Perhaps, one of the greatest guilty pleasures in my life: the perverse enjoyment I get listening to musicians covering other artist's songs. The weirder the cover, the better! It doesn't matter how awkward or horrible the quality (shitty cell phone video, I'm looking at you), I'm an absolute sucker for this stuff. Here's the first in a new installment I'm proud to call, "under-covers."
Today, we feature Cyndi Lauper's smash 1983 hit, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." This song has been a favorite of mine since I first heard Homer singing the chorus way back in "Lisa's First Word" (Episode 10, Season 4.1992!)
"That's all they really waaaaaaaaant"
Here's Cyndi's classic:
Who doesn't love this song? It's easily, one of the catchiest songs in the history of creation. Not to mention, Cyndi Lauper's voice is one in a million.
Now Arcade Fire's take.
This may sound insane, but I kind of enjoy their live version better. The pulsating bassline pushes through everything else and makes ya wanna get funky right?....right? All the 80's electronics and studio effects are gone, leaving only wild, toe tapping musicianship to fill the void. Vocally, Regine is no Cyndi Lauper, but she sings the song with such an honest, giddy school girl quality it kind of makes my bitter heart melt. Also, how rad is it seeing a bunch of six foot dudes singing along to this jam?
Love this song. Love this cover.
What do you think?
*Bonus Clip*
Did you know Cyndi's Lauper's version wasn't the original?! It's technically a cover as well!
The song "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" was originally written by some dude named Robert Hazard. He gave the song to Cyndi for her debut album and helped her create the famous version we all know today. HA. My first post...a cover, of a cover!
As you all know, I'm a fan of insanely ridiculous metal/extreme music. The more growls & blast beats the better. However, there are certain "normal" bands that catch ear every so often that have become favorites of mine. Arcade Fire are one of these acts.
I've gushed over their last LA performance at The Shrine and basically hailed their latest record The Suburbs as my favorite album of 2010 on this very blog before. Well on Sunday night, my favorite clan of Canadian musicians not only gave two awesome performances on the Grammy's telecast but also pulled off the biggest upset of the night winning Album of The Year. No, not Eminem, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga or some other ultra hyped media sensation, Arcade Fire won. A group of people who play actual instruments and write/perform their own music received recognition from the Recording Industry that night. I thought the sky was going to come falling to the ground.
Here is the hilariously awesome video of their win and final performance.
lol at the abysmal nominees they were competing against.
lol @ Barbara Streisand's shock/confusion announcing the winners (calling them "The Suburbs").
lol @ the band's own reaction. Happy & excited about their achievement, but more comfortable playing one last song.
Perhaps the greatest thing about their win Sunday night, was the immediate outrage it sparked. Who the hell are these bastards? I've never seen any music videos for them before? Nobody has their ringtones...how could they have won?! There is a tumblr account called Who Is Arcade Fire that has sprung up and is devoted to the angry Twitter/social media responses to David's victory over Slim Shady's, Katy Perry & Lady Gaga's Goliaths. Very amusing stuff =p
This may come as a surprise, but I'm also a fan of NON-EXTREME METAL. Like...regular music. Strange huh? Well yeah, although most of my time is spent listening to growls, blast beats and ungodly time changes I honestly enjoy all kinds of music. Montreal's Arcade Fire are not only one of my favorite "normal" bands, but one of my favorite acts period. I first stumbled upon them on accident. About five years ago I had downloaded At The Drive-In's In Casino Out off SoulSeek and some careless/unorganized user included Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" in the album file. One second I'm listening to angular post-punk and the next, its Arcade Fire...majestic and catchy as fuck. I was hooked and immediately downloaded their debut album Funeral and the rest is history.
So now Arcade Fire are huge. They've always been indie media darlings as far as I've known, but now they're like # 1 album in the country, touring w/ U2, "saviors of rock music" ultra hype huge. I've seen them slay thousands at Coachella. I've watched them in the freezing cold at the Hollywood Bowl. Tonight, they were playing one of two shows at the far more intimate Shrine Auditorium (inb4 6,000 seats is still big). They were playing a smaller, indoor venue and promoting their awesome new album The Suburbs. Needless to say I was stoked. So of course I started fighting a nasty cold the day of the show. Figures.
The sold out show was filled to the brim with dirty hipsters, yuppies, grandma & grandpa Woodstock veterans and all around goofy fuckers like myself. HOT chicks though. Despite the differences in the audiences' demographics, we all came together in rocking out once our favorite Canadians took the stage. They opened with "Ready to Start" off their new album and began the kickass-ery that lasted the entire night. Sure, there was some moments of muddled sound, Win's guitar's stopped working mid way through their set and he flat out forgot some lyrics toward the end, but really people, Arcade Fire tore the joint up. They played a healthy does of new material ("Sprawl II," "Modern Man," "Rococo," "We Used to Wait,") and old tracks off Funeral ("Laika", "Haiti," "Rebellion Lies") with a few Neon Bible cuts thrown in as well ("No Cars Go," "Intervention,").
This easily one of my favorite Arcade Fire songs. It's like some ancient tribal Ewok jam and I fucking love it. If the Storm Troopers had been blasting this out the side of their Imperial Walkers, they would have subdued Endor a whole lot quicker is all I'm saying.
This is another old Funeral track only it was recorded by some lucky bastard with a better seat than me. I remember the first time I saw this video on MTV2 and it kicked my ass. Notice how the chick singing in the other video is playing drums here? Yeah, they're all pretty much multi-instrumentalists. Seven (sometimes eight or nine) dudes/dudettes onstage...like a talented Slipknot, or an Amish Wu-Tang Clan.
So yeah. Arcade Fire put on a damn good show and I heard night two was even better. My personal highlight of the evening was Win talking shit about the Lakers before drowning out the boos and groans by launching into "Power Out." Good stuff man.
* side note. I saw a few minor celebrities walking around after the concert ended (the asian doctor on Grey's Anatomy/naked chick in Sideways, Hyde from That '70s Show, and the retarded guy from The Office)...too bad I didn't give two shits about any of them. Funny because I met Danzig at the Shrine when I was a teenager during some comic book/porn fest before I even cared about The Misfits.
