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20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers citizenmeh Edit Delete 14:56, 6 March '09 So, as part of it's 20th Anniversary celebrations, Merge are releasing a 'compilation of non-Merge bands covering classics from the label's back catalog.' Get all the lyrics to songs on Score! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers! Artificial academy 2 windows 10 download. And join the Genius community of music scholars to learn the meaning behind the lyrics.

Score 20 years of merge records the covers rarity album

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CD Review of Score! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers! by Various Artists

Superchunk, Shins,
Death Cab For Cutie

Various Artists:
Score!
20 Years of Merge Records:
The Covers!

Score 20 Years Of Merge Records The Covers Rarity List

Rock/Alternative
2009

Reviewed by Lee Zimmerman

I

n the course of delivering their wares to an eager public, some record labels have actually achieved a fame and notoriety equal to, or sometimes even greater than, their artists. In the ‘60s, one such entity was Immediate, a label that carved an indelible niche via the best the Brits had to offer, artists that included the Small Faces, Chris Farlowe and even Fleetwood Mac at an early juncture. Apple Records became one of the first examples of an artist-owned record company, boasting not only the Beatles, but Badfinger, James Taylor, Jackie Lomax and Mary Hopkins. Other entrepreneurial endeavors, from Motown and Stax to Sire and Atlantic, secured such distinctive identities that their contributions to the musical mainstream earned them their own individual chapters in the precipitous tale of pop’s ongoing evolution. Score 20 years of merge records the covers rarity list

Score 20 years of merge records the covers rarity list

With the music business’ ongoing decline, and its shift from record stores to cyberspace sales, smaller labels have taken the lead in advancing the agenda and fostering the up-and-coming artists that are shaping the sounds and setting the trends for the new millennium. It’s in that spirit that Merge Records has been able to create an environment that nurtures both artistic expression and adventurous initiatives. Founded in 1989 by musicians Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance, and based in Durham, North Carolina, it was initially a vehicle to release music by their band, Superchunk, although it gradually developed an expansive roster of other like-minded artists. Twenty years on, the company has ample reason to celebrate, having firmly entrenched itself in the indie firmament by fostering such talent as the Arcade Fire, Conor Oberst, Spoon, M Ward, Crooked Fingers, the Clean, Lambchop, Robert Pollard and of course, McCaughan’s other musical manifestations.

Some, but not all, of these artists are represented on Score!, a creative compilation that collects 20 songs originally recorded by many of the label’s mainstays and covered by outside artists who are clearly ardent admirers. For the novice, it’s an ample introduction to Merge’s songbook, although with a well-heeled cast tending to the musical duties, the likes of which include the Shins, Apples in Stereo, Bright Eyes, Ryan Adams and Broken Social Scene, it’s as much about the lineup as it is about any tuneful trajectory. Consequently, we find St. Vincent and the National turning Crooked Fingers’ 'Sleep All Summer' into a sullen duet that recalls Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra, and Bright Eyes’ take on the Magnetic Fields’ 'Papa Was a Rodeo' a swaying serenade loaded with pop appeal. Laura Cantrell’s wistful version of Lambchop’s 'Cowboy on the Moon' is, in itself, a remarkable revelation, an exercise in Americana graced with unabashed sentiment. Barbara Manning’s buoyant cover of Portastatic’s 'Through with People,' Tracey Thorn and Jens Lekman’s mellow, meandering 'Yeah! Oh, Yeah' (another original entry by Magnetic Fields), and the New Pornaographers’ rousing rendition of the Rock*A*Teens’ 'Don’t Destroy This Night' further up the ante in terms of the songs’ durability factor while also affirming the fact that Merge’s legacy is sumptuous indeed.

Normally, self-congratulatory displays wind up as equally self-serving and somewhat disingenuous. Not so with Score! If Merge manages another 20 years as prodigious as their first, their legacy will deserve to be as revered as their records.

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SCORE! celebrates twenty years of Merge Records. It is a subscription only package, and includes 14 curated compilation CDs, the Merge remix CD, the Merge covers CD, a cover art book, a Scharpling & Wurster CD, a box, and other stuff.
Each compilation features selections hand-picked from the entire Merge catalog by the curator, as well as exclusively commissioned original art work & bonus content created or commissioned by the curator, including music, video & more. All proceeds will benefit charities handpicked by the curators.

HOW AND WHY:

I have a feeling that my choices are so obvious and predictable that some people out there will yawn. My tastes are pretty populist and to those intimately familiar with Merge artists, they will seem boring and obvious. However, I’ve played my compilation quietly over dinners at home sometimes, and guests will often ask when various songs come on, “Who’s that band? I really like that!” I sense these are some of the folks for whom these collections are meant. Well, mine, anyway. I also sense that some who think they are already familiar with Merge and with many of these artists will be surprised too. I know I was. After listening to everything the label put out, I narrowed my choices down and listened to what I had. Wow. Initially I had too much, for starters. In the process of going through the catalogue, I realized that many of the artists had recorded lovely instrumental compositions, so I made an alternate collection of just those. The remaining vocal tunes made a collection I can listen to over and over, as can my dinner guests.

I first met the folks at Merge through Tricia Mesigian, who generously offered to handle merch on my 2001 tour. Trish and I had mutual acquaintances in the band Lambchop, who happened to be on Merge. Trish convinced the band and me to end our tour at the Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, North Carolina, where she was renovating an old house and making a bar/lounge that would later become the popular Orange County Social Club. The stage at the Cat’s Cradle was a little small for the touring band—a rhythm section augmented by a string section—so we were dripping with sweat by the end of the show. Trish introduced Mac and some other friends, and I wasn’t sure if they were members of Superchunk or Merge folks or what; turns out, all of the above. After a few years, I began to connect the dots between friends, bands I liked, and this little label.

A few years ago, I became acquainted with the band Arcade Fire, who were doing some of their first New York shows at Irving Plaza (or was it Bowery Ballroom?). I was not the only person captivated by this band, and they quickly became very popular. A while after this, I remember talking with them, as they were being courted by a number of major labels and offers of money from big labels were being dangled in front of them. They decided to stay with Merge, which says something about both the band and the folks at Merge. Having been involved in a small label myself, I know a little bit about how difficult it is to try and be able to put out some records that you know will only sell in small numbers while some others go gold, and to believe that it’s important to be able to do both. It’s a difficult balancing act, and they’ve done it incredibly well for 20 years! It’s not just a business model; it’s the kind of behavior only folks who really love music and all that surrounds it can maintain. This label is an act of faith and love that (I think) also pays some bills.

Score 20 Years Of Merge Records The Covers

—DB