I’ve always had a weakness for unusual musical covers. Jenny knows all too well about the Golden Throats, and she flatly refused to listen to Dread Zeppelin. There are some covers just too weird to mention. And of course, there’s the reverse phenomenon: I was exposed to the Venture’s surf versions of Perfidia and Lullaby of the Leaves, for example, years before I ever heard more traditional renditions–it’s just as much fun for me to discover what I’d been missing going backwards.
Thanks to John Aielli on KUT this morning, I was exposed to a different kind of cover. Something a little more high-brow. Covers of Radiohead by classical pianist Christopher O’Riley. Pretty cool. He has an album of these out, but if you poke around his site, you can find some MP3s to download as well.
Genre-crossing covers are fun (if sometimes a bit cacophonous, as with Dred Zeppelin) and on a few occasions I’ve found covers to be more pleasing or interesting than the original. Prime example: Petty Booka’s fiddle-and-banjo rendition of “Material Girl.”
I will do my level best not to hijack this thread into a John Ailli rant.
I just want to point out this is probably how he heard about O’Riley.
Brad Mehldau also does Radiohead. It’s interesting to hear how he takes mediocrity and mines value from it.
Late last week or early this week, John Aielli’s sub John Lerner did a long set of pseudo-classical covers of pop music.
John Lerner is IMHO the best thing that’s happened to Austin radio in a few years. He hosts a Thursday morning slot on KVRX called the Elk Mating Ritual Hour which is always smart, funny, musically inspired, and otherwise good listening. He’s a PhD candidate in Classics and a member of the comedy improv troupe that does Mister Sinus Theater at the Alamo, so he’s got some depth.
I do happen to like John Aielli, whatever his faults. But if he ever retires I hope KUT snaps up John Lerner.
On the subject of genrefucking covers, anybody here like Brave Combo? They’re pretty much kings of the field if you ask me.
Actually, his name is John Erler. Yeah, he’s good.
Marilyn manson did a cover that I really like of Eurythmic’s dance hit “Sweet Dreams are Made of This”