New Music / Setting Sun cover Tom Petty’s You Got Lucky

January 27, 2009 | New Music | by Casper Johansson |

Setting Sun’s cover of Tom Petty’s You Got Lucky was recently released as part of Buffet Libre DJ’s compilation CD, Rewind 2. Says frontman, Gary Levitt, of their version on the song: ‘We got back from our European tour on Christmas Eve with a December 27th deadline for the track looming. It was finally started on December 26th and then sent off completed the next day. It was a great exercise in having to let some things go. That’s twenty-four hours out the door complete, old school style. That’s how records used to be made. Motown, baby, MOTOWN!’ We have the song for free download in our Music Download section [psst, it's in the third column of the site]

New Trends / The Trojans’ Hallelujah? Yup, cover songs rule

December 5, 2008 | New Trends | by Francis Andrews |

It takes a potent strain on self-belief to attempt a cover of a great song. In the history of cover songs there have been some great attempts, and some absolute howlers. Hendrix succeeded on All Along The Watchtower; Nirvana did it with Man Who Sold The World; Aretha Frankin with Respect. But maybe the crown (at least for the last ten years) goes to Jeff Buckley’s take on Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. It turned a good, but not memorable, song into surely one of the most spine-tinglingly beautiful and lasting pieces of songwriting in modern music. So, if someone told me Hallelujah had been reworked again, and this time as a bouncy ska piece, I’d probably have turned and walked away for fear of it tainting the above incarnation. But in a club on Friday night, an ageing London ska group called the Trojans had a go and it was simply awesome. The crowd’s bemused faces quickly turned into all-out smiles and the place erupted. Unfortunately we were left crushed with the final words that they were yet to record it. And judging by the gurn on the Bez-like frontman and chief whip of the group (who was replaced by a female vocalist for the song), that may take a while. So, until then, we’ll leave you with another completely different take on another great song: Schneider TM does The Smiths’, There Is A Light That Will Never Go Out.

New Music / Au Revoir Simone

October 24, 2008 | New Music | by Michaella Solar-March |

Casio Keyboard Brooklyn trio Au Revoir Simone are about to release a collection of remixes and covers their musical friends have recorded of songs found on their second album, The Bird Of Music. Titled Reverse Migration, the record features re-workings by Best Fwends, Teenagers, Darkel, and more. We caught up with them recently. Why and when did you decide to release a remix album? Annie: ‘Our friends were making so many wonderful versions of our songs we wanted to share them with the world’. How did you select the artists? Annie: ‘Mostly they were friends who told us they wanted to do remixes! Very fun and easy’. Reverse Migration is out November 11 through the band’s own label, Our Secret Record Company. Listen to Ruff & Jam by Au Revoir Simone.

New Music / The Kooks cover MGMT

September 5, 2008 | New Music | by Zolton |

Now this is fun. The aptly named The Kooks cover the equally as aptly named MGMT for Australian radio network, Triple J. The song, Kids, is about as upbeat as any minor key progression can get. We like.

July 29, 2008 | Video | by Gerry Mak |

Ten Masked Men are a British parody band that does death metal covers of famous pop songs by Ricky Martin, Christina Aguilera, Madonna, and many others. One of my favorites is their cover of Justin Timberlake’s ‘Cry Me a River’. It’s epic.