SONG: “Atomic Number”.
ARTIST: grant. (Originally by case/lang/veirs.)
SOURCE: This doesn’t have a research source. It’s a penitential cover of a new song by case/lang/veirs, which is a band with a name that reads like a songwriting credit, consisting of Neko Case, k.d. lang, and Laura Veirs (already an Honorary Troubadour).
ABSTRACT: God, I love that Laura Veirs.
I mean, not personally – I’ve never even met her – but the way she puts words together.
k.d. lang has the lower case name, and Neko Case has the ideal cover aesthetic (she’s done miraculous things with Tom Waits, you know), but man. Gravity, magnetism, all that crazy stuff in the way matter is put together – yeah, Ms. Veirs. Thanks for all that.
Of course, I had to figure out a cover at the same time this song just came out. I thought switching the polarity would be enough appropriation, but somehow turning a haunting and atmospheric folk/dream-pop song into an upbeat, twee/surf number became, like, the way forward.
I wanted to layer more vocals. More and more vocals. I think that’s only like 10 tracks of voice or so, but I could have gone on. More. More. Enfolding layers of voice. There’s a couple organ tracks in there, an acoustic guitar pretending to be electric and a real electric guitar, a real bass not pretending to be anything, some drums and some hand-claps that are real with pretend claps around their edges. And more voices. So many.
I hope you don’t mind, case/lang/veirs. This was so much fun.