Let us apologize for last week’s omission of ‘Under Cover’. Our server wasn’t feeling up to the task of working properly, so we were without Popwreckoning for about a day and a half. This is what you would have gotten last Wednesday:
It was made abundantly clear that my first order of business regarding this week’s ‘Under Cover’ was to blatantly state that this edition is not at all, in the least, the work of the fabulous Mona Sheikh. She’s got the week off from her wonderful feature and so I, EIC Jessica, decided to fill in and bring you some Britney. Love her or hate her, homegirl has made a definite impact on the music industry. I was shocked at the sheer number of bands who covers this poptart’s musical fluff. Personally, I’m fascinated by BritBrit — perhaps more fascinated by how many people are fascinated with her (meta!) — and so I present you with the best of Britney covers. It’s Britney, bitch.
“…Baby One More Time” Believe it or not, there was a time when people didn't know the name Britney Spears – and didn't automatically associate that name with the kind of trainwreck that has come to engulf pretty, young, female celebrities these days (see also: Lindsay Lohan, Tara Reid, Nicole Richie). It’s common knowledge that Britney got her start on “The Mickey Mouse Show”, but it was until the October 2008 release of her debut single, “…Baby One More Time”, that the Kentwood, Louisiana blonde bombshell became a household name as her single shot to number 1 around the world, not at all hurt by the semi-provocative video featuring sexy Catholic school girls. Say what you will about bubblegum pop, but this syrupy sweet Spears single can still stuck in your head with the very first “Oh baby, baby.”
Annie Bethancourt (live) Indie folk singer Annie Bethancourt, who calls Portland, Oregon home, strips down Britney’s debut hit and opts to play it lives with her acoustic guitar. When Bethancourt sings “When I’m not with you / I lose my mind,” with deep and syrupy vocals on this gorgeous cover, you really believe it’s true. The tone of Bethancourt’s rendition takes on a slightly angered tone and towards the end incorporates a bit too much flare, which takes a turn towards strange with awkward and warbling vocals. Not my favorite rendition, but definitely an interesting minimalistic take on Spears’ first (of only two) #1 hit single.
Annie Bethancourt - “…Baby One More Time” (Britney Spears)
The Dresden Dolls (live) Cabaret punk isn’t quite my thing (I prefer my punk variations with gypsy leanings a la Gogol Bordello), but the opening piano on The Dresden Dolls‘ cover of “…Baby One More Time” is so thick and heavy, that I’m just shocked that they’re playing the same track that launched Britney to fame. Front woman Amanda Palmer’s deep vocals give a strange twist to this pop ditty. It’s obviously darker and actually tortured as opposed to Britney’s school girl despair when she tells the object of her affection, “The loneliness is killing me.” Not the cover song I’d have on repeat, but a wonderful shake up from fluffy pop.
The Dresden Dolls - “…Baby One More Time” (Britney Spears)
Travis (live) Perhaps the most well done cover of Britney’s catalyst to eternal fame, the Brit blokes of Travis take a minimalist approach with the song in live performances, breaking out the acoustic guitars and harmonizing on the choruses, even jokingly throwing in a falsetto to show the audience they understand the absurdity of their song choice.
If it wasn’t too painful and you’d all be able to stand some more Britney in your life (at least covers of her hits), I’ve got more up my sleeve. Leave some comments and we can make it happen.
Though well known for singing “If You Talk Much (My Head Will Explode)”, People in Planes conversation with Joshua, though verbose, is sure to have nothing but a positive effect on you. Joshua took some time to talk about everything from television to the 90s to being a part of sort of British Invasion with People in Plane’s lead singer, Gareth Jones. Check out the interview here:
Joshua, PopWreckoning: As you've been playing the new stuff live, how have you noticed the crowd has been responding to the new material? Gareth Jones, People in Planes: It's been good. It's been us to a lot of places where the people have sort of been waiting a long time for the new record. So people who just not only are relieved to have the new record, but they're relieved to see us. Because for example the last time we played in Omaha, and we haven't been there for two years, but there was like a hard core of people who have been waiting not only two years for us to come back, but also desperately waiting for a new album, so it has kind of happened at once where the album's come out and we've jumped back on tour again. I think it's been really good and really positive. We've tried to incorporate a lot of new songs into the set and stop dwelling on the singles of the last record. We're trying to keep everything moving forward. Someone had held up a little poster last night and held it up and said please play "My Head" off the first record so in that case we did actually change the set slightly to appease. We kind of wanted to push it forward but there were people who wanted more off the first album because they had had it for so long.
