We like to hear raw-sounding, live covers of our favorite songs almost as much as the real thing. Studio recordings can become antiseptic after a while, and once you've heard "Colony" fifty times a day for the past ten years, a change is good.

Nevertheless, you should never mix alcohol with ... mixing.

IF YOU HAVE COVERS OF ANYTHING BY JOY DIVISION, SWERVEDRIVER, THE CURE, BIG BLACK, THE DEAD BOYS, OR ANY OTHER BAND THAT DOESN'T SUCK PLEASE E-MAIL US.

These songs were recorded one day when we got together the day after a family reunion and proceeded to get blitzed.

The way they were "mixed" (ha) sounded a lot better on the original equipment than it sounds on a stereo system or on a computer. No idea why there's such a difference, but on a stereo system or a computer the vocals are way too loud and sound off key, and there doesn't seem to be much in the way of mid presence.

Oh yeah, and we were totally hammered. Did I mention that?

I normally did the vocals (by default: no one else would step up) and the guitar, except where noted. Jackie usually played bass. Katy (a.k.a. Katey, a.k.a. Megan) and I did most of the the recording and the drum machine programming.

NOTE: We had to remove most of these recordings (temporarily) to make space. If we don't have them put back by the time you get here and you're interested in hearing them or exchanging covers, please e-mail us: sounds at tier8 dot net

Shadowplay - Budweiser-Brain Version Joy Division Shadowplay. Recorded intentionally to sound like a specific live version of this song (really). I think even some of the guitar mistakes were imitated. Also, for those of you who aren't familiar with Joy Division's live stuff, the earlier version of the solo is just as cool. Underrated.

Passover Just an excerpt because the vocals were just too damn loud. Jackie if you put in the whole thing I will kill you. Anyway this is one of the coolest guitar solos ever, because in like four notes just repeated over and over Bernard Sumner says as much as Jimmy Page can say in 600 notes played quickly. Jackie's reproduction of this is quite faithfull to the live version.

Transmission This is also just an excerpt because again the vocals came out way too loud. Me on guitar and Jackie on bass. (If you've never heard the song, the bass is supposed to sound like that. Don't be so simple and closed-minded.)

Atrocity Prohibition Cover of Joy Division's Atrocity Exhibition, from Closer. This is one of those songs we should have deleted right after we did it. The bass is messed up and the words probably aren't even right; the only good thing about it is that Jackie is a huge Yardbirds fan and her guitar playing is reminiscent of Jeff Beck's wacked-out "mega-reverb" guitar playing on Turn Into Earth, one of their deeper (but less known) tracks from Roger the Engineer.

Disintegration The Cure, Disintegration. Excerpt from an instrumental cover of this Cure song.

Prayers For Beer The Cure, Prayers For Rain.

Wish The Cure, Wish.

Disorder Joy Division, Disorder. Vocals way too loud.