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I'm seeing Radiohead on Wednesday night, and that seemed as good an excuse as any for this week's theme.

Easy Star All-Stars - Let Down
From the people who brought you Dub Side of the Moon, it’s Radiodread! You can probably guess the musical genre, but they’re surprisingly adept at bringing the Jamaican flavor to the music, throwing in horns and a big chorus on top of the backbeat guitar.

Jorge Drexler - High and Dry
You may not know the name of this Latin guitar master, but Oscar does. In 2004 his song from The Motorcycle Diaries made him the first person from Uruguay to win an Academy Award. Throw this cover in a film, and I’d vote for a second.

Nickel Creek - Just
Fast-paced bluegrass is what Nickel Creek does, and they do it well.

John Mayer - Kid A
This is Mayer in his acoustic “Your Body Is a Wonderland” guise, not the blues guitar god, but don’t hold that against this simple power-chord ballad.

Northern Kings – Creep
Wikipedia calls them a “Finnish symphonic metal cover band,” following in the footsteps of Lordi but with less elaborate costumes. They do everyone from Lionel Ritchie to Jethro Tull on their album Reborn and here they bring their epic goth to Radiohead. You may well hate it, but for a song that’s been covered a billion times, at least it’s different.

Christopher O’Riley – Arpeggi
A classical pianist, O’Riley has a whole series of Yorke songs in his repertoire, many of which can be downloaded at his website. This is a cover of the early live version of a song that would be revised for In Rainbows as “Weird Fishes / Arpeggi.” O’Riley says he prefers the early version for “the more minimalist/tone generative aspects inherent in the song structure.” Okay.

John Vanderslice - Karma Police
A few years ago Stereogum commissioned covers of every song off OK Computer to celebrate its tenth anniversary. The whole thing is downloadable here (track-by-track notes here), but this off-beat drum machine take is a highlight, with some of the hardest-rocking acoustic guitar you’re likely to hear this side of the D coming in halfway through.

Gnarls Barkley – Reckoner
Cee-Lo’s voice is perfect for this song, which they’ve been doing in their sets as of late. A higher quality source (soundboard) than most others circulating.

KT Tunstall - Fake Plastic Trees
The introspective quiet-but-whiney female thing got real old after Vanessa Carlton and Alanis Morisette in the 90’s, but this song works well in the style.

Gillian Welch - Black Star
Country songwriter Welch makes brings sweet harmonies and guitar work to this one, avoiding any temptation to make it all Nashville honky-tonk.

Sa-Ra - In Limbo
From the electronic-ey tribute album Exit Music: Songs for Radioheads, Sa-Ra brings a funk element to all the synthesizers. More fun in one song than all of Kid A.

Calico Horse – Idioteque
I would have thought this song was uncoverable. I would have been wrong. It sounds perfectly natural in this quiet, drum machine free guise.

The record that propelled Bruce Springsteen to superstardom, Born in the U.S.A. hasn’t aged all that well. Though the songs are still top notch, the how-80’s-can-we-make-it production sounds tacky to modern ears and, from Reagan’s misinterpretation of the title track to the white-tee music video for Dancing in the Dark, it’s hard to disassociate the songs from the decade that spawned the. Fifteen million copies later though, the record still resonates with people, and hearing the songs in a new format can remind even the most jaded about how good they really are.

Richard Shindell - Born in the U.S.A.
Stripped of its bombastic drum blasts, the song's less likely to be interpreted as a rah-rah-America song this time around. Vaguely country-ish, but don’t hold that against it.

Thea Gilmore - Cover Me
An alt-folk sort of version here, the hauntingly brushed drums propel the echo of Gilmore’s subdued voice that replaces the originals swagger with a sort of desperation.

The Gourds - Darlington County
I couldn’t believe what a tough time I had finding a cover of this one. The best I could do was this live take from The Gourds. You may not recognize the name, but any cover-lover knows their bluegrass version of Gin & Juice. If anyone has a better cover of this one though, pass it along!

Joe Ely - Working on the Highway
Off of the Light of Day tribute album, it doesn’t stray too far from the original.

Kirk Kelly - Downbound Train
One of the album’s underrated gems, this ukulele take strips down the unnecessary production to a simple hootenanny jam.

Bat for Lashes - I'm on Fire
A lot of great covers of this track, I debated putting up the Johnny Cash version up, but will save that for a later post. This one is delicate and fragile, with strings subtle enough not to overpower the track. Bruce Goes Indie.

