Tuesday, November 17, 2015

V/A - Duck and Cover


Label: SST
Year: 1990

Has this not been posted here before? Weird, I thought it had been.
Ok, well, short version: the SST roster (as impressive as it was) offers up cover songs in their respective styles. Results vary, but with a crew this heavy, rest assured.

Husker Du cover The Byrds, and does it so well I had no idea this was a cover until years later.
Meat Puppets cover Little Richard (or maybe CCR, depending on your mood) and give it a proper high desert freakout.
Black Flag cover The Kingsmen to great effect. You've heard this a million times, but you'll hear it a million more and still get a charge from hearing Dez scorching through it.
Volcano Suns cover MC5 and manage to sound basically like MC5. Surprise.
Saccharine Trust cover Black Flag. How cheeky! Their live version gets lewd and loose, but they nail the basic idea and shine a light into Black Flag's oft overlooked black humor.
Revolution 409 cover The Osmonds and give it a Redd Kross (no surprise as Revolution 409 is essentially a continuation of that band) styled punk warping.
Dinosaur Jr. cover The Cure, and essentially give a master class in "How To Cover A Song". Essential.
The Leaving Trains cover Cliff Nobles and Co. which is a nice rambling pop jam.
Stone By Stone with Chris D. cover Eric Martin Band (future Mr. Big vocalist!) and give it the quintessential late 80's "college rock" bravado.
Minutemen cover Van Halen and, like Dinosaur Jr., manage to give an iconic jam an whole new feel that rivals the original. (this is the really short version of the cover)
Descendants cover The Beach Boys and you'd be hard pressed to not think this was a Descendants original (minus the guitar "solo").
The Last cover The Shirelles and maybe it's not necessary?
Trotsky Icepick cover Magazine and I dig. Never was a Magazine fan (or really a Trotsky Icepick fan if I'm being candid), but this is all well and good.

DL

4 comments:

  1. Cover comps are rarely (if ever) essential, but this is probably as close as it gets. Thank you.

    -Xtm

    ReplyDelete
  2. many thanks.
    i had (and lost) this cassette way back in high school. good to hear it again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. >Descendants cover The Beach Boys and you'd be hard pressed to not think this was a Descendants original

    Dude wtf, I've been listening to this song for possibly over 20 years and I never knew. I obviously don't follow the Beach Boys but damn.

    ReplyDelete