PW: I'm so jealous of Omaha's music scene. It's so much better than ours. We really don't have one here in Kansas City. It's rough. GJ: Really? Is that true? I did get the feeling that they really did have one there. They were really buzzed at the gig last night. They were going crazy for the Toadies. PW: Yeah, something that has driven Omaha's scene is that it is where Saddle Creek Records is located, which is where Bright Eyes,Rilo Kiley, Cursive and a lot of the indie bands that have been coming up and flowing up are all centrally located there. So like Conor [Oberst] lives there. Tilly and the Wall still lives there. GJ: It's interesting, and maybe KC is kind of town that's kind of more dominated by the rock, the more rock scene. It could be hard on the indie rockers.
PW: I could see that. My next question is, you worked with Our Lady Peace's Raine Maida on some of your pre-production and you're currently on the road with Toadies and I've heard a lot of talk about Supergrass also; you guys have a bit of a 90s music scene theme going on and it sort of has played a large role in your current music. How did the 90s influence you guys musically? GJ: Well, you know, hugely, I suppose, because we were just growing up, all of us grew up and got into music about that time. So it was a huge influence to us. We're a bit younger than the Toadies so we were like the kind of product of those kind of bands especially in Britain. So Oasis and Blur and Supergrass were kind of our focus kind of band at the time and Super Furry Animals of Wales, you know them? PW: Yes, amazing. Those first two albums are stellar. GJ: Raine doesn't have much to do with that in that kind of sense, that was just kind of a random production and as a songwriter he had lots of experience. We were looking to work production-wise with someone who had done songwriting as well, to try and get a creative process going, but there was no intention through Our Lady Peace. To be honest, I didn't really, well I mean we had heard Our Lady Peace through trips and drives, but nothing really, and they're actually not as big in the US as they are in Canada where they're played like always. PW: That's true. The one album that took off that everybody that already knew Our Lady Peace then kind of shunned them because we were like no, that's not Our Lady Peace, no. GJ: Right, exactly.
PW: There was a side question, I don't even remember what it was right now. I don't know how it is across the pond, but we've noticed that the 90s sound seems to be coming back up, starting a movement. Do you see that happening as well? GJ: I don't know. There's always, like this time with our album coming out, someone will ask questions how do you feel to be put in the bracket of the new British invasion? And I'm always like, well this is the second British invasion that we've been involved in, you know? There's always some sort of new surge and something spiraling. Over here it seems to be different. I think there's lots more styles going on. You have to get the shoe on a bit. There's things that get noticed, but they burn out quickly in your scene. I don't know if here there's as prevalent a sort of band like the Toadies with stuff they've done before. I'm surprised how many have seen us before. Maybe half. So maybe that is a sign of resurgence, a sort of fresh roll of the 90s sound. The No Deliverance record isn't a 90s sound, it does sound different.
PW: That's true, it does sound different. I noticed from bands like the Silversun Pickups coming through that it's got that sort of hum sort of sound to it. Interesting. So the third question is, you guys have had to switch your name from Robots in the Sky to Tetra Splendour to People in Planes. Why all the changes? GJ: That's how our band was. In our band life, we were early on like British Robots in the Sky. We were just getting our first record deal at this point and drawing with EMI to put out an album and there was another band with a really similar name like Robots in the Sky or something and Transformers as the slogan, so we decided to change it. It was easy and we weren't really stuck on a name. So we wanted a clear run of it so we changed it to Tetra Splendour and eventually we got dropped by EMI and everything and it took time to get the funding to make a new record. So we felt we just wanted a clean start. It's been a kind of stigma having been dropped by a major in the UK. We felt like it was as good time as any to have a fresh start. Fortunately for us, we got the funding to make a record and it didn't actually have anything to do with it. We just came straight to America and got a deal here. In the end it didn't even matter that we changed our name because we had gone here and gotten a record deal anyways, so that's our sort of pander.
