Music Challenge for May

This challenge is brought to us by the illustrious Major Dundee. I have the veritable nadir, the pits, yeah verily the clinker-festooned arsehole of all MeFiMu challenges: you have to cover a song by the band/artist you hate the most.

Thanks MD! Have fun folks!

posted by snsranch (41 comments total)

Nice one, Major.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:02 AM on May 1, 2011

Michael Bublé here I come.
posted by unSane at 3:11 PM on May 1, 2011

I want to run from this.

I don't want to do a Lady Gaga.

She'll win if I back down though.
posted by TheKM at 10:14 AM on May 2, 2011

Oh bollocks - I forgot all about this. HHhhmmm. I might do ELO's "Mr Blow Fly" - change the lyrics a bit, punk it up etc etc. Or maybe something by Radiohead if I can stay awake long enough to learn a track..... We'll see, we'll see....
posted by MajorDundee at 11:36 AM on May 2, 2011

I'm adding some spice to the challenge -- *I* challenge you to find something in the song that enables you to do it with a straight face!

I'm on to it with Bublé, to my surprise.
posted by unSane at 12:04 PM on May 2, 2011 [2 favorites]

Yay!

Also, uh, holy shit. Apparently I never put up the challenge for last month? What was the challenge for last month? WHO GAVE ME KEYS TO THE CAR?
posted by cortex at 9:13 AM on May 3, 2011

I spent a few minutes playing around with "Soul Sister" by Train until I decided there's just no way to cover that song and still feel good about myself. I'm going to have to settle for 2nd most hated artist/band.
posted by ORthey at 10:18 AM on May 3, 2011 [2 favorites]

Jesus, they are insufferable! This vid is even worse (my Smug-o-meter exploded around the time he started standing on one leg) but the song is not terrible, even if it rips off 'Drift Away' in the verse and some Oasis song for the chorus.
posted by unSane at 2:01 PM on May 3, 2011

I actually think they write decent pop songs, for the most part, and even "Soul Sister" is catchy. But I also really, really despise them, too, particularly that song. Something about him singing about his untrimmed chest makes me do a sort of super-cringe.
posted by ORthey at 3:26 PM on May 3, 2011

One of the few advantages of advancing decrepitude (I'm only a year younger than Flapjax - hey, we could be the Statler and Waldorf of MeFiMu!) is that I can't be arsed to listen to new rock bands - well not actively anyway. You get to the point where you've heard the hype, the riffs, sounds and chord progressions many, many times before and....stifling a yawn, you gradually just switch off and start looking for music that's perhaps a little fresher to your ears. I'm probably missing one or two bands that I would like a lot, but life's too short to wade through all the crap to find them. So it is with some delight and relief that I've never even heard of Train let alone what they sound like. Ignorance, gentlemen, is bliss........
posted by MajorDundee at 1:47 AM on May 4, 2011

I don't think of Train as a rock band so much as an aspartame-laden confection dreamed up by Sony Music's marketing department. The singer is right out of this Human Planet spoof.

There are tons of good bands around these days. Here's one I think you might like, Major.
posted by unSane at 5:13 AM on May 4, 2011

Neil Young, "Old Man" seems like the obvious move here because I mean I never don't turn it off if it comes along, but now I'm wondering if I should cover "Drops of Jupiter" instead because, yeah, fuckin' Train. Man. I had forgotten the suckiness there.

Or, ooh, a Creed song. With Arms Wide Open or some shit.

That's actually a tricky thing about this challenge. You know what happens when I actively dislike a band/song? One of two things:

1. I avoid it, and forget about it, and can't think of it now because I avoided it and forgot about it.
2. I listen to it until I start to appreciate, perhaps even grudgingly, what they're doing.

With the first bit there, you've got stuff like Train, or Creed if they hadn't become such a popular joke. There's a lot of stuff from my early twenties here, when I had access to a mix of on-demand and broadcast music in college and so was exposed to a bunch of pop rock but was also able to avoid it if I tried. Most of these bands never had a chance to really get on my Hate Them list. Though now I'm remembering a lot of stuff from c. 2000 that sure as shit annoyed me at the time.

The second bit, it's the real problem here. If I just listen to something I don't like enough, I end up not disliking it so much. I mean, I continue to think that My Humps is a pretty stupid pop song, but not as stupid as I thought it was the first time, and certainly not as stupid as I'm supposed to think it is. BEP are not without skill, they didn't walk in the door and take a formless dump on the floor and leave it at that.

