COVERED: Dr. Dre vs. Trey Galyon

Twenty-two years after its release, people are still showing how impressed they are with Dr. Dre’s album The Chronic. Even Dr. Dre no longer has to make music these days, no need for Detox or whatever code name he chooses to use. That Beats headphone money secures him for life. Nonetheness, another comedian honors him with a bit of album cover homage, similar to what Michael Ian Black did a few years ago. This time, it’s from comedian Trey Galyon, who released a new album last week Tuesday called The Moronic? (Rooftop Comedy). If anything, more people will recognize the Dr. Dre design than the reality that itself is homage to the Zig Zag man.

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COVERED: The Rolling Stones vs. The Rich Hands

46 years ago, The Rolling Stones released “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” on Decca Records and came up with this photo for the picture sleeve, taken by David Bailey. The Rolling Stones had fun with their album covers and definitely played around with their singles too, including dressing up like women for “Have You Seen Your Mother Baby Standing In The Shadows” and a crime scene for “Street Fighting Man” that would ban the sleeve in some circles. For “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” it was just the Stones in disguises and such, with guitarist Brian Jones holding a pitchfork and showing an expression that showed a bit of decay. The back of the sleeve was meant to be a perspective from the rear, but Jones’ perspective not being 100 percent accurate. The photo would be celebrated by Stones and rock’n’roll fans for decades.

Texas band The Rich Hands are playing in SXSW this week and as they prepare to release a new album, they’ve released a single for the song “Teenager”. Not only is the cover homage to the “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” picture sleeve, but they also cover the Stones song as the non-LP B-side. Perfection.

COVERED: The Clash vs. Jimmy Fallon

We all know the classic photo of The Class bassist Paul Simonon about to rupture his bass guitar as a man on stage in the back runs for his life. It became the cover of London Calling, which photographer Pennie Smith didn’t think was anything worthy until the band said otherwise. The album celebrated its 34th anniversary last weekend.

Jimmy Fallon returned to his old Saturday Night Live stomping grounds yesterday, with Justin Timberland as the musical guest and comedic cohort, and to my eyes, this looks very much like homage to The Clash. This isn’t the first time Fallon has done album cover homage for SNL, as he honored David Bowie during his last time as host two years ago.

COVERED: Buggles vs. Kenna (Part 2)

Three months ago, I posted an edition of Covered that involved Kenna paying homage to the Buggles‘ debut album, The Age Of Plastic. Three months later, he has honored the Buggles again.

This time, Kenna has collaborated with Donald Glover, a/k/a Childish Gambino, and the homage could be a combination of two different Buggles sleeves. The picture sleeve for “Video Killed The Radio Star” features Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes standing as they are on the cover. However, if you also look at the sleeve for “The Plastic Age”, that photo is cropped and looks a bit closer to what Kenna tried to borrow for their cover.

If Kenna ends up honoring the picture sleeve for Buggles’ “Clean Clean”, things may get dangerous.

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COVERED: Ted Nugent vs. Beasto Blanco

37 years ago, Ted Nugent followed up his debut solo album with Free For All (Epic), which offered “Dog Eat Dog”, “Street Rats”, “Hammerdown” and the powerful title track. The Motor City Madman was wild but was only one album away from becoming a national and worldwide sensation with Cat Scratch Fever, which insured he would become an FM radio staple for years. The album also featured a singer named Meat Loaf, who had been known for an album on a Motown subsidiary before he would find a home on another Columbia/CBS-related label

Beasto Blanco are a new band featuring Chuck Garric, known for his work with Alice Cooper in the last decade. Now he finds himself amongst Beasto Blanco, who kust released Live Fast Die Loud and their album cover for their new release is complete homage to Free For All album. Beasto Blanco’s label calls them “a favorite of the music and movie industry” and if it works, why not work it as far as possible, right? A free for all, indeed.

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COVERED: Lou Reed vs. Die Krupps

It was considered to be one of the weirdest albums to ever be released by a major label, and 38 years later, you might say it still is. Lou Reed’s 1975 un-classic Metal Machine Music is described on Wikipedia as being “a joke, a grudging fulfillment of a contractual obligation, or an early example of noise music.” It hadn’t been three years since he released “Walk On The Walk Side” and while rockist would’ve preferred to keep doing the same ol’ Velvet Underground stuff, Reed didn’t want to do that at all. It may have been nothing but noise, but that album has lead to a following that is unique to the album. People will listen to it maybe as a joke, but fans of noise and experimental sounds will take it on as a noise masterpiece. It was the highlight of the 8-track tape documentary film So Wrong, They’re Right, where a fan talked about how he had the 8-track tape for the album and would play it a lot, leading to confusing expressions from friends.

