Project 13: 1991
Cover any song or songs from 1991
Submit to Neil via Dropbox or email, include a brief write-up about your song, and include a picture you’d like posted with your song or songs
All Project 13 songs due by end of day on Sunday, November 21
Colby Heston covers
Crush by Smashing Pumpkins
In 1991, like many others, I was becoming disenfranchised by the music that I had previously enjoyed. Bands like Guns N Roses and Skid Row were quickly being replaced with Jane's Addiction, Dinosaur Jr. and Smashing Pumpkins. When Gish came out, I absorbed the whole album. It was such a blend of psychedelia and fuzz rock. Not quite cock rock and not quite grunge - somewhere in the middle.
I kept Crush fairly straight forward. I would recommend listening to it with headphones on as I experimented a bit with panning. Hope that you enjoy it!
Jacob Sharff covers
Justify My Love by Madonna
OK, so this song was actually released at the very end of 1990. But aside from that minor technicality, I think it’s safe to say it had the bulk of its impact over the course of '91, and it ranked #21 on the 1991 year-end Billboard Hot 100 chart. Plus, I ditched Madonna on the last project, and y’know… didn't wanna leave her hangin.
Just to clarify, I've never been a big Madonna fan or anything. I've also never liked this song very much. I think my memory of the song when it came out probably has much more to do with the controversial nature of the video. There were also the legal issues with the drum beat being stolen from Public Enemy (who were accused of lifting it from James Brown in the first place). Anyway, I guess a song that so blatantly ripped off a drum beat and was banned for a video with explicit sexual content was sort of interesting to me at the time for those reasons at least, despite the fact that it was a pretty boring song.
I guess my idea with this was to approach the song as a parody. Try to push it to an absurd extreme. After cutting out a couple verses and quite a few of the other dumb lyrics, I still managed to stretch it out to the original song's length of over 5 minutes by getting a little too carried away with the extended ending part I added. I had intended to continue layering and building this to make it even more climactic (pun intended) but just sort of ran out of time and called 'er good enuff. In the process of making the song, I had a great time messing around with the microKorg and getting weird with the vocoder, and I also stumbled across a strange online audio archive of orgasm recordings. So for those reasons alone, I'd say it was time well spent. Basically, just attempted to have some fun, not take it too seriously, and above all... tried to keep it seXXXy.
Barrett Haroldson covers
Sometimes by My Bloody Valentine
I was not aware, nor was I a fan of this band in 1991, I think I was too busy with Nevermind and the Use Your Illusion albums. As a thread through my song choices, movie and tv soundtracks will generally turn me on to new music. In the case of My Bloody Valentine, Lost in Translation turned me onto this track and the band overall. I think songs paired with the right cinematic visual will give it a whole new context, in this case BIll Murray and Scarlett Johanason returning from a night of partying and karaoke in Tokyo gave this song a whole new context. MBV's sound and production was so unique and thick and layered, drenched in chorus, reverb and distortion in a way that I can't tell what's all happening but I love it. Instead of layers of distorted guitars, I tried to layer a ton of ambient piano, pad synths, orchestral layers (Labs). For some reason layering a ton of those gave a very different sonic wall of sound that felt cinematic and dense in a way that felt appropriate for the song.
Eric “Czahr” Scott covers
November Rain by Guns n’ Roses
Guns N' Roses were my favorite band up until 1991. I had the denim jacket with patches to prove it. Use Your Illusion I & II changed all of that. It felt bloated, messy and like a concept album without the concept. I chose one of the most bloated songs from the album as a kind of reckoning - an attempt to satisfy the disappointment I felt back then.
I went for a very basic and stripped down version, something that The Tallest Man on Earth might do. I condensed the song into a more manageable chunk by ignoring the solo, and by cutting off the last third of the song which was just there for more Slash soloing (props to Slash, he always deserved better than GNR). I basically wanted to preserve the melody and boil the song down into something I'd actually want to hear. Ever since school started there has been at least one person sick at all times, so I had even less time and energy than usual to complete this so forgive me for being a day late and eleven dollars short.
Jeff Kearns covers
Alcoholiday by Teenage Fan Club
Teenage Fanclub’s Catholic Education Lp really got me when it came out. I was so looking forward to their next release. Bandwagonesque was great but I missed the sloppy rock of before. That was how I approached Alcoholiday. And that album cover. Yellow bag of money on a pink background. Strangely difficult. I also thought of Alex Chilton playing this song with them. His scream at the end.
