Got a great email today from Jim, who writes:

"In case it helps in your negotiations with RIAA/ASCAP/(etc.), I've already bought Shatner's "Has Been" CD based on Common People, heard on your show. My next Amazon order with have the Eva Cassidy CD for my wife. I'll prolly be getting another 2-3, I just don't know what yet. I need to re-listen to your archives."

And if you have a moment today, can you please visit Yahoo Podcasts, and leave a rating or review for Coverville? (More exposure in the podcast directories = more listeners & more independent artists)

Check out the shirt that Len from Jawbone designed of my ugly mug at http://www.cafepress.com/podcasterart

Check out the shirt that Len from Jawbone designed of my ugly mug at http://www.cafepress.com/podcasterart. Also, check out the new shirts designed by the Wicked Monkeez guys at http://www.cafepress.com/coverville!

Check out the shirt that Len from Jawbone designed of my ugly mug at http://www.cafepress.com/podcasterart

Check out the shirt that Len from Jawbone designed of my ugly mug at http://www.cafepress.com/podcasterart

Check it out at http://www.cafepress.com/podcasterart

Anyone know where I can get one of those cool Nehru Jackets?

And the rest is cover/mashup/satire history:

Stuck on an island, with a CD player and an endless supply of batteries, here are the CDs I'd take with me (in no particular order):

"Argybargy" by Squeeze
"Quench" by The Beautiful South
"Armed Forces" by Elvis Costello
"Dear 23" by The Posies
"presents Author Unknown" by Jason Falkner
"Soul Mining" by The The (this would be tough because "Mind Bomb" is brilliant too...)
"Temple of Low Men" by Crowded House (another toughie. "Together Alone", or Neil's solo "One All")
"Purr" by The Dance Hall Crashers
"BeautifulGarbage" by Garbage
"15 Minutes" by Nik Kershaw

I avoided putting any Greatest Hits or other compilations in the list, but Steely Dan's "Gold" would likely be up there if not.

Yours?

(Next week I'll divulge who's on my Mount Rushmore. Yeah, I've thought about that too.)

Welcome listeners from: Greenland, China, Thailand, Venezuela, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and New Zealand (home of one of my favorite artists, Neil Finn)!

I'll be re-posting a fixed copy this morning!

If you have a moment, please cast a vote for my show!

In other news, it looks like Apple is getting the kinks out of the iTunes issues I'd been having. A lot of listeners have been reporting success with getting Episode 106 in iTunes. If you know someone who'd like Coverville, now is a good time to get them connected. Burn a show or two to a CD and let them hear it in their car, and then help them get connected with iPodderX or iTunes if they like what they hear.

And I'll mention this once in the blog and once in the show, but it's the beginning of a new month, and I (and other podcasters) would adore your free love by means of a vote on Podcast Alley. If you haven't voted for me yet this month, please do so - and for each of the podcasts you listen to. And for those of you with no free time, you don't have to leave a comment, unless you'd like - I do read all of them! A lot of new listeners find the show via Podcast Alley's Top Ten list.

A suggested solution is to add my feed manually through the advanced menu in iTunes. Here's how to do it:

1. Within iTunes, select Subscribe to Podcast from the Advanced menu.

2. In the URL: field that appears, enter the following:

http://www.coverville.com/index.xml

3. Click OK.

4. You'll now be subscribed to the show!

The irritating thing about this, is that it doesn't appear to have any affect on my placement in the top 100. I've dropped from a high of #45, all the way down to #72. Anyone have any suggestions?

In case someone wants to call in a B-52's or Blondie cover for Sunday night's show...(206-222-COVER [2683])

It still has a few features missing - that you'll find in a more advanced podcasting client like iPodderX (like playlist support, audio-izing of text blogs, video, etc.), but it's a great start.

Download 4.9, and be sure to subscribe to Coverville!

Click here to go to the survey

Thank you for your help!

The Big 100 with great music, the exciting debut of a new feature on Coverville, and of course the iPod Giveaways will happen tonight (164 correct responses!). You'll probably be able to guess the playlist for tonight's show...

Have a great Father's Day! I'll talk to you tonight.

The Chalets - Feel the Machine (QuickTime MOV)

(thanks Screenhead)

You may also notice that I now have a Cafe Press store, where I'm selling shirts and mugs emblazened with the Coverville logo. I had a few requests for some Coverville-wear (including some from my family and friends!) I waited to advertise the store until I ordered and received a couple shirts to verify their quality, and let me tell ya, the printing on the shirt is so clear, you can actually make out the song titles on one of the record labels in the logo. Good quality, and your purchase will help support the show, and make you look ever-so-stylish around town.

Listen to the interview here. It was a blast talking to those guys, and it really shows through i the interview.

Correction: I misunderstood a question from Dan Klass and took credit where credit wasn't due. The highway sign graphics that Dan was talking about, which I've recently replaced with the image above, were actually created by a Coverville listener, Rudy Fleminger. A tremendously talented designer worth checking out!

