WORLD PARTY

I had a request a couple of days ago to re-post the World Party b-sides that I had up about a year ago. Those are again available over here.

So, as I was thinking about what to post next I started to think about all the blogs out there that are posting Beatles music this week, thanks to the re-remastered box sets, and that video game. Heck, even Vh-1 Classic has been showing almost nothing but Beatles-related shows for the past week or so.

If I'm not mistaken, Mr. Wallinger is a huge Beatles fan himself, having put covers of their songs on many a b-side. So I'm jumping on The Beatles bandwagon, without putting up any actual Beatles recordings. Here's a batch of World Party covers of Lennon and/or McCartney penned tunes:

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World Party - "Martha My Dear" From the Come Again compilation.
World Party - "Penny Lane" From one of the many versions of the "Beautiful Dream" single.
World Party - "A World Without Love" Written by McCartney, but he didn't think it was good enough for The Beatles, so they never recorded it. Instead, it became a hit for Peter & Gordon. This version is from the "Is It Like Today" singles.
World Party - "All You Need Is Love"
World Party - "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" From the "Message In a Box" single.
World Party - "The Long and Winding Road" (demo) This demo was released on Wallinger's website. This is probably the farthest from the original that Karl has ever strayed.
World Party - "Man We Was Lonely" A McCartney solo tune. World Party's version was recorded for the tribute album, Listen To What the Man Said.

Party music:

Private Revolution, 1986 (buy)
Goodbye Jumbo, 1990 (buy)
Bang!, 1993 (buy)
Egyptology, 1997 (buy)
Dumbing Up, 2000 (buy)

If you live in California, you're in luck. World Party are playing three shows in your state next month:

Oct. 1 Anthology, San Diego, CA
Oct. 2 El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
Oct. 3 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, San Fransisco, CA

The Beatles, however, are no longer touring. Likely because they have only one surviving member (Lennon having been killed, Harrison passing from natural causes, and McCartney, of course, having died in a car crash around the time of Abbey Road).

WORLD PARTY

British band World Party is one of those solo - project - masquerading - as - band bands (see also The The, The Waterboys, Smashing Pumpkins). This particular band is comprised of Karl Wallinger. . . And whoever else he feels like working with at any given time.

Wallinger, prior to forming World Party, was a member of Mike Scott’s Waterboys. He released two albums with The Waterboys, leaving just before the Fisherman's Blues era.

To say World Party’s music is Beatle-esc is putting it mildly. He performs old Fab Four songs nearly as often as his own compositions. In fact, while putting this post together, I had trouble not making it a Wallinger - does - Beatles post. So, with great difficulty, here’s some non - album, non - Beatles, World Party tunes.

Ok, one Beatles tune, too.

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World Party - “Holy Water” B-side of “Ship of Fools”
World Party - "Basically" B-side of "Give It All Away"
World Party - “You’re a Hurricane, I’m a Caravan” (demo) Released on Wallinger’s website.
World Party - “World Groove (Do the Mind Guerrilla)” B-side of “All Come True”
World Party - “Penny Lane” (The Beatles cover) B-side of “Beautiful Dream”
World Party - “All the Young Dudes” (Mott the Hoople cover) Released on the Clueless soundtrack.
Karl Wallinger - “The Four Ages of Man” From the W. B. Yeats tribute compilation Now and In Time To Be.

World Party discography:

Private Revolution, 1986 (buy)
Goodbye Jumbo, 1990 (buy)
Bang!, 1993 (buy)
Egyptology, 1997 (buy)
Dumbing Up, 2000 (buy)

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS

John Flansburgh and John Linnell are the core of They Might Be Giants. The two Johns met as teenagers and began writing music together while still in high school, though they didn’t become TMBG until years later.

Around 1981, they began using the name, and performing as a duo (with drum machine backing) around Brooklyn.

To help spread the word about their music, early on they began putting music on an answering machine, and advertising the number as They Might Be Giants’ Dial-A-Song. This phone number lasted for many years into their career, but alas is now defunct.

Their music has always been fun, quirky, and eclectic. These days they take breaks between their “regular” albums (for lack of a better term), to record children’s albums that are not only critically acclaimed best sellers, but are also wonderfully entertaining for the parents who no doubt will be subjected to playing after playing.

And then there’s the myriad of soundtrack work, but I’ll save that for another post.

Here’s a few of the hundreds of songs that haven’t been put on their albums (though most have been readily available on the net):

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They Might Be Giants - “Become a Robot” (demo) This is from a demo tape they passed around and sold at their shows back in 1985. A more polished version was later released on Then: The Earlier Years. (buy)
They Might Be Giants - “Stormy Pinkness” B-side of “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”.
They Might Be Giants - “Rocket Ship” (demo) A song that never made it any further than a demo, but has made its way around the net thanks to TMBG’s openness with sharing their music.
They Might Be Giants - “Welcome To the Jungle” This is not a Guns ’N’ Roses cover. This was a b-side of the single “The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)”.
They Might Be Giants - “Siftin’” B-side of “I Palindrome I”. Mostly instrumental. Mostly.
They Might Be Giants - “Yellow Submarine” (live Beatles cover) Recorded in Chicago in 1992, and released through a website on one of their Unlimited compilations. (a subscription based monthly comp. that ran for a year in 2001)
They Might Be Giants - “Why Does the Sun Shine?” (Tom Glazer cover) One of their better known songs, but it was only available as a single, until the release of A User’s Guide compilation. (buy)
They Might Be Giants - “25 O’clock” (Dukes of Stratosphere cover) Released on the XTC tribute album A Testimonial Dinner. The Dukes of Stratosphere are an alter ego of XTC.

They Might Be Giants discography:

They Might Be Giants, 1986 (buy)
Lincoln, 1988 (buy)
Flood, 1990 (buy)
Misc. T, 1991 (buy) (compilation of b-sides)
Apollo 18, 1992 (buy)
John Henry, 1994 (buy)
Factory Showroom, 1996 (buy)
Long Tall Weekend, 1999
Mink Car, 2001 (buy)
They Got Lost, 2002 (buy) (compilation of rarities)
No!, 2002 (buy) (children’s album)
The Spine, 2004 (buy)
Here Come the ABCs, 2005 (buy) (children’s album)
The Else, 2007 (buy)
Here Come the 123s, 2008 (buy) (children’s album)

For more info, and plenty more tunes, swing on over to This Might Be a Wiki.

TOM JONES

Tom Jones has been around since. . . Hell, if you don't know who Tom Jones is, you should just be put down now.

Though best known for his many classic songs ("It's Not Unusual", "She's a Lady", "Delilah", "Thunderball", etc., etc.) he's never been one to shy away from trying something new. In recent years, that's found him covering many younger bands, both live and on his albums.

Here's a few things from his recent past you won't find on his discs:

Tom Jones - "Are You Gonna Go My Way" (Lenny Kravitz cover) If the guitar sounds familiar, that's because Lenny himself is playing it. Later re-recorded with Robbie Williams for the album Reload.
Tom Jones - "Unbelievable" (Live EMF cover) Taken from the "Burning Down the House" single.
Tom Jones with Ruby - "Kung Fu Fighting" (Carl Douglas cover) From the Police Story 3 soundtrack.
Tom Jones - "Come Together" (Live Beatles cover) Taken from the "Burning Down the House" single.
Tom Jones - "I Bet You Look Good On the Dance Floor" (Live Arctic Monkeys cover) From the TV broadcast of the Concert for Diana. Aerosmith's Joe Perry on guitar.


I would give you a discography, but the guy's been around for forty plus years, and I don't have that much space.