COVER-TASTIC TUESDAY - I sing evil, I sing good...

This weeks installment of BtB's evolving cover song project tackles...

SUPERWOLF - "Only Someone Running"

Superwolf is the love-child of indie stalwarts Bonnie "Prince" Billy [ed. - his myspace page has an incredibly annoying hip-hop pop-up song nested in the comments section. you can scroll down to turn it off, but it's worth going to the site just to see the photo of Will on the right side of the page. that's some funny shit] (aka Will Oldham) and Matt Sweeney. Oldham's prickly stage presence is legendary, but his songwriting, released under a wide array of different monikers (Palace Music, Palace Songs, B"P"B, his God-given name) routinely garners critical acclaim (Billy's LP "I See a Darkness" was given one of the few 10.0 record reviews ever awarded by indie taste-maker Pitchfork), and his warbly, Appalachian-inspired, indie-folk tunes have made him a cult favorite on a international scale. He also dabbles in acting, and has done some pretty messed-up interviews from time-to-time. Sweeney has had a far more varied career musically, from fronting the prototypical 90's indie rawk band Chavez (responsible for one of my favorite mix-tape staples), to joining the arena-ready semi-supergroup Zwan (admittedly, "Honestly" is a great song), to playing sideman in Guided By Voices (ed. - got tix for the classic GBV line-up reunion show in ATL... yay.) and to Neil Diamond (!).

Oldham is the chief songwriter in this group. In Amanda Petrusich's review of the 2005 Superwolf LP, she describes Oldham's musical restlessness as his being an "..oddly charismatic songwriter just as well-suited to coughing up death-ballads as he is to giggling out ditties about his penis." At times the band rawk out (albeit slowly, but with purpose), and other times they maintain a charming, spare pretty-ness. "Only Someone Running" is of the latter camp, with loopy three-chord verses, a devastatingly beautiful descending chorus, creaky call-and-response vocals, and a perfectly ridiculous whistle solo. For my version, I went lo-fi, straight into GarageBand using the on-board microphone, recording the guitar, vocals & harmonica all in one take, then overdubbing harmony vocals and percussion later. I love this song... The overall feel is one of longing and a suspicion that the song's narrator doesn't feel worthy of the object of his desire, even though the tone of the music is ultimately hopeful, if not explicity so.

Stream Superwolf's version here.

Stream my version here.

Please enjoy! We'll talk soon....

Marquez