Did You Hear About... A/V Club Undercover

It's been a big couple weeks for the timeless trend of covers, at least for us at Soundproofblog.  We saw Aretha Franklin, the Queen of covers, live. Rave on Buddy Holly came out, featuring a collection of covers by an impressive list of artists, with a must-listen edition of the singer's '(You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care' by Cee Lo.  We also heard The Decemberists do a fantastic rendition of Fruit Bats' When U Love Somebody, live (which topped off a fantastic concert overall).

And the most time-sucking, yet awesome dis(cover)y of all: A/V Club's Undercover, a series of videos featuring indie bands and singers/songstresses covering everything from guilty pleasures to peer indie pop, to true oldie classics.  The A/V Club staff makes a list of 25 songs for select artists to choose from, and then they perform them live for online audiences.

While they are cumbersome to load and locate (no thanks to the SBux commercial on every video), they are definitely worth the while.  Visit these two links, and hit "View All Episodes" to see both sets of Undercover covers.

Some of the videos are hit or miss (still not understanding the love affair with Sharon Van Etten), but standouts for me included Telekinesis doing Belle & Sebastian, and the Fruit Bats doing Hall & Oates One on One.

As well as this cover of We Built this City by Cursive, which I'm including for all my college friends who've said this song reminds them of me... guilty pleasure admitted.

Cursive covers Starship