just scroll down to the track headers to hear the songs if you don't feel like readin'.

whenever it's real, whenever it's right

dear friends,

thank you very much for this gift. it will certainly keep on giving as it will go out in many mixes to come &/or be played to all those that wind up in my living room watching tv & drinking classy broads. apparently, there are some late (but worthy) additions to this mix, which I will add here as I receive them.

I'm not the most subtle of people. I usually come out & ask for stuff. which is why whenever I'd tell j that for my birthday I wanted my friends to cover my favorite songs, it was half dare & half demand. after all, I've spent a bit of time getting people to cover music, it wasn't such an out there request. j being j, he would only look at me & go "oh yeah...? (magazine page flip)" which in jeremy-speak means "slow statement consideration commencing. (hourglass icon)"

eventually, I forgot about this until about a month & a half or so ago when I started picking up on some unusually suspicious behavior from my mate. namely, crazily frequent surreptitious email checking, odd lyric quoting*, & an extremely distracted & frazzled air. there were red flags from other folks as well; strangely worded remarks, random birthday texting & a blog post by tavie, one of j's friends & co-workers, pretty much detailing what was up. so the cat was definitely, if not quite OUT of the bag, pretty darn visible. a week ago I told j that he was full of shady & when he expressed "who, me?" I elaborated by saying that if I was a lioness & he, a grazing gazelle, then I just caught the gazelle looking suspiciously casual as he chewed on leaves. hunter gets captured by the game? uzi hidden in the plains? something was up. jeremy laughed. unbelievable.

come monday, september 25, my actual birthday, I looked him right in the eye & asked him for my present. he gave me a book I'd already read & wearily went back to checking his email. I was flabbergasted. I sulked. I might've even gone out in the street & kicked a can or two. luckily, there was a party to look forward to on the next day. I went to sleep at 4am & dreamt of natural disasters.

of course, he gave it to me at the party.

j, you are very sneaky. & a bad kid. thank you for resisting my laser beam stares even if it was excruciating for both of us & thank you for even attempting the herculean task of exec producing this lovely cd.

thank you friends! I am impressed (with the exception of marts & tina, who don't realize they're some of the worst liars I have ever encountered & that is a good thing really) with all of you for not letting it slip, not even for a second. all of your songs are fantastic & this is a dream birthday gift for this sweaty little fangirl. if you guys are gluttons for punishment & want to do something like this again, do me favor, & let a sister know what's up. she can't handle the suspense.

love, d

PS to all my friends who were not contacted because j isn't shameless like me (eh, searching for contacts through his cell phone & email address books when he wasn't looking while organizing guitarmy? yeah. did that.) please add stuff to this mix. after all no one took on pj harvey, vu, new order, the beatles, aaliyah, nina simone, the zombies, helium, bjork, yo la tengo, slick rick, wire, the pixies, the b-52s, etc, etc, etc.

* jeremy. saying "gigolo, huh? sucka." in the shower.

Daniella: Under Cover

(heather k, cover image mistress, I don't know where you got this picture of me looking like a beastie from the briny deep but burn it please! betty page can stay though. I loves me an animal print bikini. thanks for being suckered, yet again, from across the country no less, to one of these enterprises. you are aces.)



01. My Girl -Caught & Candy
02. Conduit for Sale/Wounded Cougar at 0:17 -HULA COUGAR!
03. You Made Me Realise -Spy Alarms
04. Stop Your Sobbing -The Unsacred Hearts
05. Fascination Street -El Jezel
06. How Soon Is Now? -Man in Mauve
07. Crazy -The Littlests
08. Natural One -Lobster Kitty
09. Adult Books -Faint Praise
10. Nothing in this World to Stop Me Worrying About That Girl -Gabriel Miller-Phillips
11. Gay Bar -Dirty Sasha
12. Ain't It Fun -Tina DaCosta
13. Buffalo Stance -Baby Be-Gone
14. Sunflower -Botany Bay
15. There is a Light That Never Goes Out -The Fantastic Stand (with Carol Ann)
16. For Shame of Doing Wrong -Tex Penhaligon
17. Spit On A Stranger -Jeremy

***

18. (Bonus Track #1) Idioteque - The Mood Swing

01. My Girl - Caught & Candy (mp3)

(as dictated by bryan & someone else, jared? alex? I had to listen to this without looking at who was doing what since this is my preferred method of torture for my audio victims. that's cool with me. let's go...)

