Monday, May 17, 2010

Take Cover: OMGWTFWILCO.

JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound: I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (Wilco cover)



Ok. I am still reeling from my first listening of this cover a few days ago, and subsequent listenings have not helped to sort out any of my emotions surrounding it. I know this column is supposed to highlight the best covers, and this might be one, but it also might be just awful, or something in between. Mostly, it confused me in a sort of did-I-just-wander-into-an-alternate-universe kind of way.

And I'm not sure why, exactly. Sure, this poses one of Wilco's finest and most endearing songs in an entirely different genre and feel, but on the list of Things That Are True About Cover Songs, #1 is officially, "The best covers re-interpret songs," so that should only add more points to the "awesome" column for old JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound. Further, he does a lovely little jaunt in the middle from "Theologians," which is clever and subtle.

So maybe it's the video, which undeniably resembles one of those GAP ads from the earlier part of this decade (how happy can a striped sweater make you?), and the way he cheesily slides his arms around those two girls when he sings "I wanna hold you in the Bible-black pre-dawn," which makes me cringe. And I wish he would stop acting out all of the actions he's singing about. This isn't my fourth-grade living-room-choreographed dance to "Baby One More Time." (Thank God). And wait, I'm sorry, did he FACE SWIPE THOSE GIRLS? What?! Let's take a closer look:










Yikes, JC. You may have lost me as a fan forever. Let me know if you guys had the same experience in the comments!

5 comments:

Catherine said...

Totally with you on this. When I first saw this, I thought I just hated the cover, but after I watched a live video of it (without the interpretive dance) I liked it a lot more. Also a fan of the Theologians bridge!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7-7x5lJiaQ&feature=related

Catherine said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

i think it is best cover and not wwyc. this is really great

Ben said...

i'm all for the idea of this song, and like it when bands can pull off genre-shifts like this (see mark ronson's dylan 'remix' of sorts w/ the dap kings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEwix-Zi0zw), but the execution of this was annoying and kinda cheesy. didn't totally love the bro's voice, either.

Ben said...

(sorry that i more or less wrote the same thing as you, caroline. tbh, i didn't read your post the first time around, because less talk more rock)