Cover and Original : Such Great Heights

It seems like the Postal Service are the people to cover. There's a lot out there, and a number of well known and excellent musicians have gone and covered what is arguably their best known song, Such Great Heights.

Iron & Wine's fantastic cover, which was featured on the Garden State Soundtrack, is, in my opinion, the best version, one that surpasses the original (but not by much.) Thus we fall into two camps - there's the acoustic-indie version of the song, and the pop-electronic versions, or ones that emulate either Iron & Wine or the Postal Service. Benjamin Costello falls within the first camp, as does the Dresden Dolls and Amanda Palmer, while The Wrong Trousers, Rilo Kiley, Matt Nathanson, MIT Logarhythms. Ben Folds sort of falls into his own category.

Why is this song covered so much, with such a limited number of versions? I chalk this up to the original, which is a very sweet and romantic song, which has gotten a lot of exposure through things like its use in Garden State and numerous television shows.

Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - Amanda Palmer
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - Ben Folds
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - Benjamin Costello
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - The Dresden Dolls
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - Iron & Wine
Bent/Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - Matt Nathanson
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - MIT Logarhythms
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - Rilo Kiley
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - Umass Dynamics
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - The Wrong Trousers
Such Great Heights - The Postal Service

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Cover and Original

It's been a little while since I've done one of these, so here's a couple to catch up for lost time:


This song you would have heard if you've turned on a TV recently. Tristan Prettyman has a fantastic cover of it:

New Soul (Yael Naïm) - Tristan Prettyman
New Soul - Yael Naïm

Again, I think that Matt Nathanson is a bit of a prat, but this is a fun cover/duet of Matt, Cary Brothers and Kate Vogele:

Don't Stop Believing (Journey) - Matt Nathanson
Don't Stop Believing - Journey

And Coldplay's one of my favorites, so it's interesting to come across a cover of their works. Here's a good one from Aimee Mann and another from Johnette Napolitano:

The Scientist (Coldplay) - Aimee Mann
The Scientist (Coldplay) - Johnette Napolitano
The Scientist - Coldplay

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Concert Online

Back in October, I posted up a review for a concert, Cary Brothers, Kate Vogele and Matt Nathanson. While poking around Archive.org, I came across the Matt Nathanson portion:

Intro
Car Crash
Wedding Dress
Lucky Boy > (I Want You to Want Me) !
Angel > I Saw
Princess > (Jesse's Girl) [Rick Springfield Cover] > Princess
Come On Get Higher
We Live as We Dream Alone (Gang of Four Cover) > Pretty the World...
Bent > Such Great Heights (Postal Service Tease)
To the Beat of Our Noisy Hearts
Falling Apart
Still
Suspended
Forgiveness
Gone
Laid
Don't Stop Believing (Journey Cover) w/Kate Vogele & Cary Brothers
Amazing Again > Losing My Religion (REM Cover)
Answering Machine
Hungry Like the Wolf (Duran Duran)
All We Are

A lot of covers in there - Nathanson seems to like doing a lot of songs. Enjoy!

New Video - Car Crash

Vanguard Records has posted up this video for Matt Nathanson's latest single, Car Crash:

It's an interesting video - I particularly like how they've back lit Matt as he sings. Out of all of his songs, this is one of his better ones. On stage, I've said that Nathanson is a bit of an annoying twit, but he does put out some good music, and his latest album, Some Mad Hope was quite good.

Car Crash - Matt Nathanson

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Concert - Cary Brothers, Kate Voegele and Matt Nathanson

This weekend at the Higher Ground, I was able to see Kate Voegele, Cary Brothers and Matt Nathanson in the Higher Ground Ballroom. It was an okay night - not the greatest

Kate Voegele Set
One Way or Another
Wish You Were
Hallelujah (Cover)
chicago
Only Fooling Myself

I wasn't extremely impressed with Kate Voegele, who's recently scored her first album through the newly formed Myspace Records. She's got a fairly typical sound for a singer, and overall, there wasn't anything that really makes her stand out a whole lot. Not to say that she's a bad singer, because she's not. Maybe average. Her set was decent, fairly short, and she had some fun on stage. Maybe she'll get better with time.

Cary Brothers Set
Ride
Jealousy
Who You Are
If You Were Here (Thompson Twins Cover)
Honestly
Wasted One
Glass Parade
Blue Eyes

Cary Brothers was the one that I set out to see last night, and I finally got a shirt from their merch booth (I tried to get one last time I saw him and failed, because they ran out.) His set was a significant improvement over Voegele's, although because he wasn't backed by a larger group this time around, I wasn't as thrilled with his set as I was the last time that he was in town. His set was also a bit shorter. They did take the smaller group (only Cary and two others) and ran with it - they had a couple of songs that sounded a little different, like Wasted One and Who You Are, but the sound was good and he was probably the best singer of the night.

Matt Nathanson Set
Car Crash
Wedding Dress
Lucky Boy
-> I Want You To Want Me (Cheap Trick Cover)
Angel
I Saw
Princess
-> Jessie's Girl (Rick Springfield Cover)
Come On, Get Higher
Pretty The World
Bent
To The Beat of Our Noisy Hearts
Falling Apart
Still
Suspended
Snakes? (Patty Smith Cover?)
Gone
Laid
Smalltown Girl (Journey Cover) With Cary Brothers and Kate Voegele
Comfort Me
-> Losing My Religion (REM Cover)
Answering Machine
Hungry Like the Wolf (Duran Duran Cover)
All We Are

Matt Nathanson is a bit of an annoying twerp. He's a very good singer, but he reminds me a lot of Dane Cook. On stage, he's funny, often getting the crowd going and seems a little self-involved, but once he gets down to start playing, he and his group sounds pretty good on stage.
Matt was clearly the show for the night, with everyone there to see him. He's certainly popular with the college group and demographics. His songwriting is also about average, and his live show can double as a comedy one, which is fine, as long as he plays music. On stage, they've got a good sound, very solid, very good beat.

Overall, the entire night was pretty good, low key. I chatted with a couple people, took pictures, and enjoyed myself. This was the last night of the tour for this group of singers, and they seemed to really have a fun time. Cary and Kate both jumped on stage for one of Matt's songs, and Matt jumped into one of Cary's songs, Blue Eyes. It looked like they were also enjoying themselves.

More pictures here.

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iTunes Free Music of the Week

This week's picks for iTunes free music of the week.

Car Crash - Matt Nathanson (Recommended)

(I actually already had this song - pretty good one, highly recommended)

Joya - Funky C

There's also a Grey's Anatomy music video for Mat Kerney's Breathe In Breathe Out, here.