Compare and Contrast
Please note: MP3s are only kept online for a short time, and if this entry is from more than a couple of weeks ago, the music probably won't be available to download any more.


 

Macha Loved Bedhead - "Believe"

There is real artistic vision at work when a musician hears Cher's "Believe" and thinks to himself rightly "I could do a great cover of that." Macha and Bedhead had the thought and executed the cover almost perfectly (maybe it could have been half the length).

The original is something like what would result if an automated phone service and a soulless record producer met at a seedy downtown bar, drank four old fashioned's each, made out and procreated.

The cover keeps the phone/electronics focus of the original but slows it way down, moves it from the gross oversaturated green night club scene, to a creaky sunbright bedroom. The vocoder is kept, but instead of sounding like a computer it sounds like an ancient quarter-inch tape recording left out in the rain and then played on a reel-to-reel with a precarious power supply.

Go here to make your own cover. I can't stop.

***

Smog - "Hit The Ground Running"

So, this is a weird one. Here's how it starts:

Pizzicato strings and a child staring straight at you singing exactly what's being plucked, "bum, bum, bum." There's something vaguely psychopathic about it. Then another kid steps out from behind the first. And a third kid from behind him. Hey, it's a grade three class unfolding from a single-file line, all singing the "bum, bums." Where's it going? You don't know. You don't even know how you got here in the first place. Then Bill Calahan (aka Smog) starts in. What does the bizarre man behind this circus have to say? "I had to leave the country, though there was some a nice folk there."

Mostly it's a straightforward 4/4 rock song, but sometimes it has a string section and sometimes a choir of children.

Don't be upset when he sings "I was born in a pit of snakes/Blink your eyes/I was raised on cake." There's no reason to be upset by what is good.

Posted by Jordan at December 7, 2004 5:12 AM
Comments

it's so nice to see this song posted. the macha/bedhead record is great, and this cover is particularly nice. when i heard they covered that song i expected it to be kitschy, but instead it's genius. i was just thinking about this song again yesterday.

thanks!

Posted by karen at December 7, 2004 10:00 AM

Yeah... it's Macha Loves Bedhead. Not Macha and Bedhead.

Peace
MPLSindie

Posted by MPLSindie at December 7, 2004 11:50 AM

It turns out it's Macha Loved Bedhead. Thanks for leading me closer. I should have looked it up.

Posted by Jordan at December 7, 2004 1:57 PM

The choir of children remind me of Pink Floyd.

Thanks for the song.

Posted by hka at December 7, 2004 7:53 PM

The vocoder makes it sound like the singer has caught a mild case of puberty. It's disarming.

This reminds me of Lou Barlow's cover of "Cold as Ice" (the Foreigner song). Anything can be good, from the right angle, with the right ears at work.

Posted by rodii at December 7, 2004 9:57 PM

Wow, that Smog song is great! Love the ending too. It reminds me of so many things--Lou Reed, Kevin Ayers, the Feelies, Elliot Murphy, Solomon Burke, god knows what else... (Sorry for the double comment.)

Posted by rodii at December 7, 2004 10:08 PM

chappy chanuka

Posted by Anonymous at December 7, 2004 10:28 PM

ah, been a while since I've heard "Believe". Some good fun there. Is it wrong to like this song more than any of Macha's other stuff?

Posted by ryan at December 10, 2004 9:42 AM

i've always had a soft spot in my head for cher's believe. when i hung out at this dive bar, it was one of two songs that would take the drinkers away from their drinks. and they would stand up, dance and sing along.

Posted by cb at December 11, 2004 3:55 AM

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