I saw Dar Williams in concert. She was great; she mostly did songs from the current album, which is just fine by me. (She opened with her acoustic version of "Comfortably Numb", just her and the guitar, then slowly opening out to the rest of the band. Loved it.) Her opening act were the Girlyman, whom I've never heard before, and who were amazing. (I was expecting Dar to be good. I was expecting the opening act to be eeeh.) They closed their set with a hard-rocking cover of "Son of a Preacherman". Me: off to buy CDs.

Just popping in with a question: if one were to need, desperately, the Nick Cave cover of "Lust for Life," where would one look? Besides here, which I am already obviously doing ...

Huh. The only version I'm seeing is:

During a soundcheck for a Bad Seeds gig in Lille on 3/10/93, Nick Cave did a cover of Lust For Life.

So you might look into the world of bootleg trading, but I don't know that Nick did an official release.

So you might look into the world of bootleg trading, but I don't know that Nick did an official release.

Besides live gigs, you might see if there are any boots of unreleased stuff from the KICKING AGAINST THE PRICKS sessions, which was his only covers album.

I know he's thrown covers on as b-sides (In the Ghetto, Black Betty), but that one I've never heard about.

erinaceous where did you hear this Nick cover, anyway?

I can't even imagine wanting another version over Iggy's. My imagination is bankrupt on the subject.

Have sudden urge to hear Iggy singing "Sweet sixteeen / In Leather boots..."

I just heard *about* the cover, and now I must hear the actual thing.

Supposedly Vince Neil (of Motley Crue, do I even need to make this parenthetical explanation here?) did a cover too, which I really want to hear. As it was supposed to be for the Showgirls soundtrack, and I really need to hear a song so lame it couldn't even be on the Showgirls soundtrack.

I did finally get the Smithereens cover, and it's hysterical because the singer is cueing the band: "now I'm singing that verse again" ...

Since I asked the album question... what songs are high on your "best of 2005" list? Do you even do a best-of with songs?

Most played song on my iPod this year: "Black And White Town," Doves

I really need to hear a song so lame it couldn't even be on the Showgirls soundtrack.

I think Vince used it on the soundtrack of his porno. There's probably some Crue fansite (or maybe even Vince's official site) where you could get a package deal on his and Tommy's videos. Just how much do you want to hear it?

Name the speaker:

• And then Isaac Hayes introduced me to Jimmy Webb... we were at a songwriters' commemoration one time and Isaac actually brought me on stage and introduced me, I was like, Wow. I was speechless.

• There's an x-factor in females that spit. I'm actually putting together a group of stellar female MCs... I was inspired by Le Tigre.

Click here for the answer. I knew his favorite Beatles song was "The Long and Winding Road," but I never would have guessed that meeting Jimmy Webb would leave him speechless. "You're quite hostile." "I got a right to be hostile -- someone left my cake out in the rain!"

Hec, I love the Bad Livers cover of "Lust for Life"? It's not better than Iggy's, but it's not worse, either - it's its own thing.