The latest *Smallpox* cover to be added to The Covers Album is “Plainsong,” originally recorded by The Cure on their Disintigration LP.
Continue reading New cover: “Plainsong”
Cell
Not to be confused with the Oklahoma black metal band that apparently doesn’t have Google, Cell were a New York-based rock band that formed in 1990 and released two full-length LPs and several singles and EPs on the DGC subsidiary of Geffen Records, along with a single on the Ecstatic Peace label. Cell was both a beneficiary and a victim of the major label feeding frenzy of the late 1980s and early 1990s, touring with the likes of Pavement and Sonic Youth before coming to an abrupt end in 1995. Though their debut LP sold more than 70,000 copies, in 1990s music industry logic, that was not sufficient to justify the support of their label, and their excellent music has not received the post-90s support that many of their far inferior labelmates have. Though we do not pretend that Cell will ever release any more new music, we are over the moon to have gotten to be the label to release “Free People,” a new recording of a song written in the early 1990s and only performed a few times live. The band members recorded the single in 2024 to promote two summer reunion shows – the only shows the band intends to play.
Next up: “Caribou”
It’s Bandcamp Day, and definitely time for a new cover from *Smallpox*. If you haven’t been following along, and have just stumbled onto the site today for whatever reason, Smallpox is a collective music project spearheaded by Dan Smith (Shirk Circus, The 65’s, solo). In late 2020, they released their debut album _…For A Girl_ on Eyeball Records. In conjunction with that release, we’ve been dipping into their massive library of cover songs, releasing a new one every other week or so. You can get them for a dollar each, or $18 for the whole bunch, including immediate access to each new one as we upload them.
This week’s cover is the band’s take on “Caribou,” by The Pixies. Despite the fact that we know he’s a Pixies fan, when we asked Dan about this one, here’s what he said:
“My memory is kind of sketchy, but I think this was the first cover Bob (drummer Bob Diamond) and I recorded. I’m pretty sure we were actually trying to record one of my songs, but this dumpster fire happened instead.
From then on, that kind of became our work ethic – get trashed, and if we happened to overdo it, record covers instead. And, as you can tell from the amount of cover songs we’ve done, that happened pretty often.
Fun fact: altogether, Bob and I have been playing together since around 1991, but we’ve never actually played a show together.”
Civic Mimic
Civic Mimic is Jeff Hersch’s (Glazer, ex-Decoration) contribution to the emerging solo quarantine project genre. Stuck at home with limited resources, Hersch has made the most of the one microphone he owns, splitting time between his garage and basement. His latest release and fourth in the last year, “Deep Clean,” continues to highlight the frenetic energy and pop punk stylings of the last decade which Hersch may or may not be known for. The three-song EP, part of Dromedary’s lathe-cut picture disc series, touches on loss of friends, loss of direction, and loss of brain cells, but emerges with a renewed sense of optimism and reawakening after a yearlong stint in semi-isolation.
Discography
Cuppa Joe
Cuppa Joe was formed in 1991 at Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey) by Doug Larkin, Bob “Diz” Diszler and Steve Spatucci. The band’s initial “Demonstrations” cassette attracted the attention of the newly-formed Dromedary Records, who asked the band to contribute the song “Meanings” to their …Nothing Smells Quite Like Elizabeth compilation.
Discography
Two new Smallpox covers today!
Check out “Drive” and “Eyes Without A Face,” the latest in the yearlong project from *Smallpox* called _The Covers Album_. We’ve been adding a new cover song to this ever-expanding album every other week (or so), and we’re up to 16 now. You can buy them for a buck each, or you can get every one of them (including the ones we’ll be adding as the year progresses) for $18. EIGHTEEN DOLLARS!
Go here: https://dromedaryrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-covers-album