2024 marked the 20th anniversary of Last Gang Records but the party has continued on, as the label has shared more covers from its original artist signings.
One highlight was Anand Wilder (of Yeasayer) dropping a cover of New Pornographer’s classic “Challangers.” He’s joined by Maia Friedman (of Dirty Projectors + Coco). Their take is what a good cover could be, while maintaining much of the DNA of the original, it’s given a fresh interpretation that gives the original plenty of room to grow.
Speaking on the cover, Wilder adds:
“I had a lot of fun interpreting ‘Challengers’, one of my favorite New Pornographers songs with Maia Friedman in my studio last March. The other cover track we did “Love Is A Place” by Metric) was super sparse so we decided to make this one a little more full and uptempo with some chimey guitars and drum machines. Maia sang fantastic harmonies as always and ripped a great Frippy guitar solo for the instrumental breakdown which I stitched together for kind of a psychedelic spiraling canon effect over the descending chords. Tested the top of my singing range stacking Fleetwood Macesque harmonies late into the night for the final chorus, for a real anthemic sounding resolution. Thanks to Eric Zeiler for the mix and I hope we did the song justice.”
Enjoy the cover below.
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