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A J.Ro Original…ish … well, still a cover
As you may know, I don’t really have the time or motivation to write new original songs. But I do enjoy playing “covers of covers” like this one:
or this one (sitting in on lead guitar and a capella bassline with my friends’ band Indian Guy with American Dreams):
because it’s interesting to me to hear one artist put their stamp on another’s work, and then how the elements of both are transferred through me. Or something like that. Anyway, I thought I should try it sometime with one that hadn’t actually been ever been played or recorded.
This idea began a couple of years ago when (I think Andy sent it to me) I saw a video of “Weezer plays Radiohead” and was really excited for it because those are two of my favorite bands and I wanted to hear what it would sound like. I was sorely disappointed to see that it was just them goofing around on a verse or two of “Creep” on acoustic guitar with fans singing along. Lame… wouldn’t it be much better to hear a Radiohead song played in a way that sounds like Weezer? I thought I should take it upon myself to make this happen.
After a bit of playing around with different ideas, I finally settled on how I wanted to do it, practiced on my own (using the Akai Headrush 2 pedal to loop the background chords for the bridge), and finally debuted and recorded my original interpretation at Open Mic night at Frazier’s in Baltimore. I felt kind of like a bad stand-up impressionist: “Have you ever wondered what would happen if the world’s most popular self-conscious alt-pop / emo godfathers covered the most critically beloved innovators of art rock? I think it might go something like this…”. Well, for better or worse, here’s the final product:
Anyway, that’s the kind of nonsense I’ve been up to. I hope everyone is duly impressed and inspired.
Tags: ben kweller, cake, cover, frazier's, gloria gaynor, igwad, j.ro, radiohead, vanilla ice, weezer 
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4 comments for “A J.Ro Original…ish … well, still a cover”
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Ok, so apparently I can’t figure out how to correctly attach media to the post. I clicked through the “Insert audio” buttons, but it looks like there is nothing there.
Ahhh, ok, I fixed it. With help from Andy.
Well, you’ve successfully reminded me of two things.
1) I really like that version of Ice Ice Baby Baby. I loved covering it and I need to learn it on my own.
2) I really hate Weezer. Just hate them. This is EXACTLY what it would sound like for Weezer to cover Radiohead. Ick. Ick. Ick.
That said, nice cover. I think you really captured their sound.
[...] and Justin have recorded a few songs in the style of other artists. You can check out Radiohead’s There There as done by Weezer and Kanye’s Heartless as done by Johnny Cash here on the site. Got other artists you want us [...]