Editors' Picks
Turn Ons by The HotRats
A Cover Band With Chops!
It was just last Saturday night that a few of us were talking about great covers, listening to some reinterpretations of Hendrix and VU songs and going through the list we had chosen of our top covers of 2009.
Seems fitting that this album finds it's way to the top of my pile this week. We love covers but it's been a while since we actually wanted to talk about a band whose whole reason for being is covers. In fact, not since Nouvelle Vague burst on the scene with their bossa nova tinged new wave take on things in 2005.
But this is entirely different. These are ROCK covers of ROCK songs from 1/2 of British stalwarts Supergrass: Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey. The band name is an obvious homage to the Frank Zappa album of the same name.
The list of bands (and songs) they tackle is beyond impressive. What I love about their choices is that along with the hits, they have mixed in some very interesting deep cuts, most notably "Big Sky" by The Kinks, "Bike" by Pink Floyd and "Up The Junction" by Squeeze.
Don't go looking for any new age electronic re-imaginations of these songs; this, for the most part is straight on Rock and Roll.
* "I Can't Stand It" (The Velvet Underground/Lou Reed)
* "Big Sky" (The Kinks)
* "The Crystal Ship" (The Doors)
* "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)" (The Beastie Boys)
* "Damaged Goods" (Gang of Four)
* "Love Is the Drug" (Roxy Music)
* "Bike" (Pink Floyd)
* "Pump It Up" (Elvis Costello)
* "The Lovecats" (The Cure)
* "Queen Bitch" (David Bowie)
* "E.M.I." (Sex Pistols)
* "Up The Junction" (Squeeze)
In addition to these 12, the band has recorded covers of "Drive My Car" by The Beatles as well as "Mirror In The Bathroom" by The English Beat and "West End Girls" by Pet Shop Boys. We'll update this as we find sources for them.
Here's our Song of the Day choice: Hotrats version of The Cure's "The Lovecats"
You can stream the whole album through once on LaLa:
