Have Shed, Will Travel

Hi! It's me again, loyal reader(s). It's not apathy, honest, it's just that I don't care.

Here's another post about a covers album, this time Nothing's Going To Happen by Elf Power. You're possibly asking: who? Elf Power, that's who. Don't ask stupid questions.

So, the record. It's made up mostly of versions of songs by pretty obscure bands, which is rather fitting, considering that Elf Power are themselves pretty obscure. It opens with the title track, originally by the Tall Dwarfs. Who? Dunno. It's good, though. Next up is Why Can't I Touch It?, which was originally by the Buzzcocks - damn good version of a damn good song. And then there's a version of a Gary Numan song. Hey... these aren't as obscure as I said at the beginning. Hmm. Oh, wait, who did the next song? The Frogs. Oh.

There's a trio of Roky Erickson songs in the middle of the album - Mr Erickson being, of course, like I need to explain, the (scatter)brain behind One Of The Best Bands Of The 1960s (official) - The 13th Floor Elevators. He had an erratic solo career after that band split up, erratic mainly because he spent a lot of time in and out of psychiatric hospitals, and/or on various drugs, legal and otherwise. Sounds like a recipe for greatness, right? Right!

Shoved onto the end of the album is a reproduction of an earlier EP that Elf Power released, which was called Come On and was stupidly difficult to get hold of, although (smug mode on) I managed to get a copy (smug mode off). It's got versions of songs originally by T-Rex, the Flaming Lips, Sonic Youth and others. The whole record winds up with an uncredited 'bonus' track - a finely stupid rendition of I Wanna Be Your Dog by the Stooges. Yay!