I've realized, in my "old" age, that a well-written song is a well-written song, whether Cole Porter or Neko Case, and a great version of a great song - it really doesn't matter who's singing, as long as they're good. I always thought 'Free Beer' was the worst band name.
I didn't realize Rouse had such a vocal range. I've been looking for that for a long time. Thank you for posting that Josh Rouse cover.
Worst band name to google is hands down !!! (chk chk chk) And simultaneously I think what you do is drain the actual joy out of it, and it becomes somewhat of a calcified exoskeleton of your pathetic and, I guess, not fully defined ego." " Yeah, why make fun of a well-written song unless you're an insecure person that needs to use music almost like insecure middle-age people use fine wine," he said. Rhino Records recently released a Best Of Bread album as well, if you just can't get enough.Īnd if you're still too insecure to fully bask in side of your brain that wants to love Bread, let John McCrea of Cake excoriate you as he defends their cover of "Guitar Man": You don't realize how much Bread you've probably passively absorbed in your childhood.
Man alive, listening to this stuff -the originals and these covers- makes me feel like an 8-year-old again, riding my bike really fast, or sitting on the cracked tan vinyl backseat of my dad's dusty green Datsun with the radio on. (add that to the list of worst band names to Google, along with Cake and Live)įriends and Lovers: The Songs of Bread was released in 2005 (actually, two years ago to the day as luck would have it) and in addition to Rouse also features Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer of The Posies, Cake, Erlend Oye (of Kings of Convenience), Oranger, Rachel Goswell (of Mojave 3), and Bart Davenport (of Honeycut).įriends and Lovers (Bread cover) - Erlend Oye It Don't Matter To Me (Bread cover) - Josh Rouse Josh Rouse's lovely cover is pretty much note-for-note faithful of this ridiculously sad-sap, "please walk all over me because I love you, you goddess" song, but it absolutely works with his striking tenor, and is nice to wake up to on brain radio: But if you can get past the overarching soft-rockness, the harmonies are tasty, the music has definitely affected the generation of fine music that I like now, and there is a laid-back goodness oozing all over this stuff. What would possess a bunch of modern-day indie rockers to contribute to a cover album of '70s AM-radio deluxxe group Bread? All of their stuff forever sounds like it should be listened to on a big 'ole 12" vinyl LP whilst wearing platform espadrilles and a loudly patterned shirt. So I decided to temporarily preempt what I was going to post in favor of this cover-licious compilation.
I literally woke up with this Josh Rouse cover in my head this morning, and laid there barely half-awake with the sun streaming in between that crack in the blinds, these crystalline opening notes running on repeat.