Last week I tried to log into the admin side of Cover Freak and discovered that the site had been hacked. They didn’t do much damage, changing some passwords and messing with the way the site looks in a web browser. I fixed the damage but it’s disturbing to think that cyber bullies are picking on me.

The tech support folks at my web hosting company suggested removing all my files from their servers and reinstalling everything from scratch. I tried to get away with not doing that and just changing my passwords. But the hackers came back and changed my passwords again so I had to put in a fair amount of time tearing Cover Freak down and rebuilding it from the ground up.

The time I spent doing that is the time I would ordinarily have spent lovingly crafting this week’s theme. So I’m just doing a quick post of songs that I’ve recently been sent by independent artists. Cover Freak has posted each and every Sunday since October of 2006 and no hacker is gonna stop me now. The hackers can eat a bag of dicks as far as I’m concerned.

Beatface “Your Shook Me All Night Long” (AC/DC)
Electronic covers of AC/DC always amuse me, and Beatface does a fine job here.

Emily Peal “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” (Cher)
This song starts out very spare and quiet, not much different than the original. And then it absolutely explodes. Check out Emily Peal here.

Metropolis America “Possession” (Sarah McLachlan)
The singer-songwriter’s big hit gets a very lavish production. Metropolis America pumps the song up while staying true to the song’s roots.

Overlord “Kelly” (Del Shannon)
I always give extra points to people who cover obscure songs. This one still has the unmistakable Del Shannon vibe. You wouldn’t expect a band called Overlord to be big on vocal harmonies, but these guys are.

The Salt Flats “Never Going Back Again” (Fleetwood Mac)
The version from the Rumours album is a simple finger-picking tune. The Salt Flats use an Omnichord and a drum machine to transform the song.