PW: I've read and I kind of felt this way too, that your newest album seems from a production standpoint, a little more designed to be related to by the listener, like on personal level. Was this incidental or coincidental? Like did you do it intentionally or did it just kind of happen? GJ: We, in some aspects, we tried to be a little less self-indulgent, a little less self-involved about the record. Make a crafted record that people wanted to hear more than the first record, I suppose. We are making this record for ourselves as much as we are for people and our peers. So you aren't just in it for yourself. So we intentionally wanted to make a record that people wanted to put on their stereos. PW: Understandable. GJ: Why am I trying to force this down somebody's throat at a gig if you’re not going to give them something that they like or taken all the influences trying to make as diverse a record as you could. Trying to do it in our own style. I guess trying to evolve the first record. PW: I think the two styles have blended well. Like you can still tell where your signature sound is, but the new one is really really catchy too. I can't stop listening to it. We just got it. And I've listened to it probably 10 times in a week. GJ: Oh really? That's funny because we sometimes have doubts that we aren't as regarded as that kind of catchy of the first record. So I'm glad you said that. It was kind of a worry. PW: I've liked all of it though. I've been a fan for awhile. GJ: Awesome.
PW: This is kind of a weird question and we tend to ask a lot of people this question, your song "Falling By the Wayside" has been used in a number of times in television series. Through commercials and TV, many bands are finding more exposure than they actually are on radio. Do you believe the TV is becoming the new radio? GJ: I think that’s a strategy or idea for marketing; that's the way now. When the bigger sort of conglomerate radio companies sort of take over, they release a lot of new music, I suppose, but they still have to play the classics and everything. So it is jam packed as it is, so it's getting harder and harder with Clear Channel and that sort of style corporate world taking over. It is harder because they know what they want so to try and break into that is sort of tricky. So television being what it is now, yeah, it's just paramount really that you get into that arena. It reaches so many more people. And with shows like “The OC” where bands are actually appearing, I guess we kind of touched on that. We were in a film, John Tucker Must Die, we were in that and they came to us and asked us, “Do you want to be in this film?” Though we don't really like the idea of that and we weren't really sure, yet it was the perfect way to kick off an album campaign, so we were like fuck it, it's credible. You're going to be getting out there and getting into people's faces. It's harder to do that and you kind of got to get your placement on TV. It really sucks. I would hate to have to have a sort of conflict in your soul if you had to put it on a weak ad. But to get on a Fox television series, you got to do it. It's changed now because it's not as easy to get on the radio. PW: That's definitely true and I think one of the biggest driving forces has been Zach Braff. He has intentionally made sure to research the scene and pick what he wants and forces it onto “Scrubs” and all of his movies and all of his fans. He has this legion of fans. GJ: Who is this guy? PW: Zach Braff, he's in a TV series called “Scrubs”. GJ: Is he the main guy? PW: Yes. GJ: Is he the guy with the sort of spiky hair? PW: That is him, yes. GJ: Oh yeah, when the Garden State came out here he was sort of hailed for this soundtrack and after our album came out, it was a year or two after Garden State, but that was held as this standard of indie movie placement. PW: It is amazing how much power that man can have over it, too. GJ: It really is. He's not just radio-rock.
PW: That's true. He does do a very good job of picking up and coming stuff that's having trouble breaking through. By the time he puts his signature on it they double the amount of fans that they have which is great. Last question: what should we expect in the future of People in Planes? GJ: We're going to hopefully continue touring through January and then be on a support tour for February because I think after our next single, "Last Man Standing", is coming out in the new year, we're going to give it a bigger push and do the TV thing and just try to get out there again and just get on the road. And stay on the road and hope the whole marketing thing just falls into place with maybe some radio.
