Listen: Grace Lightman - Blue Christmas [Cover]

Words: Saam Das

Christmas might be over for another year but Grace Lightman has come to the rescue, and it can live on in your earphones/headphones/stereo with this cover of 'Blue Christmas', which appears to be her first new material since her 2017 single 'Halloween Is Over'/'Fangs'. Listen to the cover, and watch its Alex Lightman (presumably a relation?) directed video, below.

Listen: BASTILLE - Thinkin Bout You (feat. O.N.E) [Frank Ocean Cover]

Words: Saam Das

BASTILLE are gearing up for their new 'Laura Palmer' EP release, with live dates aplenty - including recent support slots on Muse's UK stadium tour. Here, they resurrect their version of Frank Ocean's 'Thinkin Bout You', which originally appeared on their excellent 'Other People's Heartache Part 2' mixtape.

Download: Winterhours - A Real Hero [College Cover]

Words: Saam Das

I've never been one of those people who think that a cover detracts from its original. Regardless of which side of the fence you fall, it is worth listening to the cover I'm featuring today - Londoners Winterhours' melancholic take on 'A Real Hero', originally from the evocative 'Drive' soundtrack.

Download: Mt. Wolf - Climax (Usher Cover)

Words: Saam Das

We're really, really pleased to see London dream-folk quartet Mt. Wolf coming up in the world. Since we first wrote about them in February, the band have unleashed their debut release, the 'Life Size Ghosts' EP, which has won the hearts of many in the blogosphere. Now they've covered RnB superstar Usher's 'Climax', downloadable below.

Listen: HAIM - Hold Me (Fleetwood Mac Cover) [Album Preview]

Words: Saam Das

We're eagerly anticipating some more original material from our favourite trio of sisters (and their gentleman drummer) but in the meantime, we have HAIM's cover of Fleetwood Mac's 'Hold Me'. The track is part of 'Just Tell Me That You Want Me: Tribute To Fleetwood Mac', which came out this week. Listen to the HAIM cover below.

Listen: Anothers Blood - Lonesome Tonight [New Order Cover]

Words: Saam Das

Last month's MOJO magazine came with a free New Order tribute CD comprising of covers from the likes of Destroyer, Errors and Walls. Alas, I missed out but I did have the pleasure of listening to a rather splendid cover of 'Lonesome Tonight' by FG faves Anothers Blood. Listen to the ethereal, wide-eyed journey through the clouds below.

Download: BASTILLE - What Would You Do? [City High Cover]

Words: Saam Das

Since we first mentioned Dan Smith and his BASTILLE outfit back in December, he/they have steadily been building up a fanbase prior to their 2012 attempt at (pop) world domination. The debut single 'Flaws'/'Icarus' came out in summer and November sees the release of the 'Laura Palmer' EP. In the meantime, download BASTILLE's cover of the City High classic 'What Would You Do?' below.

Download: Owen Pallett - Hard To Explain [The Strokes cover]

Words: Saam Das

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of The Strokes' debut LP, 'Is This It?', blog powerhouse Stereogum recruited a bunch of artists to record cover versions of each of the album's tracks. It's a mixed bag but Owen Pallett's orchestral cover of 'Hard To Explain' alone justifies the tribute album's existence. Download the track below.

Listen: To Kill A King - Fictional State [New Single]

Words: Saam Das

We were one of the first blogs to write about Leeds folksters To Kill A King, when we did a Surfacing piece on them last October. Things have gone rather well since and they are putting out their debut single on the increasingly prominent, Communion, at the end of May. Watch the video to 'Fictional State' below, and listen to the b-side - a quite majestic cover of 'Maps' by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Situationists

Forming from the remnants of short lived Sheffield band Umlaut, Situationists have bided their time before their upcoming debut release. The 'This City Holds Us All' EP comes two or so years after the media focus on Sheffield following the emergence of some band called the Arctic Monkeys.

But what really piqued my interest with Situationists was their fantastic post punk cover of Daft Punk classic 'Digital Love' from an XFM session last year. Tim funfunfun [link] was an early fan of it and only the most hardcore Daft Punk purist will dislike it.



As for their EP tracks, they project an anthemic sound with definate similarities The Futureheads and Hot Club de Paris. Understandly, 'This City Holds Us All' is the stand out track with its enjoyable "buhbuhbuhbuh etc" vocal hook and while the other tracks prove less inspiring, there's enough there to keep you interested.

While Umlaut released their only single 'Winter Coat' on Fantastic Plastic, the 'This City Holds Us All' EP is out on 10th March on Tough Love records. Preorder from the Tough Love website [link].

Situationists - Digital Love (XFM Session) [Yourfilehost d/l link]//[Sendspace]
Situationists - This City Holds Us All (XFM Session) [Yourfilehost]//[Sendspace]

Cold War Kids

Not sure entirely what the fuss is about Cold War Kids, their hype is reminiscent to that of Tapes n Tapes and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (who didn't really become as big as expected, in the UK at least). They seem to have signed to V2 here so maybe they'll get a decent push sometime.


Haven't heard a lot by them admittedly but the track I've put up sounds a bit Breakfast At Tiffany's if it were done by Jack White. A bit of a campfire singalong perhaps.

Cold War Kids - I Don't Want To Grow Up

Courtesy of the V2 e-card [link].

p.s how bloody good is Casino Royale?!

Covers Are Like Buses

Wait for ages, blah blah blah. Here you go.

Weird Al parodying James Blunt
Death Cab For Cutie covering Cyndi Lauper
The Boy Least Likely To taking on George Michael
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Newsround
Lethal Bizzle calls Conservative Party leader David Cameron a 'doughnut', following his comments on rap's glamourisation of violence etc etc. Let's hope for an MC battle between them in the near future.

The Beach Boys reunite in LA. Are they getting back together then or what?

Bands get behind charity campaigns. Good on 'em.
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Did anyone see José González's mesmering performance on Later With Jools Holland last Friday? Well if you didn't you can find it on the Later With... homepage. This week's episode features Gogol Bordello and Dresden Dolls so could be rather ace.

Channel 4 on the other hand have different ideas and launch their new music show Transmission to clash with the BBC's Later With, this Friday at 11.35pm. Lily Allen, Dirty Pretty Things and The Kooks all feature.

Top Of The Pops supposedly has Muse AND Guillemots. Sunday at 7pm on BBC2.