It’s always gratifying when a publicist or a record label or a band sends me some music in the hope that exposure on Cover Freak will help the band. It makes me feel like a big and important part of the Media Marketing Machine.

I also like doing anything I can to help independent artists.

If you would like me to post some music from your band just drop me a line. Remember, of course, that I only post cover songs. You’d be surprised at the number of publicists that have a hard time with that concept.

Here’s a selection of songs that have been sent to me recently. If you like what you hear, encourage them. Buy their music and go to their shows.

Wiley And The Checkmates “Ode To Billy Joe” (Bobbie Gentry)
The great thing about this song is that it’s sung to the tune of Hip-Hug-Her. Wiley And The Checkmates is a great soul band. Check out their new album, it’s got a great original song on it about chicken.

Kesang Marstrand “Say Say Say” (Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson)
If Paul McCartney could go back in time and take back one thing, this would probably be it. Not only is it the low point of two songwriters’ careers this was also when he gave Michael Jackson the bright idea to buy the publishing rights to the Beatles catalog.

I really like what Kesang Marstrand does with this song. She delivers a wonderful heartfelt acoustic version that sounds light years better than the original, which makes me cringe every time I hear it.

Painting Tasters “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (Nirvana)
Every time I think that I don’t need to hear another version of this song another one comes along that sounds great and different. It’s a hallmark of a well written song that it can stand up to being reinterpreted in so many different styles. You can download a lot of this band’s music at their web page.

Telling On Trixie “Mad About You” (Belinda Carlisle)
The publicist who sent me this described it as a “sinister” Belinda Carlsile cover. I don’t think it sounds particularly sinister in its own right, although just about anything sounds sinister if you compare it to anything Belinda Carlisle ever recorded. These guys have their own web site too. I like that better than having a MySpace page. I’m not sure why, maybe I’m just old school like that.

Bertie Higgins “Brown Eyed Girl” (Van Morrison)
According to Mr. Higgins’ publicist, “Bertie has been touring and performing since the ‘60s, when he honed his skills as a drummer with Tommy Roe, opening up for superstars like the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys and Roy Orbison, among others. But he is easily best known for his 1982 #1 hit ‘Key Largo,’ which became an international sensation.”

Somehow I missed out on that international sensation. In 1982 I was a college freshman and was interested in more localized sensations. Still I found the tropic-flavored covers on his latest album enjoyable.

And I wonder why Jimmy Buffett sells out huge ampitheaters and owns a chain of overpriced burger joints and this guy doesn’t. Is it just blind luck? A deal with the devil? The fact that Bertie likes to dress like a pirate in public?

Tomorrow is my birthday, which prompted me to look at Wikipedia to see what notable events have occurred on the day I was born. And from that list comes this musical tribute.

Chad Everett “Nights On Broadway” (Bee Gees)
Tomorrow is St. Chad’s Day in the Church of England. I never knew there was a St. Chad, but that’s what I get for growing up Catholic. This was the only cover I had by somebody named Chad. And yes, that’s Chad Everett of Medical Center fame.

Martin Denny “Caravan” (Duke Ellington)
The god of exotica/lounge music died on March 2, 2005. Generally I try to avoid observing the date of somebody’s death because I prefer to celebrate the lives of people I admire. But it’s a good excuse to post a Martin Denny song. This is a good one to listen to on headphones as all the odd percussion skitters from one side of your head to the other.

Johnette Napolitano and Danny Lohner “The Scientist” (Coldplay)
It’s Chris Martin’s birthday tomorrow. I’m pretty indifferent to Coldplay so I think of him mostly as Mr. Gwyneth Paltrow. After Coldplay appeared on the Grammys I was surprised by the hatred several of my friends have toward them.

Mata Hari “For No One” (The Beatles)
In honor of Mikhail Gorbachev’s birthday we have this Russian Beatles cover. When I first heard it I thought the guy was singing in Russian. He’s not, he just has a really thick accent.

Gorby’s Wikipedia bio includes this little tidbit:

That same year (2007), he visited New Orleans, Louisiana, a spot hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina, and promised that he would return in 2011 to personally lead a local revolution if the U.S. government had not repaired the levees by that time. He said that revolutionary action should be a last resort.

