Sam Westphalen - Lateralus

     It's Saturday once again (I know it's actually Sunday, but only just!), meaning that another Under the Covers of Darkness week is drawing to a close. But I've got one last cover for you, and it happens to be a pretty sweet one. It's not as different from the original as, say, yesterday's Sioux version of "Closer", but it's also not quite a straight-forward as perhaps some of my other choices this week have been.

     Australian Sam Westphalen's name is one you're probably already familiar with. In addition to being an accomplished guitarist and songwriter in his own right, he's only garner some internet fame by recording a whole bunch of fingerstyle/percussive acoustic guitar covers, a number of which are metal songs. Megadeath, Rammstein, Slayer, Pantera -- Sam's got a pretty impressive list of covers under his belt.

     But tonight we're capping off the week with one of my favourites, Sam's version of Tool's "Lateralus", from the 2001 masterpiece of the same name. In this live video, Sam encapsulates the entire song, guitar, bass, drums, and vocals, using just his acoustic guitar and his two hands. This one should appeal to both Tool fans and fans of this kind of inspired guitar goodness.

Sioux - Closer

     The second edition of Loud Noises' Under the Covers of Darkness week is winding down now, but I've still got a couple more cool covers to throw at your before it's back to our regularly scheduled programming. In fact, tonight's penultimate song (that's "next-to-last", for all you non-word dorks out there) might actually be one of the more adventurous takes all week.

     I'm sure you're all pretty familiar with Nine Inch Nails, and more specifically the album The Downward Spiral, and more specifically still the single "Closer". Dense industrial techno-rock with a driving beat and layers of synths and guitars, "Closer" is a song you're probably so familiar with that you could sing me the whole thing right now.

      But take that familiar core, run it through a sludgy fuzz filter, and you have tonight's cover version by Portland's Sioux. It's like a grungy, drony, stoner rock band just jamming out on the fundamental elements of the Nails original. For that reason, it's also the kind of cover that can stand on its own alongside an original rather than having to draft in the wake of an original. Whether or not you like Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" (although, how could you not, really?), you should check out Sioux's "Closer" -- it's a whole other animal.