UNDER THE COVERS
The Daily Telegraphs music critics have put together a list of the 50 best cover versions ever, (tip of the hat the the lads at The Joint for this) and most of them are utter drivel. I've been putting together a compilation CD of my favorite covers, and sure, they're pretty eclectic, but they've got a whole lot more soul than this boring, white trash pop shite. Here's their top ten...

1 ‘All Along the Watchtower’ Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1968 (orig. Bob Dylan, 1967)
2 ‘You Were Always On My Mind’ Pet Shop Boys, 1987 (orig. Elvis Presley, 1972 - after Brenda Lee, 1971)
3 ‘My Way’ Sid Vicious, 1979 (orig. Frank Sinatra, 1969 - after Paul Anka, 1969)
4 ‘Hallelujah’ Jeff Buckley, 1993 (orig. Leonard Cohen, 1984)
5 ‘Respect’ Aretha Franklin, 1967 (orig. Otis Redding, 1965)
6 ‘Tainted Love’ Soft Cell, 1981 (orig. Gloria Jones, 1964)
7 ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ The Byrds, 1965 (orig. Bob Dylan, 1964)
8 ‘Twist and Shout’ The Beatles, 1963 (orig. the Isley Brothers, 1960)
9 ‘Comfortably Numb’ Scissor Sisters, 2004 (orig. Pink Floyd, 1979)
10 ‘Mr Bojangles’ Nina Simone, 1971 (orig. Jerry Jeff Walker, 1967)

So, you heard Spanky Wilson's version of Sunshine of your Love? Genius. Or what about about Jackie Wilson's version of Light my Fire? O-Dub put together a killer mixtape of his fave covers, over here (pictured above).Must score a copy soon...
So, what's your favorite cover version? Hit me up in comments - no cheese, just the good ish, please.
You can find the original story at the Daily Telegraph, but the site requires registration.

UPDATE: discovered via random Googling... Copy, Right? - an MP3 blog dedicated to cover versions, and the Covers Project- endless lists of covers.


Seen on Queen St yesterday.. girl in a red tshirt with the following slogan... "Save Santa the trip. Be naughty." Peter Jackson is in Auckland this week shooting scenes for King Kong at the Civic Theatre. I walk past this building every day on the way to work. Sighted yesterday morning; a bunch of extras dressed in tuxedos and bowties for the gents, flash 1930s dresses for the ladies. About a dozen large trucks were parked on the surrounding streets, but no sighting of Peter Jackson.
Still, check out the official website for some great behind the scenes production footage. Last week they had a group of international journalists on set, see day 53 production diary. the press interviewing Adrian Brody is hilarious - one journo asks Brody if he finds Kong painless,which Brody says yes, then the journo confesses he meant does Brody find Kong [the story of] timeless!


And on the whole Judy Bailey payrise BS - do the freaking math and shut the hell up! Paul Holmes leaves - saving of $730,000 a year salary. Alison Mau leaves - saving of say $200,00 salary. Ms Bailey gets an extra $400,000, and TVNZ still come out ahead by half a million. It aint some John Hawkesby $7 million payout. Helen Clark is just pissed that she aint pulling that kinda dosh. Hah!

SAGE ADVICE
"Sage Francis is a rapper out of Providence, RI and half of Non-Prophets (the other half is DJ Joe Beats). Sage made a reputation for himself by consistently winning poetry slams and freestyling competitions, and has built something of a cult following. His style is always personal and often highly political, but refreshingly free of preachiness. With his new Fuck Clear Channel Tour, Sage is pushing music industry politics to the forefront." Read the interview here at Downhill Battle.

Sage Francis is playing in Wellington December 16 at Indigo and Auckland December 17 at Rising Sun. Here's his opinion on downloading music...
"Downloading has not had a negative effect on my music. It has had an incalculable positive effect. That being said, I hope people spread the good word and buy an official copy if they enjoy what they hear. We even included the lyrics and booklet on the inside. Oh, and a urine sample." Very funny. From an interview with Music-News.com.

There's a bunch of other interviews over at his official site's messageboards including two Francis labelled as "Two god awful New Zealand interviews". One of the local interviewers takes exception to Francis... "remember that bad New Zealand interview? Look what he did" posts Francis. Its 14 pages of dissing, death threats and crap on the PE messageboards. Utter tripe.



So how many MC's duck like this?
Haven't heard much from Scribe's camp in the media on the ugly assault that happened to BFM's Phil Armstrong at Scribe's management co. Xmas party, but I've heard the person responsible was Scribe's associate and labelmate PNC - have you heard anything? There was even a rumour over at the NZMusic.com boards that Scribe was in jail - totally untrue, but as one clever poster noted - "Scribe is in jail, he got caught with P money".