Mari Kvien Brunvoll - Is This Love (Bob Marley cover)

She’s a Norwegian singer, and she works the same sort of routine as Merrill Garbus: lots of close attention to the voice and a real home-made sound. But in another sense, she’s much closer to the coolness of the ECM aesthetic, especially with in live performance where she uses a sequencer to accompany herself, and also to the control of someone like Meredith Monk. Here she is singing Bob Marley’s Is This Love from the 12 Points festival from 2010, and despite any musical pointers I might give, there really is nothing else like this. Come on, there’s only one Mari Kvien Brunvoll and I’m guessing she’s already got her own gear. I’m sure we could get something good done for under 10 grand.

 via Doklands music blog

Photo via 

hennum.foto.com

Jack White - Love is Blindness (U2 cover)

Woow, after listening this version, I start believing that U2 covered this song from a Jack White’s band of the 70s.

Enjoy cover Friday with the Best Cover Songs of 2011. Thanks to www.covermesongs.com.

Cansei de Ser Sexy - One Way or Another

Thx to The Good, The Bad, and The Unknown

The Kills – No no no / Steppin razor (Dawn Penn / Peter Tosh cover)

(Source: 505diary.blogspot.com / 505diary.blogspot.com)

“Hang ‘Em High” by Booker T. & the MG’s [1968]

I’m working on mock 1968 music quizzes tonight, including one question about this song. Here we see another popular instrumental recording group successfully take on a Western film theme. Compared to the original, Booker T. & the MG’s were more inventive in their arrangement than Hugo Montenegro was with “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” Like that song, “Hang ‘Em High” reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. The MG’s R&B arrangement inspired a series of covers, from Skatalites’ keyboardist Jackie Mittoo to New Orleans funksters The Meters.

Entering 1968, Booker T. & the MG’s hadn’t released a Top 20 record since “Green Onions” made them famous in 1962. That changed in ‘68. Five months before “Hang ‘Em High,” Booker T. & the MG’s saw their Caribbean-flavored song “Soul Limbo” hit #17. (Aside: they played both of these songs when I saw Booker T, Donald “Duck” Dunn, Steve Cropper and Steve Potts perform live last summer. They were still fantastic!)

Are you starting to get the picture that, in addition to all the other great music that year, 1968 was a pretty damn good for instrumentals?

Pomplamoose - Angry Birds Theme (Cover)

(Source: aishpiration)

Snakefinger - The Model (Kraftwerk cover)

Snakefinger consisted solely of Philip Charles Lithman (1949-1987), a frequent collaborator with The Residents, who gave him the Snakefinger alias. This cover of Kraftwerk‘s classic “The Model” is taken from his 1983 record Against the Grain.

Sex Beet - Dirty Boots (Sonic Youth Cover) 

It’s only rock ‘n’ roll but I like it.

John Legend - Rolling in the Deep (Adele Cover)

PS You can download the track from John Legend’s SoundCloud page (click above).