Noah Warren covers
Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) by C+C Music Factory
This song was ubiquitous in this era of my life. Hailing from Powderhorn Park, my sister and I moved to a rural area where television and Stephen King novels were my only conduit to civilization and a greater culture. We watched the Tracey Ullman Show witnessing the birth of The Simpsons as they hit the airwaves and made us all evolve.
What glued me to this song in particular was its use in the season 8 episode “Homer’s Phobia”. It was such a random choice and my first memorable exposure to comedic absurdity, alternative lifestyles and the mighty craft of steel work.
Also, the singer of this song’s hook, Martha Wash, was done dirty- I remember watching her on Arsenio Hall (Here’s the clip, the 2:20 min mark) where she proved she was the true source. The C+C Music Factory video had a model lip-synching to her. That blew my little brain. I believe it was post Milli Vanilli, so we were collectively becoming disillusioned and learning to not have a cow, man. Eat my shorts.
I can’t do any better than Martha, but I wanted to give this song the Bon Iver Iron & Wine - Flightless Bird, American Mouth treatment. At least, that was my aim. Where I ended up seemed passable enough to share. All done super last minute while I was down with a cold last Friday. I used Garageband on my iPad because I’m just too lazy to use a real setup and also because I didn’t think this experiment would work… I’ll let you be the judge? Freedom Williams’ rap lyrics are dope… Not! We’re not worthy!
Grant Eull’s 1991 covers
Throwing Things by Ned’s Atomic Dustbin
Punch Me Harder by Superchunk
Planet of Sound by the Pixies
" 91, was sort of an upside down or sideways kind of year for me personally. Wasn't at all certain about myself and I struggled with a ton of anger issues. I broke way too many guitars in the early 90's but sort felt like angst was pretty accepted... could it have been the music? Well as "songs from the year 91" became the project for this basement sketch I decided to just embrace the guitar driven anger of youth and see what came of it. I had totally forgotten about this Ned's Atomic Dustbin record; what a great example of "college" rock and I was super happy to find out that the Pixies released Trompe Le Monde in 91 because this band was a huge influence on my life. Lastly, Superchuck's Punch Me Harder just felt like this was the theme for my life back in 91 so it was a must. Enjoy... oh and I'm happy to be a much less angry person now."
Bill Fricke’s 1991 Covers
Alive by Pearl Jam. A country/rock version which was fun to do
Until the End of the World U2 — straight up cover. This is my favorite from Aching Baby.
Shiny Happy People - REM. All synths, instrumental. It is almost an “Enya”version.
In 1991, I was 26 years old, married, and pretty much listening to Cities 97 and whatever my wife at the time was into. I know two albums that came out that year that we owned. One was an Enya album, and the other Loreena McKennitt. So, you know where I was at.
Nirvana annoyed the hell out of me and I didn’t care for most of the grunge bands either. I was too old and not angry enough for it to matter. However, I could still rely on U2 and REM to get me through. I did listen to the alternative rock station a lot, so I did hear Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Pearl Jam, etc. The only band that I liked was Pearl Jam. Eddie Vedder fascinated me. His voice, his manner, and intensity was striking. I didn’t follow them past a couple of albums, but he’s still fascinating.
I now can appreciate the cultural impact that these bands and albums had, and can listen with a more open mind now than I could then.
Tom Stromsodt’s 1991 covers
Estranged by Guns n’ Roses
Planet of Sound by the Pixies
Estranged: It occurs to me now that this song is probably a lot about how Axl was an asshole to Stephanie Seymour. Which is unfortunate. One day I’ll finish the last six minutes of this sucker.
Planet of Sound: I bought a guitar pedal with a manufacturer’s description of “this thing sounds like garbage”thinking “finally, somebody understand the tone I’m after”. That’s really all you need to know about me. The girls sing back up.
Neil’s 1991 Ween Covers
1991 was a year of transition for me. My musical tastes were changing. Guns n’ Roses and Metallica, previously two of my favorite bands, were putting out terrible music, and meanwhile I was discovering all of this incredible stuff people seemed to be just making on their own. Ween’s album The Pod became a one of my high school soundtrack albums. I listened to it a ridiculous amount, so when the 1991 challenge was presented, I had to honor the album that had made such an impact on me.
Unfortunately, my family and I have all been sick this past week. Thankfully, we don’t have Covid, but we’ve all been knocked out with bad colds, which really put a damper in my grandiose recording plans. I managed to use some old tricks to knock these out quickly, but it’s not my best showing. Oh well, Ween would be disappointed if I put too much effort into these tunes.