You thought it was over! But it’s not. We got home and finally got around to covering this song, which we had intended to cover from the beginning. We’re off to Boston in an hour or so, so no long intros:

Falling Slowly (original by Swell Season) – The Timid Owls

Everyone have a good new year! Wrap up post keeps getting pushed back, yes. Let’s see, maybe Wednesday? I’ll say hi to GW for you.

But wait! There’s more! I just finished this about 5 minutes ago, and the vocals have been killing me. This is basically what I did most of Christmas Day. It’s freezing where I sleep at night (in LA? Yeah.) so my throat has been dry and scratchy and ended up resorting to drinking hot water to get this done and crank out the last few lines. I’ve been stealing my brother’s Macbook whenever I could to get this done, much to his chagrin. I have about five different versions of this song floating across a couple different computers now, but I think I like this one the best. It’s probably my favorite song of the year, so wanted to be sure I was happy with it when I was done.

Your Arms Around Me (original by Jens Lekman) – N. Timothy Salazar

I head back to Brooklyn tomorrow night and will be able to wrap up all the loose ends of this project soon, I hope. Did everyone have a good Xmas?

All right, so it didn’t happen. I have about half the song done, but I just have too much to do. So no double post, BUT! Here’s the last song, and it is another of B’s excellent efforts.

Nantes (original by Beirut) – The Life and Times of You

I’ve listened to this about a million times. You probably will too. Have a great holiday. See you in a few.

So, I had to step out and do all my Christmas shopping in one day today, so that’s why the song isn’t up. I’m really also banking on posting the last two songs in the right order, because I’d really love to finish off with B’s last song, but that means my last has to go up first.

Well, that also means that I have to re-record my song, since I couldn’t get my file from my computer. I will do this tonight, and if enough of you complain to me, I’ll get it done tonight and do a double post tomorrow (Christmas Eve) and then leave the big last post to later in the week.

In the meantime, you can enjoy a little Benji Cossa. I think this is the best version of Silver Bells I’ve ever heard.

Silver Bells – Benji Cossa
[audio:09 Silver Bells.mp3]

We drove way the hell out to the South Bay last night to go to Dave and Buster’s and eat and play video games and stuff last night. They have this quiz game where you play against other drunk people and ring in your answers. It’s kind of embarrassing when you guess stuff like “1923″ for an answer to a question like “When did South Carolina secede from the Union?” but other than that it’s great fun and if you win it makes you feel superior to everyone else playing. Stuff like that is exactly what humans need.

I know stuff like this song is what makes Josh feel superior to other human beings. Probably robots, too. Most of the time he’s right. Except maybe not robots. Robots are good.

The Sweet Escape (original by Gwen Stefani) – The Greatest American Sport

I can’t really articulate one thing about this song that I like, because the whole thing is amazing. Maybe it’s the image I get in my head of Josh howling at his computer and cramming those staccato lyrics in there. But really, the phrasing, it’s er, amazing. Yeah, I said it. Gwen Stefani needs to write more gems like this so that Josh can cover them.

We made it to Friday! I’m actually just cruising along this week, unlike everyone else that probably had to work, but still! The reward, my friends, is this great little ditty from Owl. I make a guest appearance with some “ohs” and claps, but the rest is all her.

1234 (original by Feist) – Alison Smith

I remember seeing a toy xylophone sitting around the house, but didn’t notice until just now that it also makes an appearance on this record, and it sounds so good! For the life of me, I also cannot operate that egg shaker that just sits around the office, so I’m glad someone is making use of it. I mean, all the instrumentation here is just so damn cute. She was made to be twee, I think.

This song is so great, and everyone will probably just think of the iPod commercial from now on, but everything about it is so much fun that you’re doing yourself a disservice by dismissing it. That’s right, I’m looking at you. Long live the Feist!

I’m headed to Los Angeles early Saturday morning, and may in fact continue posting songs over the weekend to culminate on Christmas day. I have about three more songs (if I can somehow procure the song I recorded but forgot to bring with me), and then I’ll do a big post and roundup on Christmas day. Everyone have a good weekend, and check in, will ya?!

More new blood! Matt used to be my (awesome) boss at the school I worked at for a while in Brooklyn, and he surprised me with a song for this comp out of nowhere. Mind you, I think this song is actually from sometime around 1981, and re-reading my original call for submissions, (not the email I sent out), I realize that I didn’t mention anything about picking a song from 2007! So, my bad, but your good, because now we have this:

Midnight (original by Yaz) – Matt Lipstein

I hadn’t ever heard the original until tonight, and it’s a pop gem. The jazz cover here is refreshing and different, but the real kicker is the male-female vocals throughout. Bravo, Lip!

I’m gonna post everyone that’s sent me their top 10 lists (that’s B, Amanda, and me) later, but you should definitely go check out M’s list right now. If I had my druthers and some more time, I’d cover that Blow song for this project!

So, maybe I went out to an Irish bar run by Asians last night after traveling for 12 hours, drank some liquor then passed out playing Rock Band (literally, passed out singing The Killers). Maybe that’s why there was no song until this morning. Maybe.

In any case, we’re back on track: I got this just recently and again, had the jaw-dropping experience of being one of the first to hear this. Those Pedens know what they’re doing. Check out Amanda’s (and P’s) PDX-based blog, Stumptown P & A, too!

