This past work week was very busy and psychically draining. Not necessarily a bad thing when you’re self employed, but it makes it hard to lovingly craft a theme for your cover blog. So I’m going to take the easy way out and just post some interesting covers. Hopefully next week I’ll be able to put some songs in a larger context.

Fritz Ostermayer “Angst In My Pants” (Sparks)
Readers of a certain age will remember the original as a twitchy New Wave novelty hit. Fritz Ostermayer slows it way down to a stately, if slightly odd, waltz. I stole this from one of my fellow cover bloggers, Cover Me I think.

William Elliott Whitmore “Don’t Pray On Me” (Bad Religion)
This comes from the very nice Bad Religion tribute album Germs Of Perfection. I saw William Elliott Whitmore play years ago at a church that had been converted to a concert venue/art collective clubhouse. The previous owners had left behind a fifteen-foot neon cross suspended from the ceiling. Mr. Whitmore insisted that they turn it on. The sight of him sitting below the huge neon cross playing his banjo and singing about digging his own grave is one of my most memorable concert experiences. A week or two later I was talking to somebody at work about the show and she casually said, “Yeah Will Whitmore played at my birthday party a couple of months ago.” And I realized that I was hanging around with the wrong crowd.

The Hot 8 Brass Band “Sexual Healing” (Marvin Gaye)
The Hot 8 Brass Band is a very fine group of musicians from New Orleans. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina they’ve dedicated themselves to using their music for social outreach. That makes me like this song even more.

Electron Love Theory “I Will Follow” (U2)
Longtime readers know that I have no special fondness for U2’s music or for Bono. But I do like what Electron Love Theory has done with this song. It’s from a whole album of electronica U2 covers that they recently put out.

The Boo Radleys “Alone Again Or” (Love)
No cheeseball mariachi horns here. It’s all chunky guitar riffing and it sounds good to me.