Steve Earle: Townes

Steve Earle is releasing an album of Townes Van Zandt covers. Townes, 15 songs Earle "cherry picked [from] the career of one of the best songwriters that ever lived," will be released on May 12th by everyone's favorite Americana label, New West Records. 

Earle and Van Zandt were introduced in 1972, when the latter heckled the young singer-songwriter at one of his shows. That meeting blossomed into a friendship which led Earle to name his son, Justin Townes Earle, after the the hard-living songwriter. 

Earle is no stranger to covers, and Van Zandt has certainly been covered before.

Captain Obvious has a cut of Earle honoring Nirvana's "Breed", as well as a cover of Van Zandt's "I'll Be Here in the Morning" by Bill Baird. 

Steve Earle--"Breed" (Nirvana Cover)

Bill Baird--"I'll Be Here in the Morning" (Townes Van Zandt Cover)

Also, you can stream Earle's cover of "Lungs" at P4K. Tom Morello contributes guitar to the track. From the sounds of the first one, Earle is certainly going to do his old buddy justice. 

Banshee Beatdown

I'm super excited right now. For one, I just bought a plane ticket to Austin for SXSW. Doesn't seem like that big of a deal to most of y'all, but I've never been before, so there.

But the main reason I'm amped is that all of my buds are coming into Chapel Hill this weekend for the Duke game. We're talking from NYC, London, New Zealand, Charleston(?). Should be quite the debauchery if all goes as planned. Hopefully the outcome will be similar to that above.

So, a song that has been known to make me all tingly on my insides is certainly in order for today. That cut is "Banshee Beat", from Animal Collective's art folk masterpiece, Feels. 

Every time I hear this song, the hair stands up on my arm. I've found that a lot of people feel the same way, and it's obviously not hard to see why.

Here's the original version from Pretty Goes with Pretty. 

"Banshee Beat" from Feels via Pretty Goes with Pretty

Here's the chilled out version from the band's set at Grand Ballroom.

"Banshee Beat" live from Grand Ballroom via Free Music via NYC Taper

Got me again.