June IND’s favorite cover songs: “Whiskey in the Jar”

We are creators and consumers of music. While we’re partial to our tunes, we can’t ignore the good feels we’ve had or the musical influence that resulted from playing songs that we didn’t write.

So, we put together a list (and playlists!) of our favorite cover songs from past and present to share those good feels and influence.

Next up is “Whiskey in the Jar” by…well, who actually wrote it? Wikipedia has some info on this 17th century Irish traditional song that got into our ears by way of Metallica via Thin Lizzy.

Em: This is the next installment of us covering a cover. We worked this song up for a March 2009 benefit show for Big Brothers Big Sisters at Lafayette Brewing Company. The lineup included Chemcoma, the Bailout Revival and more. For this show, our buddy Ben Hagood (The Enders, Benny and the No-Goods) joined us on vocals.

The lyrics tell the story of a highwayman who robs a rich guy. Of course, we chose Metallica’s ‘chugger of a rock jam’ arrangement. It was lots of fun to play and got some rears shakin’ during a live show.

Chris: This was a weird time in life/the world (2009 recession?) and my memories of this tune are thin. Perhaps too many whiskeys in the jar, oh. I remember not having to put in work on transcribing (THANKS GUITAR WORLD MAGAZINE!), recording rhythm guitars for Em’s track and rehearsing once with Ben in the old Casa del Dish practice space before playing “Whiskey in the Jar” live in front of an audience for the first time at LBC. Chemcoma played the song on occasion after this show (likely those four-hour-long bar sets), but it wasn’t in steady rotation.

Metallica was my gateway to the guitar and, likely, Thin Lizzy. “Whiskey in the Jar” and “Astronomy” are my favorite songs on Garage Inc.

Bonus: Here’s a video our friend Mojo shot back in March 2009 of Chemcoma + Ben Hagood playing “Whiskey in the Jar” at Lafayette Brewing Company.

 Listen to June IND’s favorite cover songs playlists:

June IND’s favorite cover songs: “Addicted To Love” by Florence + The Machine

We are creators and consumers of music. While we’re partial to our tunes, we can’t ignore the good feels we’ve had or the musical influence that resulted from playing songs that we didn’t write.

So, we put together a list (and playlist!) of our favorite cover songs from past and present to share those good feels and influence.

Next up is Robert Palmer’s “Addicted To Love” by Florence + The Machine:

Em: I think this song was my idea and I always don’t want to play it, lol. It’s a cool song and we play the cool Florence arrangement of it. I just can never remember the words.

Chris: When Em suggested playing this, I immediately recalled watching the Robert Palmer video on MTV as a youngster! What a weird video… Playing this song live is one of my faves because all I have to do is hang back and strum. Em does a great job singing it and I get a break from yelling!

Here’s a video clip of June IND playing “Addicted to Love” at People’s Brewing Company on Oct. 16, 2018:

We are creators and consumers of music. While we’re partial to our tunes, we can’t ignore the good feels we’ve had or the musical influence that resulted from playing songs that we didn’t write.

So, we put together a list (and playlist!) of our favorite cover songs from past and present to share those good feels and influence.

Next up is “Cloud Connected” by In Flames:

Em: We love In Flames, but most folks had no clue that this song wasn’t just another of our originals that they didn’t know either. Lots of fun to play even if the harmony was tough to sing over a weird bass drum pattern.

Chris: Em is leaving out that she was also playing to a click and keeping the rest of us in time too!

Some of you may be wondering why electronic hard rock band Chemcoma would cover a song by melodic death metal band In Flames. Well, it’s a pretty rad song and we had a relatively broad style within the electronic hard rock realm (perhaps as much liberty as In Flames had with melodic death metal). Depending on the show, Chemcoma was usually the lightest or heaviest band on a bill.

I’m pretty sure I put In Flames on our radar and I remember the first time I heard them. MTV2 rebooted Head Bangers Ball in 2003 and on one of those episodes, I saw the video for the In Flames tune “Trigger.” I bought the EP and told my buddies Brady and Adam Sadler about them (we had been jamming together during my weird post-Adrenaline/pre-Chemcoma time warp, before they formed Lorenguard).

Anyway, they laughed and let me bum their copies of Reroute to Remain and Clayman. Of course, In Flames was already on their radar. Those dudes had taste (still do, I imagine). If the Sadlers are out there, I still have those copies. Let me know if you want them back. 🙂

The Reroute album got “Cloud Connected” stuck in my head. Eventually, one thing led to another and we worked it up for Chemcoma shows in 2008 using the “Runaway” formula (wasn’t broke, didn’t fix it).

Here’s a video of Chemcoma playing “Cloud Connected” at Jerilee’s Pub on July 19, 2008 (this may be the first time we did it live):

We are creators and consumers of music. While we’re partial to our tunes, we can’t ignore the good feels we’ve had or the musical influence that resulted from playing songs that we didn’t write.

So, we put together a list (and playlists!) of our favorite cover songs from past and present to share those good feels and influence.

Next up is A Perfect Circle’s cover of “Imagine” by John Lennon:

Em: A Perfect Circle’s version of this song is my favorite version. Super moody and down, in a depressing key, it snaps me right back to where I was when I had this album on heavy rotation in the mid ‘00s. Things haven’t really improved much politically since then, and since the song was originally written for that matter. I think it’s poignant to play such a pessimistic version of an optimistic song that we keep hoping won’t be a relevant commentary on society someday, but it still is.

Chris: This is the first installment of us covering a cover. In addition to echoing Em’s thoughts, I’ll add that I love how A Perfect Circle made this song their own. I would not be surprised if there have been folks that have heard this rendition and had no clue it wasn’t an original tune.

When putting together our “Imagine” arrangement, I stayed close to APC’s; spending several days with my headphones on and committing its layers of piano, strings, bass, etc. to memory.  Our drop C tuning allowed us to stay in the same key and maintain that droning vibe. The tuning also helped corral most (if not all) of those layers into a single guitar part. As a result, we’ve been able to pull off a very full-sounding unplugged performance as a duo. Over the years, we farmed out some of these layers when Drew Luigs was with us on bass (and also Cody Hughes on guitar back in the Chemcoma days).

The outro section is my favorite part. Here’s a video of us performing it at People’s Brewing Company in October 2018.