So, remember how some really badly targetted marketing was trying to get me to hear an interview with Art Alexakis?
Well, now I know why.
Everclear’s got a new album coming out.
But wait!
That’s not the worst of it.
It’s a covers album.
But wait!
That’s still not the worst of it.
The first single is “Rich Girl” by Hall & Oates.
But wait!
That’s still not the worst of it.
“Rich Girl” is actually among the least objectionable song choices.
Rich Girl
Our Lips Are Sealed
The Boys Are Back in Town
Bad Connection
Kicks
Pocahontas
Night Train to Memphis
This Land Is Your Land
American Girl
Brown Eyed Girl
Southern Girls
Land of the Lost
Speed Racer
867-5309 (Jenny) [Live]
I just can’t wait to hear Art Alexakis refer to the “Girl trilogy” at some future date.
Update: Almost forgot Rich Girl - maybe he’ll call it the “Girl cycle.”
37 Responses to “That’s right, you heard me”
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
I’m actually shocked they didn’t do that song about how you wish your girlfriend was hot like me.
Meh. I figured Everclear drowned in the sea of irrelevance and obscurity years ago. It’s weird. They’re one of three or four bands that were popular when I was in high school that have been getting sudden and seemingly out of place radio play lately. I see why now.
Dang. Much as I try for IMS status, I kinda liked Everclear, for a while there.
But there’s no respect in that song selection.
That looks like an audio train wreck. Now I’m afraid some station I listen to will play something off that album.
I wonder if playing this will end up as an approved torture technique by the Cheney/Bush/McCain administration…
I’m not, and have never claimed to be, an IMS. But, nonetheless, BLECH.
Oregon Trailer Trash Rocks! Yeah! (Belch!)
Everclear was easily the most hated band in the ’90s Portland scene; way before they had any appreciable success, they dripped we’ll-do-anything-to-make-it anti-sincerity on usually more principled stages. Art Alexakis, with his hypocritical stance towards welfare (having been a recipient of public assistance himself) and a rather poor “home record”, was the man you loved to hate. Please don’t blame us — we tried to prevent them.
Wow. I’m no IMS, as in ‘my iPod holds Dolly Parton songs, not for ironic purposes’, but have mercy.
That CD, unadulterated, serves as the soundtrack for the dental waiting area in Hell.
I’m surprised that putting ‘Night Train to Memphis’ and ‘Rich Girl’ on the same CD didn’t cause the press that rips each recording to implode into a wormhole due to the proximity between polar opposites.
OTOH, I must be wrong about this matter-antimatter thing. Every time I change planes in Houston I skip the tiles that connect the Mickey Leland International Terminal to the GHWBush Int’l Airport because I’m convinced that this principle could cause a wormhole at any moment! Right there in front of the currency exchange and the Starbucks!
Not that I ever claimed any IMS cred, but I have a soft spot for ol’ Alex. He and I are the same age and share many formative Top 40 Hitz.
Also, he was really great to my favorite local band back when Everclear ruled. Not that they needed his help or anything, as they’re well known Nashville Cats, but still.
I still miss iodine….
So I used to hate ‘’Brown Eyed Girl” with a passion of a thousand suns.
then I got a job somewhere it played on the radio constantly.
I don’t really remember why I hated it anymore. I remember it was a good reason. possibly political. and now it’s just some goddamn background music song.
but yeah, the opposite effect is the normal one, yeah?
Land of the Lost. Laaaaand. Of. The. Loooooost? Redone? By Everclear and Will Ferrell both? In the same decade?
Thanks but no thanks. Though I just might end up checking out the Will Ferrell version at the discount movie house. On dollar night. Drunk. That Sleestak pyramid-power ineffective-crossbow crystal pylon magic might have its way with me then. And it will be great to see if Holly will be outed in the new version, because she wears a flannel shirt and all. And a Pakuni and Holly why-can’t-i-quitchoo moment is inevitable as Will Ferrell takes Sid and Marty Krofft into the modern era.
Love me a good trainwreck, but not just aurally.
I’m not going to lie. In 8th grade, I looooooved Everclear. I even break out my CD every once in a while because — as embarrassing as it is — I still kind of like it. Plus, I love awful cover songs.
But this? This is just wrong. This is the stupidest pop culture-related thing I’ve heard all month. There is absolutely no reason to ever pay tribute to Hall and/or Oates.
Well, at least they’re doing “American Girl”, not “American Woman”. That’s some consolation.
Cheer up. As Elton John says “I am astonished how many people are misogynists. I say to Hell with them.”
Ooops! EJ actually said ” I never cease to be amazed at the misogynist attitude of some of the people in this country. I say to hell with them.”
Shouldn’t comment when I have insomnia.
Counting Crows disappeared under similar circumstances, didn’t they?
Covering ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ and caricaturing their own music.
Crap I’m old. I know I’m supposed to hate this band, but I’ve never heard anything by them. I assume they are either one of those whiny ass alt rock bands or something that has the word punk in it but isn’t.
What about “California Girls”
They could cover David Lee Roth’s version and tack on the “Just a Gigalo” for funz.
“Land of the Lost” should only be sung by Will Marshall. I think my favorite part as an adult is that the actor was billed by his first name only–>didn’t want anyone to know he was doing Saturday Morning Kids’ Shows!
My kids like it, but my son won’t let us watch the episode where they get possessed by some green glowing glob of light. It freaks him out too much.
Oh–were we supposed to be talking music?
This is that band where every.single.song they ever did had some sort of stupid “social message” that basically amounted to “it sucks when your parents get a divorce” and “my dad was such an asshole”, right?
