Holiday Greetings: Rudolph/"Roxanne" Mashup

In response to my previous post on covers, my friend Nick turned me on to a clever mashup of Ruldolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and the Police's "Roxanne." A funny and clever mix complete with video featuring cuts from the 1965 stop-motion tv program that is still popular today.

Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N4EFVgtB0Y

You can also see my friend Nick covering the mashup at a live performance here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMB8qGB7dnc

What's your favorite holiday cover?

Paul Wisner Rates "Kids in America" Covers

Occasionally, and much to the dismay of our keyboardist/guitarist Paul Wisner, my band covers a song. In fact, we (Miskatonic) played an entire set of unlikely cover songs at our singer's wedding. But aside from that, I can only recall three that we've played out: "Do It Clean" (Echo and the Bunnymen), "I Was Made for Loving You" (KISS) and "Kids in America" (Kim Wilde).

Paul thinks we shouldn't cover any songs; but if we had to it should be a unique version, "based on the the original words and melody - as opposed to mimicking a particular recorded performance." He points to Sonic Youth's haunting interpretation of The Carpenter's "Superstar" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y21VecIIdBI).

In this spirit, he recently shared with the band his ratings of "Kids in America" covers ...

BEST:
MxPx (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QuuKqwRpCc)

GOOD:
The Muffs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31amCrgicbI&feature=related)
Pennywise (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFuWMXxpf5M)
The Bloodhound Gang (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPxtvwd-2lw)
The Donnas (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu-8soqGK-U)
Len (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dxkF-GWwCQ)

'A' FOR EFFORT:
Lawnmower Deth (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJz6_PEu6Iw)

HORRIBLE:
Cascada (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRLxeiBzSJQ&feature=related)
Kim-Lian (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieyU4F76EYU&feature=related)
Hannah Montana (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7o_aateAsE&feature=related)

WORSE THAN HORRIBLE:
The Jonas Brothers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOZxpCyGxF8)
No Secrets (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYAPDCEaJ80&feature=related)

I'm sure he didn't capture all of them ... any others worth consideration??

The Sheila Divine Reunites to Record a Fan-Funded Album

The Sheila Divine, much beloved Boston-based band of the '90s, has reunited to record a new album. (For background, they were previous written about in this blog here.) That's great news in and of itself, but what's more insteresting is that singer/songerwriter - and digital marketer - Aaron Perrino, has used the project-funding site, KickStarter, to finance this project. In his own words:

"Well it's 2010 and The Sheila Divine has decided to join the party. We want to try and recreate that lightning in a bottle. The original 3 piece line up of Aaron Perrino, Jim Gilbert, and Shawn Sears are teaming up with Brian Charles producer of New Parade to have another go at creating a piece of work that we can be proud of."

Setting an initial goal of $5,000, the band has proven that they are fondly remembered - and still relevent - raising more than $13,000. Pledgers of $1 or more get a digital download of the album, which is now in progress. Pledge $15 and add a signed photograph from the recording sessions. Increased generousity gets you t-shirts, limited edition vinyl presses, visits to the recording studio, tickets to a concert, etc. Then, starting at $500 it gets really interesting:

• Pledge $500 or more and they will record any cover of your choosing and give you the exclusive rights and ownership to it.
• $1,000 or more gets you an original song that you are the exlcusive owner of. (You can even have your wife's name in it.)
• 
  For $1,500 or more: "What do you want from us? Dinner at an amazing restaurant? A date with Jim? All the options above are fair game or email us your pitch."
• And, finally for $5,000 they will perform a concert in your town. 

They have two backers at $500, but none above that. I wonder what covers they will be recording! ...

It's a great idea succesfully implemented by Aaron. As a small-time pledger I have been receiving regular updates from them with links to downloads of just-finished songs. Surprise gifts delivered to my inbox!

You can read more about their project on Kickstarter here. And you can listen to some of the songs they've recorded here.