I think 95% of the bands doing these covers just show up, look at the list, and pick a song. They have next to no time to work an actual cover out before recording the video, thus meaning that one or more people in the band may be entirely unfamiliar with the song.
AV Club Undercover: 25 bands, 25 cover songs
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GirlsAloudFan
Blue Crack Addict
The Walkmen are a bunch of white guys in a guitar-driven indie rock band. It would absolutely floor me if a member of that band had never heard Driver 8 before.
But, I've been floored before.
But, I've been floored before.
GirlsAloudFan
Blue Crack Addict
I love REM, and I can't think of what Driver 8 sounds like, or what album it's even on.
I'm really surprised by that, to be honest.
Fables of the Reconstruction and it sounds like uptempo jangly awesomeness. With cool backing vocals.
cobl04
45:33
what happened to Elmel's "you name a song and i'll cover it" experiment?
LemonMelon
More 5G Than Man
The list became too enormous to complete, so I took one weekend of having the flu as an excuse to never pick it back up again.
As far as bumping it is concerned, it's an excuse to try out the microphone on my new laptop...
As far as bumping it is concerned, it's an excuse to try out the microphone on my new laptop...
IWasBored
Blue Crack Supplier
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a lot of my hatred for that cover is probably completely attributed to the fact that it's one of my favorite rem songs. and i do live under that happy rock where i too think that everyone knows this song, so it seems odd to me that they'd be screwing it up so unpleasantly because of lack of prior knowledge of the song. it's nice and cozy under my rock. i think mofo's right about that just showing up stuff, it's the only excuse for why i can think the bulk of the covers sound so dreadful (and i think ben folds was saying something about how he's done that elliot smith song before as a cover, which would explain why it wasn't utterly unbearable).Based on having seen 10 or so of those performances, it really seems like most of the artists just picked a song about 20 minutes before recording the video. No matter how bad you think this Walkmen cover may be, it's probably better than a good percentage of the other videos. One of the reasons I stopped keeping up with the weekly updates was I was getting tired of seeing artists I love sound like crap.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
LemonMelon
More 5G Than Man
Working through some of these right now...
Motion City Soundtrack's cover of Cut Your Hair was wonderful. The solo is just fuckyeah acoustically. Walkmen's cover of Driver 8 is musically enjoyable, very unique to them, but the vocals are just horrendous. You could tell they had no choice but to pick it.
And it's their loss if they don't care for the song; it's one of R.E.M.'s early career highlights.
Motion City Soundtrack's cover of Cut Your Hair was wonderful. The solo is just fuckyeah acoustically. Walkmen's cover of Driver 8 is musically enjoyable, very unique to them, but the vocals are just horrendous. You could tell they had no choice but to pick it.
And it's their loss if they don't care for the song; it's one of R.E.M.'s early career highlights.
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