It’s sunday and I’m not feeling particularly creative, which means you get a bunch of covers! There’s a certain irony that these posts I add when I’m feeling lazy seem to get more hits than ones where I’m actually trying, but we’ll overlook that little factor.

MP3 – BK Baby (expired) ()
This isn’t a strict cover as Ben has changed it round a little to fit himself. I don’t know if he still does this, but he always used to open his shows with this song, which is one hell of a way to get attention. It’s just him and acoustic guitar, rocking out as hard as he can, declaring who he is. Some of the words have been changed to make it decidedly uncool (“rollin’ in my grey Volvo”), which adds a nice irony given he’s about the last person to “rock the mic like a vandal”.

MP3 – I’m In Love With A Girl (expired) ()
Covering Big Star seems to be in thing to do these days (how many versions of Thirteen are there?) but you don’t hear this one done very often. It’s a tiny song that’s unapologetically positive to the point where it’d probably become nauseating if it ran a full four minutes. As it is though, it works perfectly. The Flops version doesn’t really add anything to the original, but it’s another way for me to push a little Trip Shakespeare / Matt Wilson love on here.

MP3 – Get Your Hands Off My Woman (expired) ()
Just about the strangest cover here, this was the last song in a set of covers that Folds offered up in his run of EPs before ‘Songs For Silverman’. For what it’s worth, I think that The Darkness are one of the most awful bands I have ever heard, and I think this song is pretty terrible. Folds can’t really do a great deal to recover it, but it’s certainly interesting to hear it turned into piano rock. There’s also something mildly fun about Folds bellowing “get your hands off my woman motherfucker” in the highest voice possible too.

MP3 – Dancing In The Dark (expired) ()
Ted Leo seems to like a good cover as much as I do (his ‘Since U Been Gone / Maps’ medley seemed to cause a small blog storm last year) and this is certainly a good choice for him. It seems somewhat bizarre that he would mellow the song considerably from the Springsteen one, reducing to just an acoustic guitar and restrained vocals. It works well though, and it suits Leo’s style pretty well.

Site stuff..

Honestly, the MC Lars report is coming, I’ve just been holding off a little to see if any pictures from the show turned up online as I didn’t take any myself. I’ve found some of the support act but none from the MC Lars set. I’ll give it until tonight and then just post anyway if nothing shows up.

I’ve got some ideas for a couple of new (semi) regular features in the works. The first is something similar to these cover posts where we look at great songs that are under two minutes in length. Seeing as these songs are often overlooked and I have a short attention span, this could be kind of fun. The second is something along the lines of 6Music’s “great lost albums”, where a great overlooked album is looked at retrospectively. I’d limit this to within the past ten years as that’s the music I know well. Pretty much the albums that bloggers would be jumping all over if they were released now, but are sadly unappreciated as it stands. I’m thinking of things like Enon’s ‘High Society’ or The American Analog Set’s ‘From Our Living Room To Yours’. Of course if anyone has any suggestions for albums that fit the criteria, feel free to leave them below.