The Stranglers - Golden Brown / Quicksilver Messenger Service - Gold and Silver

It's high time for something lively, wouldn't you say? Howzabout some Golden Brown? Notoriously naughty in their heyday, The Stranglers were as uncompromising a seventies punk band as you could find. Much like their colorful contemporaries X-Ray Specs, Buzzcocks, and Adverts, the Stranglers were volatile and snide, but with a smart sense of humor and (occasionally) had something to say besides "sod off". Penned well after punk heard the dirt hit its coffin lid, it's odd that this harpsichord-driven waltz would turn out to be their biggest commercial success. What say you, good listener - an ode to a beautiful girl, or to heroin? Perhaps a bit of both? (Incidentally, it's always been my opinion that this could easily pass for the first-born son of Quicksilver Messenger Service's Gold and Silver recorded 13 years earlier. Hmmmmm.)

Nick Drake - Black Eyed Dog

Hear ye now faithful reader, the death rattle of a gentle genius. Posthumously hailed by music critics as one of the most influential British folk singers ever, Nick Drake was the proverbial sullen minstrel. In Black Eyed Dog, his darkest musical moment, there's not much left to the imagination. His was a soul in anguish and sadly he died a short time later from an overdose of anti-depressants. (Many believe it was suicide, but his parents and some close friends insist it isn't so.) At least his songs of quiet desperation did not go to the grave with him à la Thoreau.

Cake - Friend is a Four Letter Word

I've seen a share of bad reviews leveled at Cake, but those that love the band and their music are devoted to them. I proudly count myself among their admirers. Fashion Nugget, the band's second LP is to popular music what Starship Troopers is to popular cinema. If you don't get that movie, you don't deserve any Cake. Friend is a Four Letter Word - the meaning seems so simple but is often misunderstood; have you ever been in a relationship with someone and after expressing your true feelings were humiliated with the curse of friendship? It's the only song on the LP where you can't imagine the boys wearing a smirk, because dude, it hurts.

Big Star - September Gurls

I have a special playlist in my iTunes catalog reserved for what your humble caretaker considers The Perfect Pop Song. This elite (elitist's?) list is currently limited to 64 songs. September Gurls from Big Star's second LP Radio City (1974) has a solid place of honor among them. At once frail, brittle and nearly falling apart, somehow the guts and sincerity of Alex Chilton holds it steady. The resulting testament to the torture of unrequited love is surely one of the best tunes ever cut. Any musicologist with a shred of credibility will tell you: Alex Chilton sired power pop. He died of a broken heart this past St. Patrick's day. So long, man. You are missed.

Soulsavers - Paper Money

Mark Lanegan is a proper catalyst. He's like Miracle Grow for music. With the communion of Lanegan's growl on Paper Money, Soulsavers' everyday, downbeat psuedo-electronica is transfigured into a lush gospel of sex-as-redemption. The 2007 collaboration between Soulsavers and the former frontman of Screaming Trees is called It's Not How Far You Fall, It's Where You Land. It's lush, dark and dirty. Dig that crazy distorted organ and the sex-wild choir moans between verses. It's as if an incubus barred the church door, killed the lights, and pleasured the congregation by candlelight. Don't you ever leave me baby, I believe that you can save me. This is not a breakfast song - crank it up at five to midnight when you're drunk and foggy.

The Velvet Underground - I Can't Stand It

D'oh. After checking out the last entry, a young fellow I work with sent me an IM which read, "I have no frame of reference - Velvet Underground was way before I was born. Can you post the original too?" A good (and all too obvious) idea actually: from now on, when I post a cover tune, I'll post the original for comparison (and spare myself the Old-Timer jokes.)

So here's the Velvet's studio version of I Can't Stand It from their VU compilation - it was recorded back in 1969 but not released officially until 1985. It does appear on some live albums from 1969 and a bootleg or two.

The Hotrats - I Can't Stand It

Turn this WAY up, brothers and sisters! Really really good cover songs can be colossal: giants standing on the shoulders of titans! Jimi did it with Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower"; Michael Andrews did it with Tears for Fears' "Mad World". Admittedly, this doesn't ascend to those lofty heights - but it's SHOCKING how fucking cool this cover is.

I first heard I Can't Stand It on Little Steven's most excellent XM channel and recognized it as a Velvet Underground cover almost immediately. The familiar opening riff has been amped up to snotty perfection, but when the chorus hits with its signature I can't stand it any mo mo... and that kickin' second guitar rips in from the left, it gave me a genuine arm hair erection. The modernization doesn't end there: the Hotrats have seen fit to strategically change some of the lyrics, including the character of Shelly to Brandy! Such wonderful blasphemy! Extra points for that.

BTW, The Hotrats are the side project of the boys from Supergrass. If you're unfamiliar, they've cooked up some very respectable britpop in their day, but I've never been much of a fan. I highly recommend picking up Hotrats' Turn Ons, however. It's all covers and it really delivers.

Iron & Wine - Boy With a Coin

Samuel Beam, the vital inspirer behind Iron & Wine could easily be mistaken for the king of diamonds in a deck of Bicycles. (not a suicide king, incidentally) Maybe it's the eyes. In any case, his music suits this image. What a great song - surely Calexico-inspired from their collaboration on In the Rains a couple years before. Boy With a Coin from 1997's The Shepherd's Dog is a personal favorite of mine. It's eerie, yet strangely cheery at once. I love the density of all those guitars - backwards, forwards, atmospheric, fingerpicked and pedal steel - entwined within the handclaps and other percussion. Remarkable - and far removed from I&W's earlier, lo-fi beginnings.

Junior Wells - Snatch it Back and Hold it

A new start - and let's do it with a bang! To christen our new sanctuary, I offer the legendary gangster-harp genius of Junior Wells. Snatch it Back and Hold it was originally released in 1965 on his LP Hoodoo Man Blues. This was the opening track and sets the Chicago blues benchmark as far as I'm concerned. Man, this guy can cook - and btw, that's the one and only Buddy Guy working the strat. Dig it!