An old Russian guy leading an army of angry black people? While I certainly hope New Orleans gets rebuilt I’d love to see Gorby dropping by to storm the barricades.

The Bigfellas “Mr. Blue Sky” (Electric Light Orchestra)
On March 2, 1949 the first automatic street light was installed in New Milford, Conn.

When Mayor Daley The Elder was elected to his first term as mayor of Chicago one of his first acts was to install street lights every thirty feet or so on every street in the city. He figured that everybody would see that he was getting things done. He kept getting reelected until he dropped dead.

Now the night is brighter than day and if you’re in the suburbs you can always orient yourself by looking for that eerie orange glow of Chicago. It was a little unsettling when I went to college in central Missouri because the night sky was so big and bright. I had never really grasped the glory of the stars growing up because of all the light pollution.

BTW this song sounds wonderful played on banjo and spoons.

Music has been an important part of movies since the very beginning, from the guy playing the organ during the silent movie to Quentin Tarantino’s masterful use of popular music in his films. But there’s nothing quite like a theme song written specifically for a movie. And so in honor of tonight’s Oscars I present some of the greatest movie themes.

Guy Klucevsek and David Garland “The Blob” (The Five Blobs)
Did you know that this song was written by Burt Bacharach and Mac David (Hal’s brother)? Strangely it never seems to come up when people are discussing Bacharach’s body of work. The Five Blobs were a group of studio musicians rounded up specifically to record this song.

I like this cover even better than the original, mainly because I’m a sucker for an accordion. There are also special bonus lyrics about the Blob eating mangoes.

The Fuzztones “Green Slime” (Richard Delvy)
After listening to this song I decided to check out the movie again. Two astronaut commanders battle for the affections of the hot doctor on an alien-infested space station. They’re kind of like Goofus and Gallant, one guy’s a real hardass and every time the other guy issues an order at least one of his men gets killed.

In the end they decide that the space station has too many aliens on it so they abandon it and destroy the station by turning on its jets and pointing at the Earth so it will burn up in the atmosphere. Because the aliens reproduce by flinging their blood around, if a single drop of alien blood survives reentry the planet is doomed. So why not point the space station toward anyplace else but Earth?

The theme song is easily the best thing about this movie. It’s a wonderfully freaky psychedelic tune with timeless lyrics:

Is it something in your head?
Will you believe it when you’re dead?
Green Sliiiiiime! Green Sliiiiiiiiiime!

Anekka “Live And Let Die” (Paul McCartney & Wings)
If ever a song screamed out for a bossa nova deconstruction it’s this one. The way they treat the frantic middle section of the song is particularly nice.

Mutsuhiro Nishiwaki “Ben” (Michael Jackson)
I know very little about this guy. Apparently he rigs up music boxes to play popular songs. He’s got six albums of movie themes out there along with two Christmas albums. Once I found out he turned his considerable talents toward my favorite love song to a rat I decided that he’s my kind of guy. Buy his stuff at the iTunes Store, this kind of art needs to be supported.

D.O.A. “Singin’ In The Rain” (Gene Kelly)
It starts out sounding like a bunch of drunks singing in a bar but then the horn section kicks in and a full-on ska song breaks out. But it still sounds like it’s being sung by a bunch of drunks in a bar.

The title of this week’s post comes from a song by Tony Trischka entitled “Ladies Of Refinement.” It’s an original song so it really doesn’t fit in with my mission here at Cover Freak, but it’s a nice little minuet played on the banjo that includes the sentiment you see above. It popped up on my iPod shortly after I saw the video below from the dynamic Mister Squid. He made himself a banjo out of odds and ends he found at the World’s Longest Yard Sale. So I was inspired to pay tribute to the banjo this week.

Tony Trischka “World Turning” (Fleetwood Mac)
I like the way this guy expands the palette of the banjo. He does creative stuff with the instrument without making everything into a generic bluegrass song. This one’s quite a banjo-and-fiddle driven hoedown that still keeps the spirit of the original song.

