Nothing like a good cover to send you crawling back to the source material.
LCD Soundsystem premiered its new single “Bye Bye Bayou,” an Alan Vega cover on 22 Tracks today. James Murphy is on-point with his Vega impersonation. The backing track has that swishing sheet metal cymbal crash I have always considered synonymous with the Suicide sound, while the trademark LCD synth nodes and snap breaks of dissever “Bye Bye Bayou” from being a straight cover.
That said, why allow Alan Vega to lurk in the shade of neon lights, when we could just dedicate this post to the originator?
Remember when Alan Vega broke our art punk hearts by signing to Elektra in 1983, completely selling out by working with The Cars' Ric Ocasek on Saturn Strip? The day the music died, right?
I would post Saturn Strip in full if I was not a professional journalist with a strict moral code on downloading. Why waste your time with a so-so LCD Soundsystem cover and 22 tracks of sub-par modern dance songs, when you could put the words “Saturn Strip download mediafire” into your Google search bar. Within minutes you would hear Alan Vega, backed by The Cars, covering Hot Chocolate's “Every 1's A Winner.” For real for real, if 80's parties still happen, this record needs to replace all that Gary Numan and Journey bullshit on the stereo, but keep the Thomas Dolby.
You know who else is a winner? Impose Associate Editor Jay Diamond. Whe he is DJing around the Brooklyn
proper, he's known to spin Vega's “Jukebox Babe.” We have the mp3 below.
