Got You Covered (pt. 1)
For this article, I decided to share some cover songs that I have come across over the past few years. Even though I don’t go out of my way to look for cover songs, it’s always a nice surprise to hear a cover where the band has injected their trademark sound into it and being creative with the arrangements.
When making music myself, I have always gone through phases of wanting to cover songs or find ways of experimenting with songs that I enjoy (and can play). During my studies, I was in a three-piece band that did a drum n’ bass version of One More Cup of Coffee by Bob Dylan, Block Rockin’ Beats by Chemical Brothers and dub versions of the songs Marianne and Sisters of Mercy by Leonard Cohen. These days it’s more ukulele covers of Joy Division.
In this first edition of Got You Covered (yeah, I know some of the article names are tacky), here are my four covers that grabbed my attention. Let me know if there are any that I have missed or which you prefer.
Bandit Voyage are no strangers to releasing covers. As I interviewed the duo, they had just released the EP, Daddy Core, an homage to Anissa Cadelli’s father and included their version of his favourite song, Hotel California by the Eagles.
I had thought that I had navigated by way through the band’s extensive discography thoroughly enough but it was late on that I only discovered their wonderful cover of The Velvet Underground’s I’ll Be Your Mirror with the vocals in French.
The song appears on the EP, Milla Core, the first of their two collaborative EPs with Milla Pluton. Milla Core 2, featuring another superb French Velvet Underground cover - Dimanche matin (Sunday Morning), was released a few days ago.
Staying in the Bandit Voyage universe and cover songs in French, I also came across this enjoyable cover of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood’s 1966 classic, These Boots are Made For Walking, by Barrio Colette.
The Geneva band mix a lot of elements - vocals drenched in reverb, a hint of surf-rock, their effortlessly cool attitude and guitars going off in all directions - to bring the 1966 classic to the modern day. The song appears on their EP, Midi Soir Matin.
There’s something hauntingly beautiful about Black Sea Dahu’s cover of Crosby, Stills and Nash’s Guinevere. The combination of the rhythm section’s grooves, the touches of omnichord, the guitar-picking in the bridges and the vocal harmonies. The band not only cover the song but they make it extra special by the ambiance and overall mood which they create for it.
The song was never released on an EP or album and was recorded live at SRF’s Studio 1 as part of a documentary about the 50th year anniversary of Woodstock.
I have to admit that it took me a while before I listened to the original of the cult song, Eisbär, by Grauzone, which is maybe something I shouldn’t say too loud in Switzerland. However, I knew about the song through the cover by Nouvelle Vague.
The contrabass-drums duo from Geneva make the song their own by adding their trademark sound and it fits perfectly on their 2019 album, Massif Occidental.
Links:
Barrio Collette - Bandcamp (Cheptel Records) / Instagram / YouTube (Cheptel Records)
Related articles:
Bands without guitars (featuring Hyperculte)