How you like me now?
The Walkmen – Many Rivers To Cross
It’s easy to hold contempt for cover songs. So it’s with a little reservation that I grew to like Pussy Cats by The Walkmen so much. Moreover, remaking an entire album is a pretty bold statement.
In covers I like to hear originality come through, but here what seems to make this album successful is how faithful The Walkmen were to the original made famous by Harry Nilsson and John Lennon in the summer of 1974. After all, the original itself was mostly covers as far as I know.
The Walkmen’s Pussy Cats preserves the silly, sloppy style on tracks like the children’s song Loop de Loop, the classic Rock Around the Clock (All this time I thought that was a song by Bill Haley and the Comets, but alas written again by someone else.), and the raucous Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan. Above, catch a listen to the first track on the album Many Rivers to Cross by Jimmy Cliff. In keeping with the atmosphere of the original, The Walkmen invited a number of their friends to complete Pussy Cats in the final month after recording for A Hundred Miles Off before their studio closed and them leaving for tour. Notable contributions come from Ian Svenonius of The Make Up lending vocals on Subterranean Homesick Blues and Mazarin’s guitarist Quentin Stolzfus.
Released today on CD the album is accompanied in limited edition with a DVD of the 20 minute documentary In Loving Memory on the making of the remake by Norman Coady.
For more samples and tour info look here and here, or get down with eMusic
and download the entire album for free.
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Also, we’ve been given the opportunity to giveaway some awesome prizes for one winner. Here’s what you could win: the new album Pussy Cats starring The Walkmen, the original Pussy Cats with Lennon & Nilsson, a limited edition numbered silkscreened poster of The Walkmen and a copy of The Walkmen’s other new album A Hundred Miles Off. So, here’s your homework for tonight: email me [jc at music.for-robots dot com] a photo or story about your first Walkman. I’m thinking the Sony branded portable tape cassette player, but if you have better ideas go ahead. You must include your name and mailing address with your entry. This is pretty open ended. It could be a photo of you from 1987 wearing your favorite Jams and your walkman on its belt clip. Whatever. I’ll pick the winner on Thursday and post the result here. Good luck.
***UPDATE: We have a winner. Hit the jump for the results.
For whatever reason some people don't follow directions. Of all of the entries only one person included their mailing address. (We really are going to send out these prizes, you know.) Rules are rules. By default Joe in Providence is our winner. Here's his story about his first walkman. And in case you're curious that's a picture of my first walkman, and I still have it.
Being the ripe age of 22, my first walkman isn't something I can remember. It is more that there were always tapes. There were always tapes and my older brother and I were always making mixes for each other. Then my friend cyrus and I started a tape-only radio station, WHZZ, using a boombox back when graphic EQ's were the shit. We put only the most awesome things on it -- Metallica, "Master of Puppets," and Black Crowes "Hard to Handle." But ignore all of that because everybody was doing that shit! That isn't some free walkmen disc winning story. It is a shared memory more than a discrete one, so I'll have to extrapolate your concept a bit. I think my real first walkman story is this:
My first walkman was Demeber 9th, 2004. My band got a show opening for them in Providence. It was great. The Walkmen were at the height of their buzz, having been on an episode of that bastion of popularity, "The OC," a few weeks earlier. Hamilton seemed a nice enough guy. He introduced himself and everything. He was definitely a walkman. I was curious to see how a guy so straight looking like him was going to rip out his vocal chords in front of us. The answer was pretty simple. The dude just got completely drunk. The promoter had bought them all the alcohol they had asked for. They had been on tour with Cake, and this was their off night. God knows that Cake couldn't have been too fun a gig, or at least, they probably had to show some semblance of professionalism. So Hamilton got ridiculously drunk.
And then the real shit started going down. Our friend, Dan Sonshine, was manning our merch table, sitting next to who Dan would later find was HISfirst walkman. This was the bassist from the walkmen (whose name escapes me). The two dazed forward, like sitting in a car. Dan, being extra smooth as usual, said to his neighbor, "Hey, I liked that first walkmen album, but I hear they kind of sold out on this one... going on the OC and all." The response? "Hey, i just needed that money man. My girlfriend is pregnant." Undaunted by any realization, Dan continued, "I guess pulling out doesn't really work does it?"
"Fair enough."
Later on that evening, Hamilton was so drunk he peed in the corner of the dressing room.
What a crazy night...
Interesting story Joe, and all you had to do was follow the rules.