#sorryattempts

It occurred to me this morning as I headed to work on the bus that I had not released a cover song yet this year. The last cover I released was exactly a year ago, on New Year's eve 2013. So I decided to whip something up last minute!

I've been a fan of Snow Patrol for almost 15 years. Back in 2000, I briefly had a subscription to the digital music service emusic.com. It was a pretty good deal as I recall; $10/month for a bunch of downloads (I forget what the limit was), and they had entire catalogs of numerous good labels (such as Jeepster). As I recall, this was how I discover Snow Patrol (also other great bands like Elf Power). I downloaded SP's first two albums, and really got into them. Of course, their sound was a lot different back then.

Final Straw was their third album, released in 2003. I can't believe it's that old now! It was a great album; way bigger and bolder than their first two, and it saved them from obscurity. Final Straw propelled Snow Patrol to semi-stardom, cementing them as pop hitmakers. It had a whole bunch of infectious good tunes like Run, How to be Dead, Wow, and Chocolate.

I actually didn't like the next couple of albums by Snow Patrol, but I've enjoyed their latest album, Fallen Empires, a lot.

Anyway, here is my quick and dirty cover of Tiny Little Fractures. I like this tune; it's upbeat and catchy, and also crunchy and overdriven. I made it even more so, recording it completely with synths/midi, and really jacking up the noise/glitchy factor. It's a dirty, amateur cover, but what do you want for something I whipped up in a few hours?

I thought that it would be a fitting tribute to 2013 (which I thought, in general, was a really excellent year for me, but definitely a year of mixed turmoil for the world at large) to end the year with one last special cover song.

This past March, Jason Molina passed away. Yesterday he would have been 40. Molina was the songwriter/frontman of popular indie staples Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co. And I think that anyone who knows me and my music will nod in agreement that he has been a huge influence to me for over a decade. Indeed, the album from which this cover is taken, Josephine, was my favourite album of 2009 (and arguably the culmination of everything musically awesome that Molina ever did).

Molina's passing made me feel heavy of heart. And of course, it made me examine my own mortality, being so close in age to him. I wrestled with the idea of trying to do a cover that would rightfully honour his songwriting talent. Ultimately, I felt that there is little I could do musically to bring justice to his pieces. They were at once fragile and haphazard, yet brilliant and cohesive in their arrangements and lyrical poise. Molina had a certain rare gift of a true bard, that made people listen, and find both groove and meaning.

So, this is the best I could come up with. I've never done this before. Here is an A capella rendition of "Hope Dies Last", originally by Magnolia Electric Co., covered by yours truly.