VOTE - Transformered - The VU Coverfight

wages · Post by **wages** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 6:43 pm

I voted for "Holly and the Sleestaks - Femme Fatal". It was between Caravan Ray "Run Run", King Arthur "Power and Glory", Cythia & SpOOns "Candy Says", with BLT and Holly's other song as runner ups. But the ultimate decision was based on the fact that it completely reminded me of Velvet Underground's sound while still being Holly and the Sleestaks. Great job to most of everyone! I wish my recording had been better. Maybe I'll do it some time, or maybe someone would like to do the music for it.

Peace

The Sleestak · Post by **The Sleestak** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 6:52 pm

I voted for "Holly and the Sleestaks - Femme Fatal". It was between Caravan Ray "Run Run", King Arthur "Power and Glory", Cythia & SpOOns "Candy Says", with BLT and Holly's other song as runner ups. But the ultimate decision was based on the fact that it completely reminded me of Velvet Underground's sound while still being Holly and the Sleestaks.

Wages, man....coming from someone with your skills your vote sincerely means a lot to me.

Thank you

wages · Post by **wages** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 8:25 pm

The Sleestak wrote:
I voted for "Holly and the Sleestaks - Femme Fatal". It was between Caravan Ray "Run Run", King Arthur "Power and Glory", Cythia & SpOOns "Candy Says", with BLT and Holly's other song as runner ups. But the ultimate decision was based on the fact that it completely reminded me of Velvet Underground's sound while still being Holly and the Sleestaks.

Wages, man....coming from someone with your skills your vote sincerely means a lot to me.

Thank you

ah, shucks.

Lord of Oats · Post by **Lord of Oats** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 2:14 pm

Okay, who wants to do a Velvet Revolver coverfight next?

Rinkydink · Post by **Rinkydink** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 4:59 pm

This isn't the place for that kind of chat!!!!
This thread is about the VU coverfight, if you want to suggest another coverfight do it in the main 'sidefights and highlights' forum.

Lord of Oats · Post by **Lord of Oats** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 5:18 pm

Of course this is the place! They both start with velvet!

Rinkydink · Post by **Rinkydink** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 6:49 am

Anyway, our vote goes to Wages, but it was difficult for us to choose the overall winner between Run Run Run, White Light/ White Heat, I'm Waitin for the Man and Rock & Roll.

Nigel (spOOn) Clements · Mon Sep 17, 2007 11:29 am

Jeff Robertson gets the spOOn vote after much deliberation, really liked the 'Soup Dragon-esque' feel to BLT ft. FBF as a close runner-up, but hey everybody's a winner!

Albatross · Post by **Albatross** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 10:49 pm

Very solid project as a whole, kudos to all. Special honorable mention to Jeff Robertson, Billy's Little Face, CRay's "Run Run Run" and Rinkydink. Vote goes to Arturo el Rey.

jeff robertson · Post by **jeff robertson** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 12:00 pm

reviews!

BLT f/ FBF - Frankie Big Face, I would pay good money for you to record an album of glam/protopunk covers. Bowie, Reed, T-Rex.. Well, I would buy the album at least. Not sure I could convince my wife to let me finance it's production. Music is groovy too.

Sleestaks (both of your songs) - This is like a few drunk people sitting on the steps outside a crumbling university dorm, harmonizing while one of them strums guitar. It is much more competently played and sung than such a jam would actually be in real life, but it still feels like that.

Cynthia/Sp00ns - Possibly the saddest sounding thing I've ever heard a synth voice (or vocoder, or whatever that is) do. The music vibrato/tremelo on the guitar (assuming that's really guitar) is a little unnerving. The whole thing is oddly disturbing, actually, which is probably what you were going for.

Me - The main guitar riff, the whole arrangement in fact, is as much of a nod to the Stooges as to the Velvets. I was trying to do something that would remind people of something like "T.V. Eye". I originally planned to have bass throughout, but was never able to come up with anything I liked. So at 0:55 or so I bring in a pitch-shifted version of the guitar, shifted down, to try to make up for lack of bass. At 1:51, a completely different take of the main guitar is punched in, and it does sound different. The natural harmonics starting at 1:54 are played on the E string tuned down to a low A. The feedback heard in the left channel starting at 2:07 is yet another separate take, although it's supposed to sound like the chords just sort of give way to feedback naturally. The vocals sound rushed. They were supposed to sound sort of rushed, but not this rushed. Oh well.

K.A. - digging this arrangement. I don't know if I would have known that was supposed to be a viola if I hadn't been told, but it doesn't matter. I like how it fits into the song.

Caravan Ray - Man that wah wah wah droning guitar is appropriate. All the guitars, actually, are very true to the spirit of the original without directly copying Lou's solo. Nice.

Organic Spoons - wow, not typical sp00ns at all. High points include those echoey background vocals.

Heuristics Inc - well produced, though the arrangement is a little annoying. I like most of the sounds here but something about they way they fit together bothers my ears.

Rinydink - is that a banjo? Male + female harmony? sweet. I'm jealous cause I never get to work with no girls.

The Mess - I love how the chord progression doesn't actually have much similarity to the original song, but it doesn't matter. How is it that you actually sounded a lot less Australian back then than you do now?

