Daft Punk's Random Access Memories

Great EP except for the Cher cover which I did not know was influential as much as prescient.

The daughter cover is for shame, FOR SHAME.

she's my daughter

she's all our daughters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlhRQ-rj5ew

If anything Travis's cover of Britney was the high profile flashpoint.

I think there's thread on that somewhere? iirc the ur-text was pinpointed to Coltrane's My Favourite Things cover.

FACT, Mixmag, The Clash, etc all tweeting praise for that terrible Daughter cover ffs

interesting to see that the posters promoting the single (which have replaced posters promoting the album) don't mention Pharrell.

And now a reggae cover:
http://www.puna.nl/2013/04/26/video-postmen-get-lucky-daft-punk-giel3fm/

jazz musicians were doing takes on pop hits well before that. for this specific kind of rock very serious take on contemporary pop hit i'm thinking vanilla fudge is patient zero. for indie variation (and specifically the post-eggers new sincerity indie variation which eliminates replacements, ciccone youth, pavement, etc) maybe macha/bedhead is the inciting incident but it seems like even that has always been around in some form or another, it was just such an easy way to get on a college radio station playlist.

anyhow heard 'get lucky' out saturday night, loud cheer from club full of kids as soon as it started, numerous sorority girls loudly singing along, already knowing every word. sounds GREAT on a big system btw.

I love the way this thread has turned into middle-aged men analysing how kids react to the song: "the experience is working, the nubile subects react positively to this DISCO creation..."

Afghan Whigs' Uptown Avondale got loads of praise for being obviously bathed in pure love, so the ironic cover must've been a big thing circa 1992.

I don't think covering Motown is really what we're talking about here, especially given the Afghan Whigs presumably didn't cover those songs in a milquetoast sensitive indie wastrel way.

I've read about the Replacements' cover of Kiss's "Black Diamond" as being a significant one in the sense of a knowing "we are this kind of band covering that kind of band."

Sid Vicious did My Way in the 70s.

Gah, wish I had gone back and read the whole convo and not posted that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE9IchvpOPk

Milow's international breakthrough came with the release of the single "Ayo Technology", a song originally written and recorded by 50 Cent, Justin Timberlake and Timbaland, from the album Milow. The single peaked at number one in The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, peaked at number two in Germany, Spain, Austria, and peaked in the top ten in France, Italy and Finland. The song was a huge commercial success, receiving a platinum certification in Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Denmark and gold certification in Spain and The Netherlands.

I think that Travis on Britney Spears is a slightly different though linked phenomenon, in that it never really rose above its own look-at-me status (it feels like an acoustic duo covering hits at the pub).

The plaintive indie cover which liberates the melancholy heart from the shiny cage of the pop song is drawing from, like, Susanna and the Magical Orchestra as much as it is from the lol-irony tradition.

The "Believe" cover is poised between these two paths.

Has there been a plaintive indie cover of Fairground Attraction's "It's Got To Be Perfect", I wonder.

As Tim pointed out on another thread, Frente's Bizarre Love Triangle was way ahead of the curve here, but more in a Susanna way than Travisesque lols. Radio 1's Live Lounge (source of the Daughter cover) is responsible for turning it into a longrunning trend. Who can forget Razorlight's Hey Ya! or Snow Patrol's Crazy in Love? I wish I could.

The reverse, ie pop acts covering indie, is often better, eg Amy Winehouse's Valerie or Sugababes covering Hard-Fi.

The Beatles 'Please Mr Postman' vs Stevie Wonder 'We Can Work It Out'

true, but the reverse also tends to demonstrate how superior the pop acts' own material is

xp

see also britney's "i can't get no satisfaction"

haha well 'i can't get no satisfcation' is not exactly an indie song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll0SslHsZ6I

I really want to blame the Lemonheads for this phenomenon, even though the closest thing that they get to the exact formula is probably their awful 2002 version of Xtina's 'Beautiful' which was well after 'Believe'. It definitely feels like the overly sincere cover version has been something that Dando was working on from pretty early on in their career though, thinking of stuff like the Manson cover version on Creator, then Suzanne Vega's 'Luka', then 'Mrs Robinson', then god knows what after that. All that ridiculous sensitive-puppy, wounded emoting, yeucchhh.

