I Think You'll Like This Song is all about the songs that we think you'll like. We only post up songs that we love so you'll never really see anything negative here. It's good music for good people whether it be new or old, major or indie. If we like it, we post it.
CONTACT: pllholton@gmail.com for submissions and to say hey.
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I think this is what falling in love feels like… definitely sounds like.
Vitamin String Quartet are a group of LA based session musicians who make perfectly arranged string section covers of your favourite songs. (Seriously, the range of songs they cover is astounding from death metal to mainstream pop). I’ve made a playlist of my personal favourite ones… it has 256 tracks.
**Covers range from Florence + The Machine, The Pixies, The Cure, Foster The People, Adele, David Bowie, The Beatles, Coldplay, Tupac, Kelly Clarkson, Kanye West, INXS, Regina Spektor, Fiona Apple, Semisonic, Robyn, Bon Iver, M83, Joy Division, Gwen Stefani, The Fray, Guns N Roses, New Order, Massive Attack, Arcade Fire, The Black Keys, The Roots, Foo Fighters, Muse, Queens Of The Stone Age, Bon Jovi, Alicia Keys, U2, Spoon, Lykke Li and Celine Dion. (AND SO MANY MANY MORE)**
disCOVER: Usher “Pumped Up Kicks (Foster The People Cover)”
This is nearly so far out of left field that it is so so right. Usher grabs a bass guitar and goes to town on last years song of the summer “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster The People for BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge. A little rockier than the original, Usher adds that rnb smoothness with some guns ‘n’ roses esque power guitar.
Converse’s “3 Artists, 1 Song” has struck again with an absolute doozy of a song. Mark Foster (of Foster The People), DJ/Producer A-Trak and indie darling Kimbra have joined forces on “Warrior”. It’s a great song and has Mark Foster’s quirky pop stamp all over it, the dance influence of A-Trak and Kimbra’s flawless vocals. You can download it for free too! Right here!
It all started when I innocently posted up Cameo’s amazing “Candy” on my facebook. Before I knew it myself and Selfish Dan were in a tense and constantly heating up “Summer Off”. Trying to best each other with the better summer song we went from early 90s west coast hip hop to 90s one-hit-wonders to chilled out ibiza anthems to a Beach Boys remix.
For you’re listening pleasure here is the first annual “Summer Off” playlist…
(this is in order of how we posted so it’s a little 2pac heavy at the beginning because man that guy could make a summer track)
Oh the remix. Making bad songs good, good songs great, and great songs freaking amazing. Whether you absolutely love the original, the remix (if done right) can make you discover and appreciate things in a track that often goes over looked in its original form, don’t ask me how, it just does. 2011 was a good year for remixes (However, I’m not sure if 2011 was a great year for wine…time will tell) so here are my favourite ones of the year…
LEANN GRIMES
…and I can’t pick just one. Remixer Shane Conerty aka LEANN GRIMES came to my attention with some of the best remixes I’ve heard this year. Taking indie tracks and mishing and mashing and mixing things up, LEANN GRIMES ear for music sets him apart.
I’ve always said that the problem with The xx’s Intro is its over way too quickly for my liking. Its a phenomenal song that puts you right in ‘that mood’ from the start and then its over… So thank you Kenny Burke who has extended this to eight minutes plus, adding some beats, some dazzling synth arpeggios and keeping ‘that mood’ tone. God bless you Burke.
I couldn’t stick to just one of these remixes. Each one brings something different. Sango’s adds a big beat and lets the instrumental do its thing as it rides over it. Karmas slows it down, lets the vocals do their things and adds a whistle. Both brilliant.
The Neon Lights from the UK came out with two of my favourite remixes of the year. Funnily enough they’re remixes of The xx and Bon Iver, so we’re really not breaking that much new ground in this post so far… But seriously these remixes are golden. Taking Bon Iver’s Hinnom, TX and The xx’s Crystalized and doing something amazing with both of them,
Matt & Kim: “Daylight” (Stic Man Ra Remix) + “Block After Block” (Echoes Club Edit) + (Teen Daze 80s Teen Gang Movie Remix)
I couldn’t stick to one, again. There are always some great remixes of Matt & Kim’s stuff, probably because you’ve got something pretty good to work with already. Stic Man Ra’s remix of Daylight adds a lead guitar, a tight hip hop beat and a guitar solo to close. I’ve picked two remixes of Block After Block because both bring something awesome to the Matt & Kim table. Echoes brings along some 90s piano and some synths while Teen Daze brings along video games sounds and some synths. All good fun.
