Oh Happy Day!

Fly your freak flag. Put on your boogie shoes! It is a very happy day.

“Oh Happy Day” by Edwin Hawkins Singers

Beneath the Covers of New Music

In the marketplace of shared music on the millions of music blogs, cover songs are the fastest growing franchise. Former denizens of grainy bootlegs and B-sides, the number of cover songs has exponentially grown in a fracturing music industry.

With a little more time than to record the track, any artist or wannabee can digitally send that cover around the globe. If the artist is big enough, the release becomes an EVENT. If you don't even have that time, just play it live and leave the distribution and buzz-generating efforts to others. Or be a fortunate by-stander when someone (good, hopefully) remixes your song.

Look at the most popular searches at Hype Machine, covers and remixes consistently cast a large shadow over the list. However, that should not be surprising. Technology is catching up with something primitive. The nature of the cover song is to go back to the basics of performance. That's playing in an empty bar with three sets to do with a handful of original songs, and two of those are sketchy.

Right now, there is a torrent of cover songs in the ether from artist-driven albums and EPs to marketing releases and leaks to radio show performances to an evening playing a guitar to your computer. In a net quickly filling with chaff, here are three examples of the good stuff.

Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (Vampire Weekend) by Peter Gabriel & Hot Chip

The "leak" of the cover of the Vampire Weekend hipster tune by Peter Gabriel and electropop group Hot Chip is fun and delicious. Gabriel's take on "singing his own name" is worth the listen itself.

All I Need (Marvin Gaye) by My Morning Jacket (Live at MSG 12/31/08)

My Morning Jacket ended a year of ravingly good shows and a successful album with a rousing New Year's Eve show at New York's Madison Square Garden. Frontman Jim James' duet with Nicole Atkins on this Marvin Gaye classic exemplifies the quality of the concert. The whole show is classic.

Crazy In Love (Beyonce) by The Magic Numbers

In what sounds like a recording of a radio performance, the English sibling duo quarter The Magic Numbers turn out a very enjoyable version of this Beyonce classic.

Music Business Is Eating Its Tail and I Feel Fine

It was a moment of digital revelation.

While listening to a podcast of a NPR radio program through my iPod connected to my car stereo, the Clash's "London Calling" was played. I had to turn off my iPod to ensure that my cell phone wasn't playing its own "London Calling" ringtone.

This circular auditory confusion must make the music business feel like the snake eating its tail. And they're right. However, this is just the noisy debris of a rapidly-expanding music industry.

We are at the precipice of a very noisy revolution. With declining CD sales continuing to swamp rising digital sales, record companies and artist have globbing their music to any medium that will stick. Music within video games, ringtones, commercial jingles and web ads are quickly reaching the upper levels of cacophony.

Many will continue to wring their hands regarding the effects of this explosion of song outlets has on the "business" and the artistry itself. The critics often miss the point that this cacophony is the sound of freedom in a very noisy, ever expanding, financially-challenging way.

The point being lost is that we are listening to more music than ever before. This is at least anecdotally evident through the mass of earbuds hanging from our collective ears. And there is more music being made. Myspace is swamped with bands - for good or ill. The loss of the record companies' control over the distribution of music has globalized the punk ethic of doing it yourself. And bands are and we, the music fans, are the beneficiaries.

As the music business continues to noisily thrash around trying to find a workable means to continue (and they will), we will have to temporarily put up with some auditory confusion. But that is well-worth the ocean of new music now lapping at our feet.

Download: Radio, Radio by Elvis Costello (mp3) (Amazon) (iTunes)

New Year's Eve On The Radio -Updated With Playlist

For a year-end wrap up, After Hours contributors Duncan Strauss, marty and Ian Minor will be appearing live on WMNF Radio on New Year's Eve from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.  Listen to us here.  Or if you are tooling around the Tampa Bay area, check us out at 88.5 on the FM dial. 

Each of us will be playing favorite songs from the past year and years past.  Feel free to call in at 813-239-9663 or email us during the show with your requests.  

As always with WMNF, this will be radio as it was meant to be - eclectic, fun and full of passion. Plus, it will rock your bones. 

Download: Radio Song by R.E.M. (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)

UPDATE

Thank you all for listening to the show.  Here is the playlist of the songs we played during our Sonic Detour stint.  To listen to an archived copy, please listen here.

 Artist Song Album

Bruce Springsteen	My Lucky Day	Working On A Dream
Alejandro Escovedo	Always a Friend	Real Animal
The Felice Brothers	Frankie's Gun!	The Felice Brothers
Old Crow Medicine Show	Alabama High-Test	Tennessee Pusher
Holly Golightly	Tell Me Now So I Know	Broken Flowers Soundtrack
Jenny Lewis	Acid Tongue	Acid Tongue
Dusty Springfield	Son of a Preacher Man	Dusty In Memphis
Eels	The Good Old Days	Shootenanny!
She & Him	Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?	Volume One
Fleet Foxes	White Winter Hymnal	Fleet Foxes
Blitzen Trapper	Furr	Furr
Ok Go	This Will Be Our Year	Future Soundtrack for America
Francis Dunnery	I Believe I Can Change My World	Tall Blonde Helicopter
The Wombats	Let's Dance To Joy Division	A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation
Joy Division	Love Will Tear Us Apart	Complete BBC Recordings
The Byrds	My Back pages	Back Pages
The Pretenders	Don't Lose Faith In Me	Break Up The Concrete
John Hiatt	Everybody Went Low	The Tiki Bar Is Open
Conor Oberst	Moab	Conor Oberst
Kings of Leon	Sex On Fire	Only By The Night
Freddie Hubbard	Delphia	Delphia
The Preston School of Industry	Caught In The Rain	Monsoon
The Silver Seas	The Country Life	High Society