Erm, the logo design above...is mine.

And if you chose b, does it matter to you if I include some of the artist names or a subject in the ID3 tags anywhere? Would you rather see that in the comments field?

Thanks - just post a comment to this entry and I'll tally up the votes...

Postscript: People voted more for choice B than A, so I changed it for tonight's and future shows. But for those who prefer A (and are on a Mac), I've developed an AppleScript that will quickly set the ID3 properties of the Coverville mp3 file to the former format. Download it here. Once you've downloaded it, copy it to your ~\Library\iTunes\Scripts folder, and it will be available in iTunes.

If you're thinking about getting TiVo (let me give you a testimonial that we couldn't live without ours), and you're not already being referred by someone, please let me know. I'm working towards a Creative Zen...

This week's Tuesday night show will be a fond and positive tribute to Paul and his contributions to the Finn-fronted bands, and will include both cover songs and Hester-penned originals.

CNN Article

Whoa.

If anyone out there has any connections, and can get this as a "Coverville World Premiere" (with permission, naturally), I'll sew you an official Coverville afghan. Or buy you a Coverville baseball cap.

Seasons In The Sun

Thanks to Dave and Todd for letting me know about this!

I caught a cold this weekend - or it caught me - so I'm going to recover tonight. And either get a show on tomorrow night or Thursday night. But in lieu of a show, I invite you to listen to an interview that I was generously invited to partake in at Jawbone Radio. These guys just got a cover story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and it's easy to see why. Len and Nora, the hosts, have great banter and a very mellow approach. Here's a link to their page. My interview is in Monday's show.

Thanks for listening!

PodcastAlley is now a "one vote per month" arrangement, and they've reset the votes and (unfortuantely) cleared out the comments, which was a real bummer for me because they were all positive and gave new listeners an idea of what the show was about. But I can't complain, the one vote per month is a great addition, and has given me new hope for PodcastAlley again.

My vote script here on the site isn't functioning yet because of the new changes - and with the new changes, I'll probably remove it this weekend. So you'll need to visit PodcastAlley to cast your vote. The "big media" pays attention to the top ten list over at PodcastAlley, and if it weren't for support from listeners like you, I never would have been mentioned in Time magazine, USA Today and the New York Times, just to name a few.

Since votes have been reset, I'll ask again, and then I'll shut up for a while about it, but please visit PodcastAlley when it's convenient, and cast a vote for not just my show, but all the shows you subscribe to. Let's have the list at PodcastAlley reflect the true popularity of the great podcasts out there!

http://www.podcastalley.com/one_vote2.php?pod_id=71

Thank you - and thanks for all the positive wishs for my health. I'm back up to 100% now, and a lot of that is attributed to your good vibes.

Brian

In the meantime, I'm slipping off the top ten list over at PodcastAlley. Now, I've stopped littering my podcasts with requests to vote for me over there, but that shouldn't stop me from making a quick plea in writing. If you would be so kind to cast a vote for my show, I'd appreciate it!

New show coming soon...

NotLame records is a good example of a recording company that has seen some great response from music I've played on my show. (make sure to check out their excellent Cars Tribute: "Just What I Needed", which features some excellent cover versions of Cars classics.

There'll be a new show as soon as I'm sounding and feeling better. In the meantime, get plenty of rest, drink lots of fluids and enjoy some of the Covervilles from the archives...

For those of you looking forward to a show tonight, I'm sorry!

First off, if there are any Boston-based listeners out there who can send me a copy of the Boston Phoenix article, I'll PayPal you your time and shipping if you don't mind mailing it out to me. Email me at brian at coverville dot com, and I'll send you my address to send it.

Secondly, and most importantly, my feed is having some trouble adjusting to the new server. Does anyone know anything about a file server that isn't letting MTEnclosures get the file sizes of my mp3s?

If you have any ideas, or further questions, email me at the address above...

Thanks!

Uncovered gem of the week: "Caramel" - Suzanne Vega

"Only Love Can Break Your Heart" - Juliana Hatfield (originally by Neil Young)

"Comfortably Numb" - Scissor Sisters (originally by Pink Floyd)

"Driver 8" - Hootie and the Blowfish (originally by R.E.M.)

"Hurt" - Johnny Cash (originally by Nine Inch Nails)

"Don't Fear the Reaper" - H.I.M. (originally Blue Oyster Cult)

Thanks for listening! And thanks for your patience during my bandwidth woes. Relief is coming soon! Perhaps we need a tribute song by a group called "Bandwidth Aid".

