My Favorite Covers - 2011

NPR recently posted a list of what they considered to have been the five best covers of the year. While their choices were great, it got me thinking about which were my favorite this year. Presented below are my favorite covers of 2011!

The Black Keys - "Dearest"

This song earned the duo a Grammy nomination, for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, and was the opening track from one of two Buddy Holly tribute albums released this year (and probably the best track from either of the two albums).

Atlas Sound - "Cool"

This cover got me into a band that I would have otherwise never heard of or listened to, Pylon. Dear Bradford Cox, nearly everyday, you give me something else to thank you for!

James Blake - "Limit to Your Love"

A great artist covering another great artist. James does a great job of both bringing it into his own style, but also staying more or less true to Feist's original.

Dum Dum Girls - "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out"

Lush vocals, heavy guitars, the Dum Dum Girls are pretty much the modern female equivalent of The Smiths. Very true to the original version, it still fits perfectly within the band's sound.

The Horrors - "The Best Thing I Never Had"

I love it mainly because it's so unexpected. It's not often that goth/synth rockers cover music by pop/R&B acts, but it works incredibly well. I think they did Beyonce proud.

20 years later: Nevermind

This month's issue of Spin Magazine is a nearly full issue tribute to Nirvana's album Nevermind. Come September 24, it will have been 20 years since the iconic album was first released. Spin has used this issue to pay tribute to the album and to the band.

flickr.com - matt.douglas23

Much of the tribute consists of musings from various members of the entertainment world on what the album means to them. Interviewees include musical contemporaries (Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea, R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder), industry figures (manager Danny Goldberg, Sub Pop publicist Jennie Buddy), comedians (Patton Oswalt) and musicians inspired by the band (The Black Keys' Patrick Carney, Fucked Up's Damian Abraham, Against Me!'s Tom Gabel).

The issue also explored the overall musical landscape of the 1990s (focusing on how music helped listeners to form an identity and express themselves in a post-Reagan era), the interplay between early '90s alternative rock and hip hop and the appropriation of grunge rock styles into fashion especially by Anna Sui and Marc Jacobs.

Of course, I was a little younger than the targeted demographic when Nevermind was released; being more interested in "I Love You, You Love Me" and "The Song That Never Ends" than alternative rock. By the time I started watching MTV, though, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was still in heavy rotation. Once I was in the targeted demographic, in my early teens, manufactured pop and polished "alternative" rock were staples and consisted of most of what I listened to.

I didn't really start exploring Nirvana until my freshman year of college, but I don't really know what triggered it (nostalgia, probably). Although "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was the only song I knew really well, I was surprised at the familiarity of almost all of the songs on the album. I don't know where or how, but I had heard it before. It's still music that I can go back to and enjoy, although it never coincided with any of the angsty periods of my life.

To celebrate the album's anniversary, Spin compiled a tribute album with each of the album's tracks performed by a different artist, including EMA, Wavves, Foxy Shazam and Surfer Blood. The tribute is available for download here.

I want my MTV

MTV is currently celebrating its 30th birthday. Of course, I wasn't watching from the beginning (being about 6 years younger than the network), but even in the time since I watched it religiously it has changed drastically. I'll choose to remember the good 'ol days of the network.

I started watching MTV around the time that I was 7 years old. I would sit up for hours watching video blocks. I didn't watch a lot of the non-music related shows at that age, I was just obsessed with music videos. I remember loving the videos for The Beastie Boys' "Sabotage", Biggie's "Big Poppa" and especially Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby."

Ahhh...back when she was relatively normal.

The first of their non-music related programming that I watched was probably "Singled Out," which my mother didn't actually let me watch. I, however, had a babysitter named Danae who would let me stay up and watch with her when it was on. Horrible show, but I loved it then.

Outside of music programming, anything I wanted to watch was per my mother's permission. I would ask her if I could watch a particular show and she would always say yes. I would only know that she wouldn't let me watch it if she screamed "Turn that off!" from the other room five minutes later. That happened with "Celebrity Death Match."

As I got older, I was able to watch more and more of MTV's programming. I started on "The Real World" around age 11 and "Daria" around 13. Those were two of my big favorites.

My major obsession on MTV, however, was "Total Request Live." I watched that show religiously. I came on right when I got home from school and I rarely missed an episode. It went perfectly hand in hand with my boy band obsession. I always envied the audience in attendance when The Backstreet Boys, N*Sync or 5ive were in the studio. In the battle of the boy bands, 5ive was my clear favorite, probably because they were British (though, to be realistic to what was most popular, I'll say N*Sync).

I loved this, and I refuse to explain myself.

MTV really started slacking on music programming around the time I was completing high school/starting college. They started showing second-long clips of music videos (if that) on TRL and the only time to actually catch music videos was in the wee hours of morning. I kept watching the network a lot though. I had always really liked "True Life" and will admit to watching the first couple of seasons of "Next" and "Laguna Beach" (I'm ashamed).

I stopped watching almost all together once they stopped showing even the early-morning blocks of videos. Now, I only occasionally tune in to see what all the hoopla is around these Oompa-Loompas and pregnant teenagers (I still don't know).

This may very well be the last music video I ever saw on MTV.

I reminisce fondly about growing up with MTV and do miss what it used to be. Thankfully, there seems to be some glimmer of hope that the network's producers are realizing what the network was founded for. The network will be bringing back "120 Minutes," a show that focused on alternative rock. Granted, it will be on MTV2. But given that the secondary network had become a wasteland for the lesser reality show, I consider it progress!