Songs performed in different genres?
November 3, 2010 8:24 PM   Subscribe

I have just discovered Scala and Kolacny Brothers' covers of songs in different genres, and I crave more.

I am not a music person, but the concept of hearing familiar songs performed in a radically different way is amazingly novel to me. Where can I hear more instances of popular, contemporary songs performed in radically different ways?
posted by fogster to Media & Arts (29 answers total) 41 users marked this as a favorite
 
Aaron Durr's "Roll Out" (cover of the Ludacris song by the same name) in a kind of lounge pianist kind of style is just.... amazing.
posted by Night_owl at 8:36 PM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Richard Cheese
posted by greasy_skillet at 8:38 PM on November 3, 2010


Nouvelle Vague if you're into early punk. Old classics like "Teenage Kicks" and "Too Drunk to Fuck" get a french boss-nova makeover.
posted by GilloD at 8:45 PM on November 3, 2010


Walk like an Egyptian, by the Cleverlys. I won't try to describe it; just give it a try.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:45 PM on November 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


If you like Nouvelle Vague, Ivy has a very similar covers album called Guestroom.

I'm also a huge fan of bluegrass covers, so I love Hayseed Dixie and this Saturday Night Hay Fever album of disco going bluegrass.

If you're into bizarrely different covers, I recommend When Pigs Fly, because we all need Don Ho singing Shock the Monkey in our lives.
posted by immlass at 8:54 PM on November 3, 2010


I don't have any suggestions, but man alive do I ever love that Scala and Kolacny Brother's you are talking about (I presume the one with Beautiful People, I Believe In You, etc on it?). Spectacular music so I will be eager to see what people suggest.
posted by gwenlister at 8:55 PM on November 3, 2010


I adore out of genre cover songs. Here are a few that I was able to scrounge together on youtube, and from memory. I'm sure there's plenty more where this came from...

Allister - I Want It That Way (Backstreet Boys)
Ari Hest - Tempted (Squeeze)
Aztec Camera - Jump (Van Halen)
BranVan 3000 - Cum On Feel The Noise (Slade)
Crispin Glover* - Ben (Michael Jackson)
Dump* - 1999 (Prince)
Emm Gryner* - Crazy Train (Ozzy Osborne)
The Flying Lizards* - Then He Kissed Me (The Crystals)
Fountains Of Wayne - ...Baby One More Time (Britney Spears)
Hayseed Dixie* - Back In Black (AC/DC)
Jason & The Scorchers* - Take Me Home, Country Roads (John Denver)
KMC Kru - Devil Came Up To Michigan (Charlie Daniels Band)
Kompressor - The Girl From Ipanema (Stan Getz)
Macha and Bedhead - Believe (Cher)
Max Raabe & The Palast Orchester*
Me First & The Gimme Gimmes* - Seasons In The Sun (Brel, Terry Jacks)
Nina Hagen - I'm A Believer (Neil Diamond, The Monkees)
Nouvelle Vague*
Pas/Cal - Last Christmas (Wham)
Rasputina - Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)
Red House Painters - I Am A Rock (Simon & Garfunkel)
Shonen Knife - Top Of The World (The Carpenters)
Silicon Teens - Judy In Disguise (John Fred & His Playboy Band)
Steve and Eydie - Black Hole Sun (Soundgarden)
The Puppini Sisters*
The Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain* - Teenage Dirtbag (Wheatus)

The asterisks denote groups or artists that tend to be particularly prone to performing out of genre cover versions of songs.

posted by ktrey at 8:57 PM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Rasputin - Turisas (Boney M)
posted by Senza Volto at 9:06 PM on November 3, 2010




I keep a bunch of these around:
posted by nicwolff at 9:15 PM on November 3, 2010


Oh, and for the out-of-genre gangster rap trifecta: The Gourds - "Gin and Juice"
posted by jferg at 9:17 PM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Hotel California has had many a remakes
posted by pyro979 at 9:22 PM on November 3, 2010


Hugo - 99 Problems
posted by Gin and Comics at 9:25 PM on November 3, 2010


A few more:

Ada – Maps (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
Bigod 20 - Like A Prayer (Madonna)
Bobby Conn - Without You (Nilsson, Mariah Carey)
Boney M. - Heart Of Gold (Neil Young)
Califone – The Orchids (Psychic TV)
DeVotchKa – The Last Beat of My Heart (Siouxsie and the Banshees)
Dooms UK - Paranoidz (Black Sabbath)
Gary Glitter - Suspicious Minds (Elvis)
Gary Numan – U Got the Look (Prince)
Glen Campbell - Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) (Green Day)
Kiki and Herb* - Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush)
Lambchop – This Corrosion [Sisters Of Mercy Cover]
Love And Rockets - Ball Of Confusion (The Temptations)
Rock Sugar* - Don't Stop The Sandman (Journey)
Storm Large And The Balls* - Abba-Gadda-Davida (Abba, Iron Butterfly)
posted by ktrey at 9:33 PM on November 3, 2010


Travis! (cover of Britney Spears' Hit Me Baby One More Time)
posted by prenominal at 9:42 PM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Coverville. A thrice-weekly podcast of nothing but cover songs, with extra love for those that are really transformative.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 9:42 PM on November 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


These are my favorite covers right now:

