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Who put the turd in custard? Who put the shit in Number 10?
It's Friday, it's about 3 o'clock. It's time to go underneath the covers (with the lights out).
I always recommend listening to a cover version without knowing what or who it is, so click on the link before reading ahead...
Today's cover version [link to mp3 expired]
That was Jeffrey Lewis covering Big A, Little A, originally by Crass.
When Jeffrey Lewis (lo-fi singer/songwriter, antifolk hero and cartoonist extraordinaire) announced an intention of producing an album of covers of Crass songs, I boggled gently. For several reasons.
1. His song are often (though not always) acoustic-y, vering on the twee, and leaning strongly towards storytelling.
2. Crass are loud and noisy and have unintelligible lyrics.
3. An entire album of covers from a little-known band, by a little-known artist?
Which shows how much I know, because 12 Crass Songs is great. Crass's awfulness and unintelligibility were apparently products of the nth generation hometaped audio cassettes I listened to as a teenager - either that, or in the last couple of decades they've secretly remastered everything they ever did.
Anyway, Crass lyrics turn out to be surprisingly sensible - even if you think the sort of DIY anarchism they promoted was nonsense, they express themselves very coherently on the topic. And actually, J-Lew's wandering, wavering style suits the lyrics really well. The home-made nature of most of his stuff is something I suspect Crass would have approved.
I'd recommend this album to Jeffrey Lewis fans, curious Crass fans, or people who like the anarcho-punk sentiments but can't hack the guitars :)
I always recommend listening to a cover version without knowing what or who it is, so click on the link before reading ahead...
Today's cover version [link to mp3 expired]
That was Jeffrey Lewis covering Big A, Little A, originally by Crass.
When Jeffrey Lewis (lo-fi singer/songwriter, antifolk hero and cartoonist extraordinaire) announced an intention of producing an album of covers of Crass songs, I boggled gently. For several reasons.
1. His song are often (though not always) acoustic-y, vering on the twee, and leaning strongly towards storytelling.
2. Crass are loud and noisy and have unintelligible lyrics.
3. An entire album of covers from a little-known band, by a little-known artist?
Which shows how much I know, because 12 Crass Songs is great. Crass's awfulness and unintelligibility were apparently products of the nth generation hometaped audio cassettes I listened to as a teenager - either that, or in the last couple of decades they've secretly remastered everything they ever did.
Anyway, Crass lyrics turn out to be surprisingly sensible - even if you think the sort of DIY anarchism they promoted was nonsense, they express themselves very coherently on the topic. And actually, J-Lew's wandering, wavering style suits the lyrics really well. The home-made nature of most of his stuff is something I suspect Crass would have approved.
I'd recommend this album to Jeffrey Lewis fans, curious Crass fans, or people who like the anarcho-punk sentiments but can't hack the guitars :)
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If...
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(Anonymous) 2010-09-17 03:32 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
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I feel that comment in itself is something of a damning indictment :)
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I do like the theme, but yeah, so far some of the covers have not quite been to my tastes. I'm sure you did do some of them i like, so it is certainly not a sweeping policy, in fairness i tend to like covers !
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Will try and dig up some godawful gothy shite for you for next week :P
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Besides i'd say i'm an 80s kid that got mugged by something dark and interesting !
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Now it makes sense - he just did it for the title!
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(Though I note from your comment that I got the title wrong - now corrected.)
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Ah well. I always preferred Conflict anyway.