Bartees Stange, Eric Slick, Ohmme, Anjimile | photo courtesy of Psychic Hotline
Listen to Bartees Strange, Eric Slick, and Ohmme cover TV On The Radio, Anjimile cover Beverly Glenn-Copeland
Sylvan Esso’s Durham-based indie label Psychic Hotline runs a recurring split single series, and their latest installment finds a cross section of artists we love here at The Key covering songs that were infulential to them.
On the A-side, Bartees Strange teams up with Dr. Dog drummer Eric Slick (a solo artist in his own right) to cover “Province,” a track from TV On The Radio’s 2006 album Return To Cookie Mountain. It’s a record Slick was obsessed with as a youth, and as he started tinkering with production on the cover — which is an explosion of synth sound that breaks down into dramatic piano and guitar — he connected with Bartees to provide vocals.
TVOTR in general was a pivotal band for Bartees, and in this rendition of their song, his singing is wrapped in otherworldly vocodor, with Ohmme’s Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart providing accompaniment.
The b-side finds Boston singer-songwriter Anjimile covering Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s “Ever New,” a dreamlike 7-minute ballad reflecting on rebirth and rejuvination from Glenn-Copeland’s 1986 album Keyboard Fantasies. It’s reinvented here as a solitary folk song Anjimile recorded in their bedroom.
Listen to the single below, as well as the originals, and preorder a vinyl 7″ at the label’s Bandcamp page. Bartees Strange opens for Lucy Dacus at Union Transfer on October 21st, while Anjimile plays PhilaMOCA on October 12th; tickets and more information on both can be found at the XPN Concert Calendar.