Recorded & sung live on a clickety-clackety 1935 Wurlitzer upright with some reverb and a tad of retro 60s echo added. Happy birthday, Kernel!

Liar's Tale (GBV cover)

Another fairly power pop cover guitar version of a 1982 Depeche Mode track. 

A Photograph Of You (Depeche Mode cover)

what should have a bitter taste inside
is something I can’t want to hide
a once important sweetened fire enabled

and I want to go
I don’t want to stay
like a suicide or a castaway
the feeling can’t be thrown
I’m carrying a stone

and it left me something
it left me something else
and it left me something
it left me someone else
it’s a stone
and it’s heavier than you think
and it’s much too sweet to sink

an amazing wave of salt was cried
down the face of a timid glacial rockslide
now the bolder years careen us on to the next age

and I want to go
and I won’t stand by
while the tide recedes
leaving me high and dry
rewinding all I know
consent to undertow

and the taste will get you
‘cause it tastes like something sweet
till the bitterness
comes and knocks you off your feet
and it left me something
and it left me something else
and it left me something
and it left me someone else

it’s a stone
and it’s heavier than you think
it’s a stone
but it’s much too sweet to sink

drums: Todd Karinen

Saccharine Stone (album version)

Low-fi, lazy-day-after-Xmas cover of Arcade Fire's "Wasted Hours," recorded with an upright piano, using an iPad.

Wasted Hours (Arcade Fire cover)

I didn’t want to try to match the melancholy of the original, so I went for upbeat on the piano instead. This one was for a friend.

Walking After You (Foo Fighters cover)

I had just enjoyed spinning the record for The Who By Numbers (1975) and decided that this Pete Townshend song is a standout track. An absolute gem, and so British. I love it. This year I gave myself a decent ukulele as a sort of Christmas present, so I spent some time learning the chords. Being away from home, I had nothing to use for recording purposes except my iPad, so this one turned out pretty lo-fi. I used a ukulele and a melodica and played around with Garageband's string section tools.

Blue, Red and Grey (The Who cover)

I recorded this one in 2011 and never planned to share it. But this one is for the Zombies, who are, this very evening, being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  A straightforward cover, I made up an extra guitar part... but not much else is changed, as the original version is perfect.

Covers project

Care of Cell 44 (The Zombies cover)

As of yesterday, Weezer's 3rd album is old enough to move out of the house. Here's one of their trademark distorted guitar pop tracks, re-imagined as a piano-chamber-pop-ballad.

Smile (Weezer cover)

During the time leading up to the recording of The Pantones' Inside the Sun's Wild Flame record, Jacob McCarthy, Matthew Carlson and I worked on some "bah" harmonies ("Less of Me") in Jake's basement. Then I got GarageBand and some free time, apparently. An early looping experiment turned auditory pun.
Looking for something brilliant? Look further. 

Bah Bah Bah

R.I.P. Adam Schlesinger
Written by Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger.

Hackensack (Fountains of Wayne cover)

My version of the 1982 Depeche Mode song.

Now This Is Fun (Depeche Mode cover)

The original version of this song was on my first (independently) released recording with my dear friend Matthew, released exactly 20 years tonight: June 17, 2000.
It can be found here:
https://thepantones.bandcamp.com/track/what-to-do

What to Do (Matthew Carlson/Pantones cover)

A second Depeche Mode cover. I won't hide from my past. I recently read that DM have often rehearsed experimental reggae versions of many of their songs, but they never seem to make the final cut. As far as I can tell, this bitter little gem from their 2nd LP, 1982's "A Broken Frame" is the only example that made it on to the record as a (albeit analog synth-laden) reggae track. I couldn't resist the urge to record it with guitars, dub-style drums, and trumpet(s.) I even indulged in an uncharacteristic psych-wah guitar solo.  

Satellite (Depeche Mode cover)

A cover of another song from Depeche Mode's second record, "A Broken Frame" (1982) re-imagined as a power pop song.

Teutonosaur

Popular tracks