In general, I like the Bad Plus. Its nice to have a group of people who play jazz standards based on the pop music I grew up listening to, instead of a bunch of songs from the 1930s that my grandparents listened to. I would not have much use for Jazz if it just remained fixated on covering the songs Ella Fitzgerald covered.

that was incredibly bad. so sad.

But as far as cover bands go, I like Banjo or Freakout. If you’re familiar with Burial’s “Archangel,” check out this lo-fi acoustic, shoegazy reworking:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/145462-on-repeat-banjo-or-freako%20ut-archangel-burial-cover-42-mp3s-streams

On the other hand, one of my favourite covers has to be Radiohead’s live version of Can’s Thief, which is just phenomenally good (as one would expect).

This does raise the question of what constitutes a good cover version. I’d say the covering artist should have a strong sympathy with the original sentiment, and then develop their own reading of the song. If this doesn’t happen, then what often emerges is a superficial, trite version, or something so divergent that it should more accurately be called a variation on a theme (if that at all). Brad Mehldau’s cover of Radiohead’s Paranoid Android, while very good, edges into this latter category, IMO.

It’s just wrong, I tell you, wrong!