34 minutes |

Tonight you'll hear the following (links included where available):

"Mr. Heat Miser" - Big Bad Voodoo Daddy | originally from "Year Without A Santa Claus"
"You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" - Asylum Street Spankers | originally Boris Karloff
"Happy X-Mas (War Is Over)" - Melissa Etheridge | originally John Lennon
"Baby, It's Cold Outside" - Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews | popularized by Louis Armstrong
"Merry Christmas Baby" - Southern Culture On The Skids | popularized by Bruce Springsteen
"Merry Xmas Everybody" - Oasis | originally Slade
"Please Come Home for Christmas" - Shannon Curfman | popularized by the Eagles and Pat Benatar

34 minutes |

"Papa Was A Rolling Stone" - Was (Not Was) | originally The Temptations
"Hey Ya!" - Razorlight | originally OutKast
"Ask" - Lascivious Biddies | originally The Smiths
"Coming Back To You" - Martin Gore | originally Leonard Cohen
"Common People" - William Shatner | originally Pulp
"Fall On Me" - Cry Cry Cry with Dar Williams | originally R.E.M.
"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" - R.E.M. | originally The Tokens

37 minutes |

Tonight you'll hear the following (links included where available):

"Unbelievable" - The Dotted Line
"Creep" - Chance
"The Water Is Wide" - Cowboy Junkies
"Fly Like An Eagle" - Seal
"Basket Case" - Avril Lavigne

30 minutes |

Tonight you'll hear the following (links included where available):

The Korgis - "Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime"
Erasure - "Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime"
Beck - "Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime"
Ray Davies & Damon Albarn - "Waterloo Sunset"
The Fastbacks - "Waterloo Sunset"
Def Leppard - "Waterloo Sunset"

33 minutes |

Now, as promised, here are the nominees for the "My Favorite Cover Countdown 2004". Cast your vote for one of the following and hear it in the countdown shows starting Christmas Week!

Wonderwall - Ryan Adams (originally Oasis)
Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters - Indigo Girls (originally Elton John)
Suzanne - Neil Diamond (originally Leonard Cohen)
Mad World - Gary Jules (originally Tears For Fears)
Running Up That Hill - Placebo (originally Kate Bush)
Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley (originally Leonard Cohen)
Mrs. Robinson - Lemonheads (originally Simon & Garfunkel)
I Will Survive - Cake (originally Gloria Gaynor)
Blackbird - Sarah McLachlan (originally Beatles)
Gin N Juice - Sissy Bar (originally Snoop Dogg)
Gin N Juice - Gourds (originally Snoop Dogg)
The Light 3000 (There is a Light...) - Schneider TM (originally The Smiths)
All Mixed Up - Red House Painters (originally The Cars)
Comfortably Numb - Scissor Sisters (originally Pink Floyd)
Bitch - Goo Goo Dolls (originally The Rolling Stones)
Dreams - Corrs (originally Fleetwood mac)
Walk Away Renee - Billy Bragg (popularized by The Four Tops and Left Banke)
Only Love Can Break Your Heart - Juliana Hatfield (originally Neil Young) [Need help tracking this down]
Tiny Dancer - Ben Folds (originally Elton John)
I'm Not In Love- Ritchie Havens (originally 10cc) [Need help tracking this down]
Brilliant Disguise - Elvis Costello (originally Bruce Springsteen)
Suspicious Minds - Fine Young Cannibals (originally Elvis Presley)
Wild Horses - Sundays (originally The Rolling Stones)
Take Me Out - Scissor Sisters (originally Franz Ferdinand)
Imagine - Blues Traveler (originally John Lennon)
Cold Cold Heart - Norah Jones (originally Hank Williams Sr.)
Blue Moon Revisited (A Song For Elvis) - Cowboy Junkies (originally Elvis Presley)
Baltimore - Nina Simone (originally Randy Newman)
I Can't Forget - The Pixies (originally Leonard Cohen)
September Girls - The Bangles (originally Big Star)
Battle of Evermore - The Lovemongers (originally Led Zepplin)
My Back Pages - The Ramones (originally Bob Dylan)

Whew! Of course you can still "write-in" votes, but try to cast a vote for one of the above along with your additioanl submission. You can vote by commenting to this (or any other) entry, calling my voice mail (love those audio comments! keep them coming) at 314-248-9957, or emailing me at brian at coverville dot com.

Tonight you'll hear the following (links included where available):

Band Aid 20 - "Do They Know It's Christmas?"
Barenaked Ladies - "Do They Know It's Christmas?"
Ferry Aid - "Let It Be"
Lightning Seeds - "You Showed Me"
Live - "I Walk The Line"
Paul Carrack - "Ain't No Sunshine"

Thanks to Nicole Simon of Useful Sounds for her audio comment and request!

33 minutes |

And, if you love Coverville (or even like it like a friend), please hop over to PocastAlley.com and cast a vote for it, so we can show up in the top ten. Please?

28 minutes |

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34 minutes |

(10/14/04: I fixed the link. I spent so much time on the "Download" graphic, I forgot to change the link! Thanks go to Rod, for letting me know!)

27 minutes |