Big in Belgium : Arno

Arno (Hintjens), once the frontman of Belgian rock stars T.C. Matic, has been enjoying a lot of respect from musicians all over Europe (and perhaps beyond?). He has worked with many great artists, covered many great songs (including some unusual suspects like Salvatore Adamo's Les filles du bord de mer). Actually, he's probably the biggest living legend in Belgian music, always performing for crowds of crazy fans...

Enjoy these songs :

• It's all over now (mp3) : a Womack & Womack cover, originally played with all star band Charles et Les Lulus
• I'm not myself (mp3) : featuring Tom Barman from dEUS and Stef Kamil Carlens from Zita Swoon
• Les yeux de ma mère (mp3)
• Putain putain (mp3) : orginally a T.C. Matic song

You can buy the album Give me the gift, which features all above songs, here

Caesar

The Dutch band Caesar has ceased to exist. On the 3rd of April they played their last concert, and were joined by other Dutch bands. These bands each covered Caesar songs, which can be downloaded from the 3voor12-website.
I offer them to you, in no particular order :

• Ocean sounds (covered by Moss) (mp3)
• Can't make it happen (covered by Paulusma) (mp3)
• No reply (covered by Scram C Baby) (mp3)
• Acid years (covered by Alamo Race Track) (mp3)
• Before my head explodes (covered by Sonja van Hamel from Bauer) (mp3)
• This ain't a lovesong (covered by Bettie Serveert) (mp3)

Here are some rare tracks by the band Caesar themselves :

• Gee oh my (mp3)
• Don't you feel like wow (mp3)

You can buy Caesar songs here

Man X

Country-based rock from Belgium, that sounds quite peculiar, doesn't it ? Well, back in 1991 Man X tried it, with moderate success. They got some airplay on the radio and appeared at some (smaller) summer festivals. They were best known for their covers (of John Denver and Hank Williams), which I like to date.

Enjoy these tracks from their album The key to your heart :

• Bitter tears (mp3)
• I saw the light (Hank Williams cover) (mp3)
• Country roads (John Denver cover) (mp3)

I have found no information on where you can buy the CD, unfortunately...

Eels

E : what a man ! Eels : what a band !

I've become even more excited about this band and about its singer after watching a documentary (Parallel worlds, parallel lives) about the search of Mark Everett ("E") to get to know his dead father better, and to understand the psychics theory he constructed. Although his father turned out to be a famous scientist, Mark never knew this as a child and never got to know his father. What's so excellent about the documentary, is that mixes images of this search and the explanation of the theory of Hugh Everett III with songs by Mark and his band. You get to appreciate the lyrics better put against this background, I feel.

I have collected some covers by Eels, for you to enjoy :

• I could never take the place of your man (Prince cover) (mp3)
• Get UR freak on (Missy Elliott Misdemeanor cover) (mp3)
• Sweet home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd cover) (mp3)

You can buy Eels albums here

Lazy Monday : Luka Bloom

Quite impressive : one guy playing guitar and singing, on the giant stage of a rock festival, and still getting more than half of the public's attention !
That's exactly what I saw Luka Bloom do once (in 1992, when the festival also featured -among others- Smashing Pumkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lou Reed and Bryan Adams).
Today is just the day to listen again to his beautiful album The acoustic motorbike (probably the most poetic description of a bicycle ever...). On this album he plays covers of Elvis Presley (Can't help falling in love) and LL Cool J (I need love), and 10 of his own songs. I would still suggest anyone to buy this album, cause it will never bore you.

Enjoy these tracks :

• You (mp3)
• Can't help falling in love (mp3)
• The acoustic motorbike (mp3)

Here's the video for the LL Cool J cover I need love :

You can buy the album here

Alone again or...

When in 2003 Calexico released their single Alone again or, I instantly loved it ! It had that certain spark that made it settle in your thoughts for the rest of the day, and the way it was played, it sounded truely like Calexico...

It wasn't until recently that I found out this song to be a cover version of a Love song, and that it didn't even differ that very much...

Still, it's the little differences that make a difference anyway, for still, I love the Calexico version best.

You can compare and enjoy them :

• Love : Alone again or (mp3)
• Calexico : Alone again or (mp3)

You can buy the Calexico single here

You can buy the Love album, Forever changes, here

Clocks

In addition to the covers in the previous post, here's another great cover : Coldplay's "Clocks" as re-interpreted by the Dutch band Zea.

Enjoy it : Clocks - Zea (mp3)

Buy Zea music here

Lazy Monday : covers

Today I feel like relaxing with these great and extraordinary covers :

• The robots - Señor Coconut Y Su Conjunto (mp3) : Kraftwerk goes latin...
• Daydreaming - Lupe Fiasco featuring Jill Scott (mp3) : a Wallace Collection classic that got an uplift last year...
• Crazy in love - The Magic Numbers (mp3) : Beyoncé made smoother than ever...

Buy these albums, containing the original hits :

• Laughing Cavalier - Wallace Collection
• Dangerously in love - Beyoncé
• Die Mensch-Machine (The man-machine) - Kraftwerk

Somebody's watching me

Antwerp based band Capsule have released a very well-sleeved debut album, Haunted house, in 2006. It has a very goth-like look, but actually the music rather bluesy and jazzy. On the album they cover Screamin' Jay Hawkins' I put a spell on you, as well as a rather surprising Rockwell cover : Somebody's watching me (mp3).

You can buy the album here

This is the video to the original Rockwell song :

rockwell - somebody's watching me
Uploaded by chilavert

Shiny happy people

This is quite a bizarre cover of the R.E.M. song, by Irish band The Fatima Mansions :

Shiny happy people - The Fatima Mansions (mp3)

Buy the album (Valhalla Avenue) here

Life on Mars

Jasper Steverlinck, singer of re-united Arid, and the two brothers Steven and Stijn Kolacny, who "run" the girls' choir Scala, have covered this David Bowie song :


Life on Mars (mp3)


The sober arrangement and the beautiful voice really do justice to the fine song that Bowie wrote, and it's become one of those songs you never forget once you've heard them...


Buy the record here

Sand - OP8

Lee Hazlewood's Sand is famous in the Nancy Sinatra version. Einstürzende Neubauten (the band of -amongst others- Bad Seed Blixa Bargeld) covered it, and here it is in a cover by a Convertino/Burns/Gelb sideproject (OP8), with vocal assistance of Lisa Germano.
What they've done to this song, is really beyond belief. They make it turn and twist around the legs (listen to that violin), they make it whisper and moan, they make it sound like a hot summer evening, they make you expect someone jumping out of the box any moment now...

Enjoy it :

Sand - OP8 (mp3)


Track taken from Slush by OP8 (buy here)