Cheer Me Up Thank You (original by New Buffalo) – Amanda Peden

“She’s good!” -b

Perfect pitch and breath control? Check. Great song? Check. Another hit? Check.

Now that Tim’s out of the picture, time for some real business. Everyone should read the comments from the last eight days or so, because (1) some of them are hilarious, (2) there’s a lot of sentimentality going around, and (3) they give you an idea of how talented each of these musical individuals is by specifying what it is about these songs people like. Or something. Like that.

And! – this is one of Tim’s best ideas ever, and it’s really come together amazingly well. Frankly, I’m proud of all of you and happy that we get to experience your talent. That includes Tim, whose song we’re posting today:

Saltbreakers (original by Laura Veirs) – N. Timothy Salazar

Tim told me he made this song into a slow guitar jam, and I can absolutely hear what he means. I was originally reminded of the Halo Benders, and I think that’s because it’s got this great HB-era Doug Martsch feel. And note that horn solo near the end. Yeah!

-B

And we’re back. I hope everyone had a good weekend. I know some of you (ahem, today’s contributor) think I’m lazy for not posting songs over the weekend, but in actuality: I been busy. Projects like this plus holiday crap = limited time. But you don’t want to hear any of that. You do want to hear this, though:

When the Morning Comes (original by Lloyd and Michael) – The Greatest American Sport

TGAS is Joshua P. Kaffer, coming directly at you from State College, PA. Lloyd and Michael, if you didn’t know, is Katyd and Ritchey from Dear Nora. This is a great cover, I love the doubled vocals and the 2nd time the chorus comes in. It’s also really good to hear Josh singing again. He should really do it more often.

I know this is actually what you all have been waiting for. Well, I don’t even need to make the introduction, I guess. Listen for yourself.

Still Alive (original by Jonathan Coulton) – Harvey Whittington

There’s about a dozen different things on this that make me laugh, and originally I wanted to make a track for this CD that featured Jams listening to this song for the very first time. I just wanted to record him listening to it and laughing, because it would be great.

If you listen closely, you’ll hear several different vocal tracks, all with secret, awesome messages.

Addendum, 8pm: That’s it for the week, suckers! Check back in on Monday, there are several debuts that haven’t even hit the blog yet, so be excited. This weekend: Artwork! Hopefully I’ll have some of that to show you on Monday as well. I’m going to be busy going to karaoke, partying, and celebrating the holiday season, so maybe not. Okay, okay, it is a priority. Have a good weekend!

I’m finally done with school for the semester! Hooray! I have to get some work done, and then will start printing more covers for these as soon as I can. I haven’t told you, but we have a super-secret contributor that isn’t one of the people on today’s song (but he has some artwork for us, too!) and I’m super stoked to get some prints made of the drawings, but that is later.

Today, we have more new blood to the blog: Andrea and Rick did some crazy things with this Feist song, and I really dig it. The best part is the interlude between the first and second verse, with that crazy whacked out banjo coming in the left ear. There’s something particularly haunting and dark about this version, and I’m glad about that.

My Moon My Man (original by Feist) – Andrea Thomas and Richard B. Wallace

The other day I walked into the house and Owl had headphones on. I walked all the way up behind her and stood around for a full second before she looked at me, screamed twice, then threw the headphones across the room. It was hilarious.

I really need to stop going to bed so late.

Hooray! Time for something new and great! I was delighted to receive this song; it’s from Jenna and the spectacular New Zealand film Eagle vs. Shark. Owl is sleeping right now, but if she were awake, this is what our conversation would be:

Me: I’ve never felt this way about any song before.
Owl: Same!
Me: But it feels really natural!
Owl: Yeah, same.
Me: Awesome. It has made me the happiest man in the whole restaurant.

So, go buy this soundtrack, watch the movie, and enjoy this song.

Apples and Tangerines (original by The Phoenix Foundation) – Jenna Frye

What’s all this, then? Did you miss the original post? This is the IR Collective Mix Tape 2007. Yes, it is.

Another day, another song from the mix tape. I’m in the process of tracking down some CD sleeves for this thing, and I’m not having much luck. It’ll happen though, and soon. We went to Pearl in SoHo the other day to get a bunch of Gocco stuff and I dropped a wad of (plastic) cash on ink and screens, so we’re half-way there.

No Cars Go (original by Arcade Fire) – Fokker-Planck

This one is from our friends in Eugene, OR; brl and nate who go by the name Fokker-Planck. I don’t know what that is, but it sounds… mathy. I think this cover is spectacular. brl says he had to unplug his fridge when they were recording this, and he forgot that it was unplugged for 36 hours or so. The things you do for art! My favorite part of this song is the “hey!” interjections. Another hit!

Hello! Well, I started compiling all the songs and getting everything going; we lost some people in the process but the turn out was great. I’m going to start rolling out songs day by day until they’re all done, which means if you haven’t finished, you have more time! I’m going to post them all according to how they will (probably) appear on the CD, so without further ado, here’s the first track.

Wet and Rusting (original by Menomena) by The Life and Times of You

If you didn’t know, The Life and Times of You is Brandon M. Peden. I’ve never listened to any Menomena, but I heard the original of this song and was blown away by the drums. B does an impeccable job on the vocals. How you do that, B?