Toxicology

You can find lists all over the world wide interweb ranking cover songs that superseded their original counterparts.  For all of the cruddy renditions of great songs that exist, with more added to the junkpile every year, the ones that rise above please me greatly.  There was an ORF Rock show about this a couple of years ago.

As Jules would say, "Example."

"Superman," R.E.M.
"Hurt," Johnny Cash
"Tainted Love," Soft Cell
"The Man Who Sold the World," Nirvana
"All Along the Watchtower," Jimi Hendrix
"Hallelujah," Jeff Buckley
"Do You Really Want to Hurt Me," Violent Femmes
"Sea of Love," Cat Power
"Trapped," Bruce Springsteen
"Renegades of Funk," Rage Against the Machine
"I Love Rock & Roll," Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

So I never really knew or cared about Britney Spears' song "Toxic." I can't believe I'm embedding a Britney song at G:TB, but it provides context.

Then I heard a cover of it some years back by Americana group Nickel Creek.  (No, not Nickelback.) Dug it major. Here's a more recent version.

And now, an instrumental surf version by a Canadian all-girl group in gold lamé?

Yes, please.

I can't turn it off.

These ladies are leaving Toronto and hitting the US this summer.  Look for them in NYC, Asbury Park, and Dunellen, NJ in August.