September 10, 2007

Ben Gibbard Covers Beat Happening

The Michael Azerrad documentary Kurt Cobain: About A Son, featuring audio clips of interviews between Michael and Kurt set to ambient cinematography, gets widespread theatrical release sometime this fall. For the doc (which we've yet to see), Azerrad's pulled together a solid roster of artists performing a spread of tunes, all being of the non-Nirvana variety. That's not to say the tracks have no Kurt connection, though; take Pinwheel frontman Ben Gibbard's contribution, a cover of "Indian Summer" by the '80s twee-pop trio Beat Happening of K Records fame. (Cobain had a K Records tattoo 'cause he loved the label. Also, he wanted to impress his then girlfriend Tobi Vail.) Ben's offering is true in form (i.e. one-part, chiming guitar), while swapping the hand drum for a proper kit, adding some harmonies, fleshing out the texture a tad. Moves along at a quicker clip than Luna's take, (no surprise there). All we have is a snippet for now, which you can hear here. Fun Gibbard fact: He gets all crazy and shit when he has Red Bull.

The Kurt Cobain: About A Son soundtrack is out 9/11 on Barsuk. Tracklist after the jump.

01 "Overture" - Steve Fisk and Ben Gibbard
02 Audio: Never Intended
03 "Motorcycle Song" - Arlo Guthrie
04 "Eye Flys" - The Melvins
05 Audio: Punk Rock
06 "Banned in DC" - Bad Brains
07 "Up Around the Bend" - Creedence Clearwater Revival
08 "Put Some Sugar on It" - Half Japanese
09 "Son of a Gun" - The Vaselines
10 "Graveyard" - Butthole Surfers
11 Audio: Hardcore Was Dead
12 "Owner's Lament" - Scratch Acid
13 "Touch Me I'm Sick" - Mudhoney
14 "Audio: Car Radio"
15 "The Passenger" - Iggy Pop
16 "The Borgeois Blues" - Leadbelly
17 "New Orleans Instrumental No. 1" - R.E.M.
18 "Audio: The Limelight"
19 "The Man Who Sold the World" - David Bowie
20 "Museum" - Mark Lanegan
21 "Indian Summer" - Ben Gibbard