Favourite Cover Versions: The Fall – There’s A Ghost In My My House

I was just a young ‘un when this came out, but it sealed my life-long love of The Fall. The original, by R Dean Taylor, is an undisputed Northern Soul classic, perfect for those headspinning routines in Wigan on speed at 2 am (such is my understanding of the scene). The Fall had even referencedContinue reading “Favourite Cover Versions: The Fall – There’s A Ghost In My My House”

Favourite Cover Versions: Lianne La Havas- Weird Fishes

A cover version is always going to divide people, but I’ve got a feeling that Lianne La Havas, the glorious London soul singer, met with approval from Thom Yorke here. Weird Fishes from the Radiohead album In Rainbows is transformed . Her powerful vibrato is beautiful, and you know straight off the bat that it’sContinue reading “Favourite Cover Versions: Lianne La Havas- Weird Fishes”

New Release: Brontez Purnell: Stay Monkey

This new single, a riotous cover of the Julie Ruin song, Stay Monkey, is absolutely badass. I’m so grateful every day for Indies like Upset The Rhythm, because they’re genuinely alternative, excited about music that’s completely out of the mainstream playlist of curated crap, designed for algorithms. They kow-tow to no -one. As for Brontez,Continue reading “New Release: Brontez Purnell: Stay Monkey”

Lost In Music: The Cramps- Off The Bone

Produced alongside The Box Tops and Big Star’s singer Alex Chilton, Off The Bone is a 1983 compilation of songs by The Cramps. Well, okay, it’s mostly cover versions, but the band make them very much their own. From a pounding take on Sam Phillips’ Domino, to the cartoonish libido running feral on Charlie FeathersContinue reading “Lost In Music: The Cramps- Off The Bone”

Just Step Sideways: 8 Eyed Spy

Lydia Lunch was never one to stick to a signature sound, so it was hardly surprising to anyone when Teenage Jesus and The Jerks split in the late seventies, and she formed with future composer Pat Irwin and future Nick Cave collaborator Jim Sclavunos, among others, the brilliant 8 Eyed Spy, a swampy, jazzy punkyContinue reading “Just Step Sideways: 8 Eyed Spy”

Lydia and Rowland- Some Velvet Morning

Cover versions are always interesting when they’re cut to ribbons. So it is with Lydia Lunch and Rowland S Howard’s 1982 version of the Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood classic. Already pretty trippy, as befits a proto- psychedelic nursery rhyme, Lunch and Howard decided to make it even murkier. The duo, who met during Howard’sContinue reading “Lydia and Rowland- Some Velvet Morning”