Cover me – Whitney Houston Edition

It’s no secret that I love Chris Cornell.  He can pretty much do ANYTHING and I’ll back it.  I even liked some of the tracks on his ill-fated Timbaland produced record Scream, despite what Trent Reznor had to say on Twitter.  The merging of the decidedly rock/alternative Cornell with a more Hip Hop style resulted in something not so great.  So when, in the wake of legendary R&B singer Whitney Houston’s death, Cornell decided to do an impromtu cover of her iconic song “I will always love you”, I was incredibly interested to see how he would tackle it.  See for yourselves:

This is a far cry from anything on Scream.  This is the best kind of cover in my opinion.  Cornell took Houston’s song, a song that everyone knows, has memorized the words to, has sang in karaoke, and completely turned it into something of his very own.  If his Songbook record hadn’t already been out for months now, I would say this song would make the perfect addition.  Stripped down, simple, yet emotionally powerful, Cornell truly did the late Whitney Houston justice.  And you know the pressure was on, considering he performed this song at a fundraiser for President Obama.  How much cooler can Cornell get?  Who cares!  He’s still smokin’ hot to me.

Cover Me, OLD School Edition

There are very few things that I enjoy about my thirty plus minute commute to work every day.  BOTH. WAYS.  Being the musical minded person that I am, I go absolutely insane if I dont have some sort of soundtrack to my drive, so the radio is a definite staple.  Today while driving home, I happened to be listening to Q107′s afternoon show, letting Canadian music icon Kim Mitchell (of “Patio Latterns” fame) not only play music to ease the pain of gridlock, but educate his listeners as well.  Listening to his show, it’s clear that Mitchell is an expert on music in more ways than one.  An accomplished guitarist, singer and songwriter, his knowledge of music history is plentiful.  I grew up listening to his music, since my mom loved his songs and made my brothers and I watch his videos on Muchmusic.  So I guess letting him teach me something every now and then feels pretty natural.  And today’s lesson happened to be one about a very well known song by one of the greatest bands of all time, Led Zeppelin, a personal favourite of mine.  When a band as iconic as Zeppelin, and have influenced so many bands and artists with their own music, it’s almost hard to imagine who their influences could have been.  It’s almost harder to imagine that one of their most well known songs “When the Levee Breaks”, was actually a cover !  Well, imagine no longer, because it really was.

Meet Memphis Minnie.  Born at the end of the the 19th century, her career lasted over four decade.  At age 13, she moved to Tenessee to play wherever she was allowed, even joining the Ringling Brothers circus for a few years.  She was discovered at a Beale Street barbershop in 1929, by a Columbia Records talent scout.  She recorded her first song with then husband Kansas Joe McCoy, and the rest is history.  Her talent put her on the same level as her male contemporaries, something unheard of in that period of time.  She was one of the first to pick up an electric guitar, and her infusion of country and blues paved the way for the likes of Muddy Waters, Bo Diddly and many others.

What I love the most about Led Zeppelin covering her song is that, in my mind, there is no manlier band than Led Zeppelin.  All long hair, loud guitars and sex appeal, the fact that these guys covered a song by a historical female musician is absolutely amazing to me.  Take a listen to the original, and the cover, and marvel at the wonder that is music.

Those who write, should read!

It seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it.  If you like to write, you should also like to read!  The fact is, I LOVE to read.  But for some reason, lately, I haven’t been.  I know, it’s shameful, and this post is my embarrassing confession.  I’ve been focusing on my writing for the Examiner lately (yes, my blog has been woefully neglected), so I write instead of read.  Which frankly is pretty dumb, because reading, and reading  A LOT makes you a better writer.  People who are published generally know their shit, writing-wise and everyone can stand to learn something.  So yes, this weekend, I read a book! I’m very sad that this was an actual accomplishment for me, considering I was a huge bookworm for most of my life.  So, now here, on the internet, where you put things out and cannot take them back,  I hereby commit to READ MORE.

I guess I should be clear.  I didn’t just start this post to make a web-vow.  I actually wanted to write about the book I read.  And, in a kind of round about way, it relates to music, so it does belong on this blog!

Your Voice In My Head is the memoir of Emma Forrest, currently a celebrated screenwriter in LA, but she actually began her life as a music journalist in her early teens.  She dropped out of high school, traveled around with british indie bands and documented their adventures.  Essentially, she had my dream job.  And she did it when she was fourteen.  But beyond the amazing career, and celebrity liasons, Forrest is a deeply troubled individual.  Her book chronicles her life to date, her battle with mental illness (that she almost loses, more than once), and her relationship with the therapist she credits with saving her life.  And she does so in a raw, emotional, and poignantly honest way.  You can hear her voice as you read, sarcastic, funny, alternating between british and american slang.  I love the way she writes, it’s how I hope to write, and I admire her courage at putting it all out there.

So, in short, Your Voice In My Head is the book that has reminded me that I love to read.  And I’ve committed to myself, and the interwebs at large, to do more of it. The End.

