Cover Lay Down Presents: A Reluctant Video Companion
(Mat Kearney and The Gaslight Anthem cover Springsteen, plus more covers from A. C. Newman, Bruce Wayne Campbell, and Rose Polenzani)
To me, music is a sonic communion first and foremost, best enjoyed in the encompassing darkness, with headphones if possible. As such, though I’m squarely a member of the first MTV generation, I generally don’t bother with YouTube.
Some of this is merely about visual distraction. I like concerts - being there is its own form of communion, and seeing an artist’s fingering and facial expression can lend a permanent layer of nuance to songs previously heard. But when unavoidable fascination with the technical nuances of sound production, and the way the light bounces off a varnished guitar to become a splotch of tabletop light, it takes up a part of me I was using to listen.
Mostly, though, the issue here is distance. Headphone sound is always enveloping; live music is, too, in its own way. But when it comes to screen-based sound, the tiny rectangle of light and motion reduces that all-encompassing feeling of communion to something tinny and contained. Scale and proximity matter: to squint at music is to be apart from it. It’s like smelling flowers while looking at them through the wrong end of the telescope.
Still, as a blogger and a fan, I think musicians should have the power to choose how to frame their music. And in an increasingly high-bandwidth world, this has meant a constant behind-the-scenes struggle to honor original performances produced as audio-visual. Ripping audio from artist videos may be a good way to bring in the hits from the Hype Machine crowd, but I think it’s fair to recognize that artists who present certain songs as video sessions do so deliberately. And if that is so, then to strip away part and parcel of the intended performance may also be to compromise an artist’s product.
Two recent cover projects put forth as wholesale collections of “native video” performances become a case in point. Okkervil River’s recruitment of fellow indiefolk artists to cover the songs on their most recent album The Stand Ins in the weeks before its late-autumn release made for some precious solo living room performances from the likes of Bon Iver, Ola Podrida, A. C. Newman and David Vandervelde. And just this week, Springsteen-hosted covers project Hangin’ Out On E Street hit the street with seven new videos from a diverse set of artists (The Gaslight Anthem, Ted Leo, Wyclef Jean) and the promise of more to come from such luminaries as Calexico, Tegan and Sara, Pete Yorn, and Josh Ritter.
Not all are gems, of course. Some performances, such as The Avett Brothers’ seemingly ancient and disastrously rough version of Glory Days, are clearly throw-aways. And in many cases, such as the poorly recorded Juliana Hatfield cover of Springsteen’s Cover Me, or the in-the-red vocals of Zykos covering Okkervil River’s On Tour With Zykos, these projects sacrifice audio quality for concept, producing such lo-fi recordings, the videos become mere curiosities, useful only to the comprehensive collector. But despite the inherently amateur nature of the medium, those who take the take seriously begin to transcend the limitations of the medium, creating something warm and intimate even as it remains tiny and contained.
Here’s a few of the better selections from the abovementioned series, plus another pair of “native videos” from Rose Polenzani, who has also “gone native” with a series of sweet homemade affairs. I posted a holiday cover by Rose awhile back, and the Feist cover here is nice, but make sure you stick around for the cover of Lonesome Polecat — my father loves it, and for very good reason.
Springsteen covers from Hangin’ Out On E Street:
Okkervil River covers from The Stand Ins sessions:
Covers from Rose Polenzani’s YouTube channel
For what it’s worth, my YouTube favorites are a random collection of originals and covers, TV moments and live concert videos, and a growing cache of performances which originated in the medium. Recent rarities include everything from Old Crow Medicine Show with Gillian Welch covering the Band to Cat Power covering Sandy Denny to Kathy Mattea covering the Beatles. I really like this delicate living room cover of Bette Davis Eyes from newcomer Kenneth Pattengale, and Kay Pettigrew’s cover of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme is surprisingly successful. Plus the odd acoustic video game theme song, and a growing collection of homespun ukulele covers, for some reason.
Feel free to recommend other rare and favorite “native YouTube videos” via links in the comments, too. I’d love to hear what’s out there, lingering in your eyes and ears.
Cover Lay Down posts new features Wednesdays, Sundays, and the occasional otherday. Coming soon: a spate of tribute albums hits the folk and roots communities, and there is much rejoicing.
Category: Uncategorized
February 26th, 2009 at 3:35 am
I agree with what you’re saying. I’m 58 this year and effectively missed the first 10 years of MTV (I think I saw about 2 hours total all those years) because I didn’t have cable (couldn’t afford i9t). I’ve always been happy about that, because I wasn’t locked in to seeing a song performed the way it was in the video which is what transpired more and more in Pop music ever since. It’s probably why I tend towards the more organic sounds these days (like the Felice Brothers & Gillian Welch…those videosrecords are great to hear). I believe how ever, like you, that the visual element can get too distracting…like the folks doing their best to video every moment of their lives who ignore that their focus is pulling them away from experiencing what is happening with their own eyes and ears in real time. It is never the same seeing it on video. there is always this unreal quality to the whole process. I understand why folks do it, but they need to get back in the game. Hey, when are we going to watch all this stuff we record or TiVo anyways? Do you have an extra 10 hours a day you’re hiding somewhere? If so, clip me off a piece off that!
I loved the Lonesome Polecat song…always a big Johnny Mercer fan. Thanks. It was endearing.
February 26th, 2009 at 3:44 am
Oh, yes, one last point. It’s kind of like what happened when TV came in and all the old radio serials began to slip away and only a few made the transition to TV. What was missing was imagination. No slight to all the talented people who created all the stes and costumes and populated the characters of those shows, but even I , who only experienced the very tail end of it happening and then afterwards through my father’s radio show collection, can teel you that just hearing the sound forced…no make thac ALLOWED me to stretch my imagination and createa face to every character. I was a substitute teacher a few years ago and explained it like this to my students.
How many of you read the Harry Potter books before the first movie came out? Do you remember what it felt like seeing those pictures in your head of all the people, places and things? Each of you had a unique picture. And after the first movie came out? You all shared the SAME images thereafter. Harry would always look like Daniel (whatshisname) and Ronlike…and so forth. imagination Pirates, theives of personal creativity. Nuff said.
February 26th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Here’s a favorite youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oDsSRZT77k It’s Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe and Squeeze performing a cover of a song from my youth that I had all but forgotten about - Manfred Mann’s ‘Pretty Flamingo’. Hope you enjoy it.
February 26th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
Glad to see Rose Cousins here… hope you’ve already discovered her beautiful and simple music.
February 27th, 2009 at 11:24 am
http://oomb.tumblr.com/post/82030300/i-have-seen-the-future-and-i-tell-it-to-you-now
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