popwreckoning

An Horse Rearrange Beds

Ben Lee The Rebirth of Venus

Bobby Valentino The Rebirth :: “Butterfly Tattoo”

Busta Rhymes B.O.M.B.

Dan Auerbach Keep It Hid

Gavin Castleton HOME (digital)

Lily Allen It’s Not Me, It’s You

Middle Class Rut Busy Bein’ Born :: “Busy Bein’ Born”

Miranda Lee Richards Light of X

Mishka Above the Bones :: free download

Missy Elliott Block Party

Mos Def The Ecstatic

Ryan Leslie Ryan Leslie

Seth Glier The Trouble With People

The Break Mission The Prospect EP

The Lonely Island Incredibad :: watch “Jizz In My Pants”

Winston Audio The Red Rhythm

Winter Gloves Let Me Drive EP

Last month, PopWreckoning special correspondent Erin K. Staton reported on the Ben Folds Five special reunion show for MySpace’s inaugural “Front To Back” performance. For the performance, Ben Folds, Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee took the stage together for the first time in almost a decade to play in the band’s original hometown of Chapel Hill, North Carolina on September 18, 2008 at the UNC Memorial Hall. The trio played The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner in its entirety (front to back, get it?!) for the concert.

The show is being rebroadcast, starting today, on the Front to Back official MySpace Music profile. You read what Erin had to say, now you can experience the show for yourself.

Front to Back asks leading artists to perform one of their own seminal albums, from front to back, in a live concert that is then later aired on the site. The inaugural episode features interviews with the original members of Ben Folds Five, along with Chris Walla from Death Cab For Cutie, Andrew McMahon from Jack’s Mannequin and Ben Lee. The program can be viewed on myspace.com/fronttoback as an uninterrupted hour-long feature or by individual song.

The proceeds from concert went to benefit Operation Smile: Changing Lives One Smile at a Time. For more information, please go to operationsmile.org.

Additional “Front to Back” performances will be announced by MySpace Music in the coming months.

Ben Folds Five: website | Front To Back recap
MySpace: Front To Back

Welcome to a new Popwreckoning feature called “Under Cover” because we know that everybody loves to hear a good cover of their favorite songs and artists.There’s no better way to kick off our cover songs feature than with Modest Mouse‘s “Float On.” While plenty of bands have covered this, we’ve narrowed it down to our favorite three covers:

First up we have the “American Idol” Contestants’ cover. Just kidding, we wouldn’t put you through that, but we are going to feature another version that was used on the same network.

Indie rockers Goldspot covered the song for the popular television show The OC. This effervescent group perfectly captures all that makes Modest Mouse great, but still puts their own twist on it.

[audio Float%20On.mp3]

website | myspace

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Australian Ben Lee decided to test out piano in place of the guitar, which I think takes away from some of the drive of the song. It is interesting, nonetheless, and he definitely makes it his own.

[audio Float%20On.mp3]

website

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The third cover is done by bluegrass group Iron Horse. Blue grass is not usually my cup of tee, but this cover is just ridiculously fun and hard not to love. If you like this, you should check out their whole album of Modest Mouse covers.

[audio Float%20On.Mp3]

website | myspace

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Finally, for your listening pleasure, here is the Modest Mouse version. Decide for yourself if the covers lived up to its glory.

[audio Float%20On.mp3]

website | myspace