N.C. expats cover Okkervil River

Over here at Shuffle HQ, we've been digging the latest Okkervil River album, The Stand-Ins. (There'll be a review in the new issue). But if there's something with the potential to be even better than Will Sheff and co, its hearing Okkervil's songs in the voices of Tar Heel ex-pats--not that Okkervil River, having (formerly) worked so closely with Jonathan Meiburg is any stranger to N.C. expats (see Shuffle #3).

Here, as part of the promo for The Stand-Ins, Okkervil's enlisted the aid of other bands to do stripped-down covers of their songs. Notably, Justin Vernon/Bon Iver (formerly of DeYarmond Edison, the Raleigh-via-Eau Claire band that spawned both Bon Iver and Megafaun--check this Independent Weekly piece for the full story) and Archers of Loaf/Crooked Fingers honcho Eric Bachmann.

Bon Iver - "Blue Tulip"


Crooked Fingers - "Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed on the Roof of the Chelsea Hotel, 1979"

Titus Andronicus covers The Spider Bags

New Jersey indie rockers--and P4K favorites--Titus Andronicus recently recorded a session with Daytrotter that includes a song familiar to fans of boozy, mildly twangy, garage rock debauchery in Chapel Hill: "Waking Up Drunk," by The Spider Bags, from their 2007 LP, A Celebration of Hunger on Birdman Records.

The members of Titus Andronicus had the followng to say about their song selection:

This song is not by Titus Andronicus, but actually by a band from North Carolina called Spider Bags, who are the greatest band in the world. This song was on an album called A Celebration of Hunger,which was the best album of 2007 by a wide margin. That album has been unequaled by any album which came since, with the exception of the early mixes we have heard of the new Spider Bags album, Midnight Moving Skies, which is also profoundly amazing. It is staggering to me that Spider Bags are not exponentially more popular, since they are the greatest band in the world and everyone who hears them falls in love with them. We have played with this band quite a few times, and sometimes we have to play after them, at which point we in Titus Andronicus feel very embarrassed. Also, whenever we are in North Carolina, Dan McGee, who is the singer of Spider Bags, lets us stay at his house. Very gracious. Spider Bags are number one.

Download Titus Andronicus' version here.
And download The Spider Bags' version here.

FREE music from Portastatic

Since, apparently, two CDs with 22 tracks each isn't enough to satisfy Portastatic fans, Merge Records has decided to offer a companion piece to the recently released Some Small History, for free at the Merge Webstore. Particularly noteworthy, though, is the option to download the 11-song bonus collection in either high quality mp3, or lossless FLAC format.

And for all you cover-song fanatics who were undoubtedly ecstatic over Some Small History's takes on The Undertones, The Magnetic Fields, Ryan Adams, Galaxie 500 and Hot Chip, among others, the digital companion piece won't disappoint with it version of Elvis Costello's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace Love & Understanding."