Disapointed by the Grammys, le sad

A while ago I posted about how I was excited about the Grammys, for the first time in a long time.  So I buckled down to watch them with my awards show team, including fellow blogger Aleks Jassem.  We sat, glasses of wine in one hand, picking at various snacks and deliciousness with the other, in eager anticipation of what was to come.  And as per my previous post, there was much to anticipate.

We were SORELY disapointed.

To my dismay all the awards I was looking forward to were presented prior to airing.  Congratulations to the Black Keys on Winning Alternative Album of the Year for Brothers, a great album, and Them Crooked Vultures for Hard Rock Performance, despite beating out my beloved Soundgarden.  These presentations aparently didn’t merit airing for whatever reason, but Cee-lo (who I love despite this) got to dress up as the equivalent of a Caribana costume breeding with a muppet, and Katy Perry got to show her of wedding video.  Ya, that makes sense to me too. 

Amazing performances would have to be, for me, Mumford and Sons performing “The Cave”, before creating a hipster explosion with the Avett Brothers and Bob Dylan in a Dakota Tavern worthy performance of “Maggie’s Farm”, Eminem and Rihanna performing “Love the way you Lie” and Rihanna and Drake’s super sexy performance of”What’s my Name” that may or may not have inspired a mini reggae winding session in my friend’s living room.

 Many wonderful musicians/bands/singers/etc were nominated and won though, you can check out the compelte list here.  Most notable however, were Neil Young winning his first grammy EVER for Best Rock Song, and Esperanza Spalding (who I kept tweeting as Ezmerelda, my bad) taking Best New Artist and beating BOTH the Biebs and Wheelchair Jimmy in a move that had teenage girls everywhere furiously tweeting and crying over their diaries.  And, last but not least of course, Arcade Fire taking home Album of the Year for Suburbs, and looking so completely adorable and happy doing it.  ”We’re going to play another song now, because we love music” said a glowing Win Butler, before leading the veritable army of bandmembers back to the recently vacated stage, and into a joyful performance of “Ready to start”.  A valiant attempt at redemption Grammys, but you’ll have to do better next year.

Cover me, Dakota Tavern Style

Snowy days are perfect for staying in and discovering new music.  Having good friends with great taste in music definitely helps.  Meeting new people who happen to be in awesome bands and making amazing music helps even more!  So thank you Emer and thanks to the boys in The Beauties.  Now I’ll stop being so cryptic.  The song is “Slow”, original by the lovely and talented Kylie Minogue.  The cover is by Serena Ryder, and can be found on her new 12 inch vinyl EP(available on her website), where all songs featured are collaborations with The Beauties.  Ridiculously wonderful musicians, coming together and covering a very cool song in a very cool way.  the video kicks serious ass too.

I love when rock artists and bands cover pop and dance and R&B songs.  The results always fascinate me and this cover is no exception.  To say Serena and the Beauties did, to put it mildly, a wicked job on this one.  The integrity of the beat is maintained and still very danceable (as evidenced by the performers in the video – hello I need to move into my gym for a month).  Ryder’s voice is sexy and smokey and the Beauties mold their style to suit the song while still leaving their signature on it loud and clear.  Sensual, bluesy, intriguing and infectious.  Very, very cool.

Serena+Ryder+-+Slow

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Kids these days

I’ve been really lucky the past couple of months in that I’ve gotten to check out a lot of the great music our fair city has to offer, thanks to writing for the Toronto Examiner (hope you’ve all been keeping up with me over there!)  I just wanted to share two of the bands/acts that have really struck me, not only because of how talented and wonderful they are, but because they are this talented and wonderful at such a young age, and are really catching the eye of people in the music industry.

Just before the new year, I was invited to check out a band called Courage My Love, a trio of 17 year olds hailing from Kitchener, Ontario.  Twins Mercedes and Phoenix, and their friend David really know how to put on a show.  They’re fierce and energetic on stage, and extremely down to earth and well spoken off stage.  I’ve seen them play twice now and I’m totally a fan.  It also doesn’t hurt that they share the name of my favourite store in Kensington Market, where I used to spend a lot of time when I was around their age…If you get a chance, they’ll be playing at the Black Swan this tuesday and at Cherry Cola this saturday.  And also watch their video for the song “Bridges” here, directed by Warren Sonoda.

These kids seriously put some grown musicians to shame.

Another relatively young artist kicking ass all over the music scene is Warren Hildebrand aka Foxes in Fiction.  He’s been making and recording music since the age of 15, has performed in Toronto and New York and has an international and fast growing following.  I had a chance to sit down with Warren a couple of weeks ago and was just blown away by how eloquent and poised he is.  His intelligence and creativity come across not only in the interview but in his music as well as his blog, where he takes the time to share the stories and influences behind every song on his recently released EP Alberto. This is my favourite song off the EP (as well as his earlier full length album Swung from Branches)

So many sounds, so many layers, yet he records and performs completely on his own.  It’s an amazing thing to watch.

Now if only these guys could be getting the fame and recognition that he who must not be named (those of you who know me well know who i mean) is. Grr…It just ain’t right I tell ya.