VIRAL INFECTION: Under the Covers Edition

re: All (Bigotry) In The (Patriarchal) Family

Has anyone told you how goddamned attractive you look today?

I'd holla, just saying.

As some of you more loyal (re: attractive) readers may recall, previous installments of Viral Infection have dug up some nifty covers from the depths of the Internet, but these were mostly poorly recorded live versions in a video quality only your (also attractive) mother would love. Nevermore.

This time, we've decided to give you some more incestuous covers of indie bands covering other indie bands, since we like to keep it all in the family. So hop in bed with your cute sister or 3rd cousin twice removed cause we're about to get tender.

SUN KIL MOON:::CONVENIENT PARKING

For those of you too young in your relevancy to remember this interesting experiment of a cover album, Sun Kil Moon aka Mark Kozelek attempted to do a spanning revue of the Modest Mouse back catalog in his ethereal acoustic style. While his dedication is applaudable, the songs kind of end up sounding the same and most are pretty watered down versions of fantastic source material. (something Sun Kil Moon had no issue with on their John Denver covers since fuck John Denver) However, this version of Convenient Parking is pretty nice and the accompanying video is not too bad either, like a light mushroom trip to Banner of Youth.

 

DR. DOG:::HEART IT RACES

Make no mistake, Dr. Dog is not a band that needs to rely on kitschy covers to prove themselves: although their studio albums are rarely flawless cover to cover, all of them contain at least several truly brilliant pieces. I could wax poetic ad nauseum on the genius of 100 Years or Die, Die, Die or That Old Black Hole but I'll save that for another post.  [Note to self: actually do that.] 

Yet here we have a cover of a band that most artists would have trouble covering, Australian darlings Architecture In Helsinki. Dr. Dog takes a firm grasp on the material, maintaining its integrity while adding their own signature sound to the song. Also, all the surfers are nice to look at, I must be feeling the contact high of our GUEST BLOGGER [note to self: actually don't do that. ever again.]

DEER TICK:::ALL APOLOGIES

Although Nirvana doesn't technically count as any sort of indie band anymore, the curious inception of Deervana certainly does. Deer Tick recently ended their tour as Deervana where they would play Nirvana albums in their entirety, this time around it was In Utero, and this is an acoustic rendition of All Apologies full of grit and flaws that would make Kurt proud, right down to the cigarette in the headstock.