Lock Yourself In Your Hotel Room

It’s covers day!

The Fiery Furnaces “One More Time” – At the risk of this blog becoming a part-time Fiery Furnaces fan site, here is yet another rarity of theirs. I’m sorry if this seems as though I’m trying to brow beat you all into loving them, but so be it. This was recorded exclusively for Uncut’s White Riot Vol. One: A Tribute To The Clash; and as with their cover of The Fall’s “The Winter” on a recent Rough Trade compilation, it a) shows that they have a knack for selecting a less-than-obvious song by a great band to cover and b) has a drastically different arrangement from the original but still manages to keep the spirit of the song intact. Listening to this, it just makes me so excited for the next Fiery Furnaces record, because I get the sense that it’s only going to get better with them. The keyboard textures and echo effects on this track are to die for, by the way.

The Kills “The Search For Cherry Red” – This cover of the Jonathan Fire Eater classic is the b-side of The Kills’ recent “Pull A U” single. It’s by no means better than the original (you just can’t improve on that, the Vox organ sounds are especially unique and perfect), but this slow, smoldering take plays to the Kills strengths and emphasizes a creepy sexiness that the Jonathan Fire Eater version only hinted at. I just love the girl’s singing on this song – she’s the best thing about the Kills by far.

Jonathan Fire Eater “The Search For Cherry Red” – It occurs to me now that given Jonathan Fire Eater’s relative obscurity (and the fact that all of their records are out-of-print), a majority of you may not be familiar with the song that The Kills covered. So here it is, one of the best songs by one of the most criminally underrated bands of the 90s.