Die Krupps are a German band who seemed to have been around forever, or at least making music and touring for the last 33 years may feel like forever to some, but they have kept a core following that have remained loyal for decades. For their latest release (due out on November 25th), they also bring in Wolfgang Flür of Kraftwerk and the French band Métal Urbain for some collaboration. The Machinists Of Joy is said to be more punk than industrial or metal, but the album cover is definitely an ode to Reed’s album, right down to the RCA identification sticker that was on the upper left hand corner. The power of the un-classic lives on.

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COVERED: John Prine vs. Joey Sweeney

Released 40 years ago this month, Sweet Revenge (Atlantic) was John Prine’s third album, one that has managed to prove the test of time. It may be a dollar bin gem and one you may be able to find at thrift stores, garage and yard sales, but it’s his type of folk/country, what one might call Americana, alt.country, or No Depression, that has managed to influence a generation or two. He had recorded a new album a year beginning with the start of his Atlantic contract in 1971, but it was Sweet Revenge that brought him to places, and he would end up following with a new release two years later. The cover photo features him on a random country road, kicking back in his back stage without a care in the world.

Philadelphia singer/songwriter/musician will be releasing a new album on La Société Expéditionnaire called Long Hair and early versions of the cover featured a photo of him by a beach, with the photo surrounded by blue, looking very much like Prine’s Sweet Revenge with similar lettering. Are the photos meant to be representative of someone’s sense of solitude, peace and comfort? The latest edition of Sweeney’s cover is now surrounded by a yellow background. Not sure if this is final or why there was a switch but I like the blue background better.

COVERED: The Beatles vs. Cat Rapes Dog

The last album released by The Beatles was actually the second to the last album they recorded, but when Let It Be was released in May 1970, it was indeed the end of the group.

Cat Rapes Dog released a new album a few weeks ago called Life Was Sweet (Artoffact). The Swedish electropunk band have existed since the early 1980’s, but this is their first album in 14 years. By honoring The Beatles with their album cover and giving it the Life Was Sweet title, one wonders if this will become the group’s last recording. Only time will tell.

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COVERED: Neil Young vs. Clan Nugent

This one was a bit tricky, for the homage is not so much in the image, but the lettering. What I saw was the similarity to Neil Young’s handwriting on many of the albums he has released, so the one I initially thought of was his great live album, Time Fades Away.

On the Clan Nugent release, the design of the handwriting is rounded, so I immediately thought of other Young albums, including Tonight’s The Night. I then realized it had a close resemblance to his live album with Crazy Horse, Road Rock Vol. 1, the one that had a great 18 minute version of “Cowgirl In The Sand”. I’m not sure if Cian Nugent & The Cosmos had this in mind when they created their tribute to Ireland for Matador Records’ Singles Going Home Alone series, and maybe it is a stretch but I’m sticking with it.

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COVERED: Supertramp vs. BOOM!

Supertramp have become a classic rock staple, even though radio stations play a limited amount of their music. Then again, when was the last time you heard a Free song other than “All Right Now”? Exactly, so let Supertramp’s limitations be. The band’s third album, released in 1974, did offer up “Dreamer” and “Bloody Well Right”, which would pave the way for the band’s coninued success throughout the 1970’s.

What do you do if you’re a resident of Portland, Oregon? If you’re the guys in BOOM!, you had to Movie Island, rent some VHS tapes, wash clothes at the laundromat next door, buy a 12-pack of Bud Light, mix up Slurpee flavors, find your favorite smoking device and feel it with grassy substances, and hang out. At least that’s what BOOM! chose to do in their video for “And So Goes Me”, which looks like it was shot on a VHS camcorder. Only director Steele O’Neal would know. In truth, the video was shot in Pomona, California on E. Holt Avenue, as the below screenshot from Google Maps shows so…

…who knows what Portland residents do. Oh well.

The song is from the band’s Get A Grip, a co-release between Gnar Tapes & Burger Records. The cassette cover is homage to Supertramp’s Crime Of The Century album, and you can purchase the tape from Burger.

If you are in Portland on August 22nd, BOOM! will be playing at Dante’s so head across the street, buy a few dozen Voodoo Doughnuts, and have a punk rock party at Dante’s.

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