WEIRD AL COVERS LIVE Vol. 3 The Eighties & Beyond! DEVO Violent Femmes BOWIE Talking Heads

WEIRD AL COVERS LIVE Vol. 3 The Eighties & Beyond!  features fantastic "straight" covers of songs by; Devo, Violent Femmes, David Bowie, Stealer's Wheel, Elvis Costello, & The Talking Heads!

Weird Al Yankovic is the most successful comedy recording artist of all time, & has sold more than 12 million albums. His Mandatory Fun was the first comedy album in history to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.  It won Yankovic his fourth of FIVE Grammy Awards.

Even the casual fan knows Dr. Demento, was the first person to play Yankovic’s music on the radio when Al was still a student at L.A.’s Lynwood High School. He went on to be the most-played artist in the history The Dr. Demento Show.  Al & Al's Band generally include a serious cover in their live shows & I've collected the best of these, & attempted to break them into general eras.

Weird Al's audience started including young kids when Radio Disney became popular & started playing his songs—but his audiences are “made up of men who have not been 12 for quite a while, except maybe on some internal, spiritual level” as Brandon Choe wrote in the wonderful Los Angeles Times article most of this info came from: L.A. Times.  

Choe wrote: Whether they all would self-identify as nerds is hard to say, but when Yankovic’s opener, veteran comedian Emo Philips, begins a joke by saying, “There’s probably no one here who was not bullied,” he will have to wait out a long and seemingly cathartic laugh before adding, “… today.” 

Emo Philips appeared in Weird Al’s first feature film UHF, and the two geniuses are old friends who joined forces for THE RIDICULOUSLY SELF-INDULGENT, ILL-ADVISED VANITY TOUR.

 

WEIRD AL COVERS LIVE Vol. 2 The Seventies - Mostly DEEP PURPLE Tom Petty DAVID BOWIE

WEIRD AL COVERS Vol. 2 The Seventies - Mostly 

Here’s the second volume of live performances by WEIRD AL & the band without an official name.  They’re sometimes jokingly referred to as The Innocuous Silhouettes, or The Boys In The Band (TBITB).  The core members are; JIM “KIMO”WEST, STEVE JAY, JON “BERMUDA” SCHWARTZ, & RUBEN VALTIERRA.  

These are live cover versions that prove they’re contenders for the title; THE WORLD’S GREATEST COVER BAND.  On Vol. 2 The Seventies - Mostly they play rock, pop, funk, rockabilly, punk, new wave, & heavy metal.

Some of the highlights are their versions of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’s Breakdown and Refugee, The Monkees’ Last Train To Clarksville, & The Sex Pistols God Save The Queen.

Check out Vol. 1 here: WEIRD AL COVERS LIVE VOL. 1

Wintersleep: Awake Again in 2026

 

Could be wrong, but it seems like the "big in Japan" phenomenon applies less often to Canadian artists than those from other countries.  To phrase it less awkwardly: Canada seems to value its artists.  They don't have to go away to become famous or to be appreciated for their artistry.  There aren't many prophets without honor in the Great White North.  Again -- just one blogger's impression.  There may be exceptions. One bad apple might spoil the whole bunch, girl.

Case in point: the Nova Scotia band Wintersleep.  As the winter of 2026 comes to an end, there's a new album on the way called Wishing Moon, and a European tour begins in April.  

Perhaps you've slept on them?  Wintersleep began as a side project of another band called Kary.  Their self-titled debut appeared in 2003, followed by an untitled Wintersleep album in 2005.  I got into their music after hearing the amazing song Archaeologists on college radio.  I saw Wintersleep during their US tour supporting the 2007 album Welcome To The Night Sky, which remains a personal favorite. 

Members of Wintersleep also perform in a group called Contrived, and they released an album in 2024 called Addicted To Sadness.  Meanwhile, Wintersleep's frontman Paul Murphy has a side project called Postdata.  These are busy people.  You're probably busy too.  You don't have time to dig through Wintersleep's history and compile some of their best songs into a CD-length mix.  If only someone could spare you the effort and give you the lowdown.  A bird's eye view on the Wintersleep caper, if you will.

Weird Al Covers LIVE Vol. 1 - The Sixties CREAM Alice Cooper STEPPENWOLF The Beatles

Weird Al LIVE Covers Vol. 1 - The Sixties

It’s been said that THE WHO was THE WORLD’S GREATEST COVER BAND, because Pete Townsend’s demos were so thorough that he basically walked in & played the other guys a finished version of his latest song, and they learned their part.  They’re such good demos that three volumes of them SCOOP, ANOTHER SCOOP, & SCOOP 3 were commercially released.  As much as I love THE WHO, they were playing songs tailor-made for their strengths.

