Burl Veneer’s Music Blog

Obscure covers: the Phenomenauts

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:55:20 -0700

Casting about for new music to listen to I came across the Phenomenauts, and the description sounded all right (something like "pop-punk with some synths"), and sure enough, they're pretty fun (and unlike so many pop-punk bands, they don't sound l...

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Stealth covers of covers; or covers of stealth covers?

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:56:57 -0700

Back in December I posted Moondog's "Bird's Lament," one of those tunes that is so natural it feels like you've known it forever, even the first time you hear it: Listening to Quantic Soul Orchestra's Pushin' On this evening, "Bird's Lament" cam...

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Unlikely covers 2

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:40:32 -0700

What could be as unlikely as a disco/southern rock cover of a Yardbirds song? How about an 80s electro cover of a Bad Company song? I've been wanting to hear Jenny Burton's cover of "Rock Steady" again since the 80s, but I've never managed to co...

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Unlikely covers

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:30:53 -0700

A few days ago Jeff was looking for an unlikely cover of a disco song; that reminded me of something I came across last year, a disco cover of an unlikely song. Yardbirds disco, anyone? If that's not weird enough, the chorus turns into southern ...

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The Iggy Pop-Peter Murphy connection redux

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:35:39 -0700

Several weeks ago I wrote about Iggy Pop and Peter Murphy sounding nearly the same; just yesterday I discovered the live radio performances that Peter Murphy and Trent Reznor gave during the joint Nine Inch Nails/Bauhaus tour of 2006. Lo and beho...

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S Convergence: Sakamoto, Satie, Stewart, Sylvian

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:29:27 -0700

Item 1: Mrs. Veneer buys Ryuichi Sakamoto's CD of solo piano pieces, BTTB. It's quite beautiful and Sakamoto mostly avoids the New Age clichés that plague so many piano CDs. Some of the pieces are obvious homages to classical works, such as "Opu...

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It's raining queens (Mississippi Queens)

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:43:01 -0700

I have previously written about my dear friend, the late Mark Harp. Mark's band Null Set brought postpunk to Baltimore; when another band called Null Set, from another city, put out a record, Mark's Null Set changed their name to Cabal. The sing...

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Blues backwards: On the Road Again

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:39:31 -0800

Of course everyone knows that "On the Road Again" is a blues standard made famous by Canned Heat in 1968: But I didn't know that in the 80s; my first encounter with it was on synth band (or what in retrospect is referred to as "minimal wave") Sc...

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A Very Ping Pong Christmas

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 20:53:08 -0800

I bought Shawn Lee's new Christmas album (subtitled "Funky Treats from Santa's Bag) under his Ping Pong Orchestra moniker, and as expected it is one groovy treat. Here's his version of "Do You Hear What I Hear," a la Deodato: And here's a Deoda...

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Sheffield crooner: John Stuart

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 16:27:05 -0800

Here starts at last my Crooners thread, and I will state right here at the beginning that no songs posted will contain the MMc Factor. In this case MMc stands not for Microsoft Management Console, but Michael McDonald. Just as there are certain ...

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