Alejandro Escovedo’s cover of Gun Club’s “Sex Beat” has been posted here before and played many a time on my radio show over the years as well. Why? Because like any good re-interpretation, it takes the song’s bare essence and spins it until it becomes something entirely different — and yet it hangs on to the the original sense of purpose the songwriter intended.
On the 1981 original we have Gun Club’s Jeffrey Lee Pierce’s composition in all it’s glory – spewing its cowpunk drunken menace right through your speakers. The tune sounds as unhinged as Pierce’s personal and public life. Nearly 20 years later Escovedo, no stranger to the early L.A. punk scene himself, takes the song and truly makes it his own. Slowing it down to a sludgy, languid, pace of drums, strings, and eerie guitar phrasings, Escovedo tells his tale in an almost speaking voice over the instrumentation. Chilling results.
Related: Alejandro Escovedo :: The AD Interview (2008)
DOWNLOAD:
MP3: Alejandro Escovedo :: Sex Beat (cover)
MP3: Gun Club :: Sex Beat
————-
Amazon: Gun Club – Fire of Love / Alejandro Escovedo – Bourbonitus Blues
+ Download Alejandro Escovedo via eMusic’s no risk 25 Free MP3 trial offer.
—————————————————————————————————————————–
Great post. Such a great cover.
1 | uwmryan December 30th, 2008 at 2:02 pmsounds good. hadnt heard this one. its missing the punk rawness of the original but has its own thing going for it.
2 | Roc December 30th, 2008 at 3:16 pm[...] your intriguing cover of the week: Alejandro Escovedo slows down The Gun Club’s “Sex Beat,” to achingly eerie [...]
3 | Media Roundup: Tours and Tracks for the New Year! « True Endeavors- Music for Madison January 2nd, 2009 at 1:07 amThank you for sharing, I love this song. Great cover.
4 | elaida January 3rd, 2009 at 6:04 pmThanks for music Good
5 | Marshall31 February 1st, 2009 at 9:15 am[...] http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2008/12/30/alejandro-escovedo-sex-beat-gun-club-cover/ [...]
6 | The Wicker Man, San Anto Style « Blogs y Mas February 22nd, 2009 at 12:30 amI’ve posted another cover of “Sex Beat” by Albuquerque’s Jonny Cats.
http://penmallet.blogspot.com/2009/02/covers-waltz-bop-shop-jonny-cats.html
No place else to get it.
7 | Icastico February 22nd, 2009 at 12:54 pm