Perhaps the best homemade comps, ever

(SCOTT)-Brian created these fantastic comps, featuring covers of material from The Velvet
Underground and the Stooges....if you have,in general, enjoyed the music I have featured here I have to think you are going to love these, I do......Brian's text follows, I really don't have much to add, other than Mott the Hoople's "Sweet Jane" was a huge favorite of mine as a teen, and I always thought Nirvana's take on "Here She Comes Now" scorched the original which is saying something...please comment, I'm sure a lot of work went into these and it shows......and of course I would be thrilled if these inspire you to create a similar covers project on one of your favorite bands that I would share here......something from me over the weekend, but thanks to Brian for these two excellent efforts.....
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Hello all. Got an interesting treat for you music nuts out there. I went on a bender lately looking on MP3 sites and in my collection for good cover songs. After putting together quite a few, I realized I had enough for a post of covers of my two favorite bands - V.U. and the Stooges. Even the most knowledgable of you may find some surprises in here....(P.S. - funny stuff at the end of the post too!)

Someone - maybe Lou - once said that while nobody may have bought VU's albums back in the day, everyone that did started a band. This shows that to be true. I've put together two files of covers to simulate Nico and White Light, and also a third one containing versions of songs from the other two albums.

While there are some unknown names in here, everyone gives a great performance. I had to dig to find a good cover of "Heroin"...I didn't want to include Billy Idol's Cyberpunk version...and Clem Snide's solo take is great - stark and wistful. Please go check his Bandcamp page. And whoever Adam Green is, he does a pretty version of "I'll Be Your Mirror".

R.E.M.'s cuts come from Dead Letter Office. I always thought their "There She Goes Again" was a perfect match. I believe Bowie's versions are from Bowie At the Beeb. I love how his vocals go from deadpan to Ziggy in the middle of "Waiting For My Man". And the guitar tone is great.

The CD6's version of "Venus In Furs" is fucking unhinged! Sexy, menacing, awesome...Dukowski was in Black Flag, for you younguns who may not know.

I don't know who Bettie Serveert is, but that live version of "Black Angel's Death Song" is amazing. I was surprised somebody covered it. "All Tomorrow's Parties" comes from an unknown album. It's stellar, almost chamber music, and Crystal Hall's vocals sell it. And look! Echo & the Bunnymen doing "Run Run Run" live! Pretty well, too. And Half Japanese gloriously mangles "European Son" to lead us out...

TRACKLIST

1. Nina Hagen - Sunday Morning

2. David Bowie - Waiting For My Man

3. R.E.M. - Femme Fatale

4. Chuck Dukowski Sextet - Venus In Furs

5. Echo & The Bunnymen - Run Run Run

6. Jazz Mafia ft. Crystal Monae Hall - All Tomorrow's Parties

7. Clem Snide - Heroin

8. R.E.M. - There She Goes Again

9. Adam Green - I'll Be Your Mirror

10. Bettie Serveert - The Black Angel's Death Song

11. Half Japanese - European SonG

White Light/White Heat proved a bit more problematic. Bowie gives a great glammy, crunchy version of the title track, but who in the hell has ever covered "The Gift"? Big Scott and I joked about it. Well, I found them....it's a Japanese group called Hellivision. They do mostly without Waldo's story, yet they deliver a grooving, feedback-drenched version of the song. Go check them out on YouTube. This was ripped from a live video of them playing in a bar in Japan. Modern technology is great, huh?

I don't know who does this great "Lady Godiva's Operation", but it screams 80's UK indie music to me. Anybody got a clue? Big Scott hipped me to Nirvana's great cover of "Here She Comes Now" from the Smart Sessions. It's great... should've been on one of the main albums. Half Japanese comes back for a paper-thin raveup of "I Heard Her Call My Name". And then we have "Sister Ray"... I almost put Doctor Mix & the Remix's version here, but I couldn't resist putting both Joy Division and New Order doing the song, especially since put together they equal the original track's running time. JD's version is from Still...I don't know what album the New Order version is on.

The remainder of VU covers make up the second file. It's mostly names that are unfamiliar, but some great versions. I deliberately left out Cowboy Junkies' "Sweet Jane" (everybody has it) and included Mott the Hoople's version instead....thanks Scott. NOTE: IF ANYBODY KNOWS WHO THE UNKNOWNS ARE, LET ME KNOW. I can't reply to your comments, but I can see them. And if you know any other VU covers, that'd be cool too.