"During a late night jam session at Chris and Nathania's there was a musical spark that launched Caught & Candy. Comprised of Chris, Nathania, George and Jessica, this supergroup operates best late at night under the influence of hard liquor and even harder drugs. As they riffed their way throgh some of the 20th century's greatest songs they came across this Motown nugget. What was first a one-take idea turned into multi-tracking with a slew of kitchen sink ingredients including toy pianos, harmonies, pots and pans and unusual animal noises. The next day they hardly remembered doing it, but The Beatles never remembered their sessions either so there ya go."

george is instantly recognizable with his little "that's awesome" & I knew it was jess but who was the other lady? I was informed that it was none other than miss nathania, check you out, girl! & chris b too! all in all, a promising supergroup indeed.

I can totally imagine this song in a david lynch movie being sung by conjoined twins in front of velvety curtains. while it is very sweet, there is something quietly scary about it, & I can't quite pinpoint what makes it so. of course this opinion is mightily reinforced by the surprise chupacabra appearance at 2:06. werd!

original: my girl/the temptations

02. Conduit For Sale... - HULA COUGAR! (mp3)

HULA COUGAR! says "PAVEMENT! Serge provided guitaring, drumming, and WE'RE TRYINGing. Yvette provided bassing, shaker egging, and her very best Malkie impersonation. WOUNDED-COUGAR comes in at :17 only it is not :17 but it never was. HULA COUGAR! loves d. GRRR."

I actually saw who this was before I heard it & was a little apprehensive. I think that HULA COUGAR!'s usual output is a little too vanguard for me & my tiny ears. at the same time, I couldn't help but notice that it was an inspired & perhaps perfect song choice for these wacky french canadians. & damn, if it ain't so. spectacular mon amies! good fuckin' show. love yvette's voiceover & that you kept those wacky badabadas at the end. this kitten approves.

original: conduit for sale.../pavement

03. You Made Me Realise - Spy Alarms (mp3)

SPY ALARMS - "You Made Me Realise" You Made Me Realize is a rare MBV song that reveals the foundation of their musical intensity, rooted heavily in punk rock ala Husker Du and the post-wave movement of the mid-late 80s. Spy Alarms ups the ante by pushing the atonality and tempo shifting ugliness further, while sweetening the layers of vocal prettiness that were all too buried in the original. In the end, it's all about the Happy Birthday-ness of the song and we hope you enjoy! In other news, Spy Alarms will soon graduate from the Birthday Comp circuit and deliver an EP called the "The Chase is On" in the next few months.

M.DeLeon: vox
E.Lee: wurlitzer, vox
C.Aguinaldo: baritone guitar, vox
D.DeCriscio: drums

when this song started I think my exact words to j were something to the effect of "no. fucking. way." I knew it had to be cris a. & then when the voice came in, I knew it was marta of the lions.

interestingly, I put this song on a mix for cris with the unspoken suggestion that he should cover it. thank you spy alarms! I love this & am so glad it's here!

original: you made me realise/my bloody valentine

04. Stop Your Sobbing (Live) - The Unsacred Hearts (mp3)

UNSACRED HEARTS - "Stop Your Sobbing"
Recorded live at Pianos... a classic Kinks cover

god bless joe willie. he can only be joe willie & that is why there might be better singers out there, but there are precious few frontmen better than jw.

I like the almost mean-spirited "crying" ooh ah oohs provided by mr. andy bean. nice addition.

thank you unsacred hearts! I hope I get to see this performed live again at some point!

original: stop your sobbing/the kinks

05. Fascination St. - El Jezel (mp3)

El Jezel had already been doing this Cure cover prior to the planning of this project, so our laziness prevailed and we went with it. During a Friday night rehearsal they strung up a few simple mics and recorded it all basic like on a Tascam 4-track(classic). Whisky was consumed, bad takes were thwarted, and in the end they got what we needed. A week later George dumped the basic tracks into his digital 16 track and added vocals, sound effects , and more guitars of course. Dreary sweetness!

george jezel nails the seagull guitar on this & of course I've seen el jezel rock this shit live so I had this great, well, DUH moment when it came on. love it! I have to admit, the vocal effect that george has on his double tracked voice kinda scared the bejeezus out of me & it brought on this bizarre mental image of him dressed like robert smith for halloween complete with giant sneaks, voluminous shirts, big hair & lipstick.

