Under the Covers

It's video Friday, and this week we've got two ladies covering songs originally done by gents.

First up is Amanda Palmer covering Radiohead's "Creep". The original sounds haunting and empty enough, but the lyric "I wish I was special" as delivered by Amanda Palmer is simply gutting. There is something about a woman screaming that line that adds an entirely new level of desolation.

Next is Madeleine Peyroux with her take on Elliott Smith's "Behind the Bars". Slower, more sultry than the original. Heartbreaking.

Songs to snuggle up with in this cold, bitter weather. Enjoy!

Justice, Sort Of, For Lilly Ledbetter

President Obama signed his very first bill into law this morning, with an event celebrating the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Ledbetter was a worker at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company for many years, but did not realize until she was near retirement that she was being paid less than her male co-workers for doing the same job. She sued, and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, but she lost. The Supreme Court determined that under current law, pay discrimination claims had to be filed within 180 days of when the discrimination happened. Because most workers don't know what their co-workers make, and because pay discrimination largely occurs in small increments over time, the current law nearly invalidated most cases. Because Lilly Ledbetter stood up and refused to let the matter die, the Democrats vowed to change the law, and named it after her. Now, claims must be filed within 180 days, but the 180 day rule re-sets every time you receive a new paycheck, making the rules much more reasonable.

The Sun Times has an account of the reception following the signing of the bill, and here's what Lilly said:

"I have spent the past two years since the Supreme Court decision in my case, fighting for equal pay for this,'' Ms. Ledbetter said. "But to watch him sign a bill that bears my name, a bill that will help women and others fight pay discrimination in the workplace is truly overwhelming. Goodyear will never have to pay me what it cheated me out of. I will never see a cent from my case. But with the passage and the president's signature today, I have an even richer reward." Crowd claps.

Goodyear will never have to make good on Lilly's claim, but it might be something for you to think about the next time you buy a set of tires, maybe?

Congrats Lilly, on behalf of working women everywhere!

She deserves the applause / I surrender because...

I'm currently obsessed with figuring out who plays the guitar solo in the video for Robert Palmer's "Simply Irresistible":



(NOTE: For those of you not familiar with the 80s, this video is possibly not work-safe, as it contains a whole lotta spandex-clad T&A. For the rest of you, fast forward to about 2:45 to see the guitar solo... or hey, maybe you like T&A, you don't have to fast forward.)

Now, I'm not talking about who plays the solo on the recording, as I'm pretty sure the two are not one and the same. Besides, the guitar player in the video doesn't much look like a John, a Dennis, or an Eddie. And in contrast to the girls from the "Addicted to Love" video, who are the least convincing fake musicians ever*, I'm fairly certain this chick knows what she's doing. If only I could find the Pop-Up Video version of this online somewhere... I bet it would tell me.

I'll continue my research and keep ya'll posted.


* According to Wikipedia, rumor has it that "a musician was hired to teach the models basic guitar fingering techniques, but 'gave up after about an hour and left'." Heh. I'm also starting to have a sneaking suspicion that the hands you see playing drums at 1:17 in on the "Addicted to Love" video might not belong to the girl sitting behind the drums for the rest of the video... or even to a girl, for that matter. I wonder if they stuck one of the dudes on crew in a dress and slapped some fake nails on him to get the shot?

Maybe? Maybenaut.

Hey look, it's friend of the show Ellie Maybe, playing with her new band! *koffkoff*

Martyrs is located at 3855 N. Lincoln Avenue in Chicago, show starts at 9.

Setlist for 1/27/09 Women on Women Music Program - Every Tuesday from 8 to 10pm on WLUW - 88.7fm in Chicago, wluw.org everywhere else!

The Shangri-Las - "He Cried" Myrmidons of Melodrama (RPM)
Azure Ray - "New Resolution" Hold on Love (Saddle Creek)
Saint Etienne - "Sun in My Morning" Tales from Turnpike House (Savoy Jazz)
Ladytron - "Last One Standing" Witching Hour (Ryko)
ADULT. - "Lovely Love" Gimme Trouble (Thrill Jockey)
The B-52's - "Dance This Mess Around" Nude on the Moon: The B-52's Anthology (Rhino)
Quasi - "Our Happiness is Guaranteed" Featuring "Birds" (Up)
The Gossip - "Yr Mangled Heart" Standing in the Way of Control
Suzanne Vega - "99.9F" 99.9F EP (A&M)
Karen Dalton - "Ribbon Bow" It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best (Koch)
Kirsty MacColl - "A New England" Galore (IRS)
Belly - "Dusted" Star (Sire)
The New Pornographers - "The Jessica Numbers" Twin Cinema (Matador)
Dresden Dolls - "The Jeep Song" S/T (8 Ft.)
Blake Babies - "I'm Not Your Mother" Sunburn (Mammoth)
The Breeders - "So Sad About Us" Safari EP (4AD)
The Ellie Maybe Experence - "I Thought I Could Love You" Meet Ellie (Horse-Drawn)
Kate Bush - "Between a Man and a Woman" The Sensual World (Columbia)
Eleni Mandell - "I've Got a Tender Heart" Country for True Lovers (Zedtone)
Rilo Kiley - "Ripchord" More Adventurous (Brute)
Tegan and Sara - "I Bet it Stung" So Jealous (Sanctuary)
Bratmobile - "I'm in the Band" Girls Get Busy (Lookout!)
The Muffs - "Sad Tomorrow" Blonder and Blonder (Reprise)
The 5.6.7.8's - "Dance in the Avenue A" Pinheel Stomp EP (Time Bomb)
Free Kitten - "Party With Me Punker (Live)" Unboxed (Pearl Necklace)
Lydia Lunch - "Why Don't We Do it in the Road" Widowspeak (New Millenium Communications)
Rip, Rig and Panic - "Storm the Reality Asylum" V/A: Girlz: Women Ahead of Their Time (CDHW)
Annie Hayden - "Money Trouble" The Enemy of Love (Merge)
Bjork - "All is Full of Love" Livebox Sampler (Wellhart/One Little Indian)
Puffy Ami Yumi - "Tokyo I'm On My Way" Splurge (Tofu)
The Runaways - "Blackmail" The Best of the Runaways (Mercury/Polygram)

Video Fridays: Vivian Girls, "Tell the World"

I'm embarrassingly slow to pick up on new bands. I instead tend to go backwards and seek out older bands I wasn't around for the first time, or just continue listening to my old standby favorites and their latest singles and B-sides releases. Perhaps I'm too jaded and set in my ways... or perhaps I'm just lazy.

The Vivian Girls, however, grabbed me right away. I don't know what it is about this band, but they remind me of the Shaggs, if the Shaggs had had a few more music lessons under their proverbial and collective belt. Kind of like the Shaggs meets "52 Girls"-era B-52's, meets mid-90s K Records twee. There's a certain stripped-down, sonic innocence to the Vivian Girls, balanced by solid, hooky songwriting. Better yet, it's completely genuine.

Here's the video for their song "Tell the World," off their self-titled release on Mauled by Tigers.

We TOLD you we were wearing ball gowns!

See??


(Lovingly created for us by our friend Lisa at iheart45s.blogspot.com.)