Yeah, well.
Also, for a minute I thought they were covering Gwen Stefani’s “Rich Girl”. Which would probably cause a rift in the space-time continuum, a la seeing your future self in Back To The Future.
Also, I actually like “Our Lips Are Sealed” and think it’s ripe for covering. But not by these tools.
I would expect Brown Eyed Girl to be best covered by Counting Crows.
All the same, my soft spot for everclear is probably not unlike all of the women my age around here looking forward to NKOTB’s new album.
Everclear suck now and they have sucked from the beginning. They have milked one radio hit for years and managed to turn it into a career. They are complete shite. Art Alexakis is a total poseur and should be beaten.
Everclear is a totally great band and I enjoy their music a lot.
my iPod holds Dolly Parton songs, not for ironic purposes’
I would like the original IMS herself to weigh in on Dolly. I think Dolly’s a genius - an unbelievably gifted songwriter and accomplished musician. But then again, I’m no music snob.
Actually, “Southern Girls” is a great Cheap Trick song and “American Girl” is quite possibly the best Tom Petty song ever. “867-5309″, “The Boys Are Back In Town”, “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “Rich Girl” are also really good songs.
I can understand the hatin’ on Everclear (tho I personally still like them despite the fact that they suffer from the same “We do the same song over and over” problem that I detest Nickleback for), but the song list itself isn’t all that bad.
I’ve been fronting for too long, and I didn’t even intend to. I enjoyed Everclear around the time many of the other commenters did. I even went to see them at a show in London my junior year in college, at which I realized they were the worst band I’d ever heard live and that the openers, Hum*, ate their lunch AND drank their martinis. But I shouldn’t pretend I was always above Everclear; only since 1996.
* Seriously. One of the all time underappreciated bands.
I expressed myself badly there, too:
It’s the song list in the hands of Everclear that I object to.
In fact, funny story: There was a house bar band in Portland (might still be) who had two signature tunes, at least from my point of view: 867-5309 and American Girl. They were both great versions, to the point where the first thing I thought when I saw both on the tracklist was that Art must have been hanging around the Dublin a lot.
my iPod holds Dolly Parton songs, not for ironic purposes
Oooh! Mine too!
I remember hearing a lot of their songs on the radio in the late 90s, and I thought just hearing one or two of them were catchy, but I got sick of them once I saw that every.single.song.was.exactly.the.same in terms of style and instruments.
I hadn’t bothered to look into the background on them and Art Alexakis until now…I like them even less now.
Also:
I’m no IMS, as in ‘my iPod holds Dolly Parton songs, not for ironic purposes’, but have mercy.
Declaring one’s unironic love for Dolly Parton as proof of one’s non-IMSness is master-class IMSing. Congratulations.
Speed Racer? Is that the theme from the old TeeVee cartoon series or the song by Devo? I guess it doesn’t much matter as either one is likely to be abysmal in the hands of Everclear.
I used to be a big fan of Everclear, mixed with cherry kool-aid mix and too much sugar at an off-campus kegger where the music is deafening and all the attendees are underage.
Oh, wait, you mean the crappy band? Well, fuck ‘em.
dan, you beat me to a similar point — I am an IMS and I love Dolly Parton.
I’m no IMS, as in ‘my iPod holds Dolly Parton songs, not for ironic purposes’, but have mercy.
Wait, I’m lost. Why would one have Dolly Parton songs on one’s iPod for “ironic purposes”, whatever the fuck that means? You have Dolly Parton tunes on your iPod for one reason and one reason alone: she’s fucking awesome. Is it a Dolly specific thing or is it sorta like folks who’s idea of country music begins with Gram Parsons and ends with Wilco, thus avoiding any actual country people?
Auguste, you shoulda interviewed him. Back in my journamalism days, I got the opportunity to interview Sebastian Bach on his “comeback tour” and ask him who the hell he thought still cared.
I’m sorry, but in the entire history of bad covers, no one, ever, will beat Duran Duran’s cover of “911 Is a Joke.”
Yes, it exists. No, the universe did not explode directly after it was recorded. I cannot explain why.
(And I speak as someone who was a huge fan of DD in their heyday and thinks that their original songs hold up pretty well.)
“I’m sorry, but in the entire history of bad covers, no one, ever, will beat Duran Duran’s cover of “911 Is a Joke.””
Britney Spears singing “Gin ‘n Juice”?
Mettalica - “The Best of Frank Sinatra”?
Barbra Streisand - SOAD’s “BYOB”?…
:)
Everclear had their moments. I have their first album on my iPod and I think I like three songs on it. I really like those three songs, but I haven’t really like anything else they’ve done.
I think you’re wasting a golden opportunity with these numeric captchas. Think of the things you could have the trolls typing…
You have Dolly Parton tunes on your iPod for one reason and one reason alone: she’s fucking awesome.
Well, yeah I think so too. Yet something about the Dolly-ness makes me not an IMS and not cool, contrary to the claim made above. I know this because all my big city friends in college, who had trust funds and CDs that their grandparents used to give them money–not the music kind–told me so.
Of course I’m so old, that was before the roots music craze made my related-to-each-other-more’n-one-way Appalachian relatives cool because they know how to build a lap dulcimer and sing about Jeezus.
So maybe Dolly is cool now too, for all I apparently know.
Someone thinks Wilco is country? I don’t get it.
Well, Tweedy was in Uncle Tupelo, arguably the quintessential alt.country band. Wilco’s first record was recognizably alt.country, the second one (which I’m not that familiar with) less so, and after that, forget about it.