Philly Covering Philly: Songs from the Sixth Borough

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to celebrate plain parade's third year of existence, we asked local bands who played with us to submit a cover of another philly artist [past or present]. the end result is "songs from the sixth borough":

01 Dragon City "I Saw the Light" (orig. Todd Rundgren)
02 Sympathizers "White Picket Fences" (orig. Late Night Television)
03 Method and Result "Private Eyes" (orig. Hall & Oates)
04 Golden Ball "Voices" (orig. Espers)
05 The A-Sides "Expressway to Your Heart" (orig. Soul Survivors)
06 Cordalene "The River is Pale and the Water is Wide" (orig. Bitter, Bitter Weeks)
07 This Radiant Boy "Sliding" (orig. Franklin)
08 The Jane Anchor "CIA" (orig. The A's)
09 Hail Social "New American Apathy" (orig. Mazarin)
10 Bitter, Bitter Weeks "Never Enough" (orig. She-Haw)
11 Lee, Jae-Won "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" (orig. Robert Hazard)
12 Rifle Nice "Move Closer to What Deaner Was Talking About" (orig. Al Ham/Ween)
13 Walker Lundee "Cowboys to Girls" (orig. The Intruders)
14 Evil Janet "Subtle Things" (orig. Cynthia G Mason)
15 National Eye "Snowing in April" (orig. Like Moving Insects)
16 Andrew Chalfen "Blue But Not Really" (orig. Joey Sweeney)
17 Rarebirds "Trampoline" (orig. Brother June)
18 Motherfucking Clash "Take Me Apart" (orig. Dead Milkmen)

you can find out more about it here:

http://www.plainparade.org/songs/

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 19:29 (twenty years ago)

stereogum has posted another one of the tracks here:

http://www.stereogum.com/archives/002074.html

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

The A's! Wow!! Haven't seen a copy of the first A's album in over a decade here on the west coast. Even Kenn Kweder has digital albums on eMusic.

― George the Animal Steele, Tuesday, 15 November 2005 21:23 (twenty years ago)

brian who plays in jane anchor is cousins with rocco from the a's. [hence the reason they covered "c.i.a."] im sure he could help you track down the records! hee.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 21:40 (twenty years ago)

Looks like a very cool comp, congrats maria. Surely Philly is cooler than Staten Island, though, right?

― mcd (mcd), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 21:48 (twenty years ago)

Aw, I wish you included us in this. I mean I know we're "technically" not from Philly, but Noam is a huge Hall & Oates fan.

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 21:52 (twenty years ago)

staten island has ralph's italian ices, which blow philly's water ice away.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 21:53 (twenty years ago)

by the time we contacted bands, your philly connection was no longer in AA... maybe next year's comp will be non-philly bands covering philly?

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 21:54 (twenty years ago)

DOOD, COUNT US IN

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 21:55 (twenty years ago)

you know what the best part about this comp is? the backlash. i fucking LOVE IT.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 22:02 (twenty years ago)

What backlash? Why would there be one?

― George the Animal Steele, Tuesday, 15 November 2005 22:05 (twenty years ago)

http://bloodykneejerk.blogspot.com/2005/11/cease-and-de-sixth.html

http://www.livejournal.com/community/philadelphia/1928054.html

and the various whiners who are unhappy with this album lacking a lilys cover.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 22:08 (twenty years ago)

B-b-but you forgot Tommy Conwell and Cinderella and I like both of them! Hah. Amusing, thems that pickets sells mo' tickets.

― George the Animal Steele, Tuesday, 15 November 2005 22:14 (twenty years ago)

Kenn Kweder! Someone shoulda covered "What Am I Talking About." Westerberg would have given his left nut to have written that.

First A's album has its moments. The 2nd one . . .eh.

What, no Smash Palace? Their then-singer/current drummer used to be my art teacher when I was 14.

― JAS, Tuesday, 15 November 2005 22:19 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, seems inevitable that people would start sniping right away. I know you were being tongue-in-cheek with the title (it's pretty obvious), though I have to admit, you set yourself up with that. And of course every self-hating indie rocker has to complain about how it's a lot of indie rock. What do people fucking expect? Plain Parade books indie rock bands. That's their (your) thing that they (you) do. It doesn't say it's an all-encompasing guide to the music of Philadelphia.

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 22:25 (twenty years ago)

hurting, i completely agree with you. also, how could i ignore a "sixth borough" reference this year? keep it topical, right? and those that know me, or plain parade for that matter, know we hate new york comparisons.

anyway, if no one sniped, bitched, moaned or whined, id be geniunely worried.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 22:34 (twenty years ago)

btw, just so people know, song selections were completely up to the bands. we asked them that if they wanted to cover a well known artist they had to claim it first, as there were to be no dupes. [if you want to get technical, there are two songs written by gamble & huff, originally performed by different artists, though] im actually happy with the variety! however, i really envisioned buried beds covering ruin and that just did not happen.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 15 November 2005 22:42 (twenty years ago)

Any of you Philly ilm-ers remember the band Asscart? I wonder if they could be coaxed into coming out of retirement. Freaking amazing band, I still get their songs in my head.

― mcd (mcd), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 00:18 (twenty years ago)

"stuck in my head," that is.

― mcd (mcd), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 00:25 (twenty years ago)

That's the most pathetic backlash ever. One guy, who you (probably) shut up. It's a funny title, and it will remain funny for at least a couple of weeks.

I am having fun imagining the difficulty a future historian of pop culture would have trying to figure out why anyone ever thought that was an appropriate thing to call your comp, and right now it's so in-the-evanescent-pocket that my mother-in-law (and every 12-year-old girl in America) would get the joke.

