Yo La Tengo’s recent LP I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass has been a mainstay of my record player for weeks now and remains as engaging as ever. But noticeably lacking from the LP are their infamous cover songs. Since the beginning, Yo La Tengo has taken an interest in making obscure and unexpected rock/pop songs their own. A highlight of their first album Ride the Tiger was an amazing cover of The Kinks’ “Big Sky” and since then some notable covers have included John Cale’s “Andalucia”, The Beach Boys’ “Little Honda” and a doo-wop version of Harry Wayne “K.C.” Casey’s “You Can Have It All” to name a few favorites.

So for those of you feeling a snobby-rock-cover void like I am, here’s a cool video of Ira and Georgia circa-1988 covering “Everyday” by Buddy Holly and “Teenager in Love” by Dion & the Belmonts.

So did you see the film Brick early this summer? If not, you should probably go and get it on DVD right now and watch it. Twice. If you did, then you’re already familiar with the excellent first-time feature director, Rian Johnson.

Well, it seems ol’ Rian buddied up with John Darnielle a.k.a. The Mountain Goats for a music video. The song is called “Woke Up New,” and it is the first single off the Goats’ latest album, Get Lonely.

Aside from recommending this album and song, I must encourage you to check out this video. It’s creative, well-executed, and is done all with in-camera long shots, save for a couple hidden cuts. All enough to make a film school student jealous.

You can watch it in high-quality Quicktime, here:
http://www.rcjohnso.com/goats.html