(REPOSTED with NO DOWNLOADS; see HERE for more)
We're a bit off schedule here at Cover Lay Down, and for that I apologize; I wrote this post for our usual Wednesday deadline, but the part of my brain that used to be devoted to blogging appears to have been partially subsumed by the stress of impending host-loss, and the urgent need to re-imagine the blog in another form in order to continue blogging within what I continue to maintain are perfectly legitimate, legal boundaries.
As I wrote this past Sunday, a tidal wave of great new covers from indiefolk to freak to alt-country has slammed through my inbox in the past week or two, jamming my aural pleasure circuits and tipping over onto the page. Simultaneously, a chill has fallen over much of the blogging world in the face of reports of a massive increase in DMCA takedown requests to file hosts and blog services, which have subsequently cost bloggers posts, files, and (in my own case) the impending loss of my file host altogether.
In order to clear the inbox, then, and also to avoid - at least for the moment - posting the sort of older, classic songs which seem to have been predominantly featured in the take-down bonanza, this week, we're exclusively featuring brand new coversong from all corners of the folk tent. And, since on Sunday we spoke of some amazing male folkvoices with new work on the scene, today we welcome the introduction of some wonderful womenfolk to our Late Fall/Early Winter New Release Spectacular. Enjoy.
News of The Young Eyes, the new five-song EP from LA-based Sara Lov, came to me via the best kind of personalized, targeted label outreach from professionals who make it clear that they actually read this blog -- always a nice change from the huge volume of unwanted hip-hop fusion and electrodance originals I receive every week (um, guys? Coverfolk blog, here?). I'm glad her people found me, too: Lov's short set runs a great radio-ready indie popfolk gamut, reminding me a little of Lisa Loeb, or some of Kathryn William's more atmospheric gems.
In addition to some well-crafted, playful originals, the EP includes two wonderful choices done with aplomb and majesty. My Body Is A Cage, originally by Arcade Fire, is gorgeous pianofolk, with a subtle build and a driving piano chord over its resonant atmosphere; Beck's Timebomb is a perfect light popfolk piece, jangly and bouncy all at once; together, they show range and promise galore.
Lov's label preferred streams to downloads, and we're not complaining; streams preserve copyright better, and we're just happy to have any chance to share these incredible covers with you. The plastic version of The Young Eyes doesn't drop until January, so I can't speak to the cover art, but downloads are available now; if you want to be able to take these bits and bytes away, head over to Sara Lov's website without delay. For bonus points, while you're there, check out Sara Lov's stunning cover of Simon and Garfunkel obscurity Old Friends, drowned perfectly in ringing bells and electronic haze.
- STREAM: Sara Lov: Your Body is a Cage (orig. Arcade Fire)
- STREAM: Sara Lov: Timebomb (orig. Beck)
Better known as a fast-rising star in the indie world, and especially in the British Isles, where her commercial for Sky+ HDTV features this new delicate pianofolk cover of Cyndi Lauper ballad True Colors, Scandinavian singer-songwriter (and blonde bombshell) Ane Brun is not necessarily as familiar to ears tuned to the folkside of the dial. But despite the almost chilly, sparse nature of her arrangements, folk fans will hear something eminently warm and familiar in these covers, especially the almost freakfolk hollowness of both voice and acoustic guitar of Big In Japan. (Think Madeleine Peyroux with Jose Gonzales on guitar, and you've captured this Alphaville cover perfectly.)
Both of today's covers are up at Ane's MySpace -- there's also a gorgeous live cover of True Colors at the end of this recent concert video recorded in Amsterdam -- and both have been featured prominently as downloads on numerous blogs without getting yanked; Ane also co-owns her own record label, so it seems safe to assume that getting them here is both acceptable, and will have no negative impact on sales. Rather, our goal, as always, is to create positive buzz and business; if you like what you hear, we highly recommend Ane's newest album Changing of the Seasons, which dropped just a few weeks ago, and is clearly poised to go very far indeed.
- Ane Brun: True Colors (orig. Cyndi Lauper)
- Ane Brun: Big In Japan (orig. Alphaville)
Finally: I debated whether or not to include notice of the new Christmas album from indiefolk darling and fellow Denison Witmer fan Rosie Thomas here; after all, it's hardly Halloween, and far be it from me to be the cause of any retroshift in what is already a culture doomed to spend a good fifth of the year shopping amidst the mistletoe. And this is unquestionably a Christmas album, complete with shaken sleighbells, children's chorus fade-outs, and plenty of cozy fireside torchswing. But truly, though the songs on A Very Rosie Christmas are eminently christmassy, the music was just to good to hold on to, no matter the season.
Previous covers from Rosie Thomas were sweet but relatively faithful, merely applying her delicate, tentative touch to the previously-posted Witmer tune Paper Doll, and to friend Sufjan Stevens' famously hushed arrangement of REM favorite The One I Love. But the sheer quirky bravado Thomas shows in utterly changing the tunes and tropes of some almost too-familiar carols which nestle among the few originals here is stunning, bringing new meaning to some old chestnuts. Turning her little girl's voice to a notch more power may move her sound a little closer towards that of fellow Christmas anthem singers Shawn Colvin or Carly Simon, but that's not always a bad thing, and happily, the vast majority of A Very Rosie Christmas stays on the good side of Contemporary Adult Alternative.
Even more exciting is the application of this redemptive, transformative approach to a few unexpected familiarities. The songs change so much, it is not far from the truth to say that Rosie's cover of Christmas Don't Be Late (the song that made Alvin and the Chipmunks famous) is quite possibly one of the best new Christmas songs I've heard in a very, very long time. I wasn't able to secure permission to share it, but I was able to garner permission to stream her cover of Joni Mitchell favorite River, which is equally transformative, especially when put up against the huge set of covers of the song we put up a year ago here on Cover Lay Down.