I guess part of what I'm getting at here is I'm probably going to end up liking Old Man at the end of this, and I'm not sure whether to celebrate or resent that.
posted by cortex at 7:52 AM on May 4, 2011

Exactly, Cortex. I have come to the grudging conclusion that apart from some horribly lazy lyrics in the second half ('we could be so amazing' -- puhlease), and the godawful smugness of his silly face in the video, this Bublé song is a pop nugget.
posted by unSane at 8:04 AM on May 4, 2011

Yeah, this is tricky to pull off. At first, I was thinking of the "live like we're dying" song, because instead of the 'seize the day' message it was going for, it made me think about hospice, or an ICU, which isn't a lifestyle anyone would aspire to. This "cooler than me" song is artless and relentless and really shouldn't have been released, but trying to do another version of it means suppressing the reflex to just back away slowly. It's hard to find the right angle. It's like the phenomenon of Rebecca Black's song Friday. If you cover it to ridicule it, she still wins, right?
posted by umbú at 9:20 AM on May 4, 2011

See, goddammit, now that I've given it a couple of dispassionate listens to get down the chord structure and the melodic phrasing, I'm like, shit, that's actually a pretty nice piece of chill acoustic rock.

Young's voice is still a reedy horror, but the worst part is that mine isn't much less reedy in that upper register. FUCKING NEIL YOUNG, WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME.
posted by cortex at 10:15 AM on May 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

this Bublé song is a pop nugget

1. I thought Bublé sang standards. I had no idea.
2. Surely he doesn't need that much vocal tuning. Ugh.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:57 AM on May 4, 2011

Not sure it's tuning... think it's mostly recompression artefacts from being downloaded and reuploaded. There is a ton of chorus on his voice on the original mix too.
posted by unSane at 12:39 PM on May 4, 2011

My wife loooooves Bublé and I've listened to way too much of him. I'm pretty convinced he's got autotune on every single track, it's just subtle (as in it ramps up slowly so you don't hear it on the passing tones but it keeps him locked in on the sustained notes). Yeah he probably doesn't need it but it also probably makes production a lot easier. And there's a (admittedly artificial) "polish" to it that I think some people come to expect with Bublé. And the smart audio nerds over at GearSlutz (not porn) seem to think this as well.

Ok so now I have a question. When we pick this artist that we loathe. Are we trying to take one of his/her songs and make it better? Or is this more of a satire thing?
posted by jnrussell at 9:26 PM on May 4, 2011

I think it's a however you want to approach it thing. I'm going to do my best to turn Old Man into something in the vein of a rocker that I'd record if it was an original, but that's just the direction I feel like going. I bet we'll see a variety of attitudes in how people do their covers.
posted by cortex at 9:59 PM on May 4, 2011

Ok good. I'm going to do my best to save this Jason Mraz song from its current douchebag anthem status.

Sweet living hell I've never hated a song or artist more in my entire life.
posted by jnrussell at 10:09 PM on May 4, 2011

I bet we'll see a variety of attitudes in how people do their covers.

Absolutely. Variety, spice of life, etc.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:32 PM on May 4, 2011

I'm done, apparently. I could have finessed it more but I need to break that habit so I can actually have more finished stuff instead of a million open projects that will never see the light of day.

What a fun challenge! Can I do more? (I'm new to the challenges and I'm not even sure if it was a faux pas to share my track in this post, so I apologize if I doth offend).
posted by jnrussell at 11:14 PM on May 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

You're welcome to do more jnr - seems we got plenty of hate to go round!!
posted by MajorDundee at 2:55 AM on May 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

People! Put your hands together and show your HATE!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:59 AM on May 5, 2011

All together now:
All you need is hate da da-da-da-da
If it isn't great da da-da-da-da
All you need is hate, mate
Hate is all you need

Ah yes - that's suitably crap. I hate it already...
posted by MajorDundee at 4:37 AM on May 5, 2011

All You Need is Hate is one of my favorite songs by the Delgados.
posted by unSane at 4:41 AM on May 5, 2011

If that Bublé track isn't tuned to hell and back, I'll eat my hat, and any other hats in the house.