original: fascination st./the cure

06. How Soon is Now? - Man in Mauve (mp3)

What happens when 4/5th of Man in Gray get together to cover The Smiths? They become "Man In Mauve". Now you know what I was up to all day on Sunday! Jeremiah saves the day with his editing skills by splicing multiple tapes together that otherwise would have been an out-of-sync mess. Can you guess which mig-member is missing?

bryan is missing. I wonder what kind of bruchmanness he'd add to the precedings? love tina's vocals on this! & I dig hearing the softer side of mig. those kids are always hell bent for leather so it's nice to hear some cool atmospherics for a change.

hilarious side note: while I was listening to this, I was babbling up a storm & j suddenly went "shhhh. I'm shredding." ha ha ha ha. I'm gonna put that on a t-shirt & give it to him for x-mas.

original: how soon is now?/the smiths

07. Crazy - The Littlest (mp3)

Joel + Marta + Kristie + Gnarls = Crazy!

because I love a crazy cover. I wouldn't be surprised if this cover winds up making the rounds.

not to be crass or nothing, but kristie's vocal assist on the chorus is very boner juice. what a sultry voice! dang!

great stuff, I hope the three of you continue to collaborate!

original: crazy/gnarls barkley

08. Natural One - Lobster Kitty (mp3)

Jared & Bryan

I'm not gonna front. I laughed myself off the bed with this one. & it's not 'cause it's bad, it's great & I adore this song! it's just that the combination of the tinkly menacing almost video game music sounding background & jared's falsetto filled me with this crazy ass church laughter & I had tears in my eyes. j thought I'd finally lost my mind. too hilarious.

thanks guys. you're funny. (old school dart voice)

original: natural one/the folk implosion

09. Adult Books - Faint Praise (mp3)

Phil and Tina's hypnotic X cover.

I was still recovering from natural one when this selection came on. I was stumped. j looked at me expectantly. not only did I not know who this was but I had no idea what song it was either. joy division gone western? "adult books." j said. never heard of 'em. "no, that's the song. it's x." oh. can't remember which one that is. who is doing it? "phina" ah.

this explains the hard to spot-ness, phil has chameleon-like vocal stylings & can easily swing from super stylized to something rustic. & tina is whispering somewhere in the waves of reverb so I didn't recognize her either. it sounds like a ghostly dispatch from a long forgotten town. for me, it did exactly what covers should do, which is to interest you into seeking the original. good one!

original: adult books/x

10. Nothing In This... - Gabriel Miller-Phillips (mp3)

sometime last year, gabe asked me for a mix of songs that he could cover. I worked on it forever, through several computer crashes & other sundry disasters. when I finally gave it to him, I told him most of the selections would require re-arranging. with one exception, this kinks song (the second one on this mix!) I told him he wouldn't have to change a thing, that it would fit him like a glove. sho' nuff, it does!

original: nothing in this world can stop me worrying about that girl/the kinks

11. Gay Bar - Dirty Sasha (mp3)

Alex aka Dirty Sasha wants to take you to a gay bar.

leave it to alex, that talented bastard, to do it latin style. me entiendes hermanito dirty. this is awesome.

original: gay bar/electric six

12. Ain't it Fun - Tina DaCosta (mp3)

a bazillion years ago I tried to convince mig to cover this song, a favorite, because I thought it would be great to hear a woman sing it. tina finally does it, a few years later, but radically turns it inside out by a) doing it accapella & b) layering on the echo so the song has a disorienting luminousnes that goes against the self destructive nastiness of the lyrics. like a pretty blonde soprano with blood streaming from her wrists being rushed to the emergency room, blissfully oblivious to all the trouble she's caused. chaos erupts all around her & all she wants is a smoke.

original: ain't it fun/rocket from the tombs

13. Buffalo Stance - Baby Be-Gone (mp3)

Stephanie makes her buffalo stance while her gigolo plays guitar behind her.

stephanie & jared are on crack. mega strength crack. this is one where I really wished I had been there to see the recording process. if only to see the dance that steph did after she says "rock this place." quarter bet jared was bass-in' shirtless.

original: buffalo stance/neneh cherry

14. Sunflower - Botany Bay (mp3)

The Secret Life of Sofia's Eric Schwortz does a lush dreamy cover of a Low song.

I was crazy about what eric s. aka botany bay did with the song, niv, on guitarded so I've been patiently awaiting another track from him & here it is, on a gorgeous song by low, taking on those patented alan/mimi harmonies with finesse. love those "sweet/sweet"s.

he needs to record an entire ep of covers & put that shiz on my space STAT. failing that, he can just send the cd to my house. okay, eric?

