Out of all the songs to give the faithful-to-the-recorded-version treatment, Never Tear Us Apart would definitely be the last on my list. Fortunately for those that don't want the ballad changed in any way I am not cool enough to be kicking it with Beck and his friends, let alone influencing decisions for his Record Club's take on the INXS album Kick. Annie Clark is once again saddled with lead vocal duty in what sometimes sounds like a cover song on American Idol. I don't really mean that insulting but it sort of does right? [via stereogum]
Well then, I guess this is something. Here's the latest take on INXS Kick album from Beck's record club, with the crew tackling Mediate, which you may remember as the music video that had frontman Michael Hutchence holding a bunch of cue cards with some of the lyrics on them. For their interpretation, Liars' Angus Andrew takes the lead vocal with some oddly adjusted lyrics. At least they didn't go the downers route on this cover but changing the lyrics to mention Jon and Kate several times? Seriously? Are they scientologists too or something?
Also I'm pretty sure he said "rape an ape" at one point. I'd love to see whoever thought that one up give it a try. [via stereogum]
Here is the latest from Beck and company's covering of the legendary INXS album Kick. St. Vincent tackles lead vocals for their take on Need You Tonight, while Liars' Angus Andrew gives her some back up. Again the aggressive nature of the original is put through the prescription pill like filterthey've been using and given the laid back vibe. While once again no match for the original, it is probably my favorite of the INXS covers so far. [via stereogum]
If I would have known that Beck's record club was going to take out all the energy that made INXS' Kick album so incredibly awesome, I would have certainly tempered my expectations a bit. Here you can watch the crew follow up their quiet New Sensation with a slow passionless version of Devil Inside. I'd say more but I think I just fell asleep. Thankfully youtube will wake me up with the original.
Here's the second track off the latest record club project over at Beck's website, New Sensation off INXS' legendary Kick. The take on Guns In The Sky was a much more literal cover, but this version of New Sensation is pretty great. Again the funsters involved this time around are Os Mutantes, Liars, and St. Vincent. Clearly we'll be posting the next few tracks as well, Devil Inside and Need You Tonight. That album really rocks.
Unfortunately Beck is being greedy and not letting the interwebs embed the video where it wishes, but you can still head over to Vimeo to check out the latest from the Beck Record Club. The new album getting the treatment is the 1987 album Kick by INXS. This of course is the album with most of the big INXS hits you remember, New Sensation, Devil Inside, Need You Tonight, and Never Tear Us Apart. Definitely going to be fun to see how this ones handled. Joining Beck this time around are St. Vincent, Liars, and Os Mutantes.
The first track off the album is Guns in the Sky which you can check out right here.
Uncool Update: The video has since been made private. I'll update this post when it's back.
Cooler Update: Looks like we are good to go now, continue with the awesome.
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien came to it's painfully premature ending on Friday night as NBC has officially gone with Jay Leno returning to The Tonight Show. I'm under 60 and not scared of the internet so I don't exactly hold fort in the middle of Camp Leno, but things happened and this is where we are. Sadly there is reason to fear Conan's return as he will undoubtedly be going somewhere that is not too familiar with the nightly talk show game, that being said I have faith in Team Coco getting all their ducks in a row and knocking it out of the park.
Aside from featuring an awesomely humbling closing monologue type thing (the meat of which is transcribed below) by Conan, the 7 month Tonight Show experiment officially came to an end as talk show killer Will Ferrell*, Beck, Ben Harper and ZZ Top took the stage as Ferrell urged Conan to "strap on that axe and get over here". Pretty awesome, I'm sure they would do the same for Jay.
“And finally, I have to say something to our fans. The massive outpouring of support and passion from so many people has been overwhelming. The rallies, the signs, all the goofy, outrageous creativity on the internet, and the fact that people have traveled long distances and camped out all night in the pouring rain to be in our audience, made a sad situation joyous and inspirational.
“To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I’ll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing: please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere.
“Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you: amazing things will happen.”
* Eerily spooky/awesome sidenote: Apparently Will Ferrell is talk show cryptonite. I'm not sure where I read this and I tend to take things a little far, so someone please correct me if I am wrong. Supposedly Mr Ferrell has been the first guest of three different talk shows that were cancelled before even making it a year. If I remember correctly the other two shows were The Chevy Chase Show and The John McEnroe show. Sure it doesn't seem that impressive to get those ones cancelled, but Conan from The Tonight Show in 7 months, that takes some serious juice.
