Tidbit Thursday: Jeff Pianki covers Loggins and Messina
plus Disney, Dr. Seuss, Vampire Weekend, and A-Ha covers here & elseblog
Credit where credit is due today to other bloggers for turning me on to the following cover artists and songs.
First, major kudos to Chad of the newly-resurrected, totally refurbished Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands for finding and promoting Jeff Pianki, a young upstart who knows how to play and how to play the social media rising star game. The Michigan-based artist, who posts his own new covers at both YouTube and Tumblr, refers fans to his homegrown last.fm collections for mp3s, but I suspect he won’t mind if we host his newest, an utterly amazing bedroom folk cover of Loggins and Messina classic Danny’s Song which, truly, blows every last hint of sappiness out of the original, replacing it with a tenderly broken lo-fi indie greatness.
Pianki seems poised for greatness, too: though he’s not released an official album yet, or even a single studio track, according to his Facebook page, the artist will be opening for Gregory and the Hawk, aka Meredith Godreau, when she comes through his area in May. Makes me wish I lived in Michigan, too.
- Jeff Pianki: Danny’s Song (orig. Loggins and Messina)
- Bonus: Jeff Pianki: Mansard Roof (orig. Vampire Weekend)
Elseblog, thanks to Kurtis of the now fully-revived Disney covers blog Covering the Mouse, who asked me throw in a guest post, and posted my contribution yesterday. I chose a particularly international cover for the occasion, in keeping with the multi-national chaos currently overwhelming Kurtis’ Olympic-hosting home province, but to be honest, I found it elseblog myself: at Spanish coverblog Torre De Canciones, who continues to impress with otherwise-undiscovered coversongs that quite often suit our penchant for the gentle and acoustic here at Cover Lay Down.
To prove my point, here’s the pseudonymous Spanish sensation Anni B Sweet with a dreamy, delicate popfolk uke-and-guitar cover of A-Ha classic Take On Me, posted by her blogging countrywoman just this week. Add Torre De Canciones to your feedreader, head over to Covering The Mouse to check out and stream French gypsy-punk band Famille Grendy’s acoustic cover of Chim Chim Cher-ee, and in general, give daily thanks to the Internet for being just plain awesome.
- Anni B Sweet: Take On Me (orig. A-Ha)
Oh, and speaking of awesome music elseblog: we’re featuring Canadian artists over at collaborative blog Star Maker Machine this week in honor of the Olympics; near as I can tell, my first contribution marks the first time Moxy Fruvous’ amazing nerd rap version of Dr. Seuss kiddie classic Green Eggs and Ham has been on the web since Cover Lay Down moved on from its old host in 2008.
Head over to Star Maker Machine to catch the tune, and to pick up more great musical content from “Canada: America’s Hat”.
Category: Elseblog
February 19th, 2010 at 7:17 pm
big vampire weekend fan, totally digging this cover <3
February 27th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Oh. Thanks for the mention, I really really love this blog