Hayseed Dixie “My Best Friend’s Girl” (The Cars)
This is a small step up from those “Pickin’ On” albums that feature bluegrass covers of popular artists, if only because the band has a name. This sort of thing is funny for a song or two but it gets old in a hurry if you try listening to a whole album’s worth of it.

Patti Smith “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (Nirvana)
The banjo is not the primary instrument here though the plucking gives a weird feeling to the song. This is one of those songs that changed everything and consequently has been covered way too often. But you can depend on Patti Smith to do something different with it. The poetry she adds to it fits right in with what Kurt Cobain wrote.

Petty Booka “Downtown” (Petula Clark)
Allow me to once again declare my undying love for my Tokyo Bluegrass Honeys. They’re so cute, so charming, so talented on their ukuleles. I’m terribly disappointed that they’re not coming over to the U.S. for this year’s Japan Nite tour. I’ll probably still go, those shows are a hoot.

Run C&W “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” (The Undisputed Truth)
I asked Mister Squid for some banjo covers and this is one of the songs he coughed up. From what I can tell these guys specialize in bluegrass covers of Motown and soul songs. I really like how they use the harmonica and jaw harp to simulate that Motown wah-wah guitar sound.

Talk To Me: Some time ago I added a guestbook to Cover Freak. It was quickly overrun with spam and since I was too lazy to moderate the posts I took it down. I’ve since found a couple of nifty WordPress plugins that are supposed to curtail spam. So you’ll now see a link on the right (under the Administrative heading) for the guestbook and links below the posts to leave comments. So if you’ve always wanted to rant at me but are too shy to use the contact form, try one of those. Hopefully they won’t get infested with spam because I’d like to know what you think about what goes on here.

Update: The guestbook doesn’t seem to be working. I’m too lazy to troubleshoot it so I got rid of it. The comments are working, though.

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Valentine’s Day is almost upon us, so it’s time to get all mushy and listen to some sappy romantic music. And when you’re done with that come back here and check out some other songs about love.

Pine Valley Cosmonauts “I Want To Be A Cowboy’s Sweetheart” (Patsy Montana)
Patsy Montana isn’t too well known today but she was the first female Country and Western artist to sell a million records. It’s a perky tune about the benefits of dating somebody who bathes once a month whether he needs it or not. I love the sentiment that she wants to be a cowboy’s sweetheart so she can blow a cowhand’s pay. That’s just too romantic for words. This recording features some great yodeling from the fantastic Kelly Hogan.

Frank Rogala “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)” (The Crystals)
This song has become a Valentine’s Day tradition here on Cover Freak. My wife is worried. She never was the romantic type.

And just so everybody understands the original intent of the song, here’s what Wikipedia tells us about it:

(Gerry) Goffin and (Carole) King wrote the song after discovering that singer Little Eva was being regularly beaten by her boyfriend. When they inquired why she tolerated such treatment, Eva replied, with complete sincerity, that her boyfriend’s actions were motivated by his love for her.

The song was written and intended as a sort of protest song from the point of view of an abused woman.

Which is a fine sentiment and a good intention, but the execution is somewhat lacking. I don’t think anybody who hears this song for the first time thinks that’s what it’s about.

Neko Case “Thanks A Lot” (Ernest Tubbs)
I’m not a big fan of Neko Case. People tell me that I’m supposed to like her but she just leaves me cold for the most part. She really does a good job of belting this song out though. It’s the sort of bitter, sarcastic song that makes me feel good about my marriage.

kd lang “Johnny Get Angry” (Joanie Sommers)
Here we have another song that assumes that a man doesn’t love his woman unless he gets mad at her, sung this time by everybody’s favorite lesbian crooner. I remember seeing her sing this on Saturday Night Live and being totally blown away. It’s a complete deconstruction of the whole school of songwriting that views women as fragile flowers that want a testosterone-crazed thug to protect them.

Gluebound “Where Did Our Love Go” (The Supremes)
It’s a big, swooning song with a great churchy organ and killer guitar washes. He could be singing about fried chicken and it would still be a killer song. But the fact that he’s singing about heartbreak makes it so much better.