Three indie artists recorded videos of themselves playing pretty cool live (and not so live) covers of the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling”, the #12 single in Billboard this week. (It was actually a challenge sifting through all the Jonas Brothers covers in YouTube to find these…)

Who’s version do you think rocks more? Check ‘em out, vote below, and support a new artist with a little luv — it’s what the Cover Song Smackdown is all about.

Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling” Cover by Joshua Pui

Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling” Cover by David Choi

Ok, yes, this version is a little less “live” than what I usually post. But it’s pretty solid.

Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling” Cover by WiseMan01

Thanks for checking out some indie covers. Show some luv to the arteeest! And be sure to throw down your thoughts in the comment section below.

For those of you that want to sing along, here are some of the lyrics to “I Gotta Feeling”:

Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling” Lyrics

I got a feeling that tonight’s gonna be a good night
that tonight’s gonna be a good night
that tonight’s gonna be a good good night wooh hoo (x4)

I feel stressed out I wanna let it go
Lets go way out spaced out and losing all control

More “I Gotta Feeling” lyrics here…

Enjoy…
(via Mashable)

Three indie artists recorded videos of themselves playing pretty cool live covers of Owl City’s “Fireflies”, the #4 single in Billboard this week. (I’m actually a fan of this guy ’cause he’s a DIY musician…he recorded his entire album in his basement. Awesome.)

Who’s version do you think rocks more? Check ‘em out, vote below, and support a new artist with a little luv — it’s what the Cover Song Smackdown is all about.

Owl City “Fireflies” Cover by Andrew Garcia

Owl City “Fireflies” Cover by Daiyel

Owl City “Fireflies” Cover by The Heart Render

Thanks for checking out some indie covers. Show some luv to the arteeest! And be sure to throw down your thoughts in the comment section below.

For those of you that want to sing along, here are some of the lyrics to “Fireflies”:

Owl City - Fireflies Lyrics

You would not believe your eyes
If ten million fireflies
Lit up the world as I fell asleep
Cause they fill the open air
And leave teardrops everywhere
You’d think me rude, but I
Would just stand and stare.

I’d like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly.
It’s hard to say that I’d
Rather stay awake when I’m asleep,
Cause everything is never as it seems.

More “Fireflies” lyrics here…

Three indie artists recorded videos of themselves playing interesting live covers of Kesha’s “Tik Tok” (i.e. Ke$ha), the #1 single in Billboard this week. Who’s version do you think rocks more?  Check ‘em out, vote below, and support a new artist with a little love — it’s what the Cover Song Smackdown is all about.

Kesha “Tik Tok” Cover by The Shures

(Note: Song starts at 1:00)

Ke$ha “Tik Tok” Cover by Gia Farrell

Kesha “Tik Tok” Cover by Euphausia

Thanks for listening to some new DIY bands giving Ke$ha a run for her money. Be sure to let me know what you think of the first ever Cover Song Smackdown in the comment section below.

For those of you that want to sing along, here are the lyrics to “Tik Tok”:

Kesha - Tik Tok Lyrics

Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy
(Hey, what up girl?)
Put my glasses on, Im out the door - Im gonna hit this city (Lets go)
Before I leave, brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack
Cause when I leave for the night, I aint coming back
Im talking - pedicure on our toes, toes
Trying on all our clothes, clothes
Boys blowing up our phones, phones
Drop-toping, playing our favorite cds
Pulling up to the parties
Trying to get a little bit tipsy

[CHORUS]
Dont stop, make it pop
DJ, blow my speakers up
Tonight, Imma fight
Til we see the sunlight
Tick tock, on the click
But the party dont stop
Woah-oh oh oh
Woah-oh oh oh

More Ke$ha Tik Tok lyrics here…

We’ve all got a few cover songs we love — whether it’s an acoustic version of a hard rock song (think “Pardon Me (Acoustic)” by Incubus), a humorous spin on funny classic (think “Baby Got Back” by Jonathan Coulton), or a complete track reinvention (”Faith” by Limp Biscuit).

Cover songs kindly bait listeners by borrowing solidly anchored “hooks”, then showcase a band’s stuff via the cover’s interpretation. For that reason, they’re excellent promotional tools, and are often used by bands and labels for just that purpose.

In fact, the trend has become a primary promotional tool for many new bands, as I learned during my own YouTube cover song experiment.  In a nutshell, musicians are posting videos of themselves playing currently-radio-airing songs on YouTube to target the vast sea of listeners searching for those same songs — and get found. While that may annoy some rockstar-wannabe-purists (”I only respect originals, dude!”), some of these bands are quite talented, and rise to the top. Pomplamoose, Boyce Avenue, and David Choi have collected MILLIONS of views and thousands of subscribers by employing this strategy.  CD sales, tours, and label offers are even included in some cases…  This is no joke.

Anyway, I love the fact that some very talented musicians are using freely available social media and major label content to generate exposure for themselves.  Eat that, major label moguls.

In celebration of the trend — and in support of indie artists — and for my own amusement — I’m starting “Billboard Cover Tube Tuesdays” “Cover Song Smackdown Tuesdays”, where I’ll post three awesome cover song videos of a Billboard-topping single each week. If I get bored, I’ll stop. If I don’t, and/or people like it, I’ll continue.

Check in tomorrow for the first of installment of… BILLBARD COVER TUBE TUESDAY COVER SONG SMACKDOWN TUESDAYS.

As many of you know, I spent a few weeks recording an acoustic cover of Snow Patrol’s, “Just Say Yes”, the single from their new album Up to Now.  I also recorded video of myself doing it for a YouTube experiment.  See what you think…and if you’re up for it, maybe even favorite it?  ;)

My acoustic cover of the new single by Snow Patrol, “Just Say Yes“, went on sale yesterday (two weeks before Snow Patrol’s version will be in stores on Oct 30th). How’s that for an unsigned band moving faster than a record label?  Digg It!

