Friday, May 18, 2012

COVER THE EARTH: Ukrainian Punk

As an addendum to the "Cover The Earth" post of bizarre international versions of your favorite oldies, here are various rock remakes recorded over the years by The Ukrainians. Peter Solowka, one of the members of the popular '80s/'90s British combo The Wedding Present, is of Ukrainian descent, and picked up on the music from his father. He hooked up with musicians from the old country to play Ukrainian folk music, but then threw in some covers relevant to his present condition as a rocker living in the UK. And it is some crazy stuff.  No wimpy hippie folk music here, thanks to the occasional addition of some of Solowka's old Wedding Present buddies injecting some rock'n'roll energy into the mandolin-and-fiddle based tunes.  By the early '90s, Solowka had quit the Wedding Present to make the Ukrainians his full-time gig.

Included here: the entirety of the "Pisni Iz The Smiths (Songs Of The Smiths)" ep from 1992, Sex Pistols and Velvet Underground covers from a 1993 live album, a 1996 Kraftwerk cover commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, and two Pistols covers from a 2002 single. (They also have a 3 song single of Prince covers that I haven't found a copy of yet.  Anyone?)

*smacks head* Ah, durn!  I forget to include Googoosh's berserk Iranian assault on Otis Redding/Aretha Franklins' "Respect" on the first "Cover The Earth."  So here 'tis, as a most thoroughly non-Ukrainian bonus.

COVER THE EARTH: The Ukrainians

1. Batyar (The Smiths - 'Bigmouth Strikes Again')
2. Koroleva Ne Polerma (The Smiths - 'The Queen Is Dead')
3. M'yaso Ubivstvo (The Smiths - 'Meat Is Murder')
4. Spivaye Solovey (The Smiths - 'What Difference Does It Make?')
5. Anarkhiya (Sex Pistols - 'Anarchy In The UK')

6. God Save The Queen (Sex Pistols)
7. Pretty Vacant (Sex Pistols)
8. Chekannya (Velvet Underground - 'Venus in Furs')
9. Radioactivity [Orthodox mix] (Kraftwerk)


BONUS:
10. Googoosh: Respect

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

HOLY COW THIS IS AMAZING

Tim from Radio Clash said...

The Prince covers are super rare and I've not managed to find one yet...I did look very hard a few years back.

Anonymous said...

i must be dumber than a post i find these new download links completely incomprehensible and i have been unable to d-load anything

Mr Fab said...

You're not dumb, they don't make it easy. You have to scroll way down to where it says "Just a few moments please, fetching download links", then you'll see a variety of download choices (Rapidshare, etc).

adb said...

The Prince covers EP is four tracks: Nothing Compares 2 U / Sign 'o' The Times / Purple Rain (Slavs In The Temple Mix) / Nothing Compares 2 U (U Got The Uke Mix). Apparently it was originally going to be released under a different band name, as it's kind of technofied and doesn't have the same Pogues-y shtick going as the other stuff in their discography. It's not ultimately that compelling. Let's put it this way: I'm a huge enough Ukrainians fan (and Prince fan) that I managed to track a copy down, and yet in the end I'm not sure where I stuck the disc.

BESTIALO CULAPSUS said...

this looks AMAZING! but can someone please post ONE direct link to dload, i've spent 5 minutes or so and it's impossible!, only malwares and spywares is what you get

Mr Fab said...

Sorry, Bestialo, here's a direct Rapidshare link:
https://rapidshare.com/#!download|934p4|885577144|cover_the_earth_-_the_Ukrainians_0.zip|58808|0|0

Hope this works. I have had a helluva time lately trying to post albums somewhere where they won't be taken down for no reason.

BESTIALO CULAPSUS said...

wow, much thanks Mr. Fab! gonna download it right now, hey, The Ukranians punk project resembled me a lot to this other weird stuff called El Chichaculilas Culapsus Tacos Party Band it's a mariachi project released in 2010 covering Joy Division with Willie Colón all time classic and some other gems http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_fe-BGh2ns

http://vimeo.com/bestialoculapsus/culapsusmariachis

BESTIALO CULAPSUS said...

hey, also i think at www.dropbox.com there's a way to make public your folders for others to download, i'm not sure but i'm inclined to say there are many chances to make it available for the people at Dropbox.

Mr Fab said...

Ha ha, that Joy Division vs Willie Colón video: mi mucho gusto.

BESTIALO CULAPSUS said...

haha yes! it's a live take from a performance they gave!

Anonymous said...

links are dead.....PLEASE re-upload (as the other similar collections that are dead)