For me, the title of THE WORLD’S GREATEST COVER BAND would have to go to WEIRD AL’s band, because they capably reproduce nearly every style of music live, night after night.  And they kick ass!

So I present to you the FIRST volume of live performances by the band without an official name.  They’re sometimes jokingly referred to as The Innocuous Silhouettes, or The Boys In The Band (TBITB).  They even put out a song called "Al's Band".

I give you the core group of JIM “KIMO”WEST, STEVE JAY, JON “BERMUDA” SCHWARTZ, & RUBEN VALTIERRA (the newest member who’s been aboard since 1991).  These guys get my vote for THE WORLD’S GREATEST COVER BAND!

Here’s some tasty Weird Al Trivia: Guitar legend Rick Derringer produced Al's first six albums through 1989's UHF Soundtrack, when Al himself took over the production duties starting with 1992's Off The Deep End. Rick got the Stinky treatment here: IN THE MIX Rick Derringer

This is one of several compilations, with a special surprise that’s available nowhere else bringing it all home!

CHROME COVERS: Songs of Damon Edge and Helios Creed

Chrome was a band that blew my mind when I first heard them as a teenager.  The surreal vocals and synthesizer of Damon Edge combined with the spacey guitar work of Helios Creed was irresistible. 

Damon started the band in San Francisco and released Chrome's debut The Visitation on his own Siren Records in 1976 (50 years ago!).  Helios joined for 1977's Alien Soundtracks. Edge & Creed experimented with recording techniques on that album and Half Machine Lip Moves (1979).  

Chrome then signed with Beggars Banquet and released Red Exposure, The rhythm section of John and Hilary Stench (formerly of Pearl Harbor & The Explosions) backed Damon and Helios on the next two albums, Blood On The Moon and 3rd From The Sun. 

Damon moved to France with his wife, Fabienne Shine (singer of Shakin' Street).  He formed a new Chrome lineup and released a series of albums between 1984 and 1994 (which have been collected on the Chrome Box II).  Helios Creed released his first solo album on Subterranean Records in 1985.  Later he found a home among like-minded folks at Amphetamine Reptile.

Damon died in 1995.  Helios and the Stench Brothers reunited under the Chrome name and began releasing new material, starting with 1997's Retro Transmission.  Helios Creed solo records continued to appear (often with his Chrome bandmates), and he also collaborated with Nik Turner on several projects.  He has also played with the Butthole Surfers and MGMT.  

2023's Blue Exposure may be the final Chrome album.  Helios is now 72 and was the beneficiary of a fundraiser last year to help pay for his care.  Buy some Chrome and Helios records from Bandcamp!

The best-known Chrome covers are Prong's version of "Third From The Sun" and the Jesus Lizard's medley "Chrome".  There's also a Chrome tribute album.  I've collected a variety of Chrome covers for today's share.  It's cool to see how Chrome has influenced metal bands, punks, industrial music, and noise rock.  Two recent covers that didn't make the cut are Imparity's version of "Third From The Sun" and last year's single by Anal Babes, with "Chromosome Damage" on the b-side.  

Chrome has also been sampled by Kendrick Lamar, Saul Williams, Billy Woods, Bradford Cox and Jim Thirlwell!  Hats off to Helios Creed, one of the gnarliest of all gnarly guitarists.

IN THE MIX Tony Gilkyson Edition Vol. 1 - Lone Justice, X, Randy Weeks, & Chuck E. Weiss Guitarist!

IN  THE MIX Tony Gilkyson Edition Vol. 1

When I lived in San Francisco, I had a crazy girlfriend I turned onto my favorite hangout--a bar that had the same rockabilly band playing for free every Monday night.  The band was great, & the draft beer was cheap, & the bar itself was a hundred years old.  Because I was travelling for work, & she was there every Monday, when we split up, she got my watering hole in the separation.

So when I moved to Los Angeles, I set to work to find a similar set-up. Randy Weeks wrote Can’t Let Go, which Lucinda Williams included on her Grammy-Winning Car Wheels On A Gravel Road album, which afforded him his own night at The Cinema Bar, and a crack band.  Two other songwriters Mike Stinson, & Tony Gilkyson backed him on drums, & guitar, & they had lots of famous guests (like Lucinda Williams) drop in. 