Baker Street - Foo Fighters
Havana Affair - Red Hot Chili Peppers
99 Red Balloons - Goldfinger
Hurt - Johnny Cash
posted by zephyr_words at 9:46 PM on November 3, 2010


Many (most?) dancehall reggae songs tend to be cover songs.
posted by lunachic at 9:58 PM on November 3, 2010


Iron Man - The Cardigans
posted by Gorgik at 10:26 PM on November 3, 2010


The Flaming Lips - Can't Get You Out of My Head
Clem Snide - Beautiful
M. Ward - Let's Dance
The Duran Duran Tribute Album (Pop-Punk)
Dump's That Skinny Motherfucker With The High Voice (ktrey beat me to 1999! Fine! Then how about Cowboy Song?!)
(Dump is James McNew from Yo La Tengo, another band that happens to excel at cover songs, if in a steady rock'n'roll style.)
Iron & Wine - Such Great Heights
SJ Esau & Friends - Sports Man (orig by Haruomi Hosono)
Luther Wright & The Wrongs' Rebuilding the Wall - Another Brick in the Wall Part 1
Easy Star All-Stars - Karma Police, Time
posted by carsonb at 11:29 PM on November 3, 2010


in a similar vein as Scala: Laibach - Across the Universe
posted by Benjamin Nushmutt at 11:51 PM on November 3, 2010


Here's a few that I don't think have been mentioned yet (okay, I'm doubling up on a couple of artists):

Louder:
Mad Caddies - S.O.S. (Abba)
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes* - Goodbye Earl (Dixie Chicks)
Sie Liebt Dich - The Punkles (The Beatles)
Sid Vicious - My Way (Frank Sinatra)
Rachid Taha - Rock El Casbah (The Clash)
Nazareth - This Flight Tonight (Joni Mitchell)
Lay Lady Lay - Ministry (Bob Dylan)
Sewing With Nancie - Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper)
ZSK - Eve of Destruction (Barry McGuire)
Motörhead ft. Wendy O. Williams - Stand By Your Man (Tammy Wynette)

Quieter:
Ted Leo - Since U Been Gone / Maps (Kelly Clarkson / Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
The Polyphonic Spree - Lithium (Nirvana)
Hard and Phirm - Rodeohead (Radiohead medley
Jonathan Coulton - Baby Got Back (Sir Mix-A-Lot) - the fourth in the rap trifecta
Cake - I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor)
Scissor Sisters - Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd)
Petra Haden* - I Can See For Miles (The Who) - from her full album cover of The Who Sells Out, every song recorded acapella on a four track.
Klaxons - Bad Romance (Lady Gaga)
Futureheads - Hounds Of Love (Kate Bush)
Langley Schools Project - Calling Occupants (of Interplanetary Craft) (Klaatu) - This album is the next step after Scala, IMHO. It's all pre 1977, but it has a rough quality that just charms shit out of me.

Also, here are the links to Coverville's last year-end countdown, 40 covers as voted on by listeners, and the hall of fame podcast; the most popular from the previous 5 years.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 12:05 AM on November 4, 2010


From two years back, a similar question. And instrumental covers.
posted by knile at 2:25 AM on November 4, 2010


My favorite wildly out-of-genre cover-generating artist is the Russian Red Army Choir, or the A.V. Alexandrov Russian army twice red-bannered academic song and dance ensemble.

They've done collaborations with the Leningrad Cowboys and performed on Andrew Denton's Musical Challenge (which seems to be what you're looking for), leading to such bizarre yet thoroughly enjoyable results as:

> Sweet Home Alabama || Lynyrd Skynyrd
> Delilah || Tom Jones
> Stairway to Heaven || Led Zeppelin
> Happy Together (particularly delightful) || The Turtles
> Yellow Submarine / Proud Mary || The Beatles / CCR
> Down Under || Men At Work
> Sex Bomb || Tom Jones and Mousse T
... and so much more!

See also these songs interpreted in the styles of different composers:
> Tom Lehrer - Clementine
> Any piece by this man

Also, while we're here:
> Paska - the most horrifying rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen) I have ever heard

Great cover blogs to which I am currently subscribed:
> Blowin Your Cover
> Cover Lay Down (folk covers! (my favorite))
> Cover Freak
> Cover Me

It's very possible that my iTunes is more covers than original songs, and if there seems to be demand I'll return to this thread with more (though we have an ace selection as is!).
posted by iguessgabby at 3:17 AM on November 4, 2010


Did nobody bring up Wonderwall / Wonderwall?
Amazing.

To their credit, Noel Gallagher in an interview said the Mike Flowers Pops or whatever they're called "found the original version of the song"
posted by gijsvs at 4:02 AM on November 4, 2010


The Vitamin String Quartet, if you don't mind the lack of vocals.
posted by thejanna at 7:18 AM on November 4, 2010


One more I'm surprised no one has mentioned: Alien Ant Farm - "Smooth Criminal"
posted by jferg at 9:05 AM on November 4, 2010




love this thread...

to contribute, different takes on Nirvana songs:
Smells Like Teen Spirit Tori Amos
All Apologies Herbie Hancock
Heart Shaped Box Evanescence
Something in the Way Tricky

and...ummm... Smells Like Teen Spirit Paul Anka (sorry Richard Cheese, I know this is your territory, but this is Paul Freakin Anka)
posted by mcstayinskool at 6:54 PM on November 4, 2010


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