Bing Ji Ling “You Shook Me”
Mark Kozelek “Riff Raff”
Shellac “Jailbreak”
Wing “Back In Black”

I was stuck in traffic on the 101 North last night when “Highway To Hell” came on the radio and made the next four minutes of stop-and-start slow death on the “free”way actually, uh, enjoyable. There were devil’s horns. There was much goofy rocking back and forth.

I thought how massive the band sounds, how fun they are, how fun it can be to just go caveman for moments at a time.

I’ve been too introspective lately.

So today, a quartet of AC/DC covers, half of them pulled from other blogs at some point in the past.

The re-readings of “You Shook Me” by Bing Ji Ling and “Riff Raff” by Mark Kozelek are almost in the same spirit of Matthew’s Celebrity Pixies Tribute (also fun and worth checking out if you haven’t)–playing “what if?” or building two or more layers of music geek radness.

Which is to say that the former sounds like Beck doing Prince covering AC/DC and the latter is Nick Drake-ian (c. Pink Moon) in its mellow acoustic gloom. Kozelek is the main man from Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon, but may be best known as the guy who started the bus-bound “Tiny Dancer” singalong in that one movie about how Cameron Crowe is the Messiah. I don’t know much about Bing Ji Ling other than his creepy irony-heavy image, but he gets kudos for bringing the funky/funny on “You Shook Me.”

Shellac, the post-hardcore combo fronted by Chicago uber-producer Steve Albini (and one of my favorite rock bands), puts a razor-blade Cubist spin on “Jailbreak.” It displays something about the group that I love–their ability to be kinda abstract and off, while still rocking monstrously hard. Half of that is well in the spirit of the Brothers Young et al.

Wing’s Casiotone outsider-music swing at “Back In Black” mostly shows the resilience of a good riff. That said, the solo starting around 4:20 always makes me smile.

BJL’s Doodle Loot Doot Doodle a Doo on Amazon.
MK’s What’s Next to the Moon at Newbury Comics.
AC/DC Sides 1-4 (featuring Shellac) at Gemm.
Wing Sings AC/DC at WingMusic.co.nz. (or WingTunes.)