With such a general title, of course, you could easily put up a couple of thousand songs. And this took a while to put together – I wound up excluding a couple of songs I figured weren’t that hard to find (the Fall’s take on William Blake’s “Jerusalem”, Joey Ramone’s “What A Wonderful World”, Fischerspooner’s version of Wire’s “The 15th”), and sorted through the rest until I came up with three I’m pretty sure most people haven’t heard. I’m not saying these three are better than the source materials, but, well, they are…
Plumtree– You Got Me Runnin’, [Super Secret Songs]
Super Secret Songs was a benefit album for a venue in Kitchener Ontario called the Korova Café. I’ve never been there, don’t know if it’s still open, and have never seen or heard the compilation. But due to my rabid love for this band I managed to get my hands on their contribution, a cover of an old song by the immortal Def Leppard. It’s definitely less hair-metally than the original, but it’s not as if Plumtree avoids bringing The Rock; as anyone who’s seen the liner notes from their last album, with the band admiring Sabbath Bloody Sabbath could tell you, this cover isn’t intended ironically. I just happen to enjoy the song more in an indie style, which I’m sure makes me a horrible person in some circles.
Deadsy– Brand New Love, [Commencement]
Deasy are, to be generous, not very good, and only two songs one their Commencement are worth listening to more than once. But one of those, their cover of Sebadoh’s “Brand New Love”, is ridiculously addictive. You really haven’t heard the song until you’ve heard it transformed into whirring, overdriven Gothic synth-pop. I sure as hell didn’t guess it was a Lou Barlow song until I looked at the credits, but the gap in quality between it and the band’s original material was clear enough.
[visit the official website here, buy Commecement here]
Mercury Rev– Cortez The Killer, [Unreleased]
Okay, I lied, kind of; this is better than the “original” album version of Neil Young’s Aztec epic, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the better live versions, the ones that any fan is going to point you towards. This is some radio session from the Deserter’s Songs era as opposed to their earlier, weirder stuff, so it’s a textured and quiet reading of the song rather than a noiseburst, basically nothing more than massed acoustic guitars and Jonathan Donahue’s voice. But it’s still wonderful, the band not yet succumbing to utter tweeness and this cover, as the announcer says at the end “on borrowed guitars and borrowed time”, feels like it’s sneaking out before that curtain fell.
[visit the official website here, buy Secret Migration here]