Pat McGee Band - No Surrender
The Eddie Vedder version is excellent, but has circulated so widely already I thought I’d give a little publicity to another live take, also acoustic, but with some great manly-man harmonies.

Jennifer Glass - Bobby Jean
Bobby Jean is not my lover…oh wait, sorry, different song. This is a track, originally about guitarist Steve Van Zandt’s departure from the E Street Band, that gets a lot of shit from fans. True it’s not amazing, but hearing it in this new format gives some fresh air to a tired classic.

Kid Harpoon w/ Florence - I'm Goin' Down
Kid Harpoon is a favorite of mine, a wharf rat vagrant whose songs about milkmaids and murder sound like Decemberists outtakes. So this isn’t his normal style, but the combination of the two voices sounds like a nice, lowkey demo.

Matt Tyler - Glory Days
My least favorite song on the album, Tyler takes away most of the synthetic production and lets you actually hear the lyrics. From his Springsteen cover album Brilliant Disguise.

Charlotte Martin - Dancing in the Dark
I could do a whole post on this song alone. Tegan and Sara do a beautiful cover you can find here, but once again I’d like to showcase a lesser-known take. It’s a live recording, and imperfect in that she takes a while to get into the song, but the soulful solo piano arrangement is worth the wait. Almost enough to make you forget about that video.

Kallet, Epstein and Cicone - My Hometown
U2 did a cover of this too. Whatever. I stole this folk cover from Cover Lay Down, and I thank him for it. If Peter, Paul and Mary did the Boss.

And for more Springsteen cover excitement, check out my Bruuuuuuce post a few months back. Still not enough? Read my concert reviews of his shows in Hartford, Montreal, and Milwaukee this year. What can I say, I’m a fan.

Part two of our 80's tribute series, we follow up all the rockin' with a little new wave pop.

Jake Shimabukuro - Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper)
The smooth Hawaiian sounds of Jake’s ukulele became a youtube hit with his While My Guitar Gently Weeps cover, but this take is almost as soulful. I wish the lounge background music was stripped though.

KT Tunstall - Walk Like an Egyptian (The Bangles)
A live take here, it’s not too dissimilar to the original, but fun nevertheless. Tunstall says she chose to cover it because of its musical similarity to her single “Hold On.”

Johnny Cash - Personal Jesus (Depeche Mode)
Another classic off the same album that brought the world “Hurt,” this one is a little faster paced. The rollicking piano backs Cash’s broken but forceful vocals.

Norman Palm - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (Cyndi Lauper)
Sensitive but not pathetic, the guitar harmonies match the vocal ones on this quiet take that would sound like a completely legit song if you ignored the lyrics.

Adam Selzer - Like a Prayer (Madonna)
Dark piano adds a gothic touch to this outtake that gets all touching for the chorus.

Fabienne Louves - She Works Hard for the Money (Donna Summer)
A Swiss German cover here, it’s electro-disco-fun in a language you can’t understand. Hurray!

Kevin Davis - 99 Red Balloons (Nina)
No synths or drum machines here, the riff is taken over by a harmonica. I wish they’d done the German version, but you’ve probably had enough of that after the previous song.

Der Tanz Der Vampire - Totale Finsternis (Total Eclipse of the Heart) (Bonnie Tyler)
Like the original only even more orchestrally epic, this song was rewritten by Jim Steinmen for his German vampire musical. It’s a dark and Gothic bloodsucking love duet that totally eclipses the original. The musical had a brief Broadway run in 2003, but having been rewritten as a camp number was a huge flop. Just go and watch a video of an abridged version from the original Austrian production to understand.

Bat for Lashes - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (Eurythmics)
A thumping, echoey version, it’s trippy psychedelia for the electronic millennium.

The Editors - Road to Nowhere (Talking Heads)
An Americana-inflected take, it starts out with a powerful voice and little else and builds from there into an acoustic power ballad.

There’s just something about the 80’s that inspires great cover songs. So great, in fact, that this series is gonna be a two-parter. First up: Rock. All the excesses of the 80’s – big hair, ten-minute guitar solos, and Jon Bon Jovi – are all well represented below by artists who aren’t afraid to find the good songs amidst the novelty. And stay tuned for some 80’s pop next week.

Jessica Will - For Those About to Rock (AC/DC)
When AC/DC titled this song, they clearly weren’t singing to Will. Her light acoustic take packs a punch, attitude and intensity making up for lack of distortion. And if you want more acoustic female covers of AC/DC, there’s a whole disc of ‘em: Backed in Black.

