Something old, Something new

Normally i'm not a big fan of remakes. I'm against remakes of old movies, no matter how awesome the new-fangled computer graphics effects will 'enhance' the old version of stick puppets and tonka trucks. There's definitely a sense of quality when watching an old film. It comes across as an art, that the actors really cared and poured their efforts into making it the best film they could make. Imagine trying to remake "singing in the rain" or some old classic from the 50-60's. Just won't happen. Anyone know of a modern day fred astaire? Nobody really comes to mind.

But once in a while, i come across something that's truly refreshing. It'll never quite recapture that "magic" of the original, but every now and then, i say it's about on par if not better than the original. While cleaning up my room and finding all my junk and where i put it (amazing how much stuff you can accumulate in a short 6 months), i came across some old cd's i've burned a while back. One of them was a remake of an old cure song, "love song". It's hard to try to compare the cure to anyone else, but this one is different. The cure definitely have their own feel, a very unique sound and style all their own. But I came across a 311 remake of the same song. Words are the same. Lyrics are the same. Melodies are the same. Even the guitar solos are the same. But something about the funk/punk/rock groove of 311's remake just enhances the original. It gives it a more laid back feel, a smooth subtle groove.

If you haven't heard it, this track gets a thumbs-up in my book. It's hard to get me to listen to a track more than once all the way through, but this one's been on repeat for while. I think it's on the soundtrack to "50 First Dates" so if you got the dvd, there's a music video of it, i also recommend. You get to see some older midwestern rockers (nebraska boys) strut their stuff

and it doesn't hurt that the drummer's really good =D