This next one I'm even prouder of. I was aware of several Stooges covers, but had no idea how many more I would find. Some of you may know the 90's Iggy tribute album We Will Fall. While there's a few good tracks on it, I deliberately avoided sourcing from it. (It can be found easily enough if you want it.) Many of these are live cuts, sound check stuff, or are off albums and EPs. Now look at this track list....

1. The Mission - 1969                                                      

2. Joan Jett - I Wanna Be Your Dog

3. Sex Pistols - No Fun

4. The Feelies - Real Cool Time

5. Spacemen 3 - Little Doll

6. Slayer - I'm Gonna Be Your God

7. SWANS - I Want To Be Your Dog

8. Rage Against the Machine - Down On the Street

9. The Birthday Party - Loose

10. Wylde Ratttz (w Mark Arm) - T.V. Eye

11. Magnolia Strip - Dirt

12. Mission Of Burma - 1970

13. The Birthday Party - Funhouse

14. Wylde Ratttz (w Ewan McGregor) - T.V. Eye

15. Rocket From the Tombs - Search & Destroy

16. Wylde Ratttz (w Ewan McGregor) - Gimme Danger

17. Thrust - Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell

18. No Man's Land - Penetration

19. Yo La Tengo - Raw Power

20. John Mellencamp - I Need Somebody

21. The Girlies - Tight Pants

22. Soundgarden - Search & Destroy

23. The Ridiculous Trio - Scene Of the Crime/Death Trip

24. The 69 Eyes - Gimme Some Skin

25. Screamin' Eric - Cock In My Pocket

26. Harem Scarem - Open Up and Bleed

There's a mix for you, huh? I won't talk about every song, but I do want to lay out the highlights for you. Like the VU, I put these in the order they are in on the albums. In the case where there's different versions, they're put after that particular batch of songs. Though its in two parts, when you upload it, it'll join together as one big ass rock and roll album!

For nervy post-punkers, The Feelies jangle the hell out of "Real Cool Time". Also there's Spacemen 3 doing "Little Doll" by way of Hawkwind. It kicks ass!

The Birthday Party tracks may be familiar from my Nick Cave rarities post months ago. That "Funhouse" is off the rails! Joan Jett's stomping "Dog" is from her '88 Up Your Alley album. It should've been a single. Slayer's version (with different lyrics) is from their unappreciated covers album, while SWANS' funereal version is from the Children Of God period. Each one has a different feel - from candy coated weekend fun, to brutal sexual domination, to masochistic surrender.

One of the more famous covers, the Sex Pistol's "No Fun" (taken from the remastered Bollocks) might be their best ever track - it's not snotty, it's seething and angry, with Rotten's vocals at their rawest! Even The Mission (a mopey band I never really cared for) do a great live version of "1969", giving it just enough madness and ennuì. Rage Against the Machine doing "Down On the Street"...how great is that? They fit perfectly. What is that track off of?

Now, the Wylde Ratttz songs are from the movie Velvet Goldmine. They are basically The Stooges behind Ewan McGregor's Iggy. And it's no studio guys...the band is made up of people like Mike Watt, Ron Asheton, Steve Shelley, Thurston Moore...you don't see them in the movie, but they play the music. Because of release issues back in '98, there's two versions of "T.V. Eye" - one with Mark Arm from Mudhoney singing, and one with McGregor. I've also included a good quality audio rip of the "Gimme Danger" performance that's in the movie. It was never on the soundtrack CD.

Rocket From the Tomb's "Search & Destroy" might be my favorite cover version of the song - certainly better than the Chili Pepper's. And I only just discovered Soundgarden's live version. Mission Of Burma take great advantage of the squall of "1970", Yo La Tengo rip up "Raw Power", John Fucking Mellencamp covers "I Need Somebody"! Never knew he was so hip, huh? It's a great version, too. He did it a long time ago from the sound of it. The Ridiculous Trio is that one album I put up awhile ago...greasy, loud Stooges instrumentals - you can't beat it!

Some of the names you don't recognize are from Hard to Beat, an Australian compilation of Stooges covers. It's pretty rare, so I had to source the songs from rips of YouTube videos. There's a little bit of compression on them, but the tracks sound good. It was a zip on a blog somewhere, but that guy literally died....no asking for a re-up there!

I enjoyed putting these together, and hopefully I made something you haven't heard. Give them a listen. Spread them around. If you have a blog of your own, borrow my links. It's cool.

And as a funny bonus to those who miss that stuff, there's a link for this guy....

It's a two album link. It's a partial repost, because the one track was corrupted before. There's his first album (the file should work perfectly this time), and also a funny album of his from the 2000s. I gotta be vague, folks. Enjoy all this. Give the comps some love. They were fun to put together.

Links are in the comment section