May mix

Here’s a mix of cover songs to kick off the summer. We won’t do cover mixtapes for the whole summer like last year, but we thought it’d be a nice one-off.

Some songs were picked because of their new albums out, like High Violet from the National and Heaven is Whenever the Hold Steady — though both are a few years old. And some were picked because they’re fun. (So you know, Mates of State and Nada Surf are also due for new albums this summer — Crushes (the Covers Mixtape) and If I Had A Hi-Fi — and they’re albums of cover songs.)

Franz Ferdinand’s cover of LCD Soundsystem “All My Friends” is great, jaunty and angular — it really suits their style and serves the song well too. As songs from the 80s, “She Sells Sanctuary,” “When Doves Cry” and “A Little Respect” work in their new contexts. If you didn’t know “The End’s Not Near” wasn’t a song by the New Year, you’d think it was a Band of Horses song. The cover versions by the Ooks of Hazzard, Mr Little Jeans and Matt Weddle are fun re-inventions of tracks by MGMT, Beyoncé and Outkast.

On a side note, cover songs seem to be all the rage these days. Whether it’s the A.V. Club’s “Undercover,” Peter Gabriel’s “Scratch my Back,” Levi’s Pioneer Sessions or the Starbucks Sweetheart compilation. Wonder if cover songs will soon jump the shark?

1. Franz Ferdinand – All My Friends (LCD Soundsystem cover) from A Bunch of Stuff EP
2. the Wedding Present – Box Elder Mo (Pavement cover)
3. M. Craft – She Sells Sanctuary (the Cult cover)
4. Mates of State – Laura (Girls cover) from Crushes (the Covers Mixtape)
5. Kate Miller-Heidke – Walking On A Dream (Empire of the Sun cover) from APRA Award Nominations 2009
6. the Hold Steady – Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? (Bob Dylan cover) from I’m Not There Soundtrack
7. Radiohead – the Headmaster Ritual (the Smiths cover) from their November 9th 2007 webcast
8. Dr. Dog – Heart it Races (Architecture In Helsinki cover)
9. Band of Horses – the End’s Not Near (the New Year cover)
10. the Ooks of Hazzard – Kids (MGMT cover)
11. Mr Little Jeans – Single Ladies (Beyonce cover)
12. Barbara – Pursuit of Happiness (Kid Cudi cover)
13. JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound – I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (Wilco cover)
14. Regina Spektor – No Surprises (Radiohead cover) to benefit Doctors Without Borders buy from iTunes
15. Kate Walsh – A Little Respect (Erasure cover)
16. the Soft Pack – Grinding Halt (the Cure cover) from Perfect As Cats: A Tribute To The Cure
17. the National – Pretty In Pink (Psychedelic Furs cover) from their 2007 Daytrotter Session
18. Matt Weddle (of Obadiah Parker) – Hey Ya (Outkast cover)
19. Nada Surf – Love and Anger (Kate Bush cover) from If I Had A Hi-Fi
20. Damien Rice – When Doves Cry/Babe I’m Gonna Leave You (Prince cover, Led Zeppelin cover)

Oh, and we think this YouTube video of the kids from Staten Island P22 doing Phoenix’s “Lizstomania” is pretty fun. Very bright and cheery.

This mixtape — yes, we still call ‘em tapes — will be hosted until I post a new one so get it while you can. All copyrights remain with respective writers, publishers, etc. If you like what you hear, support the artists and creatives however you can.

The photo at the top of the page was taken April 2010 in Austin, the knitting is from a group called Knitta, Please (awesome name). We spotted it during Art City Austin. See it here in our Flickr photostream.