Rare Crowded House

I'll end Crowded House week with a couple of rarities off one of the fan club compilation albums in my collection. The Crowded House Fan Club is a great community of Finn fans and they have been able to put together some great rare and live collections that are then sold exclusively to fans through the club. One of these collections of rarities is the Homebrew album. It has numerous live delights.

The first song featured below is Walk Tall, a Crowded House song that never made it on to any album. It actually is quite a fun and catchy song and I'm surprised it hasn't made it on to any compilation album. It was recorded at The Brighton Centre in the UK on June 3, 1994.

The CD also featured a "hidden" track with exceptional version of The Chicken Song by Crowded House, which I've also added here as a bonus.

Have you bought the new Crowded House album yet? If not, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and get it at Amazon here. It's a good album at a good price.

See ya next week!

1. Crowded House - Walk Tall (2.44 MB; 128kbps MP3)
2. Crowded House - The Chicken Song (0.5 MB; 128kbps MP3)

Leading You Into Temptation

As you've seen in this blog, I love listening to covers of songs I'm familiar with. I think it gives me an excuse to re-listen to my favorite songs without getting bored.

Today, I have an interesting Crowded House cover for you. Then, a song from Paul Hester whose suicide death recently was instrumental in getting the group back together. Plus, as a Split Enz fan, I'm adding a cover of a spectacularly beautiful Split Enz song.

I enjoy international language versions of well known songs. I started this CH week with an Italian cover of Don't Dream It's Over. Today, I have a Dutch language cover of Crowded House's Into Temptation from Dutch artist Rob de Nijs. The second song, Get It On is typically zany Paul Hester. It is a simple and beautiful good night lullaby, but with a Paul Hester twist: "Sleep, baby, sleep. Mum and dad might just get it on ..." Finally, 80's popster Belinda Carlisle had a sensitive cover version of Split Enz's spectacular Stuff and Nonsense. Enjoy.

You can find the CD catalog of the artists featured in this post by clicking on their names above.

1. Rob de Nijs - In De Verleiding (6.81 MB; 192kbps MP3)
2. Paul Hester - Get It On (3 MB; 128kbps MP3)
3. Belinda Carlisle - Stuff and Nonsense (6.31 MB; 192kbps MP3)

Beatles Pot Pourri

We're at the end of Beatles Week and I thought I'd throw in a bonus song as I'm going to be gone for the next week and not updating the blog (unless I can find time in Poland to do this).

Many, many years ago, I was in Melbourne for a conference (this was probably 1995) and at the "gala event" in a museum, there was a local group that performed for the conference delegates. Being a sucker for harmonies (as I have mentioned in this blog before), I was entranced by their beautiful harmonies and I didn't hesitate to buy the debut CD (titled Rhythm of Life) of this group called Pot Pourri. The group consisted of Tania de Jong (soprano), Antoinette Halloran (soprano), Craig Macdonald (tenor) and Jonathan Morton (baritone). According to the CD insert, the group has performed throughout Australia and overseas. They have appeared at the Melbourne Concert Hall and at many major festivals including the Melbourne International Festival, Castlemaine State Festival, and Next Wave Festival. A quick Google search suggests that they're still performing, although Antoinette is no longer a part of the group.

One of the songs on this CD was The Beatles' Fool on the Hill and that's the one I'm going to thrill you with today.

1. Pot Pourri - The Fool on the Hill (2.43 MB; 128kbps MP3)

Quoth the Raven "Evermore"

Okay, okay. I know that that raven really quoth "Nevermore," but then I wouldn't be able to use Poe to introduce my band of the day - Evermore.

If you'll look through the blog I made of my Australia trip last year, you'll see my mention of the opening act for Split Enz that I thought was amazing. Evermore is a New Zealand - Australian band that is made up of the "Hume Brothers." When I saw them open for Split Enz last year, I was struck by the richness of the sound this three-piece band was able to create. It was a very full sound and the drummer for the band (who looked to be all of fifteen) was spectacular. I attended the concert with a guy who has played in a band for years (perhaps I'll feature his band on here some time) and he raved about the drummer, so it is not just my uninformed opinion that this kid was great. The songs featured here are all from this three-piece band and should give you an idea of how impressive their concert set was.

Evermore released their Dreams album in 2004 and their second album Real Life in 2006. I picked up a copy of their first single from the Real Life album during the Enz concerts last year and was impressed enough to buy a copy of their Dreams album. Although these songs have done well in Australia, I'm sure many of you reading this blog have never heard Evermore. They claim to be influenced by The Police (Synchronicity), Pink Floyd, and Silverchair.

As usual, if you like them, buy their Dreams album on Amazon.com here. The Real Life album is available only as an import so is a lot more pricey on Amazon here. From what I heard, these kids are young and will probably be heard more from in the future. Just remember, you heard them first here.

The first track is from the single I picked up in Australia last summer, Running. It is from the Real Life album. The second track here is a single from their debut album. Find out more about the band on their Wikipedia page or on their MySpace page. Of course, if you like these tracks, you should also visit their official web site.

1. Evermore - Running (4.03 MB; 128kbps MP3)
2. Evermore - It's Too Late (3.59 MB; 128kbps MP3)