Check out this video of Mumford & Sons rendition of Vampire Weekend’s Cousins they did for BBC Live Lounge.

And a rip of the audio for your portable pleasure:
Mumford & Sons – Cousins

20. Campus – Vampire Weekend

From the self titled album Vampire Weekend, released in 2008.

19. No one does it like you – Department of Eagles

From the 2008 album In Ear Park.

18. Home – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

From the 2009 album Up From Below.

17. Long Way Home – Tom Waits

Off the 2006 triple album Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards.

16. Electric Feel – MGMT

Off the 2008 album Oracular Spectacular .

15. Sing – Travis

From the 2001 album The Invisible Band.

14. Do You Realize – The Flaming Lips

Off the 2002 album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

13. Love of my life… – Erykah Badu & Common

Erykah Badu & Common collaborated on this soulful tune for the soundtrack of Brown Sugar in 2002. The film barely made an impression, while this stand out track will likely last for many decades to come.

12. All These things that I’ve Done – The Killers

From the 2004 album Hot Fuss.

11. Crazy – Gnarls Barkley

From the 2006 album St. Elsewhere.

Vampire Weekend - Cousins

I am finding it difficult to express how excited I am for Vampire Weekend’s sophmore album Contra to come out on January 12th next year! Until then, we can enjoy their promo track Horchata, which came out in early October, and the next single, available for download at Amazon, Cousins. There’s even a video:

Good times.

Horchata -Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend

Tipped of by Pigeons and Planes this morning I discovered that Vampire Weekend are giving away the first track off their highly anticipated second release Contra, which is due to be released January 12th, 2010 in the US. Go give Vampire Weekend your email address if you’d like future updates from the band, or download it with absolutely no strings from VW, or from here.

The new tune is in Vampire Weekend’s unique style with the sounds global percussion, xylophones, and strings combined together in a playful way that makes you want to bounce around in time with the beat. I’m officially excited about the new album next year!

For those of you interested Horchata is a traditional drink latin roots. How it is make varies from region to region, and is sometimes made from almonds or sesame seeds.

8. A-Punk – Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend hit the scene hard this year. The blogosphere was all over them early this year, then the rest of the world caught on as their became Rolling Stone’s newest sweethearts. Even I listed their catch tune, Campus, as one of my Top 10 Tracks ever. The blending of Western and African influences gives Vampire Weekend a unique style that is hard to ignore.  Their self-titled debut album has so many great tracks that it’s difficult to choose one as the best.  A-Punk is an upbeat and fun, with lyrics worthy of analysis. Move over Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon, the new breed African fusion has arrived!

7. Dreamer – Jenn Grant

I have given Jenn Grant quite a lot of attention here on the Road 2 Nowhere this year. While I love her entire album Orchestra for the Moon from start to finish, Dreamer remains my favourtie track on the record. Its  stunningly beautiful instrumentations and Jenn’s flawless vocals, singing such scrumptious lyrics as:

On a date by a chocolate lake
Down by the rotary
Past town at the edge
Looking down at butterflies

Makes Dreamer one of my Top 10 Tracks of 2008.

6. Great DJ – The Ting Tings

The Ting Tings got a mention on the Road 2 Nowhere with reference to their catchy pop tune Shut Up and Let Me Go being featured on an iPod commercial. After releasing several singles, the band finally released their first full length album, We Started Nothing, in May 2008. Great DJ holds the spot as my favourtive track on the record. It has everything that a great pop tune should have, while maintaining the requisite level of hipness, making it one of the most catchy and lovable tunes of 2008.

This post is the first in a multi-part tribute to great cover versions from any time and any place. I love when an artist takes a song made popular by another and redoes it, not in the same old way as the original version, but in a fresh, and new way; completely making it their own. I dedicate this series to those who are brave to take a great song of another, and put out their own unique version of it for all to hear, and judge against the original. On with the covers!