I mean, who didn’t remix FTP this year. It seemed like every week someone was releasing another remix of Pumped Up Kicks. I’ve painstakingly narrowed all these down to just one favourite remix of Pumped Up Kicks by MNDR. It completely transforms the original, taking the bassline vocals and adding to it a sick dance beat. And if you want to check out all the others…soundcloud bitches.
The Naked and Famous: “Young Blood” (Dave Sitek Remix)
TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek is a demon when it comes to remixes, and when he turned his attention to The Naked and Famous’ smash Young Blood, he did it right proud. Adding a little Japanese flavour with some massive snares, this is on par with the original and for a night out…it just noses ahead.
Adele had a helluva year in 2011, no bones about it. Rumour Has It is my favourite track off 21, and this remix just keeps up the love. This, without fail, gets me hyped for a night out, its just a massive dance track. Get involved.
Love the original and love the CSS switch on it. Keeping the fun and happy style, CSS adds some guitar and a catchy dance beat. What more could you want?
Oh this goes hard. The original went hard, but this Cazzette remix takes it to another level. It speeds up and slows down vocals, adds a dubstep break, mixes in some d’n’b and just takes it to the next level.
It was hard to narrow down RAC’s amazing year of remixes to just one, but this remix of Theophilus London’s Why Even Try is the one for me. Taking away that heavy juicy bassline and adding in a sweet video gamey riff.
Star Slinger had a huge 2011 truly making some major noise with his remixes. Having an endorsement from Childish Gambino probably didn’t hurt and much deserved with this remix of Freaks & Geeks.
Now this is one that I prefer over the original, sorry Freelance Whales. Lightwave’s remix of Hannah is infectious fun, kicking drums and synths all round and puts me in a good mood everytime so can’t be all bad.
So here comes another bit in my look at what rocked my world musically in 2011 (Check out the best songs of 2011 right here)
Anyway, Regular followers of the blog know that I do a feature called disCOVERwhere I post up covers that I like. I have always loved a good cover. I love finding new and different interpretations of songs I know really well, especially if they come way out of left field. There’s been some doozies over the year and again in no particular order, here are 20 of my favourites (with some extra bonus tracks that weren’t from 2011, but were bloody brilliant)
………..
The Weeknd disCOVER double shot
The Weeknd had a huge year and you know you’re making it when already established artists are clambering to cover you stuff. There were some awesome covers knocking about this year but here are two of my favourites, from Brit Eliza Doolittle with a fantastically laid back stripped bare cover of The Morning and French Canadian Couer De Pirate bringing all her sweetness to Wicked Games
You kind of have to watch this one. Lauryn Hill is usually pretty untouchable, but Quadron has come pretty darn close with this one. It is so simple, so bare but so so beautiful.
Birdy- “1901” (Phoenix Cover)
I can’t bring myself to like Birdy’s take on Skinny Love, I’ve tried and I can’t. But this Phoenix cover has turned things around for me. Again this cover strips away and goes for the heart of the track, and she nails it.
While I couldn’t get behind Birdy’s cover, I could get behind Germany’s Enna who has made a beautiful cover of Bon Iver’s Michicant. Incredibly raw and stripped back, the arrangement replaces some of the louder tones of the original with softer woodwind, acoustic guitars and my favourite, the glockenspiel.
M83’s Midnight City was a highlight of the year for me, as was Trails and Ways folksy world music take on it. Taking away all the electro synthy-ness of it, Trails and Ways gave us a beautiful organic version of this massive track.
Oh Land had quite a year this time around with her original material, but she grabbed my attention with her cover of The National’s Bloodbuzz Ohio. Transforming the sombre of the original into a more optimistic message gives Oh Land’s interpretation a beautiful angle- while keeping its haunting undertones.
James Vincent McMorrow: “Wicked Games” (Chris Isaak Cover)”
McMorrow did two covers this year that people were interested in, one was of Willow Smith’s Whip My Hair and one was of Chris Isaak’s Wicked Games. Funnily enough, I’ve gone with McMorrow’s take on this 90s classic. JVMcM’s voice goes fantastically with this, how could it not?
