One Year Down The Drain

Although the first post on this blog appeared over a year ago today marks the anniversary of the first post about music with mp3's, so I consider today the true anniversary of the blog. So whilest everyone is travelling across the country today and tomorrow to visit family, spending hours upon hours in the kitchen cooking and baking or just relaxing I thought I'd take today to thank everyone for visiting, commenting and emailing me. I know the past few months have been difficult for bloggers, especially some of my cover loving friends, but as long as there are people like you who appreciate the music and what we do, we will continue to do our best to introduce you to new things, remind you of old favorites or torture you with something you hate.

We've had a pretty good first year here at blowin' your cover, even if I didn't meet my goal of averaging a post a week, but I have made some great blogging friends (see the links on the right), I've managed to have a few contests for you guys, (congrats to Joe for winning the MaryKate O'Neil cd!!) and we've clocked nearly 100,000 hits (no they aren't all me, I've blocked myself). I hope I can continue to do this for a while, searching out new covers and sharing them, I hope to also write more posts of substance, like boyhowdy does over at Cover Lay Down, even though I know most people just want the music on this site.

Please keep the comments and emails coming, if you know something you think I should hear please mention it to me, I haven't had much time to scour for new tunes lately so I know I've missed a few months of covers. I look forward to another year with all of you and I promise to try and post more regularly.

Not that we have a snowballs chance in hell but if you feel like it please vote for byc over at the streogum gummy awards by clicking the below, if nothing else maybe it will make a few more people aware of the blog since hype machine doesn't seem to want to pick us up! Plus you can win some stuff by entering!

So in honor of our first anniversary I'll throw at you nine songs with the word "one" in the title and a thank you tune for all of you. Also please note I'm changing to format of the links, the artist now links to their website and the song will link to the download, this is to help you find out more about the artist and also where to buy cds and vinyl.

CSS "One Way or Another vs Teenage Kicks" (Blondie Cover & The Undertones Cover)
Jenny Owen Youngs "...Baby One More Time" (Britney Spears Cover)
R.E.M. "One" (U2 Cover)
Natalie Merchant "One Fine Day" (The Chiffons Cover)
Natty & Mystery Jets One (Blake's Got A New Face)" (Vampire Weekend Cover)
Nina Gordon "One More Night" (Phil Collins Cover)
The Postmarks "One Note Samba" (João Gilberto Cover)
Sufjan Stevens "The One I Love" (R.E.M. Cover)
The Fiery Furnaces "One More Time" (The Clash Cover)
Erin McKeown "Thanks For The Boogie Ride" (Gene Krupa & Anita ODay Cover)

As always please support the artist and purchase albums. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Five For Friday 8

I've been busy planning a party for the past week or so and need a break from all the upbeat music so today's Five For Friday is going to slow it down. For those not familiar with Madeleine Peyroux she is my favorite romantic dinner or chill out music.

Also don't forget to enter the MaryKate O'Neil contest, I'll be drawing a winner in a few days.

Also, like everyone else out there, I've had a post deleted, not even sure why. I made a deal with myself that if 5 posts get killed I may have to wrap up shop unless we've found a safe haven by then. Thankfully I don't post as much as most bloggers so I may be lucky in the long-run.

Colin Meloy "I Know Very Well How I Got My Name" (Morrissey Cover)
(web)
Josh Pyke "The House At Pooh Corner" (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Cover)
(web)
Mojave 3 "Love From Room 109 at the Islander" (Tim Buckley Cover)
(web)
Sarah McLachlan "Ol' 55" (Tom Waits Cover)
(web)
Madeleine Peyroux "Between The Bars" (Elliott Smith Cover)
(web)

As always please visit the websites and support the artists by purchasing their albums.

mkULTRA Contest

First up check out Logical Logic for a guest post I did on Portland artist Grey Anne.

Marykate O'Neil is a Brooklyn based singer-songwriter who recently put out her third solo release, a six song ep, mkULTRA on Seventy-One Recordings. The record features not one, but two covers, one of "Living Without You" by Randy Newman and the other "Happy" by her friends Jill Sobule & Adam Schlesinger (of Ivy & Fountains of Wayne). In fact Sobule makes appearances all over the album playing various instruments and singing backing vocals. O'Neil says of the covers "I recorded and picked the two covers I did because I thought they completed the story well. I recorded a song of one of my friends because I was thinking how lucky I was to be around all these talented people, and started thinking it would be fun to do covers of my friends songs... like how in the 60's everyone would be singing each others songs. So you would have Glenn Campbell singing a George Harrison song, and released at the same time."

O'Neil's voice can be incredibly sweet on songs like "Map" and "Trouble" or somewhat husky on tracks like "Happy" which enable her to evoke different moods with more than just the music. The music itself is the superb blend of thoughtful charm and cynicism, the perfect music for a Sunday morning after a long Saturday night. Keep an eye out on O'Neil, she's due to release a full album entitled Underground in February.

If this sounds up your alley please email me at quietcore@gmail.com with "mk contest" as the title for your chance to win a copy of mkULTRA. Winners will be contacted next week.

"Happy" (Jill Sobule Cover)
Also check out O'Neil's website for more music.