Bawley (Hearts) 2010: Top 5 Covers of the Year

5. Klaxons - Bad Romance (Lady Gaga)

Every list of best-of-covers must contain at least one cool indie band covering a massive pop song, so here it is. (link - skip to 2:52)

4. Regina Spektor - No Surprises (Radiohead)

Spektor recorded this song in support of Médecins Sans Frontières. It is a great cover done for a great cause. Buy the charity single on iTunes or listen to the Triple j recording (link - 10:40)

3. Gorillaz - Crystallised (The Xx)

Gorillaz had a huge 2010, taking their Plastic Beach tour from Glasto to Damascus to Sydney. Along the way they stopped to record a few tracks on Radio 1's Live Lounge. Originals Melancoly Hill and Doncamatic were overshadowed by this brilliant cover of The Xx's Bawley 100 wining track Crystalised. (video)

2. Grizzly Bear - Boy From School (Hot Chip)

Grizzly Bear covering Hot Chip could have been a disaster, luckily guys remembered the vocals and pulled off this brilliant cover. (link - 11:55)

1. Beck's Record Club - Never Tear Us Apart (INXS)

In 2010 Beck's record club covered two drastically different albums INXS's Kick and Yanni's Yanni, Live at the Acropolis. Far and away the highlight of all these sessions came when St. Vincent, Os Mutantes, Liars, Annie Clark and Beck took on INXS's iconic 80's teen movie song Never Tear Us Apart. Just watch.

Beck's first rule of record club is...

Beck is right in the middle of re-building his website a bunch of new stuff is promised the first section to pop up is called Record Club.

Record Club is an informal meeting of people who with no-rehearsal, no-pre-arrangement will cover a classic, seminal, or loved album in one day. The chosen album will be reinterpreted and used as a framework for the day. Once recorded one track will be uploaded to beck.com each week.

Beck’s guests at the first meeting of the Record Club include super producer Nigel Godrich, actor Giovanni Ribisi, and Icelandic singer Thorunn Magnusdottir. They have voted to cover The Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground & Nico the opening track Sunday Morning is available now.

Future Record Clubs attendees are said to include MGMT, Jamie Lidell, and Devendra Banhart.

We Could Be Heroes

Bawley hearted artists such as Beck, Elbow, Hot Chip, Peaches, Franz Ferdinand, TV On The Radio and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have recorded covers for an album raising money for charity.

War Child:Heroes is a compilation put together by the organisation War Child, which works to protect children in the world’s most dangerous war zones.

The War Child organisation has long used music to raise money and awareness for the cause. For their latest project War Child:Heroes they asked music legends like Blondie, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, The Ramones and The Clash to pick new artists to cover one of their songs.

The 15 track CD will be out in most countries on the 16th of February sadly Australians will have to wait until February 21st.

Here's the full track listing:

1. Beck - Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat (Bob Dylan)
2. Scissor Sisters - Do The Strand (Roxy Music)
3. Lily Allen - Straight To Hell (The Clash)
4. Duffy - Live And Let Die (Paul McCartney)
5. Elbow - Running To Stand Still (U2)
6. TV On The Radio - Heroes (David Bowie)
7. Hot Chip - Transmission (Joy Division)
8. The Kooks - Victoria (The Kinks)
9. Estelle - Superstition (Stevie Wonder)
10.Rufus Wainwright - Wonderful/ Song For Children (Brian Wilson)
11. Peaches - Search And Destroy (Iggy Pop)
12. The Hold Steady - Atlantic City (Bruce Springsteen)
13. The Like - You Belong To Me (Elvis Costello)
14. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Sheena Is A Punk Rocker (The Ramones)
15. Franz Ferdinand - Call Me (Blondie)

Guilty as Charged.

2008 has been a busy year for Danger Mouse, having already released a new Gnarls Barkley album and performed production duty for The Shortwave Set, The Black Keys, and Martina Topley-Bird. Now he pops up as co-producer on Beck’s eight album Modern Guilt.

Everything about Modern Guilt screams “Danger Mouse was ‘ere”, the quiet cool, the late 60’s early 70’s psychedelic rock, the high-hat, the stomping dance tunes are all here. But, it is also unmistakably Beck, bringing his vocal drawl, smart rhymes, eccentric lyrics and love of genre switching. The cumulative result is Beck’s most consistent and best album since 2001’s Sea Change.

The albums two most upbeat tracks are Gamma Ray and Modern Guilt, musically neither would feel out of place on the last Gnarls Barkley album, bouncing along while Beck ironically sings about perils of modern life: environmental carnage, social disconnection, and self pity.

Lead single Chemtrails is the album’s highlight; it is a spaced-out rock track, the oh-so paranoid lyrics tell a story of military experimentation while the song strays all over great synth line before tumbling back into place with a huge drum fill.

Replica is a drum and bass track that, courtesy of its slick production and layered keyboards, does not feel out of place wedged between the airy pop of Walls and labouring rock track Soul of a Man.

On album closer Volcano, Beck tells us “I don't know, Where I've been, But I know, Where I'm going, To that Volcano”. We can only hope that when he returns from the volcano he gets straight back into the studio with Danger Mouse.

Time to Pretend: Falls Festival 2008

I know New Years seems like a long way away but if you are even thinking about the possibility of attending Falls Festival in Lorne and going camping over New Years Eve you should register for the ticket ballot. This doesn't guarantee you a ticket but it pretty much guarantees you won't get a ticket if you don't register.

Registration closes 27 August with the first line-up being announced on 13 August. Current rumours suggest that MGMT and Beck will be playing and bawley's own Glastonbury sources over the weekend report that MGMT rock live!

Click here to register and stay tuned to bawley for more news soon.