is coming off a stellar Charlie Miller onstage Matrix, you can check out the whole show on The Archive

Synchronicity
Synchronicity

Every Breath You Take (From HBO’s The Sopranos): The beginning of the 3rd season of The Sopranos debuted a mix of Every Breath You Take and the Theme from Peter Gunn. They refer to this as the “Mr. Ruggerio” mix. This track is available on the Sopranos Soundtrack Peppers and Eggs. Umphrey’s McGee, being fans of this track, have performed a similar combo a dozen times in concert (most recently on 6/10/2007 in Santa Cruz, the same night as the series finale of The Sopranos).

King of Pain (Ed McGee of Ekoostik Hookah) ScottyB mentioned I should take a listen to the Alanis Morisette renditions that are up on YouTube, they are good but I think this acoustic performance by one of the guys from Ekoostik Hookah was too good to pass up. I’ll give Scotty’s girl Alanis her props at the end of this blog entry. This track comes from a show that Ed and Dave Katz (also of Ekoostik Hookah) did acoustic, you can check out the whole show on The Archive

Wrapped Around Your Finger (Green Lizard): Found this on archive.org as part of their open source audio. I’d say this Cover Wars ends with a bang ‘cause this is an amazing interpretation by this punk bank from The Netherlands.

And we’re done!

We’ve moved the voting to the top of the blog in an effort to see if we can encourage more voting. So now down here at the bottom I am going to do my housekeeping and declare a winner from the previous week’s edition. Unfortunately for you, I don’t have much to report. There is a fierce battle going on between front-runners: Neil Young and Grateful Dead. If you haven’t done so, please go check out the Dylan covers from last and place your vote.

Sidenote: To the aspiring bands out there huddled in their practice rooms trying to figure just HOW they are going to make it onto a future Cover Wars – start covering some obscure songs off of classic albums damnit! Everyone covers Peaches en Regalia, you need to learn Gumbo Variations. Then I can do the Hot Rats Cover Wars, you’ll be in it, and then the sky is the limit for you!

Thanks for reading, here’s a few more YouTube’s of The Police and some covers that didn’t make the voting:

The Roots do Roxanne:

[youtube]4YLf8DujVq8[/youtube]

Alanis Morisette does King of Pain:

[youtube]MTGIXHanfg8[/youtube]

Grace Jones performs Demolition Man:

[youtube]SM3HO6cLF44[/youtube]

Foo Fighters cover Next To You:

[youtube]XrjFUkeLF04[/youtube]

Good Charlotte take a stab at So Lonely

[youtube]-FJbmMmQXj4[/youtube]

Hanson do Hole In My Life total justice:

[youtube]hm4zU-ypPRc[/youtube]

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7 Responses

  1. If we wanted to expand just a bit, I would also put Umphrey’s down for When the World Is Running Down . . . They have always done a great job with this song, especially Brendan’s vocals. Look to the 02.21.04 show with Redman for their top version.

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