News

Violent Femmes, covered by Gnarls Barkley, return the favor

6:19 p.m. · June 8, 2008 · by Ethan Stanislawski

One of the more unlikely, brilliant covers in recent years was Gnarls Barkleys rendition of the Violent Femmes classic "Gone Daddy Gone", which helped Gnars establish its unpredictable reputation. Now, the Femmes, a band who's been stuck playing songs from their first album for a good 26 years, is using the newly built-up love by Gnarls fans to cover "Crazy." Calling the song "infamous" despite it's absolute ubiquity circa 2006, a MySpace page set up for the cover (called "Violent and Crazy") announces the cover will be released on June 24. A minute-long portion of the track can be found on the MySpace page as well. Skipping CD's altogether, the single will be released as an mp3 and a 12" vinyl, with an instrumental as well as vocals only version serving as B-sides to the vinyl edition. There'll also be a video contest, proving that the Femmes, now in their mid-to-late 40s, have done their Web 2.0 homework. Oh, and the song sounds pretty rad too. [Stereogum]