M. Ward - Let's Dance (David Bowie)
Indie posterboy, most recently of She & Him fame, does a quiet take kind of like how you would expect and indi posterboy covering Bowie to sound

Jon Regen - Don't Stop Believin' (Journey)
Another ironic Journey cover…yech. This one’s a keeper though, not too mellow and keeping the strong melody of the original. Bonus points for rocking out the guitar fills on the keys!

Anberlin - Love Song (The Cure)
So far in today’s 80’s rock theme, we’ve yet to have any real rocking covers. This should change that though, an aggressive rock band from Florida that does a loud and intense take, with a singing voice that melts in your mouth.

Grizzly Bear - Owner of a Lonely Heart (Yes)
The Bear made the blog rounds a year or so ago with their “He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)” cover (download it here), and this takes a similar approach, a slow builder that never explodes.

The Whip - White Wedding (Billy Idol)
When the banjo leads this one in, you know you’re in for something special. And are you ever. This one's off a charity comp of Portland covers called Bridging the Distance. Yes, the Decemberists are on it.

Scott D. Davis – The Final Countdown (Europe)
I posted Laibach’s cover of this one a few weeks back, but this piano take is fun and bouncy – way more than Laibach’s death-goth. Davis has a whole album of these instrumental takes on classic rock, Rockfluence, and it’s fabulous.

Mary Lou Lord - Jump (Van Halen)
Cover girl extraordinaire, Lord does a song so sincere here you wonder whether she realizes exactly what band she’s covering. It’s beautiful though, and as she draws you in you forget the original even exists.

Damien Rice - When Doves Cry (Prince)
One of those songs that seems to inspire great covers, I can’t decide if I like this or Patti Smith’s version more. It’s solo acoustic here, with Rice sounding so delicate that if you do touch his stomach, he might break.

Philmore - Livin' On a Prayer (Bon Jovi)
It seems appropriate to end on some more rock, so here you go. Even louder and more aggressive than the original, but just as sing-along-able.

-This post's a few days late cause I realized I accidentally posted it at my other blog Monday. Whoops!-

As the weather's heating up, it seemed about time for a seasonal post.

Billy Stewart – Summertime (George Gershwin)
Stewart’s version of this classic – wikipedia says there are more than 2,600 known covers – is always in the running as one of my favorite covers ever. If you haven’t heard it yet, this version trumps other excellent renditions by everyone from Janis Joplin to Angelique Kidjo. And even if you had, check out this mp3 – it features introductory notes from Bob Dylan!

TEA - Summer in the City (The Lovin’ Spoonful)
A lost treasure from the psychedelic era, this ’75 single adds some funk guitar to horn swagger that keeps the original’s attitude but updates the sound (though by doing so, it ironically sounds even more dated).

Bruce Springsteen - Summertime Blues (Eddie Cochran)
Bruce and the E Street Band just played this one for the first time in 27 years. It used to be a concert staple though, so here’s an older version, from Cleveland ’78.

Wakey! Wakey! - California Girls (The Beach Boys)
No band has encapsulated summer more than Brian Wilson and co. Wakey’s little toy piano version plunks along almost enough to compensate for the missing harmonies.

The Ramones - Surf City (Jan & Dean)
Off their covers album Acid Eaters, this shows the late-period Ramones having a bit of fun, punking out this Beach Boys-wannabe classic with tongues firmly in cheek.

Dartmouth Aires - The Boys of Summer (Don Henley)
A Capella. You either love it or hate.

Steve Wynn Quintet - Summer Wine (Nancy Sinatra / Lee Hazelwood)
I can’t claim to be familiar with the original, but this haunting cover combines some Johnny Cash outlaw bounce with Emmylou Harris sass.

PYT - Summer of '69 (Bryan Adams)
When I hear the original, I think about the 80’s more than the 60’s, and all the obnoxiousness of the overblown rawk sound. Stripping it back to some indie-electro is an interesting touch that, whether you think it works or not, makes you hear the song anew.

Little Richard - Dancing in the Street (Martha Reeve and the Vandellas)
It sounds like a regular studio jam session, with Richard shouting out instructions to the musicians and screeching over his backing singers. Almost as fun as that Jagger/Bowie 80's-tastic video.

Ray Pasnen – Margaritaville (Jimmy Buffet)
I hate this song with a burning passion, and finding a cover without some ear-bleeding-inducing steel drums was damn near impossible. This one is interesting though, an acoustic guitar version where he sings it to the tune of Hendrix’s “Little Wing.”