You Want To Avoid The Inevitable, So You Do The Impossible

Klonhertz “Three Girl Rhumba” – Klonhertz are nice people, because it seems that they made this cover of the Wire classic not so much for their own artistic expression, but to solve a problem for DJs everywhere. The original Wire recording of “Three Girl Rhumba” has one of the best riffs ever (Elastica and Pavement would agree, I’m sure), but it just wasn’t fast or long enough to really fit into a good DJ set. Klonhertz sample the guitar part, extend the song, add stronger beats for the dancefloor, and even found the world’s best Colin Newman impersonator to re-sing the whole thing almost exactly as it sounds on Pink Flag. Seriously, you could fool lots of people into thinking that this is just a straight remix of Wire.

The Bad Plus “Velouria” – Here’s another cover version for you today, but this isn’t nearly as faithful to the original arrangement. The Bad Plus transform the Pixies song into an unlikely jazz number, but without resorting to loungey kitsch. The song starts out as a mournful ballad with rattling percussion, then kicks into a more upbeat section, and concludes with the plaintive piano melody being crushed by a veritable avalanche of cacophonous cymbal crashes. It’s a very inspired take on the song.