Covers Tournament: Round of 64, Day 6

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Janos Marton

Welcome to the “I Won’t Back Down-I Will Survive” division.  This division is about persevering, even when you’ve shot the sheriff (but not the deputy, we get it), even when traveling all over the world could interfere with dancing with yourself.  Listen to all eight tracks here, and vote by 11pm EST on Thursday.   Below we continue this round’s tradition of having the nominators pimp their songs  (because few got them in on time, the rest of the entries are brought to you by Wikipedia):

I Won’t Back Down (Johnny Cash) vs.  Wake Me When It’s Over (Supersuckers)

We’ve never given Rick Rubin a lot of attention here, but the founder of Def Jam records produced the Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails and Jay-Z, in addition to his famed American series, from which this Cash cover hails from.  Look at this list, it’s just staggering.

The current lineup of the Supersuckers features Eddie Spaghetti on bass and lead vocals; “Metal” Marty Chandler and Dan “Thunder” Bolton on guitars; and Scott Churilla on drums.   Here’s a sample Wikipedia block quote:

[Heathman] was replaced by Rick Sims, formerly of the band the Didjits (and later the Gaza Strippers), for the recording of their third album, The Sacrilicious Sounds of the Supersuckers, and the subsequent tour. Heathman returned for the recording of their fourth album, Must’ve Been High, which, as their first alternative country album, was a major turning point for the band. Their fifth and final album with Sub-Pop was their greatest hits release, 1999’s How the Supersuckers Became the Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World. That same year they released their fifth studio album, The Evil Powers of Rock ‘N’ Roll. In 2001, the band formed their own record label, Mid-Fi Recordings. In addition to numerous singles and several live recordings, the band released their sixth studio album, Motherfuckers Be Trippin’ on this label. Dancing Eagle then left the group and was replaced by Mike “Murderburger” Musburger, who was in turn later replaced by Scott “Scottzilla” Churilla. Continue reading →

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Ghost Stories/Covers Tournament Round of 64: Day 5

Posted on October 31, 2011 by aiko

I've got some spooky stories to tell you

Happy Halloween!  A few of our nominators sent in blurbs about their songs at the last minute, after I had made up ghost stories about all these tunes.  So you’ll get both.

Read these chilling tales, listen to these haunted tunes, and vote by 8:00 PM Pacific Time on Wednesday, November 2. Continue reading →

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5K Zombie Survival Race Review

Posted on October 31, 2011 by g-mo

Nice try, zombie girl following me in that tube. And thanks for all the help, Army guy standing around uselessly in the background.

As some of you may have noticed from my allusions a few weeks ago, the weekend before this past weekend I participated in the inaugural Run For Your Lives Zombie Infested 5k Obstacle Race. I love zombies and I love survival, so this was a natural fit in terms of things I would enjoy. The race was held in a wooded area about an hour northeast of Baltimore, and over 7,000 people participated. I blasted e-mails and facebook posts trying to get whomever I could to do this with me, but in the end the only one I could convince was my buddy Gabe from high school (Gabe, by the way, runs a green laundry cleaning business in Philadelphia. Helping others live the dream in a toxic-free manner. Whoop.) Continue reading →

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Covers Tournament: Round of 64, Day 3 Results

Posted on October 30, 2011 by maureenmcollins

Man Who Sold the World...

Alright folks, the end of Day 3 of the Round of 64 has arrived.   It seems like the extra day of voting got us a few more voters, which is always a good thing.  Feel free to invite your friends to vote with you!  We love converts and new regulars….since I am only a fairly recent convert to the LTD scene, I am always trying to recruit more people to the ranks of regular voters.  I hope other people do the same thing!

Anyways, we had a few exciting match ups, but nothing put me too close to the edge of my seat with these songs.  Every song that won did so by a fairly significant margin.  With that said, let’s take a look at the details…

David Gray’s In the Morning, despite some legit voter love, lost to Nirvana’s Man Who Sold the World.  Scores: 135.8 to 160.65, respectively. Nirvana advances with a 6.4 average – not all that high, but good enough to get them one more round!
Continue reading →

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Covers Tournament: Round of 64, Day 4

Posted on October 30, 2011 by jacobpress

Welcome back to our nominator-curated Round of 64 where today’s theme, as has been the case in much of the tournament, is Beatles, Beatles Everywhere (three of today’s songs are by the Fab Four and a fourth was co-written by George Harrison, aka Nelson Wilbury). We had about half of this round’s nominators respond to our request for blurbs, but where there are holes, I’ve taken the liberty of inserting some mindless filler just so it doesn’t look awkward. Votes are due by Tuesday at 8pm, link to songs is here, except for Gin and Juice which is here. Happy listening.

Take A Chance on Me- Erasure 

According to Wikipedia, Erasure’s 1992 Abba tribute album spawned renewed interest in the Sweedish pop juggernaut, which culminated in the massively successful stage production Mamma Mia! (the exclamation point is part of the title, although I do find this bit of trivia kind of exciting).

With A Little Help From My Friends- Joe Cocker

Eat your heart out John Belushi.

I learned on songfacts.com that Sesame Street did a parody of this called “With A Little Yelp From My Friends.” It was performed by “Moe Cocker,”  a cocker spaniel who sings about yelping for help when he can’t find his bone or scratch a flea. Watch it here.

