Under the covers

It's been a while since I did a covers post.

So today seems as good a day to rectify that as any.

Seafood are one of those bands that seem like perenial underperformers. Not in terms of quality or output but in terms of success. They seem to bubble under the surface. To get name checked in all the right places. And get critical acclaim left, right and centre. Yet for some reason they never actually break through. Lord knows why. Maybe they've just never been in the right place at the right time. Or maybe they refuse to compromise on their music. Who knows? What I do know is that last month they released a download only single featuring covers of The Cure and Townes Van Zandt. 'Lovesong' is stripped of the dark, sinister feel of the original and played straighter but no more emotionally strained. Instead it emphasises the beauty and intimacy of the song's sentiment.

Next up is Sebadoh with a curious cover from the curious album 'The Freed Man'. The album itself is a series of home recorded, lo-fi, raw songs. Or maybe sketches of songs. Ideas not fully formed or realised but knocked out and laid down with fuzz, noise and an enormous sense of pushing the limited boundaries of the recording constraints. 'Yellow Submarine' is given a garge punk makeover that kinda works and kinda doesn't. At the very least it's fun and gives an interesting insight into a great band trying new things at their conception.

And we finish with The Automatic. In truth, a band that I can't really see being around much past a year or two. Not without some radical reworking anyway. 'Monster' was a great tune, if a tad ubiquitous, popping up as it did just about everywhere you could imagine. Every other song of theirs seems to be along pretty much the same lines but no where near as interesting. There's the sludgy production, the shouty backing vocals and the choruses that tread a thin line between catchy and irritating. And this Faith No More cover is no different. It's pretty much a straight retelling of the original, adding nothing particularly new and neither improving it nor destroying it. Most tellingly though, it is simply missing the inimitable vocals of Mike Patton.

Seafood - lovesong (The Cure cover) Buy Seafood records

Sebadoh - yellow submarine (The Beatles cover) from 'The Freed Man'

The Automatic - epic (Faith No More cover) Buy The Automatic records

mp3 / music / covers / seafood / sebadoh / the automatic