My buddy KC linked me to this shirt and asked me if this Venn Diagram summed up our relationship. "Yeah" I said, "Pretty much." Poor KC, I hope I didn't hurt her feelings too bad. Cool shirt, I think I might pick one up. Click the pic if you want to check it out, among others, over at Diesel Sweeties.
So, here's a song you might understand someday. Just kidding, I'm not an indie snob; I mean, look at all the shit I listen to, come on. Anyways, I picked up the reissue of The Knife's Silent Shout. It comes with two additional discs: one live CD and a live DVD. The live disc is pretty sweet, I'd like to catch their show sometime. This is the live version of my favorite track from Silent Shout.
What happens when a guy has only one album (so far) and his most famous song is actually a cover song? What if his version is every bit as good as the original, and yet completely different? The only thing that I do know is that we get cool music out of it. Jose Gonzales' version of Heartbeats was the one I heard first, it's on his Veneer album. Then I found out it was originally done by The Knife, who are fast becoming favorites of mine. I sought out their album, Deep Cuts, which contained Heartbeats and was not disappointed. I think I love both versions equally. Maybe that's a cop out, but I really can't choose, they're both so good in their own ways, but you can check them both out and decide for yourself.
I had first come across the Jose Gonzales version in reading an article about a Sony ad that was filming here in San Francisco (this was, I dunno, about two years ago). The stills from the ad looked really cool, a million rainbow-colored bouncy balls making their way down Fillmore Street. Awesome. So I looked up the ad on Youtube and watched. The soundtrack was (drumroll please) Jose Gonzales' version of Heartbeats. So that was how I initially found my way to this track.
So, I have a few audio and video goodies for you to contrast and compare: The Knife > Heartbeats
Jose Gonzales > Heartbeats
The original Sony Bravia ad featuring the Gonzales track
and the same ad with The Knife track (props to whomever made this, it's pretty cool)