Podcasts | Fantasy Podcasts

Fantasy Covers: The '80s Part Two

By The Staff | 30 April 2012

Listen up, Internet. It’s time to pay attention. So sit up straight. Rub the crud out of your eyes. For the love of God, stop listening to Death Grips, what are you doing. Don’t settle for shitty music because shitty music is what you have to listen to in order to stay current. I mean, we do it, too—but the beauty is, dear readers, we don’t have to any more. Because now we can listen to a bunch of current indie bands, avant-garde song(un)writers, and rap producers cover ’80s songs! And that is legitimately way more awesome than that sentence would suggest.

Because this isn’t about CMG. It never really was, as much as some of you Internet denizens seem to think that self-indulgence motivates our every in-joke (I see you, Z review), cross-medium reference (can I help it that anything that’s really good reminds me of Tarkovsky), Venn diagram (insert Venn diagram to illustrate this point), and parenthetical (God, parentheses are just the best). This is about the artists who care enough about you, the listeners, that they would allow self-indulgent, “pretentious,” curmudgeonly Cokemachineglow to distribute for free some seriously awesome shit directly onto your iTunes, iPods, Spotifies, whatever the hell you kids use these days.

Love us or hate us, love us for this. That we get the same thrill that you do when you hear something that makes you believe that music actually DOES matter. That there is something timeless about it and it doesn’t matter if the only place you can get it is a vintage vinyl or one long-ass MP3 from some geeky Canadian music site, all that matters is that you get it. And hear it, and share it, and then you give credit where it is due: these artists. Because the independent artist has been redefined; it is no longer their independence of the corporate machine that describes them, nope…now they are defined by their dependence on you and only you, on some (perhaps misplaced) hope that you’ll actually give a shit. Please, give a shit. The music you are about to listen to is so fucking worth it.

So here you go: The ’80s Part Two. Part One is still wrecking our collective shit here at the Glow; it was just about when we collected ourselves that Editor-in-Chief Scott posted the tracks for this one along with that incredible cover art that he and Paul came up with—and we got our shit wrecked again. Come join us, it’s beautiful here. The ’80s, literally, never sounded better. I mean, when it’s all said and done, maybe I’m making too big a deal out of this (as is the Glow’s wont); at the end of this beast, Jenny Hval’s gorgeous Paul Simon cover reminds us that “sometimes even music can not substitute for tears.” Ironically, though, that’s the kind of truth that only music can make resonant. It’s okay to cry when all good things come to their end, so long as the soundtrack is as fly as this. Now weep.

Download mp3: 192kbps / 320kbps

Cover jpeg

[62:57]

1. Friendzone: “Little Red Corvette”

2. Miracle Fortress: “I Don’t Remember”

3. ARMS: “Shipbuilding”

4. Jessica Jalbert: “Swingin’ Party”

5. A Sunny Day in Glasgow: “Deadbeat Club”

6. New God: “My Only Friend”

  • (21:49 – 24:20)
  • originally by Opal, from Early Recordings (Rough Trade; 1989)
  • new-god.com

7. New Animal f/ morningdeer: “Road to Nowhere”

8. .L.W.H.: “Plainsong (Plaintrap)”

9. Algodón Egipcio: “Love Will Never Do (Without You)”

10. The Cyrillic Typewriter: “Gates of Steel”

11. Little Jungles: “Angst in My Pants”

12. Dream Jefferson: “I’m Goin’ Down”

13. The Hood Internet: “Love is a Formula”

14. Elektronavn Sacred Songbook: “Do You Believe in Love? (Express Yourself)”

15. Rae Spoon: “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)”

16. Jenny Hval: “The Cool, Cool River”