MP3: Covers by Acorn, Little Girls, Woodhands, Slim Twig
As the second recession-weary holiday season approaches, the onset of material gift-giving ads might seem to you like a slap in the face. Well, you’re in luck, because if anyone feels your being-broke pain, it’s bands. And record labels. In celebration of the season of giving (or more appropriately Buy Nothing Day) Paper Bag records, in its seventh year, has released a free indie-artists-do-covers album available here.
Worth checking out is Montreal’s Winter Gloves doing an electro pop version of Nirvana’s Smells like Teen Spirit; Toronto’s Woodhands doing a Eddy Grant’s Electric Avenue; Little Girls covering Heinz by their heroes, post-punk veterans Artery; and Slim Twig taking the funk out of Outkast’s Behold a Lady. A generous dude himself, Twig just put out a free experimental rockabilly mixtape called Spit it Twig you can download here.
The must-hear track from the Seven Year Itch is from Ottawa indie darlings Acorn, who pull off a folk-rockin cover of Strange Animal by Toronto piano-pop rock father Gowan, (who has, under yours truly’s radar, fronted American arena rock band Styx for the past ten years). Acorn’s version of this Canadian pop classic wins our vote for most out-of-the-blue – and most delightful – 80’s throwback. Even if this song doesn’t remind you of your dad playing drums on the steering wheel on those childhood drives into the Ottawa K-Mart, it’s still a great driving tune. And judging from Acorn’s last recording session, we’re thinking they’d recommend a Sunday fall-leaves tour drive up to the cottage. - Marsha Casselman
