Covers

Here's the thing. I am one of those people who almost never enjoys the cover version of the song better than the original. Some songs just shouldn't be covered. So many songs have been ruined for me because of God awful covers that have been done of them. There are, however, a few exceptions to this rule. One exception I want to bring to your attention today is the song Tik Tok.



I don't know if any of the Parlor readers are familiar with the musical stylings of Ke$ha - I certainly wasn't - or her video for this song. Sure, I vaguely remember hearing this song a time or two playing in the background in the bar, or in the car for a few seconds before I changed the station, but I'd never heard the entire thing until a few days ago when Brad Hoshaw decided to cover it (at the suggestion of a friend), when I had to check out the original to compare.



Here are the lyrics:

Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy
Grab my glasses, I'm out the door, I'm gonna hit this city
Before I leave, brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack
'Cause when I leave for the night, I ain't coming back

I'm talking pedicure on our toes, toes
Trying on all our clothes, clothes
Boys blowing up our phones, phones
Drop-topping, playing our favorite CDs
Pulling up to the parties
Trying to get a little bit tipsy

Don't stop, make it pop
DJ, blow my speakers up
Tonight, I'mma fight
'Til we see the sunlight
Tick tock on the clock
But the party don't stop, no

Don't stop, make it pop
DJ, blow my speakers up
Tonight, I'mma fight
'Til we see the sunlight
Tick tock, on the clock
But the party don't stop, no

Ain't got a care in world, but got plenty of beer
Ain't got no money in my pocket, but I'm already here
And now, the dudes are lining up cause they hear we got swagger
But we kick em to the curb unless they look like Mick Jagger

I'm talking about everybody getting crunk, crunk
Boys tryin' to touch my junk, junk
Gonna smack him if he getting too drunk, drunk

Now, now, we go until they kick us out, out
Or the police shut us down, down
Police shut us down, down
Po-po shut us

Don't stop, make it pop
DJ, blow my speakers up
Tonight, I'mma fight
'Til we see the sunlight
Tick tock on the clock
But the party don't stop, no

Don't stop, make it pop
DJ, blow my speakers up
Tonight, I'mma fight
'Til we see the sunlight
Tick tock on the clock
But the party don't stop, no

DJ, you build me up
You break me down
My heart, it pounds
Yeah, you got me

With my hands up
You got me now
You got that sound
Yeah, you got me

DJ, you build me up
You break me down
My heart, it pounds
Yeah, you got me

With my hands up
Put your hands up
Put your hands up

Now, the party don't start 'til I walk in

Don't stop, make it pop
DJ, blow my speakers up
Tonight, I'mma fight
'Til we see the sunlight
Tick tock on the clock
But the party don't stop, no

Don't stop, make it pop
DJ, blow my speakers up
Tonight, I'mma fight
'Til we see the sunlight
Tick tock on the clock
But the party don't stop, no

I have to say, I actually think it's kind of good now. I mean, the change is totally drastic. He took the song and made it totally his own. Anyway, I guess I'll let you decide which is the better version in this case. If nothing else, I guess you can appreciate the comedic value of a man with a beard and a guitar singing about getting a pedicure and boys trying to touch his junk. :)

AYGAMG

This is a video for the band All Young Girls Are Machine Guns. Beck Lowry IS the band. She played a show last night at the Slowdown with Little Black Stereo and Danielle Ate the Sandwich, other uke player from Colorado. Beck is a pretty great singer and you should check her out. She's got a couple shows coming up next month and also got some recognition it this week's Reader. If you're interested, you can also check out her YouTube channel here. She's got a ton of originals, a bunch of soul covers, and some local covers including It's True, Brad Hoshaw, and Midwest Dilemma.




Here's the blurb posted by Sarah Wengert from The Reader: I’ve been having a series of daydreams where I become a travel writer, or a masseuse, or work in a greenhouse — things I’ve always wanted to do, but just haven’t; less stressful antidotes to the hair-tearing pressures of my current gig managing the content for this fine paper. Another of my reoccurring daydream wishes is to play the ukulele. Local musician Rebecca Lowry is living my daydream. Curious about her act, billed All Young Girls Are Machine Guns, I contacted Lowry for the 411 on the u-k-e. “My act, as it were, is me and a ukulele,” she said. “I’ve been playing for a little over a year, writing songs for just under a year. Lowry said her influences “are largely swing-era jazz singers like Billie Holiday or Anita O’Day,” but she also loves ’50s and ’60s pop and soul. “I started off posting some covers to YouTube as I was learning how to play,” Lowry said. “Then I wrote and posted my first song. I started hanging out at Barley Street Tavern [on Mondays]. You can’t [just] play covers there so I had to start writing more songs.”

She's a pretty solid lady, a good songwriter, and she's got a great voice.

More on Haiti...

To finish up the set last night, the boys from It's True left the stage to Adam Hawkins. His last song was a cover of The Dark is Rising by Mercury Rev. It was stellar, and I kind of wish I had video of it. Since I don't, here's the original.