Continue reading →

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Podcast with Ross Perlin, Intern Nation

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Janos Marton
Have you ever felt underpaid, overqualified or strangely indispensable as an intern?  Yesterday I did a podcast with Ross Perlin, and we covered some of the stunning stories, data and legal implications raised in his book, Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy.  As always, thanks to Danno for the intro/outro.
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Covers Tournament: Round of 64, Day 2 Results

Posted on October 29, 2011 by Janos Marton

What an exciting Day 2.  It feels like the tournament is getting its groove back, with good turnout, scoring averages up, a healthy sprinkling of 10s, and a few upsets.   In total, eight 10s were dished out, with Do You Remember Rock n Roll Radio (KISS) and Killing Me Softly (Fugees) making the Wall, the latter racking up four 10s.   Let’s jump in:

#8 Killing Me Softly (Fugees) crushed #57 Sex on Fire  (Beyonce), 160.5-110.7, with an impressive 7.64 average.   Killing Me Softly is actually making it’s second tournament appearance, and it did decently last time too.  I think Guillermo’s comment is an important one- will people burn out on a single they’ve all heard so many times before as the tournament progresses?   Sex on Fire would’ve been tantalizing as a studio track. Continue reading →

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Covers Tournament: Round of 64, Day 3

Posted on October 27, 2011 by maureenmcollins

The Staple Singers go up against Metallica!

Welcome to Day 3 of the Round of 64! Grooveshark link with tonight’s songs is here, except for Proud Mary. Vote in comment section below, with scores from 1-10 for each song before Sunday, Oct. 30 by 8pm EST.   I am giving you guys an extra day to vote, since I know that I won’t be able to put up results on Saturday night.  I will be at a Halloween Bar Crawl, dressed up like a hamster.  Totally normal.

We have some good stories from most of our nominators in this set of songs.  I am loving hearing about why people like these songs, and what they think sets them above the rest of the crowd. Without further ado…the match-ups!

In the Morning (David Gray): “David Gray is an artist who prides himself on his original songwriting and styling of music.  So when he makes a cover of a song, you know it’s bound to be great.  This track is off of an album that David Gray did entirely made of cover songs a few years back.  The album was never released in the US, but I picked up a copy across the pond in 2008 and fell in love with most of the tracks immediately.” – NatalieG

vs. Man Who Sold the World (Nirvana): No blurb for this cover of a David Bowie original. But well, it is Nirvana, so most of us know a little something. Wikipedia says that Kurt Cobain  listed the David Bowie album that this song was originally on in his top 50 favorite albums.  This version is most well-known for being part of Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York.

Continue reading →

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Round of 64: Day 1 Results

Posted on October 27, 2011 by g-mo

Taco?

Results coming to you from lovely Portland, OR! Yes I am temporarily joining our regulars Aiko and G in the Pacific Northwest, where almost immediately upon boarding the train to downtown I felt less judged for my in-progress winter beard than I ever do in the DMV, which I’m coming to realize is a pretty socially conservative place. Or at least my co-workers at the university are. Struggles. Anyways, only one song to the Wall of 10’s (which I really should get around to making at some point, but let’s get into it.) Continue reading →

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Covers Tournament: Round of 64, Day 2

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Janos Marton

Does anyone really dispute that the Dixie Chicks were right about the war?

Day 2 continues with another eclectic eight.  Listen here, and vote by commenting below before 11pm EST on Friday.  And tell us about your Halloween costume while you’re at it.

Our project to let nominators give shoutouts for their songs will be a trend for the rest of the round, so start thinking ahead.  Only a few folks got their soundbites in with the short notice, so I’ll fill in where necessary. All of these songs are quality- how many of you are glad to be out of the Round of 128 weeds?

Killing Me Softly (Fugees) – No nominator plug here, but we all know this song pretty cold. 

vs. Sex on Fire (Beyonce) : “Once again, Beyonce proves that she is a consummate performer. A lot of cover songs are great because you hear how the performer makes the song theirs, but in this case, I think her cover is thrilling because you get to hear a different side of Beyonce. When she starts growling, it becomes obvious that she can basically do anything. R&B? Yes. Soul? She got you. Rock and roll? No prob, sugar. I mean, she is like the freaking pregnant Swiss Army Knife of music. Yes.

And that’s why I love this song, not only because it came in the middle of a medley that featured Queen and Prince covers, but also because you get to see just how incandescently talented Beyonce is. It’s like, no matter where or when she was born, Beyonce was destined to become famous. If Tina Knowles were from Mumbai, Beyonce would now be wrapping her 165th Bollywood musical. That’s the kind of talent we’re talking here people. Just add costume and mic. Where there’s a weave, there’s a way.    In all seriousness, though, it’s clear that Beyonce can pretty much do no wrong; she is no average superstar. Case in point: that time she slipped on stage, she was back up before the next note. IN HEELS. But when Michelle slipped that time on BET, Beyonce just looked down at her and was like “You betta’ get up, heifer.” Which is clearly why Destiny’s Child broke up. Because Beyonce is a solo act. Consummate. Performer. IN HEELS.”  -Bradley Continue reading →

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