Melissa Fossum

Darkness Dear Boy

See also: Fugazi: Five "Waiting Room" Listening Essentials

It's usually a safe bet to cover an artist that influenced a band's sound, so Darkness Dear Boy opted for some Fugazi.

"I'd say we're rock, reggae, punk, and a little honky tonk. With Fugazi, you've got the punk and rock," says singer/guitarist Ted Organ.

"I don't think you really hear it -- it's kind of an obscure cover," says bassist Chase Lechner.

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Melissa Fossum

Mill's End

Before Ryan Adams was winning (and breaking) hearts with albums like Heartbreaker and last year's strong Ashes & Fire, he was a member of the seminal alt-country act Whiskeytown. Whiskeytown had a good six-year run and helped define the genre's sound and influenced a number of bands.

"A lot of the influence we have is . . . there's a Southern rock, classic rock feel to what we write, and that seems to fit in pretty well," says Jeff Bump, singer/guitarist of Mill's End. "I can think of some songs that we're doing right now that he [Ryan Adams] definitely had a big influence on."

Adams' alt-country vibe and Mill's End's rock 'n' roll roots will show on the band's upcoming album, which is due this summer. We met up with Mill's End last week while they were working on some guitar tracks at Uranus Studios in Tempe. The band took a break from recording to share their cover of "16 Days" with us.

Mill's End is scheduled to perform at Long Wong's at the Firehouse on Wednesday, May 30.

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Melissa Fossum

Tommy Ash Band

Like The Beatles, Johnny Cash is a risky musician to cover. Do you stay true to the Man In Black's style, or do you put your own twist on his songs? The Tommy Ash Band made the bold choice to put their own spin on "Folsom Prison Blues." The Tommy Ash band approaches "Folsom Prison Blues" with a soulful female singer and a full electric band that has a rock and contemporary country flair.

"I think either you love it or you hate it. Some people think it's weird, but I love Johnny Cash, so I sing what I like," says singer Tommy Ash.

"A lot of the good feedback that we're getting from people is that they don't expect a girl to sing a Johnny Cash or a Waylon Jennings song. That's the stuff we like, and if people like it, that's good, and if they don't like it, we still like the songs and we're having fun with it," adds guitarist Ben Blanc-Dumont, who plays an intricate guitar solo in the same vein as Reverend Horton Heat's version of the song.

The Tommy Ash Band is scheduled to perform Saturday, May 26 at the Roadrunner Restaurant and Saloon in New River.

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Melissa Fossum

Copper Keys

See also: Frank Turner Discusses Touring, London Riots, and Drinking With Grandma

I may be biased, but I think Frank Turner is one of those underrated artists everyone should know about. He blew me away at The Rhythm Room last year and stole the show once again when he opened for Social Distortion in February. The problem is, most people don't know who he is, which is why The Copper Keys sometimes get credited with performing "I Still Believe" as an original song.

"I've had a lot of people approach us and be like, 'Oh, which one of you guys wrote that song?' None of us," says drummer Arianne Hermida.

"That's one reason I actually don't like to play that song too often," adds guitarist Steve Joze. "I really like that song, but I don't want to be credited with it and have [the audience] find out it's not actually us."

We met up with The Copper Keys on their front lawn to hear their take on "I Still Believe." We're sad to report that The Copper Keys have disbanded, but it's still worth listening to their twist on "I Still Believe." Spoiler alert: There's a kazoo.

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Melissa Fossum

Dry River Yacht Club

The Beatles are a tricky band to cover, but local gypsy rockers Dry River Yacht Club were up for the task. The group learned Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band for Cover the Crescent and played the songs as close to the original versions as possible.

"Every time I've heard a Beatles cover where [artists] put their spin on it, I didn't like it. I was like, 'You ruined a Beatles song,'" says vocalist Garnet Lashley.

The main task for DRYC was dissecting all of the nuances of a Beatles song.

"All of the songs we did have all of these little parts that you never really pay attention to when you listen to it, but when you start to break it down, they're so essential. It's not that song without a little flurry here and there, so we had to pick out those parts and arrange it all. Arranging was really difficult, but fun," says violinist Megyn Neff.

A typical guitar/bass/drum band would likely struggle with a song like "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," but Dry River could pull it off thanks to its instrumentation.

