Cover Songs

One of the best things about music now is the cover songs that have been emerging over the past decade and a half. Tonight Is Black Sabbath "Into the Void" from Master of Reality. This particular song is in my top 100 song list I have. One day I may try to list that out. Anyway, of all the covers out there, Sabbath Covers are my favorite.

OK, now with that in mind, I have a few bands that have covered this one and all have a very unique sound, and one actually made the song better. First up is Monster Magnet

This was from the Nativity in Black II album from the 90's. I never did pick this one up because I did not like the bands on it. I might pick it up eventually, but here is the band list
1. Sweet Leaf - Godsmack Listen
2. Hole in the Sky - Machine Head Listen
3. Behind the Wall of Sleep - Static-X Listen
4. Never Say Die - Megadeth Listen
5. Snowblind - System of a Down Listen
6. Electric Funeral - Pantera Listen
7. N.I.B. - Primus w/ Ozzy Osbourne Listen
8. Hand of Doom - Slayer Listen
9. Under the Sun - Soulfly Listen
10. Sabbra Cadabra - (hed) p.e. Listen
11. Into the Void - Monster Magnet Listen
12. Iron Man (This Means War) - Busta Rhymes
Seriously....Busta Rymes????? this is the reason why we have iTunes. Anyway, Monster Magnet brings an interesting version of the song to the table, I really like it because not only does MM have a 70's supergroup sound, they put there sound to it and don't do a flat cover. The next band is Kyuss from the Kyuss/QOTSA Split EP. Granted I am not a big fan, but they do an awesome job on the song.

The greatest thing about Kyuss is their guitar work and once again they melded their sound into it with what sounds like the end of Black magic Woman in parts, but overall it kicks ass. The final cover is Soundgarden from the EP SOMMS that came with the re-release of Badmotorfinger.

Now I am a BIG Soundgarden. But I believe with their sound and this song they have surpassed the Ozz man. I may take flack for this, but there is now harm in making a song better. The sound that Black Sabbath had back in the day was superb, but if this song were released in the 90's, it would have been this. Arguments are welcome. Let me know. I am going to work on some more cover song posts and maybe a cool one that I have been thinking about hard. A post or series of post of songs to listen to while driving at night. Sounds weird, but I drove a lot at night for years and there are just certain songs that make the driving experience cool.

Still in the 60's

This is by far my favorite from Jimi Hendrix

(Midnight)
I grew up listening to Hendrix on the radio. It was hard to find a station that played anyting by him because of Disco and "Soft Rock" being popular at the time I started listening. Of course the first time I heard him was on an AM rock station in South Carolina and the song was "Purple Haze". I wonder how many people thought he said "Excuse me while I kiss this guy" like I did. Oh well, though I had to tough out the millions of stations playing "Funky Town" and "Summer Breeze" I always was able to find that one AM station that played the music I was not supposed to listen to, mainly because it was "Hippie" music and I lived in a Military community. But since that day I first heard "Purple Haze" I attempted to collect everything over time that he did. Though there are really only 4 actual release 3 studio and 1 live album that were released, like Elvis and soon to be MJ, there are probably hundreds of un released material albums or collection albums out there. This particular one was from an Album I happened to stumble upon in the 80's while in a record store that used to be in Birmingham called "War Heroes".
Released: December 1972
Tracks:
• Bleeding Heart
• Highway Chile
• Tax Free
• Peter Gunn
• Catastrophe
• Stepping Stone
• Midnight
• Three Little Bears
• Beginning
• Izabella
In all it has a great sound and is a pretty good collection. If you are a Hendrix fan, this is a good one to have in your collection. I have very few Hendrix in my collection now, most was on cassette and I sold off my collection years ago, but I still have this album and a few others left that I still listen to now and then. Enjoy the song and let me know what you think.

Still in the 60's

Apparently I have been stuck in the 60's lately with the last few posts. The latest song I have gotten hooked on is by the Lemon Drops.Even though the song is supposed to be an Anti-War song from the era, if you did not know this before listening to it it probably never occur to you that it is. To me it is just another great song from an era when music was once again going into a transformation and being used by rebellious youth. Kind of like what 80's metal was for me. Anyway, enjoy the song.

French Psychedelic?

While having the Psychedelic 60's stuck in my head from the other day, I thought I would check Youtube for some more of the songs I listened to from when i was a teenager and found this really cool song from a band called Total Issue. The song is "Hauteville".

I have never heard anything by them until now. They had a really killer sound. Too bad I couldn't find any more info on them. I will have to do some more research though and see if I can grab this song to bestow its coolness on my iPod.

Saturday Psychedelics

Back when I was a teenager, I used to listen to one of the better Radio stations in the greater Montgomery area. It was one of the last remaining AM rock stations if I remember right. It was really great to kick back and listen to it late at night when the classic stuff from the 60's was played. This was the early 80's so it wasn't really that classic I guess. This was when they played Hendrix and early stuff from the Who and Stones. One song I really enjoyed the first time was this one:

The Chambers Brothers - Time Has Come Today
Uploaded by Tushratta. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

That's right, The Chambers Brothers "Time". This is just one of the coolest songs from that era. It was out of the ordinary and hooked me the first time I heard it. I really like the video I found using Bing. It is a shortened studio performance because the original is close to 10 minutes which was common back then, don't know the date or show, but they had a really good live sound. One thing I do like about songs from that era, around this time there were cover songs starting to emerge. Now for some reason I did not hear the cover of this particular song until 86 when my Best Friend put it on a mix tape for me. We have been trading songs since 85 and for some reason I never picked up on The Ramones heavily until I heard this song from them:

After hearing this song I was all about The Ramones. I guess it was the combination of the Chambers Brothers and the newer sound that finally clicked to accept their sound since I had not really gotten into anything Punk at this time, it really just passed me by up until then. But the sound that The Ramones put to the cover was intense to say the least. I guess it was that they took all the psychedelic filler and made it even better. If you want to hear the full version of the original I actually found it. Isn't the Internet great, like an all request station.

Anyway, you decide which version you like the best and let me know.

Friday Night Metal

Swiss Metal to be exact. Back in the 90's I was on a hunt for all types of music, I just couldn't get enough. I believe I spent a good bit of my time off from work scouring music stores in two or three state area looking for anything that looked like it would sound decent. Well, one day, I happened upon the new release from a Swiss band named Coroner. I had there earlier release Mental Vortex. It was pretty good, so i picked up Grin. I was in for a big surprise with this one. The bands sound had changed completely. The album is # 2 in my list of the ones i can play all the way through and enjoy EVERY song. #1 being Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. I have found two of my favorite songs from Grin for you to listen to, so I hope you enjoy them.
Grin(Nails Hurt)



Serpent Moves This one is my sons favorite, because he likes snakes. He has good taste in music.

90's Music on Wednesday

As I have said before, I am a huge fan of the music that came out of the early 90's music scene. Though most of it was Metal, I did catch the Grunge wave also. I just liked hearing something different from time to time. Aprils Motel Room was one of those different bands. Even though they were in they were heralded as a "Grunge" band, I didn't really think they were. They had a more progressive rock sound. I guess that's why there songs are still in heavy rotation on the iPod. One of the songs, God has one of the bests sounds from any song on the album Black 14 you can watch the video here.



Another fun fact about this album is this is one that I picked up on a whim because I liked the album cover. Again, one of the better buys I made on a whim. While I was looking up some more info on them the other day i did find their Myspace Website that has some newer songs which are just as good as the ones on the album from 1994. I have no idea when they were produced, but they give me some newer stuff to listen to. The one to pay attention to on the site is a song called "Honey". Enjoy!