UPDATE: befriend botany bay on my space

original: sunflower/low

15. There is a... - The Fantastic Stand and Carol Ann (mp3)

THE FANTASTIC STAND (with Carol Ann)- "There is a Light That Never Goes Out.
Since George had been yearning to do a whole ep of Morrissey/Smiths covers for at least a couple years, this project served as a good instigator. He chose to take this classic in a slower dirtier direction, which for better or worse turned it into a 6 and a half minute epic. And although this marks the first time The Fantastic Stand has taken the spotlight it just wouldn't be the same without a little vocal love from Carol Ann on the outro. George hopes D doesn't consider this interpretation to be outright sacrilege.

sacrilege! BAH! & while I know that it's more fantastic stand than carol ann this time around, it will always be carol ann & the fantastic stand for me thanks to those stellar showings on the guitarded & guitarmy projects.

this classic song is about an exquisite type of adolescent frustration. what makes this an interesting version of it, is that this time around it sounds like weary hindsight. which makes more sense since moz was well out of his teens when he recorded it with the smiths. thank you for this! personally, I can't wait for this morrissey/smiths tribute. when's it gonna happen george? HUH? when george? HUH!?!?!

original: there is a light that never goes out/the smiths

16. For Shame of Doing Wrong - Tex Penhaligon (mp3)

TEX PENHALIGON - "For Shame of Doing Wrong"
Jared, aka Tex, doing his patented bearclaw style multi-layer guitar on this Richard Thompson cover.

I get penhaligon but who is tex?

several years ago, after several beers, I sang this song on the street to jared while waiting for the bus late one night. I have never done that to anyone ever mostly because singing in other people's company makes me very uncomfortable*. that memory is incredibly revealing about the friendship between me & red.

thanks jared. what I love most about this is that I can easily sing along & play linda to your richard. teenage snake?

original: for shame of doing wrong/richard & linda thompson

* yes, I'm trying to get over that currently.

17. Spit on a Stranger - Jeremy (mp3)

JEREMY - "Spit on a Stranger"
Me trying to swoon Daniella with my Malkmus imitation.

I asked j whether "swooning" meant he was trying to woo me, spoon me, or make me swoon. or all of the above?

eh... I remember the first time I heard this pavement song & what I felt about it with great clarity. I remember thinking how funny it was that stephen malkmus, of all lyricists, would write lines that I would want someone to sing to me some day & have them mean it. because you can't get more direct, feelings-wise, than the final lyrics to this song. & I'd never had that.

so yeah. naturally when this track, the last one, started, I had myself a little cry.

(can I just say how glad I am we didn't have a public listening reveal for this one, yikes!)

j saw my splotchy, wet face & asked me if I was mad that there was no yo la tengo. silly boy. you are the one that leaves me high.

original: spit on a stranger/pavement

BONUS 18. Idioteque - The Mood Swing (mp3)

poor chris. queens guy goes to brooklyn looking for a fun party & winds up watching fearless freaks with bryan, some chatty girl & her quiet boyfriend until 4AM instead. & getting an email afterwards from that same chatty girl asking him to take part in a covers mix for the quiet guy, just for, you know, the hell of it. he said yes, & the mood swing was born!

idioteque is one of my favorite radiohead songs by virtue of being so completely SLAMMING live when I saw them do it in liberty park however many years ago that was. I had no idea what chris was going to do with it, the original is so technotronic that it's hard to imagine it any other way. of course, he gets closer to the meaning of the song, in all its paranoid portentiousness, here in this jittery, skeletal take. fantastic! thank you chris for throwing down yet again!

BONUS 19. Fight This Generation - The JLM (mp3)

the third pavement track on this here covers mix, this time from my favorite pavement album wowee zowee. I was curious to see what the jlm would do about the ending string section & basically he dispensed with it entirely in favor of an industrial, metropolis-style sound. fight this generation as cyborg call to arms! thanks jlm!

BONUS 20. Comfortably Numb/Pete Galub

I went with my moms to a high school talent show. two 8th graders shuffled on with their little amps & did an impassioned version of comfortably numb. "he," my mom whispered, pointing to the one singing, "is going to be a real musician someday." as always, she was right. thank you so much, pete! I love it.

befriend pete galub on my space.

NB: beware the "there'll be no more...(usually an AAAAH)" part. I jumped out of my chair.