"I don't think we would have even attempted this record or these songs without the instruments we have," says percussionist Henri Benard, "All of the interesting instruments allow us to convey the orchestration and all of those extras that made it so interesting, that made the record so intricate when you listen to it because there's so much movement."

Dry River Yacht Club is scheduled to perform at the San Tan Wheelie Jam at Steele Indian School Park on Saturday, April 28 at 3:45 p.m.

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Melissa Fossum

The Necronauts

This month's Cover the Crescent is drug-themed thanks to 4-20. The Love Me Nots are covering The Doors (check out their version of "Soul Kitchen" here) and The Necronauts decided to take on Nirvana.

"I've known these guys [The Necronauts] for a while, and I think that's one of the first bands we talked about when we met 12 years ago," says guitarist Aaron Burke.

"Probably because we ripped them off when we were really young," adds drummer Dale Goodman.

We swung by The Necronauts' warm and dark practice space to hear their version of "Stain." It was pretty loud in there, so be advised that the video picked up more guitars than vocals.

The Necronauts are scheduled to perform at Crescent Ballroom on Friday, April 20.

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Melissa Fossum

The Love Me Nots

See also: Fatigo Covers Depeche Mode

The Love Me Nots' Nicole Laurenne and Michael Johnny Walker have been married for four years, but if it wasn't for The Doors, they may have never met.

"That song, ["Soul Kitchen"], my old band used to cover it," says Laurenne. "We used to do the X version of it. Michael was in the audience, and that was the night we met. My trivia question to the audience was what two bands made this song famous and he guessed it. He won the CD and that's how we met."

"And won the phone number," Walker adds.

The Love Me Nots have their hands full next weekend. On Friday, April 20, the band plays at The Sail Inn for PhoChella and Crescent Ballroom for a stoner rock-themed version of Cover the Crescent. In honor of Record Store Day on the Saturday, April 21, the band embarks on a mini-tour of Phoenix record shops, playing Revolver Records, Stinkweeds, and the Zia Records on Thunderbird.

We caught up with The Love Me Nots to hear their take on "Soul Kitchen." Their drummer, Jay Lien, lives in New York and bassist Sophie O was busy with school, so Laurenne and Walker recruited their friend Lindsey Bair to fill in on acoustic guitar. Believe it or not, this was Bair's first attempt at playing the song. Check it out after the jump.

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Melissa Fossum

Fatigo

Covering Depeche Mode without a synthesizer can be a bit of a challenge, but Fatigo pulls it off with a piano, a trumpet, and some cool bass effects.

"We are going to integrate some of Depeche Mode's synthy sounds [while] giving it that Fatigo south of the border sound," says vocalist Mike Montoya.

David Marquez from Sweetbleeders provided the funky bass riffs. "Depeche Mode sounds easy to a lot of people because it's synthesizers and drum machines, but there's a lot of nuance inside of it. When you want to put it to real instruments, it's challenging. It's definitely more difficult to place one simple thing in an ensemble with many people," he says.

Fatigo learned a bunch of Depeche Mode covers for Cover the Crescent and the band can be expected to play more of them in the future.

Fatigo performs tonight at Crescent Ballroom with Sweet Talker, Lovemilk, A Technicolor Yawn, and Heavy Horses.

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Born Loser and The Hangers Onput together a Pixies set after a fan said BLATHO reminded him of The Pixies. Initially, some band members thought it was a bad idea thanks to odd timing, but it turned out well.

"[We decided] we'll just do whatever 'Where is my Mind?' is off of and it was that album [Doolittle], and it turned out to be the best album, ever," said guitarist Benny Miller.

Now BLATHO has a whole repertoire of Pixies covers that will be played at The Underground's '80s cover night on Saturday, March 31.

Check out BLATHO's take on "Gigantic" after the jump.

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Melissa Fossum

When The Madera Strand prepared a Police set for Cover the Crescent, the band's main obstacle was finding the right pitch.

"[Sting] sings so high anyway, but I'm also an alto, so some of those notes were kind of hard to hit," says vocalist d'Averill Demetrulias in reference to "Walking on the Moon." Vocally, "Wrapped Around Your Finger" was easier to adapt.

The Police have a huge influence on The Madera Strand's sound. "When we started learning these songs, a lot of their structures are very similar to the way we structure songs. You can really see where the influence comes through," says guitarist Cody Cruse.

The Madera Strand is scheduled to perform at Tugboat's farewell show at The Rogue Bar on Saturday, March 24.

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