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Pete Yorn Covers Beach Boys: “Surfer Girl”

While Beach Boys covers should always be approached with caution, I had a good feeling about this one — not to mention it seemed like an opportunity to give last night’s tribute at the Grammys a run for its money. As it turns out, Pete Yorn just might be the guy for the job here: all sun-burnt harmonies with a twinge of ’60s psychedelic garage-rock, Yorn clearly reveres the iconic California group while bringing a welcome dose of his own more affected vocal approach into the mix. All told, it’s an inspired take that feels a bit joyful to boot. Give it a spin:

Per the track’s description, Yorn not only had a similar idea in mind when sharing the recording today as we did in clicking on it, but there’s a teaser for his next release, as well: “Watching last night’s Grammy’s made me wanna share this with you….I recorded this (one of my all time favorite songs) a few months ago as part of a record of cover songs I’m putting together…”

New Multitudes: “VD City”

Last month we heard a track off Jim James, Jay Farrar, Anders Parker, and Will Johnson’s new collection of music put to previously unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics in the form of the memorable Farrar-led folk-rock cut “Old. L.A.” Now a second glimpse at New Multitudes, the 12-song set due later in February, is here via American Songwriter‘s new sampler mix.

Upon further inspection, however, it turns out the tune, “VD City,” has seen the light of day before: 41 years ago, Bob Dylan recorded a version after Ramblin’ Jack Elliott bestowed on him “those old VD songs by Woody that nobody wanted the young kids to know.” Guthrie reportedly wrote this one in 1949 among a set of themed tracks — “VD Day,” “VD Waltz,” “VD Blues,” etc. —  about the U.S. Public Health Service. For Dylanologists, the images within “VD City” are said to have influenced at least one of his own masterpieces, “Desolation Row.”

You can hear samples of a rare 1961 recording of Dylan covering four of these tunes in his Guthrie-mimicking folk style at the time here. Meanwhile, Will Johnson and Co. take a very different, almost Steve Earle-esque angle on the track, injecting it with unhinged guitar distortion, bar-rock drums, and loose harmonies below:

Jon Brion to Score ‘This Is 40’

Our nonstop Jon Brion watch continues with news that a new Fiona Apple album is on the horizon (though no confirmation yet on Brion’s involvement), the 3D stop-motion flick ParaNorman was scored by the producer/composer, and another collaboration with Judd Apatow is in the works. As for the latter, The Playlist reports today that Apatow recruited Brion for his next project, This Is 40, a dramedy about a family going through a midlife crisis, starring a number of Apatow’s regular players:  his wife, Leslie Mann, Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Charlyne Yi, and other consistently funny folks.

This puts Brion’s addition more in line with his film work on comedies like The Other Guys and Step Brothers, than, say, his Paul Thomas Anderson collaborations, Miranda July’s The Future, or Stone. And while much of this update feels like standard fare coming from team Apatow, the addition of fresh faces to the forthcoming flick — namely, John Lithgow, Albert Brooks, Melissa McCarthy, and emerging director/writer/actress Lena Dunham —  promises plenty of surprises are in order. Here’s hoping Brion will pen one of his bittersweet pop tunes we’re always hungry for (or even better, gets inspired to work on the long-awaited follow-up to his 2001 solo debut, Meaningless).