Snow Patrol’s “Just Say Yes”, the single from their new album Up to Now, caught my attention with its techno qualities, atypical of the band. I thought it might be interesting to record a stripped-down, acoustic version of the track, using an acoustic guitar, cello, a capella beatboxing, and piano.  So I did - check it out below.

I also thought it’d be interesting to capture video of myself recording the song for a YouTube video as an experiment. I’ll be posting that video here in a few days — stay tuned!

Listen & Download

Check out the track, and let me know what you think in the comments below. (You can even compare it to the original Snow Patrol version.) Though I can’t give the track away for free (I’ll need to pay royalties on any sales to Snow Patrol), it’s available at the new GarageSpin Store, for anyone interested.

Watch Video

Once the video is launched on YouTube, I could really use your help promoting it — giving it ratings, “favorite” votes, etc. It’ll be fun to see how it does.

Other Stuff To Do

In case you’re interested, you can also:

• Sign up to the mailing list so you know when new songs are available
• Check out more GarageSpin songs
• Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace
• Read the Snow Patrol “Just Say Yes” lyrics
• 

Thanks for listening!

Changing Band Names

Several years ago, I decided to make my ‘band’ name “DreamSpin”, and created a MySpace band profile with that name, as well the accompanying MySpace band URL www.myspace.com/DreamSpin. Later on, I decided to go with the band name ‘GarageSpin’ instead to match my blog name, after already having built up a friend network, a comment history, and song play history. Unfortunately, MySpace didn’t provide a way to change URLs, annoying a lot of bands and musicians in my situation…until recently.

Change MySpace URL for Your Band

NOTE:  MySpace changes certain processes from time to time.  It worked for me today (October 11, 2009), but if you’re read this in the future, I’d strongly recommend testing this process with two dummy account URLs to make sure the steps still work, and no unnecessary account-erasing takes place.

1. Make sure the band MySpace URL  you want is available. Hopefully, no one’s claimed the URL.  Or, maybe you reserved it yourself by creating an account with the new name.  (I had snatched up www.myspace.com/GarageSpin just in case…not that I could imagine anyone else wanting that particular MySpace URL.)

2.  Delete your “reserved” band MySpace URL, if you had reserved it at some point. If you own the new MySpace URL, and want to swap your old MySpace account to it, you’ll need to delete the new one first to make it “available”.

For example, in my case, I owned both www.myspace.com/DreamSpin, my active account, and www. myspace.com/GarageSpin, the one I reserved.  I had used the DreamSpin account for years, but wanted to transfer all the account’s friends, comments, and plays to the new MySpace URL.  So, I deleted the GarageSpin account.

To delete the “new” and “unused” account, go to “My Account” in the navigation bar, click on the “Account” link, and click on the “Cancel Account” link on that page.  To emphasize, DO NOT DELETE YOUR MYSPACE URL ACCOUNT WITH COMMENTS, PLAYS, AND FRIENDS!

3.  Set up an @MySpace.com email account to change your band’s MySpace URL. MySpace launched MySpace Mail in July of this year, giving bands the ability to have the email address BANDNAME@MySpace.com, which is cool.  Even cooler, however, is that while creating the email address, bands simultaneously confirm or edit their URL using the same “BANDNAME”. In so doing, bands are given the chance to change their URL for the first time in a while.  The new functionality created a new way for musicians to change their band’s MySpace URL.  But, IT CAN ONLY BE DONE ONCE.  So make sure you get it right.

To create your MySpace Mail address, click on “Inbox” in the navigation bar, then look for a link in the top right corner that says something like, “Create your @MySpace .com email address with  MySpace Mail!”  You will then be asked to enter a sequence of characters (probably your band’s name) that will become both your MySpace URL AND your email address.  For me, they became “GARAGESPIN@myspace.com” and “www.myspace.com/GARAGESPIN”.

NOTE:  When I did it, the process was a little wacky.  I typed “garagespin” into the email address field, and MySpace told me, “Sorry, this MySpace URL and email address is not available.”  I thought that was odd, since I’d recently deleted that very account.  Then I noticed that MySpace presented four alternative MySpace URLs that were available…and “garagespin” was listed as one of them.  I selected it, and now the message “available!” appeared.  Weird.  But at least it worked!

4.  Finished! Your account now permanently has the new band MySpace URL.  In addition, MySpace kindly redirects the old URL to the new one automatically.  However, anyone can claim the old URL (I tested it, and yup, the old URL is up for grabs), so, I would recommend creating a new MySpace account using that old MySpace URL, and simply entering some redirection instructions in the “About Me” section of the page to your new band URL, in case anyone comes looking for you.

Good luck.

They’re in Episode 3, which aired today, and which I’m embedding below. Saxon Mills is the digital video company producing the series. They’re also producing an online fictional newspaper, The Metrocity Times, containing articles and columns that refer to events unfolding in The Oligarch Duplicity.

You can play the “I Heard a GarageSpin Song” Drinking Game with me by sipping your favorite beverage every time you hear one of the tunes in the background…

Creating a hits compilation at the top of a band’s game is a smart move — sell old tracks to all the new fans gained recently…it’s basic catalog cross-selling.  Another intersting move — they’re creating their own publishing company to help new artists:

“We get given CDs by new artists and writers all the time and have talked about how we could help the best of them move up. Forming a publishing company seemed the obvious way to go.”  — Drummer Jonny Quinn.

Cool.  Out of appreciation, I may just create my own cover song and video for Just Say Yes for kicks.  (Though that’s mostly part of a bigger project I’m hoping to launch at some point in the future…which may mean 2010…so no need to tap your foot and wait, see?)