As you may know, the love on ITYLTS for Foster The People’s knows no bounds, so a cover has to be pretty special to come close to the original. Owl eyes does it with this live cover on Aussie Triple J of Pumped Up Kicks. A lot of people when they first hear Pumped Up Kicks fail to pick up on the sinister message, a kid shooting up his school, behind the lyrics because it just sounds like the chillest, coolest, happiest summer track. Owl Eyes’ take on it brings that message a little more to the forefront…Oh and it has glockenspiel on it so you know its going to be good.
“I Can’t Make You Love Me” (Bonnie Raitt Cover)- Double Shot
Both Adele and Bon Iver had the best albums of the year and the both decided to cover Bonnie Raitt’s lament on an unrequited love I Can’t Make You Love Me. Both are beautiful as you’d expect, but I think out of the two, Bon Iver’s does it for me that little bit more. However, you know the Adele cover is ridiculously good too.
Tokyo Police Club: “All My Friends” (LCD Soundsystem)
Sadly LCD Soundsytem are no more, but thank god for covers for keeping the music alive. All My Friends in the original is a driving force of pianos, drums and is just perfect. Tokyo Police Club have come along and rocked it up, and it works.
The Vaccines: “Last Friday Night” (Katy Perry Cover)
The Vaccines have had a huge year so they came along and covered one of the biggest commercial tracks of the year, Katy Perry’s Last Friday Night. However, instead of the fun loving track, the indie band have infused it with something that sounds like it could have come from Joy Division or Echo & The Bunnymen…and it sounds great.
The Vaccines - Last friday night (Katy Perry Cover) by bandalismo
Run Toto Run: “Sleepyhead” (Passion Pit Cover)
Oh the Glockenspiel strikes again. Run Toto Run strip back Passion Pit’s electro pop gem and replaces the synths with a beautifully played violin, glockenspiels, accordian, guitars and the good old fashioned handclap.
The Civil Wars: “Billie Jean” (Michael Jackson Cover)
Who hasn’t tried to cover MJ, its like a rite of passage (especially on big tv music talent shows). The Civil Wars performed this flawless cover of Michael Jackon’s Billie Jean at their second show. Yeah, I said second. Honky Tonk, MJ’s gone country.
I love this cover. Some people didn’t, go figure. Posner’s cover of the ubiquitous Rolling In The Deep really plays up the melancholic loss that underlies this powerhouse track.
Paper Bag Records released a sampler of their artists covering Madonna and it was amazing. My favourite off the mix was Winter Gloves’ take on True Blue. While it may not have had a glockenspiel in it, it did have a saxophone solo and sometimes that’s even better.
I know, I know…I haven’t been around that much lately, lets blame the festive season and fuzzy heads. Hopefully I’m back now and in the next coming weeks I’ll be throwing in my best of 2011, what I’m looking forward to in 2012 and just good freaking music, as always.
Lets start this off right though with RAC’s 2011 remix. Every year Hype Machine put together their zeitgeist ish of the year (songs, albums, artists and what have you) and they also get some lovely people to mash up all these things together in a downloadable remix session. This year they’ve got Odd Future, The Go! Team, Jensen Sportag and RAC doing wondeful remixes. I’m staying loyal to one of my favourite remix artists out there RAC and throwing their amazing 2011 Music Blog Zeitgeist Mix up.
Starting off with Phantogram’s amazing Don’t Move it moves seamlessly through all the greats of the year with Theophilus London, M83, Toro Y Moi, Neon Indian, Justice, Lykke Li, Sunday Girl, The Rapture and Foster The People to name a few. Happy 2011…Bring on 2012.
Remix Baby: Foster The People “Helena Beat (Com Truise Remix)”
Oh my. Now I’ve heard a few Foster The People remixes this year, well a lot actually but this one is so smoooooooooth. The original doesn’t kick in for the longest time and its just full of synthy goodness that makes you feel all warm inside. Com Truise is amazing in his own right so check that ish out.
LIVE: Foster The People at NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts
What a year 2011 has been for Foster The People. Pumped Up Kicks was the song of the summer and Torches is popping up in a lot of best of the year lists. Somehow I managed to miss their Tiny Desk Concert session on NPR. I love these things, they’re such a good showcase for artists. All beautifully stripped back, FTP play Houdini, Helena Beat and Pumped Up Kicks.
Remix Baby: Foster The People “Call It What You Want (The Soundmen Remix)”
Here’s The Soundmen Remix of FTP’s brand new single Call It What You Want. This track, both the remix and the original, has been something of a grower for me but I bloody love them now, especially the breakdown and those ‘oohs’, you know what I mean.
