The entire reason I own this record is because I am an unobservant scatterbrained dummy.

I found this record in the discount section of a record shop in Indiana while visiting my parents several years ago. “Score!” I thought, thinking that I had found a great deal on The Velvet Underground and Nico’s self titled album. I bought it, put it in the pile of records to wash and re-sleeve and didn’t discover my mistake until washing the record…

I wasn’t going to bother going all the way back to Indiana to return the record, so I stuck it on the shelf, moved it from apartment to apartment, and hauled it all the way across the country to Seattle still unplayed…until this morning.

First impressions:

• Sunday Morning – Kelley Stoltz: this is a pretty straight cover. It’s nice, nothing groundbreaking; good warm-up for the rest of the album.
• I’m Waiting For The Man – Warm Soda: another fairly straightforward cover. I like the fuzzy guitars.
• Femme Fatale – Ty Segall: I had to check the track listing to confirm what this song was. This was quite transformed into a heavy garage rock song.
• Venus in Furs – Jeremy Cox, Blasted Canyons: we’re back to being able to recognize the songs again.
• Run Run Run – White Fence: fun, uptempo, poppy cover.
• All Tomorrow’s Parties – The Fresh & Only’s: ever so slightly more uptempo compared to the original, a fun way to finish off side A.
• Heroin – Burnt Ones: a fairly straight forward interpretation of the original.
• There She Goes Again – The Mallard – a slightly heavier but otherwise recognizable version of the original.
• I’ll Be Your Mirror – Here Come The Here Comes: I like this! It’s a fun jangly lo-fi pop cover.
• The Black Angel’s Death Song – K. Dylan Edrich: maybe it’s the mix but the scratchy violins are quite forward and a bit difficult to listen to. This could also be the former violinist in me cringing.
• European Son – Thee Oh Sees: lots of extra guitar distortion pedal mashing thrown in….several minutes later: okay that’s maybe a bit too much pedal mashing.

Overall, I think I liked the covers that were closer to the original than the ones that took more liberal interpretations. But, that could also just be me kicking myself for accidentally buying this. As of this writing, I still don’t own the original 😢.

Okay, back on the shelf it goes…