You Really Got a Hold On Me – She & Him

Volume One (2008)

This is the best version of this song I have heard since the big and beautiful blond, Bonnie Bramlett, belted out the classic on the picnic table in the Conner back yard during an early episode of Rosanne. Originally written by Smokey Robinson in 1962, the song embodies the pleasureful pain that comes from loving someone so much it hurts. The collaboration by actress Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, She & Him, brought us the album Volume One in March 2008. This track is my favorite from the album. It showcases the beautiful vocals of Deschanel in a stunning duet with Ward, with the unobtrusive yet divine acoustic guitar accompaniment that takes the listener to the place where Robinson must have been when he penned this classic.

Don’t Come Around Here No More – Vampire Weekend

The young up and comers Vampire Weekend with Andrew W.K. gave props to the legend Tom Petty a week or so ago in Central Park, NYC, by doing their version of “Don’t Come Around Here No More”. I have much loved the musical offerings from Tom Petty for many years, since my sister gave me a copy of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ Greatest Hits for Christmas in ‘93. I fully share Vampire Weekend’s sentiment when they proclaim Tom Petty as a “true fucking poet”! Rock on!

I was originally planning on including the very easy to get track Scarlett Johansson’s versions “Falling Down” by Tom Waits, because I, an avid Waits fan, enjoy her refreshing feminine renditions of Waits’ crookedly strange lyrics… but, I recently discovered AM/PM/FM seem to have received a cease and desist order for posting about her album, so I won’t do that! To think I was going to add her as a friend on myspace! Gosh!

Watch for more editions of Cover-liscious on Road 2 Nowhere in the future!

After that super long Top 10 post, which took forever to write, I think it’s time for some new stuff.

Everyone Nose – N*E*R*D N.E.R.D. After a long hiatus (4 years) N*E*R*D, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo from The Neptunes along with Shay Haley, are to release a new album called Seeing Sounds in June, and are currently touring with Kanye West in support of that record. The first single, Everyone Knows, was released on their Billionaire Boys Club blog, devoted mostly to their clothing and shoe lines. A very enterprising group of men to say the least! The track is a bona fide original! It opens with an a capella chant of “All the girls standing in the line for the bathroom”, then breaks into to funky beats and bass with Pharrell’s unique vocals leading the listener through a scene in a club. Containing one of my favourite lines: “A hundred dollar bills! Look atchoo, atchoo!”, this track is super fun, funky and terribly cool.

Campus – Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend (2008) The blogsphere has been all over this brand new group from New York, and for good reason. The well crafted tunes from these talented artists are both catchy and technically impressive. The effortless compositions with both African and alterna-rock influences catch the ear and make the feet want to more. Their debut, self-titled album has many great tracks, but my favourite is Campus. Though a really fun and upbeat track, it seems to be about a time of post break and continually seeing the ex on campus. The catchy chorus: “How am I supposed to pretend, I never want to see you again” gets my hand waving in the air in time with the beat every time I listen hear this song.

Day ‘N Nite (Crooker’s Remix) – Kid Cudi Day ‘n’ Nite (2008) Annie Mac dropped this track for the first time last week on her show The Mash Up on BBC Radio 1. It’s fresh beats gets the head bopping at the outset. The track keeps it interesting by switching it up often. A hip hop feel, crazy cut ups, a touch of R&B mashed up with some Drum & Bass… this song has it all! Even a dynamic use of an industrial alarm is included in this mix of the highly acclaimed hip hop offering by the Ohio based artist. Kid Cudi is all about the music. He has yet to release a proper album, but he has developed his own unique sound. Not driven by the bling that his counterparts so frequently rap about, he prefers to concentrate “on making something powerful, something that’s beyond words” (HHNLive Interview), a very respectable attitude for a new-comer(ish) to the hip hop scene. This fresh mix is my introduction to the Crookers, but the duo hailing from Italy bring this track such fabulous dancability that I’ll have to check into more of their work for sure!