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Friday, January 29, 2010

MP3 / Video Today in Unlikely Covers of Songs by Mega-Selling Acts

Posted by Dave Segal on Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 3:19 PM

Asthmatic Kitty recording artists Fol Chen have the audacity to cover Prince's "The Beautiful Ones" and Pink Floyd's "In the Flesh." It's actually more impressive that they received permission to record these songs than it is how competently they executed them.

After you experience those tunes, check out the video for "The Longer U Wait." Whimsical! [The song really kicks in around 2:45.]

Fol Chen open for Liars May 1 at Neumos.

Comments (5) RSS

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Huh? 99.9% of the time you don't have to obtain permission to record and release a cover version. You just have to pay a statutory royalty.

Posted by chrisrnps

on January 29, 2010 at 4:11 PM

You certainly have to have perrmission if yous want to record a Prince song. He's on that shit!

Posted by Keekee on January 29, 2010 at 4:28 PM

Maybe the pre-'symbol'-era stuff. There's a ton of 'Prince Rogers Nelson', 'Maurice Starr', 'The Artist', etc. catalog listed on the Harry Fox Agency website right now - a few mouse clicks away from licensing for anyone with a credit card and a microphone.

Not that you'd necessarily want to cover the new 'Lotus Flower' stuff. But you could.

Posted by chrisrnps

on January 29, 2010 at 5:14 PM

i sat next to a number of members of this group on a flight from philly to amsterdam back in sept...they were great people and i can't wait to see them - one of the members i sat next to was i think their keyboard player and he was probably 6'7" or so. glad that they're finally getting up here to play!

Posted by jezbian on January 29, 2010 at 5:22 PM

anyone can cover any song and release it on an album without permission. It is called a compulsory license, and is one of the limits placed on the copyright holder. (you do have to notify the copyright holder/publisher and PAY them x cents per song/per unit sold). What you CANT do is attach your cover version to a film (video), without paying them and paying whatever they ask for (sync rights).

Posted by BobbyAudio on January 30, 2010 at 8:50 PM