And apropos of the challenge, I can't really thing of anything I absolutely hate. I have the same sort of reaction that cortex does--I think I hate something, then I listen to it, and you know what, maybe it still sucks, maybe it doesn't, but either way, I get it. And I can't hate it anymore.

I've even been listening to the pop and rap radio stations lately (research, really), and while lots of it is bad, it's not unbearable (well, mostly). There's a reason this shit is successful, and it's not 100% marketing.

Or maybe I'm just in my peaceful place right now.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:54 AM on May 5, 2011

I agree uncleozzy, it's difficult to hate just about any art after you've spent some time with it. Case in point, the piece I covered, I don't really hate it is a song in and of itself. I do happen to hate the lame way it's performed by Mr. Mraz, the phony-happy lisp thing he's got going on, the stupid bouncy guitar, the whole artificial sunniness of it all...but as a constructed pop ditty it really isn't so bad.
posted by jnrussell at 8:02 AM on May 5, 2011

My wife suggested I have a go at Everything I Do (I Do It For You), since she hates that. Which reminds me that I should have a go at Right Here Waiting as well some time. Depending on how the fancy strikes me, this might be a busy month.

I also got the idea last night of doing all of Iron & Wine's "Our Endless Numbered Days" as double tempo pop punk and calling it an EP. But not because I don't like I&W, because I love I&W. Just, I guess, jawin'.
posted by cortex at 8:04 AM on May 5, 2011

Just, I guess, jawin'.

his bread it was corn dodger
and his meat you couldn't chaw
nearly drove me crazy
with the waggin' of his jaw

- "Diamond Joe"
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:08 AM on May 5, 2011

My wife suggested I have a go at Everything I Do (I Do It For You)

Have you ever heard The Fatima Mansions eviscerate that song? It's brain-meltingly awesome.
posted by mintcake! at 12:16 PM on May 6, 2011

Wow. That's more outre than anything I had in mind, yeah.

If anything I'll probably knock it out as an uptempo bluegrass thing; done like that, the moody Canadian gravitas drains away and it's actually just a fun little bullet of a song.
posted by cortex at 1:16 PM on May 6, 2011

Well, you're all about to get some Kenny G rammed in your ear holes.
posted by baxter_ilion at 6:34 PM on May 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

Well, you're all about to get some Kenny G rammed in your ear holes.

Good lord, that's one of the most terrifying warnings I've heard in years.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:04 PM on May 7, 2011

I do happen to hate the lame way it's performed by Mr. Mraz, the phony-happy lisp thing he's got going on, the stupid bouncy guitar, the whole artificial sunniness of it all...

I know it's a godawful small affair, to the girl with the mousey hair, but this surely begs the question: is there life on Mraz?


wah-wah-wah WAAAAAAAAHHHH......
posted by MajorDundee at 6:12 AM on May 9, 2011

Great. Now I'm listening to all of Herman's Hermits trying to figure out which one makes me want to kill someone most so I can then cover it.
posted by frecklefaerie at 9:07 AM on May 10, 2011

Well, you're all about to get some Kenny G rammed in your ear holes.

kenny g never rammed anything in his life - you might as well claim you're going to sledgehammer someone with cotton candy
posted by pyramid termite at 11:21 PM on May 10, 2011

kenny g never rammed anything in his life

It's my understanding from his comment that frecklefaerie is indicating that his cover of Kenny G is gonna do the ramming. And it may well.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:13 AM on May 11, 2011

kenny g never rammed anything in his life

Yeah, he always came off as a catcher, to me.

Hopefully, our entry will catch everyone by surprise (not by how bad it is, but because you probably forgot just how bad the act really is that we're "covering"). This is definitely a fun one. It's difficult to find an act that everyone in the group actively hates.

"Should we cover [x]?"
"BLUH! YES!"
"Who?"
"I don't know them well enough to know whether I hate them."

Swap responses, dependent on the value of [x]. There was (and still may be) a chance that Mssr. G's godawful Songbird would be inflicted upon the world via contrabassoon.
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 1:16 AM on May 11, 2011

Even if you don't end up covering "Songbird" for the challenge, I'm still hankering to hear it covered by contrabassoon.
posted by baniak at 2:40 PM on May 22, 2011

Great work, people!

cortex: After listening to your Old Man for the first time yesterday, I heard this on the bus on the way home. Yeesh.
posted by ODiV at 12:04 PM on June 10, 2011