ACL Festival 2018 weekend one - Saturday
photo by Andy Sawyer

St. Vincent & Jehnny Beth cover Nine Inch Nails, The Kills do T. Rex & more for Rock Hall

This Saturday, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame will induct Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, Whitney Houston, the Notorious B.I.G., the Doobie Brothers, and T. Rex. Ahead of the event, a few contemporary musicians have paid homage to the inductees with renditions of their tracks in a series of covers for Amazon Music.

St. Vincent gave her own spin on Nine Inch Nails’ “Piggy,” while Savages’ Jehnny Beth tackled their track, “Closer.” In a press release, St. Vincent wrote, “[‘Piggy’] remains one of my favorite Nails songs to this day…I am obsessed with the slinky tambourine that is just a little lazy in feel. And when I took this song apart to cover it, it took me a long time to really understand the immensity of the groove. It’s a dark, industrial reggae. Muscular, but never as distorted as you imagined it when you think of it in your head…They made a complicated thing seem easy and made big, bold sonic choices.”

Additionally, Real Estate covered the Doobie Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes In,” while The Kills took on T. Rex’s “Cosmic Dancer” and Eyelids did Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence.”

“The Doobies’ hits are ubiquitous as any other music I’d hear playing in the Orthodontist’s office in New Jersey while waiting to get my retainer adjusted,” said Alex Bleeker of Real Estate. “They are absolute classics, and deservedly so. We explored the Doobie Brothers catalog pretty thoroughly before finally settling on ‘What a Fool Believes.’ Of course, it was an obvious choice, but it’s also one of the greatest pop songs ever recorded, which was totally intimidating. Once we decided to go for it, it was really fun to get in there and discover each individual part and what makes the song so timeless and incredible.”

Of their cover, The Kills wrote, “Recording T Rex’s ‘Cosmic Dancer’ during these strange and dark times in lockdown, transported us to, for all intents and purposes, way way way better times. It was a joy to explore the guts and heart of this song, pull the curtains on the world outside, and get lost in Marc Bolan’s mind for a day. Music is medicine and this song was a much-needed dose.”

You can listen to the entire catalog of covers below.

For the broadcast of the Rock Hall event this weekend — which is to be premiered on HBO and HBO Max beginning at 8 PM EST on Saturday, the 7th — St. Vincent will join artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, Diddy, Chris Martin, Gwen Stefani, Iggy Pop, Jennifer Hudson, Billy Idol, Ringo Starr, and a handful of others.