PW: It seems that with the record industry the way it is and it not mattering any more, it seems that the road is the place to be to market yourself. GJ: It seems to be the only tangible thing for any band to kind of concentrate on really because the CD is dead. So record companies have to realize that and recognize the money's just not going to roll in ridiculously. They realize that now and they want to invest in a band's touring and their merch. That's kind of the way to go. PW: I think that the smartest thing they could do, and they're not going to listen to me, is that they could start doing the thing that Prince did, where you include your CD in your ticket sales, but it also counts to toward CD sales, so it ups the amount of sales. GJ: That's a great idea and works for a multiplatinum artist, but for us, I don' t know. It's different. You're kind of scrabbling around to come up with who will promote you. I don't know, I think ultimately it's the strength of songs to get them out there and really on television. PW: It definitely is.
On April 14, 2009 Metric will release their fourth full length studio album, Fantasies,in the United States and Canada. The album will be available for pre-order starting March 2, 2009 at www.ilovemetric.com in one of several possible product configurations. Fans who pre-order the album will immediately get an MP3 of the album’s first single “Help I’m Alive” plus bonus materials exclusive to the pre-order.
Metric made a point of taking their time with the writing process on the new album and many of the songs were road tested between recording sessions - our darling New York photog/gal extraordinaire Dese’Rae got to check out one of these “road tests”. Says guitarist Jimmy Shaw, “We allowed this record to dictate its own process. Whatever that process was going to be, it was going to be, we were relaxed about it. The whole time I could hear the sound I wanted in my head -really big and really dreamy.” The album’s gilded surfaces and textural density - a mix of psychedelia, disco, electronica, punk-rock and bubblegum pop - manifest Shaw’s “dream state” vision.
Always up for a worthwhile challenge, Metric self-financed the recordings, set up their own global label operation and assembled a team to release the new album in major territories around the world. “But we’re not doing it totally on our own” comments guitarist Jimmy Shaw. “In Canada it’s coming out with Last Gang who released Live it Out and Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? and our friends at Arts & Crafts will be releasing the album in Mexico. We’ve set up distribution and hired our own staff to handle releasing the record in the USA, the UK, all throughout continental Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. It’s pretty insane, but it’s really exciting. We might go down in flames, or it might be the best move ever. Either way it will have been on our terms, and that for us is success.”
Metric will embark on a headlining US tour in the month of June - dates will be announced in the coming weeks.
Tracklisting: 01. Help I’m Alive 02. Sick Muse 03. Satellite Mind 04. Twilight Galaxy 05. Gold Guns Girls 06. Gimme Sympathy 07. Collect Call 08. Front Row 09. Blindness 10. Stadium Love
You can snag a free download of Asa’s (pronounced Ah-sha) “Jailer” on iTunes as part of their Discovery Download feature. Asa’s self-titled debut album was released yesterday.
As a long time fan of Omaha’s Cursive, I couldn’t have asked for a better venue to see them in for the very first time than The Barbary. Tucked away on the corner of Frankfort Avenue and Allen Street, the place looks inconspicuous enough from its brick exterior, but every single night of the week, many a Fishtown resident can be found rocking out to great bands thanks to R5 Productions or dancing the night away thanks to the club’s nightly parties.
Last week, R5 brought Cursive to the City of Brotherly Love to a venue that holds only 150 people, a blessing to those of us who made it inside and a curse to those of us not lucky enough to score tickets to the sold out show in time. Those with the foresight to buy tickets in advance were rewarded with a passionate and energetic set. Taking to the stage, front man Tim Kasher and company started off with a bit of random dissonance before full throttle launching into “A Gentleman Caller”. From the first moment of music, driving riffs were punctuated with heavy beats under Kasher’s intensely passionate vocals.
It was clear from my eavesdropping that many in the crowd were die hard Cursive fans who delighted in the set’s spanning of the band’s 10+ year career. Each song was met with enthusiasm from beginning to end: cheers erupted as the drums and keyboard raced along on “From The Hips” which was a followed by another uproar with the first few bass lines of “Making Friends And Acquaintances”, on which I adored the serene and hazy American Football-esque trumpet part. Infectious energy had the entire room singing along on songs like “Art Is Hard” while the crowd was held rapt listening to new songs they didn’t know the words to. According to Kasher, the new songs will be out on an album this Spring.
