My daughters have become slightly obsessed with the band Walk Off The Earth. They love “Somebody That I Used To Know” and have fun identifying which person is performing at different points during the song. “That is the first guy with the short hair.” … “This is the one with the long hair singing now.” … “This is the woman singing”. And they still can’t enough of the video. All of us are impressed and slightly amazed that they can all play one guitar together!
So I did a little digging to see what other songs they have done. I came across their cover of “Party Rock” (originally done by LMFAO) which I bought for 49 cents on emusic.com. I thought the girls would love it, since this is a favorite song of theirs these days. No such luck. They were unimpressed and told me that they much prefer the cover done by Alvin & The Chipmunks. Which, thanks to my free month of Spotify “premium”, we get to listen to ALL the time. Joy.
I kept searching and found 2 more songs that I thought they’d enjoy. A cover of “Someone Like You” by Adele and “Little Boxes”, a Pete Seeger tune which my daughters were already familiar with. The Adele cover got mixed reviews (see the video below). Ilana and I gave it a ‘thumbs up’, and to be honest, I was pretty impressed! I especially enjoyed the musical instrument transitions as well as vocal change ups that they did. But Sasha is an Adele junkie and I don’t think anything will ever please her as much as the originals. The cover of “Little Boxes” had us hooked and we had to watch the video a few times before finally going to bed. “They made their guitars out of boxes!” … “She came out of the TV!” … “He was the one who sang first in the ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ video.”
On the ride to school this morning, the request was to listen to “Little Boxes” by WOTE. Thanks to that premium subscription of Spotify, I was able to find the song and play it! In addition to the cover by WOTE, I found many, many other versions. Anybody who has watched the Showtime series Weeds will recall that “Little Boxes” is the song that is played during the opening credits. So after WOTE sang it to us twice, we listened to the original version by Pete Seeger, then a version by Malvina Reynolds and then a cover sung in a spanish accent by Olivia Ruiz. (Can you tell that we have a long ride to school?) Ilana really liked Malvina’s version and Sasha preferred Olivia’s version. But the real hit was when the “Nancy Stoned Version” from the Weeds began to play. Boy, did those girls crack up and the giggling just couldn’t stop. Take a listen to WOTE’s cover as well as the “Nancy Stoned Version” below. I also included WOTE’s cover of Adele’s “Someone Like You”. Enjoy them all…
One parting thought with regard to Walk Off The Earth… I’m beginning to think that there may be more than 10 seconds of fame. I love the creativity that they bring to their videos. Perhaps some day we will get to hear some original work.
My Musical Muses 
I love every tune you picked. We are on the same musical wave length. Cesca has Adele on all the time. I got her ” live at the doyle Albert hall ” DVD for Xmas so we are belting it out in the car together, shes great . I sent the iTunes clip to an old friend of Woth, Just to share some good music, they are unique, hope they do come out with more good stuff. Brill Melissa.
Thanks Lara. I’m so glad you are enjoying the music!
Actually, it was Malvina Reynolds who wrote “Little Boxes” back in 1962. It was the title song of her collection: “Little Boxes and other handmade songs by Malvina Reynolds” published by Oak Publications in 1964. Pete Seeger recorded it and popularized it, but it is not Pete’s song. Being the modest man that he is, he would never want to take credit for something he didn’t do.
I stand corrected and appreciate the comment. Had a taken a moment to read the Wikepedia entry for Malvina Reynolds, I would have learned that earlier and avoided the mistake. It really is a great song and I’m glad that we’ve discovered the true original. Thanks for reading.
Hello! I just would like to give a huge thumbs up for
the good info you have got right here on this
post. I will probably be coming back to your weblog for extra soon.