Shout That You're All Fake (FAKE)

So here it is y'all. All of my favorite Modest Mouse covers and pseudo-covers, straight to your hungry ear canals. Special thanks to Cover Lay Down for many of these songs.

Running Time: Aprox. 40 Min
Track Pick: Kevin Devine featuring Jessie Lacy - Trailer Trash (live)

Now that track is not a particularly good recording at all, but the reason I picked it is because of it's added verse, which is rumored to originate from live MM performances, but I've never been able to confirm this audibly.

"And you spend your whole life / lookin' for the adult that you are / and you spend the rest of your life / lookin' for lookin' for the child that you were."

It's so frustratingly beautiful that I just have to believe Issac Brock wrote it (that asshole). Yes, despite my eternal love for Modest Mouse (of which I was reminded of last week when I spent the whole work day grooving off old tunes), I harbor resentment towards the front man for his on-stage dickishness the two times I've seen the band live (mostly the 2005 show). But he pretty much gets a Bob Dylan pass in my book (definitely a genius, definitely an asshole).

Some other notable songs on here, if you're in a hurry, are the Joshua James cover of "Custom Concern" and the Lenka cover of "Gravity Rides Everything." Both are so beautifully done, but if I may geek out for a moment here, I'd like to point out that in "Custom Concern," the correct lyrics as understood by the interwebs, appear to be "Message read on the bathroom wall / said 'I don't feel at all like I fall'." HOWEVER, Mr. James sings it "I don't feel at all like I thought," which is how I always heard it, and the sentiment of which I actually prefer. But as some douche on the SongMeanings message board pointed out, "are you isaac? do you KNOW what this is about? fuck you. it's about nothing."

And on that note...

 Genius/Asshole

God I love the banjo.
(Pictures circa 2005. Hey, at least I had a good view.)

These are Songs Bob Wrote

This mix has been a long time coming. A lot of people I know get all up in arms about Bob Dylan; they either love him or hate him. Regardless of the man's vocal talents or personality flaws, I've gotta say I deeply respect his songwriting skills above all. Prolific, prophetic...probably something else that begins with 'P'. Anyway, in that vein, I thought I'd compile a mix of my favorite Dylan covers. I figured this would be a great test of Bobby D's songwriting abilities...how his work fares in the hands of others. I have heard a lot of shitty Dylan covers in my lifetime (and in my iTunes), so I had to sift through and pick out my absolute favs.
DISCLAIMER: many of these songs come from the I'm Not There original soundtrack. This is not my fault. Many of those songs  flat out rock, and it's the best collection of Dylan covers ever assembled by human beings. Fact.

Running Time: Aprox. 1 hr. 34 min. (Don't bitch, it used to be longer!)
Track Pick: Ani Difranco - Most of the Time

I have a huge thing for cover songs in general (though I'm not quite as fanatical as the bloke who does Cover Lay Down), but with these songs in particular, I love to hear how different artists interpret the words and tone of Dylan's compositions. The "Highway 61" cover is definitely the most fun, while "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" adds a new mournful layer to that tune. So beautiful! The Ani cover of course stands out for me 1) for it's clutch use of the banjo and 2) for being 100x better than the original song (featured in High Fidelity). Semi-interesting tidbit: The People's Republic of Gefiltestan is the Oberlin band I credit with launching my entire college destiny.

One additional note: the onelinedrawing cover on the playlist is different than the version I have, which is unfortunately from the iTunes store and is a huge pain in the ass to convert. It still gets the point across, though.

Anyway, I'm not sure if this mix will convert any Dylan haters, but perhaps it's a good conversation starter. :-P

Cate Blanchette: Best Dylan cover incarnate.