This week’s *Smallpox* cover is a song that virtually everybody likes.

It’s “Don’t Change,” originally recorded by INXS.

Smallpox’ Daniel Smith explains “INXS always seemed like one of those bands that, aside from a handful of songs, weren’t really all that great. But that handful of songs? _Damn_.”

“The first thing I remember hearing was ‘The One Thing,’ which was sort of good in an ‘eh’ kind of way. It’s not like you’d change the channel if the video came on MTV but it’s not like you ere going to run out and buy the album, either.”

“Then they release ‘Don’t Change’ as a single and _holy shit_. One of those fucking perfect pop songs that when you first hear it, every time you get to the end, you have to start over. And then you finally go buy the album, and the rest of it is pretty much blah. And really, that kind of sums um INXS for me – the occasional _holy shit_ but mostly, blah.”

Stream it “here”:https://dromedaryrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-covers-album, where you can buy the download for a dollar or the entire year’s worth of covers – so far, seven – for $18, and have immediate access as we upload them.

We are thrilled to announce the latest installment in our limited-edition lathe-cut picture disc series: _Deep Clean,_ by *Civic Mimic*.

Civic Mimic is the pandemic quarantine project of (new dad!) Jeff Hersch of the band Glazer, who has released *four* excellent titles under this name since the pandemic began. When we heard the first one, we practically fell over ourselves asking him if he’d want to do a Civic Mimic record for our lathe-cut series. Thankfully, he did!

On April 2, we’ll be releasing _Deep Clean,_ our latest lathe-cut and the newest Civic Mimic record. If you purchase the record from our webstore, you get the limited-edition picture disc, plus the digital files in the format of your choice!

You can preorder it now, and we’d suggest you get one quick, because there will be no re-presses – once they’re gone, they’re gone!

If you’ve been following along, you know that since the beginning of the year, we’ve been releasing a new cover song by *Smallpox* every other week, which we are offering for a dollar each, or for $18 for the entire album, imaginatively called _The Covers Album_.

We can promise you that there will be some surprises, and this week’s cover is one of them: Olivia Newton-John’s “Hopelessly Devoted To You,” popularized on the soundtrack to the movie _Grease_.

And while the _Grease_ soundtrack can be found for fifty cents in the used bin of every record store in America, the Smallpox version of this song is only available “here”:https://dromedaryrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-covers-album.

From Daniel Smith of *Smallpox*:

_”No fuckin’ way, dude.”

That was Bob’s (Smallpox drummer Bob Diamond) response about that one. Actually, at first I think he thought it was a joke and just laughed at me. Luckily, his girlfriend at the time was a huge _Grease_ fan.

For the record, it wasn’t a joke. Nor was it meant to be ironic in a hipster kind of way. My childhood crush on Olivia Newton-John goes back to 1974 (way before the movie, in kid years). And as much as I’ve never really been a big fan of country music, I’ve always been a sucker for female vocalists: off the top of my head, Karen Carpenter, Connie Francis, Rita Coolidge, Roberta Flack, Skeeter Davis, Pat Benatar, Teri Nunn, Dale Bozzio, Aimee Mann, Sade, Sinead O’Connor, Fiona Apple, Sara McLachlan, Tori Amos, Liz Phair, Imogen Heep, Bjork, Lana Del Rey…

But growing up, I was in fucking love with Olivia Newton-John. And there goes any street credit that I once might’ve had._

We’re a couple days late with this one, but the latest cover from *Smallpox* is a haunting version of “Tea in the Sahara,” originally recorded by The Police. Thus far, the covers they’ve chosen have been all over the map, but a Police cover seemed, well, the least likely. Except that they’re Daniel Smith’s favorite band.

“Yeah, The Police are my favorite band ever,” explained Smith, “but I sort of hate Sting. And the thing is, I know for a fact that I’m not alone on this, so unless there’s another great band out there that everybody loves but hates the singer, including (and maybe especially) the band itself, I’m pretty sure that makes them the greatest band of all time.”

“There’s all the infamous stories about what a passive-aggressive asshole the guy was,” continues Smith, “like about how Andy and Stewart were only allowed to contribute two songs per album. Or how he refused to play on Andy’s song “Behind My Camel” and even went so far as to (literally) bury the tapes just to keep the song off the album. The song, by the way, went on to win a Grammy for best rock instrumental.”

“So yeah,” Daniel explains, “I LOVE The Police. But Sting can go get ebola.”

Enjoy the cover “here.”:https://dromedaryrecords.bandcamp.com/track/tea-in-the-sahara

If you told us we’d be releasing a cover of “Daydream Believer” at any point, well…

And yet here we are, this week’s cover from the *Smallpox* _Covers Album_ project is exactly that – Daniel Smith’s take on the Monkees’ classic. Dan says “For a minute, try to forget that The Monkees were the original corporate boy band. Forget that without the cheesy television show, they were just another cheap imitation of The Beatles. Forget that they didn’t write or record their own songs. Or even play their own instruments.”

“Fact is, if that song ever comes on the radio, and you don’t find yourself wearing a sudden smile, or compelled to tap your feet…or if you’re not singing along by the first chorus, then you probably don’t have a soul and you might want to look into that.”

You can get “Daydream Believer” for a buck, or you can get the whole _Covers Album_ project for $18 and we’ll upload a new cover every other week throughout the year – plus some extras (trust us, they’re starting to churn out new ones). Find it “here”:https://dromedaryrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-covers-album

We are thrilled to release “Broken Glass,” the latest single by our friends *Speed the Plough*.

Another beautiful song from their wildly inventive series of monthly singles that they’ve released during the pandemic, this one featuring vocal contributions from Mayssa Jallad (Safar), guitar from Matt Davis (Campfire Flies, The Thousand Pities), and bass from Dan Francia. Recorded in New Jersey and Beirut and mixed by the legendary Don Sternecker at Mix-O-Lydian Studios, we are co-releasing the single with the band, making it available on both our online stores in the digital format of your choice.

We have also produced a very limited amount of gorgeous lathe-cut 7″ singles, part of our regular series of lathe-cuts. We are making just 30 copies available for sale, so if the collector in you is thinking of picking one up, now is the time: WE DO NOT RE-PRESS THESE.

Lathe-cut singles are individually handmade 7″ singles, expertly cut into plexiglas by a craftsman who is really, really good at making these. They will play on virtually any turntable (budget turntables sometimes have trouble with them), and will not damage your stylus. A purchase of a 7″ is accompanied by a digital download.