"the experience is working, the nubile subects react positively to this DISCO creation..."

genuine lols over here

Frente's Bizarre Love Triangle was way ahead of the curve here,

Frente's version was a cover of Even As We Speak's cover

re: whigs

the way they covered R&B songs felt a little more in the spirit of, i dunno, creedence and the rolling stones than whatever lineage exists of punk/indie/alt bands up to that point who, if they covered R&B at all, it wasn't frequently and would probably have some element of parody or ironically 'flat,' dispassionate delivery. although there was definitely some edge of irony or playfulness in the whigs' covers too.

― some dude, Saturday, May 26, 2012 11:05 AM Bookmark

That Even As We Speak cover's great. I've never heard it before. Apparently Devine & Statton (ex-Young Marble Giants) got there even earlier, in 1989.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDMEeHp4fx0

This obviously has nothing whatsoever to do with the Daft Punk album.

re: whigs

the way they covered R&B songs felt a little more in the spirit of, i dunno, creedence and the rolling stones than whatever lineage exists of punk/indie/alt bands up to that point who, if they covered R&B at all, it wasn't frequently and would probably have some element of parody or ironically 'flat,' dispassionate delivery. although there was definitely some edge of irony or playfulness in the whigs' covers too.

― some dude, Saturday, May 26, 2012 11:05 AM Bookmark

― The Reverend, Monday, April 29, 2013 1:52 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

big difference with the whigs is that dulli wasn't really doing the cheap contrast of "oh let's do an R&B/rap song in this completely nerd white way" he was actually trying to translate #swag into a grunge R&B context.

this tangent unfortunately reminded me of this cover which I despise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0z1Mo7O6dE

That Even As We Speak cover's great. I've never heard it before. Apparently Devine & Statton (ex-Young Marble Giants) got there even earlier, in 1989.

Even As We Speak's was 1987!

actually trying to translate #swag into a grunge R&B context.

feel like this might refer better to Dulli originals than to their covers. also resistant to Al's suggestion that there's irony in their choice or performance of covers - playfulness yeah though

lol'ing that the whigs ended up in a daft punk thread but

re: there was definitely some edge of irony or playfulness in the whigs' covers too

i wouldn't say they approach them with any more irony or playfulness than what's in some of their own tracks. poor greg forever bein' doubted

Chilly Gonzales.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc3I0Ent9Zg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc3I0Ent9Zg

i had a dream last nite that i was selected to do the warmup dj set for daft punk's premiere live performance of Random Access Memories material and i was super nervous but spent a lot of time preparing and did an adequate job

then when daft punk took the stage it was a total disaster, like a real life "shreds" video. they got so embarrassed they tried to do "one more time" instead but that was a disaster too and they were booed off the stage

then i got home to my computer to see that instead of posting the next "the creators project" video they accidentally uploaded a video of george clinton high on crack instead

i woke up very anxious for daft punk

xpost

despite the fact that I don't like gonzales, that's an interesting take.
like, in the internet/singles download era, a "pop" album composed as a global piece of music, taking care of the keys of each track and the evolution of the whole thing !

I would *love* a dream like that

I've never even heard of this guy but I do think it's incredible that DP are so involved with things old-school like album sequencing and the progginess of key change bridges between tracks.

it's not that proggy! it's just basic musical sense

^, but i assume ARB was being sarcastic

maybe his phone likes to auto-correct "progressions" to "progginess"

I lap that stuff up. I could listen to that fellow talk basic musical theory all day. They should get Howard Goodall to do one next.

looking forward to the Paul Williams vid.

yeah cut the shit guys give us the paul williams vid

ooh, good vid

Two to one says we get Casablancas next.

(Not an amazing claim given that there's just him and Williams left, but it's a sure bet, you see.)

i demand omar hakim