Anti-M - knowing what this is (a rehearsal that you probably never intended anybody to hear), it's alright. Maybe it's just that I like the original so much that anything even remotely faithful will still sound good to me.

Marcus Kellis - another drunk on the back porch of a college party kind of thing. This one actually does sound like you might have been drunk when you recorded it... which is very charming in a song like this. When I was in college, the chorus from this song was written in permanent marker on the door to our basement bar, so this unintentially brings back a lot of sweaty, drunken, cigarette smoky memories for me. If I was a girl, I'd be all horny over this.

Wages (VOTE) - Holy fuck. This may be the best balance you've managed to pull off between the "Wild Man Wages" raving rock lunatic persona, and your softer acoustic side. Seriously, this is ON. Even the out of tuneness of the guitar solo, and the way it just sort of falls apart is AAAOOOWWLLL RIIIGHT. Something the whole thing also reminds me of the Bowie songs sung in Portuguese by Seu Jorge on the soundtrack of the movie "The Life Aquatic".

Jack Shite - some of the lyrics are just slightly different enough from the ones I though I'd memorized, to throw off my attempts to sing along. I haven't bothered to consult the original for reference yet.

Albatross - one of the few songs here where I'm not familiar with the original. I have all the VU albums but I don't have Transformer or wherever this is from. Rockin' musical arrangement. The vocals could be more mean sounding.

J$ - creepy. Totally unexpected given the source material. And for that reason, effective.

jeff robertson · Post by **jeff robertson** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 12:13 pm

Also, KA, I would still like to hear that "Sweet Jane".

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 1:52 pm

jeff robertson wrote:The Mess - I love how the chord progression doesn't actually have much similarity to the original song, but it doesn't matter.

It probably doesn't sound like the original song, because we had never heard the original song. I remember hearing the Joy Division version of it from the "Still" album a couple of times and memorising some of the lyrics (or what i thought were the lyrics). I think I statred it up one night on stage without telling the other 2 blokes - just playing 3 chords, and they joined in - and we made it up as we went.

It became a bit of a band routine. We always played it as the closing song - and we had a strict rule that we never, ever rehearsed it. It was always very different every time we played it.

I heard the VU version years later and thinking - Wow! it that what we thought we were playing!

BTW: Great job by everybody here - Great cover fight. I've been driving around with this in the car CD player all week.

Vote went to Jeff Robertson - that was just awesome!

Closely followed by BLT/FBF - very fun happy sounding reinterpretation, and Rinky Dink - great work, very faithful to original, but your accent/vocals are far much more pleasant that Lou's NY drawl and Mrs Dink is a much better singer than Mo Tucker - so you improved on the original. Also - HeuristicsInc was just hilarious! Sounds like some drunken lecherer wandering around at 3am accosting ladies in the street (and hence, sounds strangely familiar...)

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 4:00 pm

Heh, thanks!

It's funny, I when I listened to yours I was thinking that it sounded a lot like the JD/Sisters of Mercy versions rather than the original. Also I didn't realize anybody actually did the "3 cheers" thing in real life.
-bill

frankie big face · Post by **frankie big face** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 5:29 pm

Been following this thread and just felt the need to chime in and say that I did almost nothing on BLT's track. I just recorded some half-assed last-minute vox in a noisy studio that Chris had to EQ a hundred different ways to even make them work. The "featuring Frankie Big Face" is a bit much; should have been "Billy's Little Trip and some jackass who sounds a little like Bowie." But I appreciate the attention during this non-productive period and am glad BLT saw fit to invite me along for the ride. Thanks everyone.

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 9:23 pm

Hey, I gothoy ...er forgot to ask if there's a deadline for the voting.
-bill

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 9:50 pm

So modest. I toss this song in Frankie's lap at the last minute with my ideas, and he sends me back full vox with back ups the next day. All I could think to myself is, this is so nice to work with a professional. Thanks again dude.

frankie big face · Post by **frankie big face** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 2:53 am

Billy's Little Trip wrote:So modest.

That's exactly how people describe me all the time.

Rinkydink · Post by **Rinkydink** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 5:22 am

HeuristicsInc wrote:Hey, I gothoy ...er forgot to ask if there's a deadline for the voting.
-bill

Yep, there was a 10 day limit to the voting (its written in big letters in the first post).
It was

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 8:11 pm

so today should be the last day for voting

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:32 am

weird, somehow i didn't even notice that. maybe the letters were too big

-bill

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 1:50 pm

HeuristicsInc wrote: Also I didn't realize anybody actually did the "3 cheers" thing in real life.
-bill

Perhaps you have just never done anything "3 cheers"-worthy?

But, the "3 cheers" is quite common - mainly given at the end of sporting matches, especially rugby, for the members of the opposing team, or for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings etc...

That recording was from The Mess's farewell performance in 1986 - hence the spontaneous ejaculation of adoration at the end (it was a bit out of context really, but it was started by one the drunken members of my football team - and as mentioned earlier, rugby players do tend to dish out '3 cheers' at the drop of a hat)

king_arthur · Post by **king_arthur** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:04 pm

OY! OY! OY!
Caravan Ray!
OY! OY! OY!

Charles (KA)

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:11 pm

I personally don't think enough songs have the 3 cheers in them.

VOTE - Transformered - The VU Coverfight

Which is your favourite?