― Vornado, Wednesday, 16 November 2005 02:19 (twenty years ago)

mistake #1: assuming years from now, pop culture academics are going to care about this comp!

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 02:26 (twenty years ago)

Noam is a huge Hall & Oates fan.

how cool would that be if noam chomsky were a hall & oates fan?!?

anyway, i think that i'll plunk down some $$$ on this thing!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 11:30 (twenty years ago)

Vornado, I don't even read any of this as a backlash, honestly.

― JAS, Wednesday, 16 November 2005 15:02 (twenty years ago)

its not really backlash, more like... whining. but if thats the kind of becklash we're going to get, im all right with that. its all funny to me.

eisbar, the record will be available on tuesday for 8$ as a download. your contribution will ensure that hall and oates stay in the black with their finances.

as far as oates in concerned, i cant envision him any other way after watching yacht rock #1 & 2:

http://www.channel101.com/shows/show.php?show_id=152

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 15:22 (twenty years ago)

i never heard of any of the bands on this comp. i want to hear it! i need to get familiar with the philly bands currently playing/recording. is this a new thread? any reccomends?

― peter x (bucksbreeze), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 15:29 (twenty years ago)

haha, i totally wrote "becklash"!!!

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 15:43 (twenty years ago)

xpost I recommend Like Moving Insects - whose song is covered by another band I like.

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 15:53 (twenty years ago)

thanks, abbadabba! i cruised through the websites of the bands and listened to some of the samples. the like moving insects stuff was nice! couldn't get into the national eye stuff, didn't have any character. of course these are just from samples!! i listened to some of those mazarin songs, as i have actually heard of them. not bad at al, sort of shins style pop.

― peter x (bucksbreeze), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 16:33 (twenty years ago)

city paper gives the comp a nice write-up:

Our usually self-destructive city's been drafting love letters to itself all year, but nothing's as romantic as this Plain Parade Philly-covers-Philly MP3 compilation. Mostly, it's indie kids paying homage to indie kids. Hail Social caffeinates Mazarin. Evil Janet turns a Cynthia G. Mason favorite into peppy bliss. Cordalene does a heroic Bitter, Bitter Weeks, who in turn strip a She-Haw tune down to its desperate core. Of course, soul is Philly's soul, which is probably why The A-Sides' cover of the Gamble/Huff classic "Expressway to Your Heart" feels like the most natural thing in the world. And Robert West conjures a sultry croon on Walker Lundee's faithful remake of The Intruders' "Cowboys to Girls." It's uncanny and captivating. Meanwhile The Method and Result turn "Private Eyes" into a sparse robot love song that mixes canned beats with warm bass tones. It's miles from Hall and Oates' complicated stalker anthem, but still catchy. The comp's most inspired reinvention comes from everybody's side project, Rifle Nice, who stitch the unforgettable Action News horn progression to Ween's simple slacker's anthem "What Deaner Was Talking About." Fits like a glove. And therein lies the value of The Sixth Borough, the clever unlocking of pop potential. Hear that, Philadelphia? It's yourself saying you love you. It's what everybody—every band, booker, blogger, Dummytowner, crewcial poster, wheat paster, rock writer and rumor miller—has been trying to say. Move closer to your world my friend and you'll see.

http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2005-11-17/music2.shtml

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Friday, 18 November 2005 16:42 (twenty years ago)

If you ever do a non-Philly-bands tribute to Philly, I want in. I'm thinking something from Philly's '90s tweepop past...maybe something by the Skywriters, Winterbrief or Moonlings.

(Besides, I've got Philly roots. Get it? Roots?)

― mike a, Friday, 18 November 2005 18:23 (twenty years ago)

you are one of my heroes mike, of course id let you on a comp like that.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Friday, 18 November 2005 23:09 (twenty years ago)

yay, you can finally stream the record in all of its scandalous glory here:

http://www.apolloaudio.com/22

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Monday, 21 November 2005 16:29 (twenty years ago)

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/13310984.htm

reviewed in the inquirer today! the piece is like, half the page. i feel special, except in the parts where d3luc4 gets it very wrong. [spintos have played THREE pp shows! wtf?]

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Monday, 5 December 2005 01:14 (twenty years ago)

Like Moving Insects are the real deal. Check 'em out.

― cdwill, Monday, 5 December 2005 04:43 (twenty years ago)

No Notekillers!No Man Man! No Hooters! No Dick Tracy!Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyne

― don, Monday, 5 December 2005 05:17 (twenty years ago)

OMG man man have never played a show with us! ditto for the hooters. and notekillers got the original email about the comp, so if they didnt feel like responding, their loss.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Monday, 5 December 2005 15:06 (twenty years ago)

Now why haven't Man Man played played with Plain Pain Parade? Just wondering. You should go see Hooters in the nursing home (if you haven't already). Notekillers have had trouble with their site(inc email, apparently) and they're working on a new album.

― don, Monday, 5 December 2005 19:09 (twenty years ago)

good question -- i guess it just hasnt worked out.

anyway, people should check http://philly.com// as of 3:30PM EST. crazy!

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Monday, 5 December 2005 20:44 (twenty years ago)

im liking this article about the release, at the very least, just for the amazing illustration of sara and me:

http://philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=11168

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 02:45 (twenty years ago)

last place you should tell people that Valania likes it.

― 'Twan (miccio), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 02:58 (twenty years ago)

psh.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 03:11 (twenty years ago)

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