distortion101

Yeahhh.

Today I’m writing a podcast about CowPunk.

Like I needed another excuse to listen to The Gun Club.

Annnnnd Blitzen Trapper.

I can’t even deal with how good this song is.

EVERY FUCKING PITBULL SONG SOUNDS THE FUCKING SAME.

I’m sick. So I’ve been at home. For what feels like foreverrrrrrrrrr.

ANYWAY

Channel V was on in the background as I attempted to do my tax return (badddddd idea) and then after about 15 minutes I though fuck, this Pitbull song has been going on forever. And then I realised it was a pitbull special and the one song I’d been listening to was actually 4 different songs.

He actually repeatedly counts to four in a couple of languages in one of his songs. After which he goes on with the endless “I know you want me, You know I want ‘cha”
Yes, how could I NOT want a guy who could count to four and looks like some kind of balding pimp.

Music TV in the daytime is the fucking worst.
And I swear, if I hear “Someone Like You” by Adele one more fucking time… 

Where I don’t know what to listen to and I’m ferociously searching through my CD collection for some sort of satisfaction.

Kind of just want to scream the house down listening to Dreams by Fleetwood Mac.

All I want to do is describe what I want to hear, but I know that all the best music is indescribable and I am losing ittttt.

HELP ME! 

So yesterday I found out that Alexisonfire had split.

It was only a couple of weeks ago I wrote an introductory piece on them for potential new fans.

Dallas left to focus on City and Colour and Wade joined another band apparently.

This is one of the most devastating break-ups in music history. Ever.

Alexisonfire were the one band who got me into and helped me appreciate hardcore music. They were so sharp.

I remember the first time I saw them play. I was 17 and took the day off Year 12 so I could be at the front of the line at Billboards ensuring I’d be super close to them. Moneen were the support band and it was a fucking killer set. 
They played everything I wanted I hear and it was amazing.

It absolutely devastates me that I won’t get the opportunity to scream Drunks, Lovers, Sinners and Saints in their face and feed off the energy of their performances ever again.

But I guess I have the memories. 

Superstar - Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth covered this Carpenter’s track for the 1994 tribute album, If I Were A Carpenter.
This Carpenter’s track is actually a cover itself..
It was originally written by Delaney & Bonnie and the working title for the song was “Groupie Song” as it’s a track about a groupie who has a strong love for a rock star after a one night stand. He promises to see her again but she can only hear him on the radio and just waits around in eternal longing for her unobtainable rockstar.

For the Carpenters version, Richard carpenter actually changed a lyric in the second verse from

And I can hardly wait

To sleep with you again

to:

And I can hardly wait

To be with you again 

A lot less suggestive/radio friendly.

Anyway, I absolutely love both versions, but Sonic Youth took the desperate out of the Carpenters version and injected a sense of sadness the song didn’t have before. It was more intimate. It’s amazing.

Lovesong - Death Cab For Cutie

This is probably one of my favourite songs of all time. The first time I heard this song on Disintegration I lost my shit. I will get married to this song. It is perfection. 

I remember the first time I heard this cover. My friend Chris was driving me home and he played it for me on his iPod. Not gonna lie, I wan’t expecting much. But I knew from the first note played, they had nailed this cover.
They actually covered this as apart of a compilation called Sweetheart -  our favourite artists sing their favourite love songs. 

Death Cab have this way of bringing out elements of a song that you never knew they had, and by doing so, making the song their own.

I’m completely obsessed with The Cure, Robert Smith wrote this song as a wedding present to his Fiance Mary before their wedding.. There is nothing not perfect about this song but after listening to it probably a million times, it starts to sound a little tired. Death Cab’s cover brought it back to life and is just as good as the original in my eyes.

Remember Me - Tame Impala

“The track is built around two samples from “Woman of the Ghetto”, a 1969 soul song by Marlena Shaw. The original song is polemic to legislators delivered by a woman from a black American ghetto. Near the end is the line: “Rmember me? I’m the one who had your babies”, in reference to black maids raising white children for little pay in America. This sample is repeted throughout “Remember Me”, as is a sample of a scat portion of the refrain” - Wikipedia

An interesting track for 3 teenage hippies from Perth to choose to cover for their EP. 
Despite the fact they can’t in any way empathise with the lyrics or themes of the song, you forget what the song is about because the song is so damn good. 

Never Gonna Give You Up - The Black Keys 

I was surprised to learn this was a cover. This is track 14 from their killer 2009 album, Brothers but was originally written and recorded by Jerry Butler. He was in The Impressions. Yeah, I dunno who they are either. But The Black Keys KILL this track. In a good way, ‘yo.

Naive - Lily Allen

I Wasn’t too keen on the idea of this cover. Naive was written by Luke Pritard of The Kooks when he was just 16 and he’s so cute and innocent and girlfriendless in this track I didn’t want Lily messin’ it up.

Apparently the cover actually came about from a rumoured dispute between Lily Allen and The Kooks. They went to the same music school and apparently Lily Allen told the press she thought the Kooks were shit and they were all “Oh no you didn’t” (Well, maybe not but that’s how I imagine they reacted) and then she felt remorseful and to say sorry she covered this song as a heads up to the band. You know you’re not shit when Lily Allen decides to cover one of your songs.
But didn’t she cover Britney Spears too? Maybe you’re the Naive one after all, Luke.

What a diss.

‘You follow instructions then I’ll follow instructions, the ultimate seduction’
- 50 Cent/Nicole Sherzinger Right There

You can can just imagine Fiddy falling over himself, so seduced by instructions.
Not.
Let’s just take a moment to appreciate another pop lyrical masterpiece.