Dinosaur Jr.'s "Just Like Heaven" vs. The Pixies' "Head On"

pixies no contest

pixies no contest

― Lamp, Tuesday, August 23, 2011 3:53 AM (24 seconds ago) Bookmark

NOT TO BE THAT GUY (see: dino jr thread this was spun off from) but if we're talking studio recordings then pixies, yeah

yeah it probably says something about how one-sided this is gonna be that even though i vastly prefer Dino Jr. to Pixies and the Cure to JAMC i am leaning towards voting for "Head On"

pixies duh

for reference (and a result i may disagree with): Head On: Mary Chain original vs. Pixies version

this seems like a thing that was fairly common at one point that doesn't really happen so often anymore

i vastly prefer Dino Jr. to Pixies

!!!

is that a challop or somehow out of character? i'm a big stan for SST in general but have never had much use for the Pixies outside of a few songs on Come On Pilgrim

haha idk about yr own taste i dont really know either well enough it just seems like the pixies are so much more 'cannonical' (and 80s!) that it qualified as a surprisingly strong statement of individual taste or s.thing

but the only dino jr song i like is 'feel the pain' so

yeah Pixies are definitely more popular, especially these days, but you know how it is, not everyone prefers more popular bands to less popular bands

especially not on ilx!

well, sure, just trying to answer the 'is it a challop' part of your post

right, right

more startled by liking cure more than jamc tbqh

pixies no contest

― Lamp, Tuesday, August 23, 2011 3:53 AM (24 seconds ago) Bookmark

― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Monday, August 22, 2011 11:53 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

hahahaha my dispute w/that pixies vs jamc version of head on is that anybody voted for the pixies

just like heaven is kind of a lame cover

but pixies is def one of my favorite bands ever

Pixies. Head On is such a great song that, while I prefer the original, the cover is pretty damn great too.

Cure "Just Like Heaven" > JAMC "Head On" > Pixies "Head On" > Dino Jr. "Just Like Heaven"

Somebody shd do a poll of Pixies covers (even tho Winterlong wd totally run away with it)

love the Pixies Head On and prob voted for it in the other poll, but it's not as amazing as Dino's JLH was listening to the radio as a kid

lol btw:

more startled by liking crut more than jaymc tbqh

― https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i_qxQztHRI (Princess TamTam), Tuesday, 23 August 2011 14:43 (2 hours ago)

What *are* you lot talking about?

My position on all this:
DinoJr better than Pixies.
Their "Just like heaven" better than *their* "Head on"
Orig "Just like heaven" better than orig "head on"
J&MC better than Cure.
ta.

The JLH cover has a certain level of irony and tongue-in-cheekiness about it. "kissed her **HAIR**" obviously covering for the word they considered (or, indeed, inserted during tour-bus singalongs)

Also, the surprise ending makes sense as a yell of pain at the girl gone.

The Pixies is just a nice cover version.

Unless you can tell me there's more to it.

Go 'head.

well it's quite simple really, the cure are amazing

Oh they are.

But.

My position on all this:
DinoJr better than Pixies.
Pixies "Head on" better than Dino Jr. "Just Like Heaven"
Orig "Just like heaven" better than orig "head on"
the amazingly prolific god-machine Cure better than the J&MC jangle junkies who had 1 solid album and a few catchy songs afterwards ("head on" included)

While the Cure was extant, I bought a couple of their albums: "Kissme*3" and "MixedUp" (Oh, and the 'standing/staring' cassette and VHS tape, but that doesn't count really)

MixedUp I played a fair bit.

During their deluxe reissue series, I checked most (i.e. looked at them in-store) but wasn't moved enough to buy any.

The J&MC are having a deluxe reissue party, might go for the first two. Maybe even "Stoned/dethroned" also.

Dinosaur Jr. for me. I dont like either the original or the cover of "Head On"

I dont like either the original or the cover of "Head On"

This does not compute as possible.

I should listen to it again but my main memory of the Dino Jr cover was that it was fucking awful and never should have happened.

The worst you can say about the Pixies cover is that it was unnecessary; it wasn't a creative misconception from the ground up.

(but like I said, I should relisten)

I got into Pixies before JAMC when I was younger so I actually knew the Pixies' version first and loved it but when I heard the JAMC original I was like DAMN. I really love JAMC though.

In general, I mean.