Overall, Cursive pulled out a stellar and solid performance full of energy that the crowd fed off of. Definitely a band to catch and while the winter tour may be over, Cursive will be back out on the road in the Spring for a string of dates starting in New York before heading over to the West Coast. Until then, check out the band’s Philadelphia tour video in which Tim discusses having to pee on the road and toys with the idea of wearing a diaper on stage.
Philadelphia tour video:
Set List: A Gentleman Callers Dorothy At Forty From the Hips Making Friends And Acquaintances Sierra new song Sink To The Beat The Recluse Rise Up!! Rise Up!! new song A Disruption in the Normal Swing of Things Art Is Hard new song? \\ Big Bang The Casualty new song Some Red Handed Sleight of Hand
Tour Dates: Mar 09 - Music Hall of Williamsburg / Brooklyn Mar 10 - Bowery Ballroom / New York City Mar 13 - Troubadour / Los Angeles Mar 14 - Casbah / San Diego Mar 15 - Rhythm Room / Tempe, Az. Mar 16 - Launchpad / Albuquerque
Mark Kozelek, the singer-songwriter who also records under Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon, has always been one of the most intriguing cover-musicians to me. When he covers a song he doesn’t just pick up a guitar and play, he smashes the source material into dust and then puts the pieces back together in an odd and delicate way until it becomes something often times deeper and more profound than the initial conception. The Red House Painter’s cover of The Cars‘ “All Mixed Up” was “THE” song that me trapped in Mark’s music, but it wasn’t until years later when I finally heard the original that I truly came to appreciate how brilliant an interpretation it was.
The newest offering from Mark Kozelek, The Finally LP, is a collection of instrumentals and rare cover songs brought together from tribute and benefit albums. Kozelek is a master of his craft and rarely falters, but the subtle weakness in this collection is the lack of cohesion between all the parts. The songs here are trademark Kozelek– quiet, delicate and saturated in sunsets and red clay. His voice drones in a sincere and un-theatrical way that conjures comfort and familiarity. Songs of particular strength are the Husker Du cover of “Celebrated Summer”, the Palace Music/Will Oldham cover of “New Partner”, the AC/DC cover of “If You Want Blood” which previously appeared in 2001’s What’s Next to the Moon and the intriguing “Lullaby”. which was originally recorded for the children’s television program “Yo Gabba Gabba”.
The Finally LP, which is titled after the Kate Bloom cover in the album, doesn’t possess the sweeping artistic expression we’ve come to cherish in albums such as last year’s Sun Kil Moon album April. However, fans of Mark Kozelek like myself will covet these rare gems and enjoy each one individually, until the next SKM or RHP album arrives.
Indie folk singer Annie Bethancourt, who calls Portland, Oregon home, strips down Britney’s debut hit and opts to play it lives with her acoustic guitar. When Bethancourt sings “When I’m not with you / I lose my mind,” with deep and syrupy vocals on this gorgeous cover, you really believe it’s true. The tone of Bethancourt’s rendition takes on a slightly angered tone and towards the end incorporates a bit too much flare, which takes a turn towards strange with awkward and warbling vocals. Not my favorite rendition, but definitely an interesting minimalistic take on Spears’ first (of only two) #1 hit single.
Cabaret punk isn’t quite my thing (I prefer my punk variations with gypsy leanings a la Gogol Bordello), but the opening piano on The Dresden Dolls‘ cover of “…Baby One More Time” is so thick and heavy, that I’m just shocked that they’re playing the same track that launched Britney to fame. Front woman Amanda Palmer’s deep vocals give a strange twist to this pop ditty. It’s obviously darker and actually tortured as opposed to Britney’s school girl despair when she tells the object of her affection, “The loneliness is killing me.” Not the cover song I’d have on repeat, but a wonderful shake up from fluffy pop.
Perhaps the most well done cover of Britney’s catalyst to eternal fame, the Brit blokes of Travis take a minimalist approach with the song in live performances, breaking out the acoustic guitars and harmonizing on the choruses, even jokingly throwing in a falsetto to show the audience they understand the absurdity of their song choice.
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