This summer the A.V. Club is holding a contest of sorts called "A.V. Undercover." The premise is 25 bands throughout the course of the stunt get to choose one song of 25 to cover. As the contest progresses, the pickings get slimmer. A couple real gems have been produced so far.
As a rule of thumb, I love cover tunes. I like hearing familiar songs being performed by unfamiliar or unexpected bands.
One of my favorite "A.V. Undercover" products is the Antlers covering Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here." The Antlers' ambient, ethereal sound quality and Peter Silberman's frail, sorrowful voice lend themselves perfectly to the song. "Wish You Were Here" has become one of those cliche classic rock songs, simply derivative of the fact that we've all heard it so much. But the song really is beautiful and wonderfully written, and the Antlers were able to give it a fresh reworking while maintaining the song's original integrity.
The Antlers cover Pink Floyd
Other great "A.V. Undercover" results are Wye Oak's stab at the Kinks and Owen Pallett doing Guided by Voices. See all performances here:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-wedding-present,38876/
No comments:
Post a Comment