Dinosaur Jr version always seemed like a pisstake to me whereas I was genuinely startled & pleased to hear the Pixies' take on "Head On" when my brother got the album (never cared about the Pixies o/w). The Pixies seemed to me to be big-time when that album came out whereas the JAMC were pretty minor (in my world of high school people in 1991) & so it was cool for big timers to bring an obscurity to the masses. Lol me I guess but that's how it seemed at the time.

originals are better than the covers on both of these yes

While the Cure was extant,

oh mark

Dino

Well, they're still sort of going, but.

Black Francis really sells the "And the way I'm feeling tonight, I could die and I wouldn't mind" line in a way the original did not.

well yeah, but jim reid also sounded dead already 90 percent of the time

Which is part of his charm, but the Pixies version just works better for me.

J really sells the "must have been asleep for days" line in a way the original didn't

Dino Jr's "Just Like Heaven" kinda made me like Dino Jr less. The chorus was just dumb - it's fine to totally radically change shit up, it's not a question of reverence or anything but in that instance it seemed pointless, like Lou came up with the idea with either too much proximity to his bong rip or not enough. either way I just didn't dig it. OTOH I don't like the Pixies' "Head On" either but it's the better candidate here

haha yeah, "Head On" is not a "singer's song" or anything, it's not particularly difficult or taxing, so I've always wondered why Frank always sounded like he had ruptured a testicle in the middle of laying down the vocal track

then I listen to some other Pixies tracks and remember what his voice sounds like and smile

he's kind of the epitome of "terrible singer I totally love"

Write in vote for Mudhoney doing Spacemen 3's Revolution. The Dinosaur cover sucks and the Pixies can fuck off and die.

>:(

but aero otm; "Head On" is probably my least favorite of the Pixies' covers

well, except for maybe the Warren Zevon cover

Next we can do 80s Amerindie contemporaries covering each other. I'm thinking Sonic Youth's "Touch Me I'm Sick" and Mudhoney's "Halloween", but there must be others.

I remember thinking that "head on" was a boring choice. In 2011, I don't really care much about either of the covers, but the originals are obvs still awesome.

x-post Mudhoney and Jimmie Dale Gilmore too

If forced to choose though, I'm going with Dino Jr because I like JHL more as a song, and I would probably listen to (almost) anyone singing it at least once.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

not as big a margin of victory as i'd started to expect based on the posts itt

Dinosaur Jr version always seemed like a pisstake to me

just so, that cover contains no ideas other than "let's play a soft song loud" and is one step up from Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, while the Pixies "Head On" actually makes a new song.

me 1st covers are p dope tho, is the thing

I like Me First too but in the end they're novelty songs, is all I'm saying.

i definitely get the sense that Dino Jr. actually dig the song and/or are Cure fans and it's not a TOTAL pisstake even if to an extent they are fucking around

I feel like Sonic Youth & Pavement were also really bad w/r/t to sloppy disrespectful pisstake covers; 'see how much we don't care! how rocknroll of us...!'

Maybe they just took a song they liked and played it in their own style. Don't hear them giggling into their flannels myself... its just a song. And the ending rules.

i'll take d jr over jamc, the pixies, or the cure any day of the week.

while the Pixies "Head On" actually makes a new song.

how?

takes a cold song and makes it hot is the best way i can put it.

I feel like Sonic Youth & Pavement were also really bad w/r/t to sloppy disrespectful pisstake covers

Can't speak to SY here but Pavement's "Camera" is executed with the utmost respect and is a "new song" to an even greater extent than the Pixies' "Head On."

SY's "Superstar" cover is really tasteful imo.

It's not strictly "Amerindie contemporaries covering each other," but Mudhoney's cover of Sp3's "Revolution" is one of the proudest moments for the US in the "contemporaries cover each other" game...

too tasteful if anything xpost

SY's "Superstar" has a life of it's own

Threads got me wondering if J was thinking of the Cure when he wrote 'Thumb' off Green Mind. Dunno if the Cure used a mellotron at all (on 'Dressing Up' maybe?), but just the way it's playing that sad melody over and over just struck me as kinda Cure-like.

BTW did this get linked? Story here

http://archivedmusicpress.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/robert-smith-and-j-mascis-on-the-cover-of-melody-maker-6th-may-1989.jpg?w=418&h=552

Had forgotten that Disintergration Came out at pretty much the same time as 'Just Like Heaven'.

Dino covering the Cure was inspired, and funny, and ultimately reverential. Oh, and rockin'! Pixies covering JAMC as a concept is meh, and the 'hot' performance just didn't suit the song imo. It's the only song I skip(ped) on TLM.

I forgot about 'Superstar.' I'm sorry, thread; I was wrong