Know it sounds funny...

...but Joe just can't stand the pain....
This week we bring you the third in Joe's continuing series of embarrassingly-dated album art. Lionel Richie's contributed Easy to the fifth Commodores record, and it served as the linchpin between their era of space-jam funk supremacy and the new wave* of easy-listening, 1980s superhits. And come on, this record cover looks just like every Chicago album.

Delta 417 to Air Traffic Control... Are you seeing this?

*apologies to The Eurythmics.

And for those of you thinking what I know you're thinking... Joe has clearly omitted the "ewwww!" going into the solo, narrowly avoiding a Cover-of-a-Cover paradox the results of which could start a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space time continuum, destroying the entire universe!**

Right-click to download: Easy.mp3

Click here for the original by The Commodores or the cover by Faith No More.

Don't believe the rhinos - this is not a Faith No More cover.

Seems to me, Joe, you know Joe's done all Joe can. I can do this ALL DAY, people. I'll substitute proper names for nouns and pronouns for the rest of this post.

Joe wanna be free to know the things Joe do are right.

Hm. That didn't work as well as planned. You've got to admit, though, it's better than thinking about this:
"Joe's a brick----house... He's mighty might-ah! Joe's lettin' it all hang out..."

**Granted, that's a worse case scenario. The destruction might in fact be very localized, limited to our own galaxy.

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note: I've changed the links on this post to direct to the itunes store. In my experience, the Amazon MP3 store is a better service in that it has higher bitrates, is browser-based, and (most importantly) doesn't use any kind of DRM. But then again, these tracks weren't available at Amazon, so there's a plus mark in the iTunes column for ya. Yay, capitalism.

I canna duet, cap'n!

This "bonus" song is just to make Joe jealous that he doesn't have a hot songstress to pair up with. (Or, more to the point, to goad him into tricking an innocent girl from Firenze up to his apartment with the promise of romance, only to wile her into singing into his Macbook.)

On Sunday, a couple of amateurs thought it would be a good idea to record a duet that Mark Lanegan co-wrote with PJ Harvey from his album, Bubblegum.

None More Bubblegum

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Right click to download Come to Me.mp3

And sample Lanegan's original version.

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I think it turned out pretty awesome, but I feel alright saying that since fully half of that compliment is directed towards Kristen, and therefore not egotistical. At all.

I dedicate this song out to the ragtag crew below, since they did the whole "cover song" thing about a year before Joe and I, did it on purpose, and did it to completion:

Mad Bomber hats are so hot this year, but don't let that discourage you from downloading their FREE collection of classic duets, done in their inimitable style under the moniker The Priestess and the Fool. Click on this adorable little pic to download it (for free) at their website:



<-- Priestess.comma.Fool
(trumpet not included)

Angsty Over-Production

After travelling no less than five HUNDRED miles this past week, and being harangued incessantly by Joe and Nip for not posting new content, Ryan decides to take advantage of his pirated plugins full-on rock studio and bring some wicked over-production to his demo. My demo. This is Ryan speaking.

As a celebration of Nine Inch Nails' new digital-only album/sonic experiment, Ghosts, I decided to revisit one of my favorite songs from a really, terribly inconsistent album:

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Every Day is Exactly the Same follows a classic NIN formula of:
dark verse
dark verse (with extra guitar-y part thrown in)
loud chorus
dark verse (plus guitar-y)
loud chorus
confessional, soul-rending bridge
loud chourus

Except that now Trent is 40. So compress it a little, take all the loud parts down a notch, and have everyone wondering if maybe he couldn't just lighten up a bit.

Every_Day_Is_Exactly_The_Same.mp3

Click for NIN's even slicker original.

In an effort to flesh out this song, I ended up inserting tracks, layering vocals and adding effects to acoustic guitar. Eventually, contrary to everyone's predictions.... it still sounded pretty much like a Nine Inch Nails cover song. Hm. Mission accomplished!

Next week I'll get back on the minimalism train and leave the RP-1 at home, I promise. Meanwhile, download the track and let us know what we're doing good/bad, right/wrong, dumb/superdumb.

A semi-ironic retort

Sick of earnest, heartfelt song craft, Joe made a swift 180 just to rape the happy memory of Ryan's metal-head teen years by re-imagining the lead follow-up, but more famous single from these guys:


YES!
He even thought to include the blistering solo before the last chorus. He could have taken 'er easy and hammered the cowbell for "Slave to the Grind", he could have written love letters in the sand for "I Remember You", he could have ended up like this guy:



Let's all thank god that he didn't, and just enjoy the mp3 below. After all, now we can look forward to cut-rate versions of any number of self-indulgent, bloated, hair-metal tracks from the tapes in the center console of Ryan's old truck.




18_and_Life.mp3


18 and Life, 1989 version.

In which Ryan is inspired...

...to get off his ass and deliver something.

Step 1 - Joe sends mp3 to Ryan
Step 2 - Ryan gets annoyed he didn't think of it first
Step 3 - Ryan responds with a song off of this record:


Step 4 - Here it is:
This_Must_Be_The_Place.mp3



And you can sample (or purchase) the original track here. But you don't have to!

Step 5 - Listen, comment, contribute!

Sweet Baby J... Joe.

UPDATE: Joe's new version is downloadable here: Close_Your_Eyes_new.mp3


Joe Boyle inadvertantly starts off a DemoWAR with his cover of James Taylor’s “You Can Close Your Eyes” from this hippie-fest record.

You_Can_Close_Your_Eyes.mp3


Download it, ipod it, zune it, whatever. Leave some feedback.
If you'd like to hear JT's old version, it's right here.