The stream herein is posted with permission from the label, and gratefully; it provides just the right teaser, I think. Though we're the first to share this cover with the world at large, I expect to see it popping up again and again as we head towards the holidays. A Very Rosie Christmas hits the streets November 4th, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. At this rate, we'll have snow on the ground by then.
- STREAM: Rosie Thomas: River (orig. Joni Mitchell)
35 comments:
I wouldn't call Old Friends an "obscurity." It's on S&G's most prominent Greatest Hits album, and was the name of their comeback tour and subsequent live cd/dvd.
Fair enough, Ray. But obscurity is a relative term. As I've written about in previous features on their work, my standard for Simon and Garfunkel popularity is "do most people have the ability to sing a few lines of the song?" And of the two or three dozen songs most folks can sing off the top of their head, I suspect Old Friends isn't on the list for the average listener. Certainly not getting radioplay these days, either.
As for the use of the song for the album/tour: it's a bit precious to name your tour after a song, but sadly, I bet some younger people at that concert had no IDEA this was also the name of one of their songs.
Since you’re my favorite music writer I’m going to try to word this carefully. I discovered music blogs in mid 8/08. Before that I purchased songs on a song-by-song basis from iTunes. There were a lot of “before that’s”, of course, before that…
I kind of went wild upon discovering quality blogs such as yours, StarMaker, NineBullets, FiftyCentLighter, etc. From 8/13 through 11/1, I downloaded 435 songs from blogs. (I did the same thing when Napster came out a few years ago.)
During that same time period I purchased 97 songs from iTunes. In the preceding 81 days I had purchased 114 songs from iTunes. So the blogs didn’t actually have much of an effect on my spending habits in terms of music.
Many music bloggers receive complimentary CDs. It seems easy to place a “buy” link beside the mp3 link, and think that takes care of it. But if you’re posting the best cuts from the CD, I’ll probably download what you post, check out some other cuts, and maybe purchase nothing.
Purchasing a CD for a single song is way too 20th century. Sorry, but for my money very few artists deserve that kind of devotion. Most of the CDs I’ve purchased in the last couple years I don’t listen to much.
Seems to me a better approach for the blogger who cares about the financial needs of the artist, as I know you do, would be to use Acrobat (as I notice some bloggers do) so that the person visiting your blog can listen to the song, but not download it so easily for free.
I would be willing to bet that bloggers using Acrobat-type streaming software rather than QuickTime (which I love by the way) are experiencing fewer take-downs.
At any rate I love your blog, and do encourage you to hang in and weather the storm. This too shall pass.
This DMCA thing is just driving me nuts. I don't know what I'm going to do ultimately either. Seems the PR people are not on the same page as the labels. I am not featuring (or buying) any music from the majors or their subsidiaries, which sucks as it eliminates a lot of great boutique labels. But they're biting the hand that feeds them so screw them.
It's been good in some ways, because I'm listening to a lot more unsigned artists or artists on small, blogger friendly labels. Maybe the majors will force a bit of musical populism that's overdue.
@ pilk00: It's an interesting thought, and surely you've noticed that I run streams if it's what the label prefers. But in my case, I'm NOT posting "the best cuts from the CD" -- quite the contrary. I'm posting the covers, if they're any good, and I often end up writing that a particular song is especially good, and worth getting.
The premise of many blogs is "here's the best, now buy the rest" -- and it's true that doesn't always get people to buy. But our mandate is vastly different. It's "this familiar song done by this artist provides a warm and welcoming introduction to someone you'd never have heard otherwise; if you think this is good, you should hear their other work". Hence the covers. And hence the purchase links.
And if you really want this to work -- if you want people to fall in love via this one song -- I also believe the best way to do that is to let the person stew in the song. Acrobat streaming lets you listen once, maybe, though I'd bet most folks never listen the whole way through unles the song has a good hook right up front. But providing a song one can own allows them to run it in the car, or on the go -- the whole thing, multiple times. To me, that's what creates fandom, and from there, sales. That's what serves the artists.
Or at least, that's what they tell me, when they give me their songs to post. No need to assume that this model is not what they want -- the songs I post are, predominantly, provided direct from artists and reps. That the IFPI has a net that catches dolphins as well as tuna is no reason to decide it's okay to start eating dolphins, or crow.
Hey, Boy ~
You know I'm a Joni fan (major understatement) - although this is far off the mark melodically, I *love* this cover of River, which retains the sense of poignancy and longing in Ms. Mitchell's original...
Thanks for sharing - I *will* be buying this holiday CD!
@ boyhowdy: In support of what you're saying there are many artists I had never heard of such as Buddy Miller, the Steeldrivers, Grayson Capps, Charlie Parr, Mike Farris, Jenny Lewis, etc - whose work I'll be supporting for a long time because of music blogs like yours :)
Thanks so much for airing this "issue" on your blog. And I put that in quotes to keep myself from using profanity in other people's comment boxes! Yes, it's the rock and the hard place that we exist between when they literally request us to post their tracks for our listeners to download and then the other arm of their business comes around and smacks us for doing so. And not only smacks our blogs but in your case (and in others' I've heard of) smacks our access to filehosting, eeek.
I support you, let me know if I can help you with some bandwidth, I'm moving to wordpress.org today, as we speak. I wish it was a viable option for everyone in this political climate, ugh.
and yes streaming is an option, but not a pretty one, I quite agree.
xoxo,
Tart --- oooh thanks for the Joni track it IS fantastic!
I agree with you, this blog does a lot to promote folks- considering many of these artists need promotion- for tours and their cds - The funny thing is the all you can download big sites are flourishing on dot.coms - or push others back to peer to peer- If they take out folks like you that love the music and write up the artists- they're being a bit short sighted
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