The Return of Cover Songs III

[Mendalla]

Alex Goot has a been a musical force on Youtube for over a decade. He frequently teams up with other Youtubers. Recently, First to Eleven visited him in Nashville and cut a bunch of covers in his studio. This Ed Sheeran tune is terrific (even I am not actually a huge fan of Sheeran himself, good songwriter but so-so as a performer IMHO).

And there's an interesting connection between Goot and the kids of F211. Years ago, when they were still starting out, Against the Current and their lead singer Chrissy Costanza did several well-loved covers with Alex. This Fall, Concrete Castles, F211's second project for their original material, is doing their first tour as the opening act for, you guessed it, Against the Current.

 

[Mendalla]

And from F211's own channel, their weekly cover was originally written and performed by South African rockers Seether with Amy Lee of Evanescence (who dated Seether's lead singer for a couple years) providing the female vocals. Audra Miller lacks Amy's horsepower but still gives a skilled reading of the part, ably playing off guest singer Chris Donley (whose band Critic City I need to check out). And Matt is just amazing on the guitar (but what else is new).

 

[Mendalla]

Critic City with a nice cover of an old Starship song that I actually have not heard covered much. Would probably be a good one for F211 to take on sometime.

 

[Luce NDs]

I only know Alex Good a relative to Linea Good ... him ness'd?

 

[BetteTheRed]

Linea Good ... him ness'd

I like quite a few of Linnea's hymns. "Like a Rock" is a particular favourite.

 

[Mendalla]

It's October, so time for First to Eleven's annual "in costume" Halloween video. This year, they take Michael Jackson's classic "Thriller" and put a rock edge to it. Never occurred to me how well-suited Audra's voice was to covering Jackson until I heard this.

 

[Mendalla]

And Violet Orlandi teams with her friends and frequent collaborators the band Halocene and solo artist Lauren Babic for a song by My Chemical Romance. Halocene are Addie Nicole (vocals), Bradley Amick (guitar) and Joe Polizzi (percussion).

 

[Luce NDs]

And Violet Orlandi teams with her friends and frequent collaborators the band Halocene and solo artist Lauren Babic for a song by My Chemical Romance. Halocene are Addie Nicole (vocals), Bradley Amick (guitar) and Joe Polizzi (percussion).

Is this relative or resonant?

 

[Mendalla]

So apparently that video was actually part of a joint project by the three.

This song is actually the only MCR song I really know. This is from Halocene's channel.

And then this one appeared on Lauren Babic's channel.

And apparently, per a YouTube post by Halocene, this is all in support of their new album, which is a My Chemical Romance tribute.

 

[Luce NDs]

Thus COV*D ... hidden an gnostic presentations ...

Prognosis ...

 

[BetteTheRed]

Great cover of an old fave of mine.

 

[Mendalla]

Top Gun was one of the defining movies of the 80s, not least due to its soundtrack, which produced this hit for Kenny Loggins Here it is covered by First to Eleven in suitable costumes (though I don't recall USAF uniforms having short skirts and fishnets) as their second Halloween cover of this year.

And this was their second release of the week, the first being a collab with Violet Orlandi. This is definitely the better of the two. While the Top Gun one is fun, this Muse cover really shows off the talents of the band and Violet.

And speaking of Violet and fun videos, she dropped this one yesterday. This old Addams Family fan approves.

 

[Mendalla]

First to Eleven's acoustic release for this week is "What's Up?" by 4 Non Blondes. It's a popular song with the Youtube cover set but I like this version (I am quite fond of the song to start with). Audra handles the vocals beautifully and Matt proves he can handle an acoustic as well as he does an electric guitar.

 

[Mendalla]

F211 does ACDC. Not necessarily their usual, but it's a terrific version of the song that first hooked me on the Aussie rockers. Matt channels Angus Young beautifully and Audra really rocks out on the vocals.

 

[Mendalla]

Aaaaand new Adele inevitably means a wave of Youtube covers of varying quality. Violet Orlandi does a good job with it and her alto voice is actually well suited to singing Adele, even if Violet usually leans more into goth and metal styles.

 

[Mendalla]

Hunter's Moon, originally done for the latest Halloween movie by Swedish rock band Ghost seems like an unusual song for a classical arrangement, but Violet Orlandi and pianist Karim Kamar really knocked it out of the part with this cover.

 

[ninj]

Valid message

 

[ninj]

This is the one I was referring to.

 

[Mendalla]

Song by John Lennon. Voice by Amy Lee. What an exquisite combo.

 

[Mendalla]

I am completely in awe right now. I never knew I needed to hear a goth metal cover of Hallelujah but ... wow. Violet Orlandi may have just moved up a notch or two on my favorite singers list. Like she wasn't already getting close to my top ten. And this may now be in my top 5 or so Hallelujahs to boot.

The choir at the end is her fans. VIolet invited people to record the part and send her the video, then she and her producer did the mixing. I thought about contributing but I didn't want her leaving the music industry in utter despair.