Gilkyson is from a family of songwriters that includes his sister Eliza Gilkyson, and his father Terry Gilkyson who was nominated for an Academy Award for writing Bare Necessities for Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book.  He also wrote Dean Martin's #1 hit Memories Are Made Of This.

But while he's a great songwriter, what Tony was most known for was his guitar playing.  First with Chuck E. Weiss & The Goddamn Liars, then Lone Justice, and finally replacing Dave Alvin in X, who had replaced the legendary Billy Zoom.  Tony also produced albums for his sister, and Dances With Wolves author & poet Michael Blake.  He co-produced two of Chuck E. Weiss’ albums with Tom Waits, and also co-wrote some Goddamn Liar songs that are included in this compilation (if he can be believed).

Having seen him live at The Cinema Bar 11-12 times, easy, I can tell you that he's quiet, & unassuming, and nice, & one of the most tasteful rock guitarists there is.  And you can't go wrong with any of the albums he's put out as a solo artist.

IN THE MIX Tony Gilkyson Edition Vol. 1 contains a lot of X tracks from their Live At The Whiskey-A-Go-Go & Unclogged albums.  I feel that the admirable way Gilkyson filled Billy Zoom’s shoes live is one of the reasons the wayward guitarist returned to the fold.  Check out Tony's guitar solo on The Once Over Twice—it sounds like a creature born of atomic testing rising out of the water off the coast of Tokyo.  There are also cuts with Chuck E., Randy Weeks, & with Lone Justice on a night Bono joined the band onstage.  Volume 2 is already finished, but I’m pacing myself.

If anyone has this album by Tony & Michael Blake, it would help the cause:  https://www.discogs.com/release/3469721-Michael-Blake-6-Tony-Gilkyson-Im-Alive

 

Whistle While You Work - Music With A Lilt To Lighten Crime Fighting

In the comments of the previous Whistling selection, SSteve asked "What makes a man whistle?"  I put it in my own words here. It is a question that is short and the answer is wide. 

Unless you accept the obvious answer: Various Reasons. That is, that there are lots of ways to which an artist gets to include whistling in a song.  The ‘kunstfluiter’, an artist whose signature modus is whistling, shows his art.  Often we hear whistling in movie/tv themes where my guess would be: drawing attention. 

Also in movies there is great variety. The G B & U is for me a proud whistle. ‘Turks Fruit’ by Toots is a carefree live, being young, being in love, riding a bike and blissfully unaware.  Fritz Lang, in his 1931 movie M, uses the whistle as a wolf in sheep's clothing. The child does not know what horror awaits, but we, the viewers, recognize the whistle.

In lots of blues/folk music one would be happy to have strings to the guitar, and whistling adds something where the harmonica, cheap as it is, is unavailable or unpractical.  Often whistling lifts the mood, makes it feel that life is easy. 

There is a Dutch song in which the singer is annoyed by "that stupid song", that will not leave his head. And he sings: You whistle, hum or sing along willingly or not, you'll get mesjogge by that stupid song.

Everyone picks their own reason to whistle as part of a song. You can also ask, why not more often?  We have seen here the la-la-la, and sha-la-la.  We can ask why the word-less sounds like Great Gig In The Sky and The War Song (same singer Clare Torry) and seek more examples.  Sex sounds like Chakachas and Man.  The wordless vocal part in A Day In A Life, humming in Wand'rin Star.

Trying to stand out, or as I call it, re-inventing a wheel. Like "Hey, I know something original, add a whistle."  There are also ways of destroying a song. Introducing a band during a song, or public participation (Hey-ey  Hey-ey, Ho-oh, Ho-oh, Hey Hey Ho Ho aaaaaaaaaaah).

This selection now. It starts with one of my favorites Triggerfinger, a heavy duty band who made an unexpected cover with a lovely whistle. When you love power rock trios, listen to this band's other work.

The unification of this diverse selection through whistling works a treat here.  Recent recordings of oldies such as Georgie Fame together with the Einstürzende Neubauten and The Ex. The Humor of Frank Pahl with the serious Elvis Costello.  Björk and The Pixies or the joyous rendition of Peggy Sue.

There are Vic Chesnutt, Billy Bragg, Edwyn Collins, and (for me till now unknown) Steven Page, who namechecks Linda Ronstadt.  Another great song is The Heads with Andy Partidge, I don't know how I got to get it, I'm glad I did.  And the set is finished by the French Zaz and I like to hear more French whistling.  Enjoy this set of 90s/00s and some 10s.