In chronological order, across 15 years and 10-or-so bands:
Metallica : Almost everything off the first four albums
Slayer : South of Heaven, Angel of Death
Coroner : Mistress of Deception
Sepultura : Beneath the Remains
Ozzy : Crazy Train
Ministry : So What, Thieves, Stigmata
Primus : Jerry Was a Racecar Driver
Naked Raygun : Home of the Brave
Pegboy : My Youth
Nirvana : Smells Like Teen Spirit, Territorial Pissings
Pearl Jam : Alive
RHCP : Give it Away, Suck My Kiss
A "cover" of the Cure's "Friday I'm in Love" that sounded absolutely nothing like the original and included references Bennigans and Denny's. It was actually called "Victor I'm in Love", as it was in some fashion about Victor Villareal, ending with the line "Victor, I'm in love with you". Hey, don't ask me!
PJ Harvey : Joe
Melvins : It's Shoved
Pixies : Debaser
A Beatles cover band (Flat-top and the Dirtburgers) that played about 2 hours of Beatles covers at a one-off suburban church's summerfest. I don't think I could even remember all of them. Let me just say there was something very satisfying about playing Helter Skelter and Happiness is a Warm Gun at a church, wearing a Pestilence t-shirt with this picture on it:
'99, my best friend and I did an open mic night at the Gallery Cabaret, where we serenaded a bunch of burnt-out old hippies with the song "Drugs Stink" from the film
Bob Roberts. The sound guy came up to us after our set and made some reference to one of the greatest lines: "dope-smoking morons, dirty hippie freaks". It was funny.
Beatles : If You've Got Troubles (which people somehow thought was an original?!?!)
Stone Ponies : Different Drum
The Cars : Just What I Needed
A side project called
Eads and Glebe that was an all-cover band that made wonderfully terrible mockeries of a bunch of classic-type songs.
The band I'm in now, I really want to cover just this one specific song, but neither of the other guys in the band have expressed any sort of drive or interest in making it happen, so it likely never will. I don't know how well I could pull off the guitar solos anyway. They're maybe rad beyond my means. I've also been thinking about seeing if they'd be down with covering a Voivod song instead. I could be really happy doing that if we did it well.
Next year I plan on doing some open-mic type stuff, off the radar, either guitar or baritone-- I haven't decided yet-- just for the experience. I love the idea of playing solo with no friends of mine even knowing I'm playing... playing alone to a room filled only with strangers. One of the songs I will for sure be playing is your man Brokaw's "Recidivist".
Hey, cover songs, they can be so nice!
