Cat Power’s new album of cover songs (aptly-titled, Covers) has already yielded dashing renditions of Frank Ocean’s “Bad Religion” and “A Pair Of Brown Eyes” by The Pogues. Today, she dropped the video for the likewise gorgeous cover of “Pa Pa Power” by Dead Man’s Bones, the band fronted by big screen heartthrob Ryan Gosling.
In the clip, Cat Power’s Chan Marshall sings on a double microphone for a crowd at jubilant nightclub. Marshall flexes her incomparable vocals over a trance-inducing guitar and drums on the enveloping track. She explained how when she performed the song on tour in 2012, that it took a deep sociopolitical meaning to her.
“I started playing this solo in 2012 (originally more dissonant and trance-y), when the Occupy Wall Street protests were going on. Occupy was bunkering down and saying, ‘This shit’s f****** f***** up.’ And helping citizens be a voice in their local government. They got a lot of good things done, but the American media killed the movement. I felt like this song was relative to that. The American media has always penalized any sort of social progressiveness and is always the first to express conservative rhetoric against something that is beneficial to the nation. I’d open with this song on the 2013 China tour. ‘Burn the streets, burn the cars.’”
Watch the video for “Pa Pa Power” above. Check out Cat Power’s extensive tour dates here, along with the Covers tracklist below.
1. “Bad Religion” (Frank Ocean)
2. “Unhate” (Cat Power)
3. “Pa Pa Power” (Dead Man’s Bones)
4. “White Mustang” (Lana Del Rey)
5. “A Pair Of Brown Eyes” (The Pogues)
6. “Against The Wind” (Bob Seger)
7. “Endless Sea” (Iggy Pop)
8. “These Days” (Jackson Browne)
9. “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” (Kitty Wells)
10. “I Had A Dream Joe” (Nick Cave)
11. “Here Comes A Regular” (The Replacements)
12. “I’ll Be Seeing You” (Billie Holiday)
Covers is out 1/14/2022 via Domino. Pre-order it here.