It’s no secret that Joy Division is one of my serious crushes and over the past few years I’ve collected a bunch of covers done by all sorts of different bands since the early 80s.

The ten tracks below represent some of my favorite covers, with my pick of the lot being the hazy laid-back Galaxie 500 rendering of “Ceremony.” I actually prefer the song to the Joy Division and New Order versions, it’s slowed down but still retains the elegiac feeling of the original. Another highlight is Skog’s (a previous incarnation of Kings of Convenience) folky-acoustic take on “The Eternal.” Also, note that Starchildren were a Smashing Pumpkins side-project.

Joy Division Central has a listing of all the Joy Division songs performed by other groups, be sure to check it out, the website itself is a great resource for Joy Division enthusiasts. Also, today in Joy Division history, March 13th, the band played live at Band On The Wall in Manchester (1979).

[MP3]: Galaxie 500  ”Ceremony”
On Fire, Rough Trade; 1989
[MP3]: Skog  ”The Eternal”
Balance, Ego Development; 1997
[MP3]: LCD Soundsystem  ”No Love Lost”
All My Friends, EMI; 2007
[MP3]: Starchildren  ”Isolation”
A Means to an End: The Music of Joy Division, Virgin; 1995
[MP3]: Squarepusher  ”Love Will Tear Us Apart”
Do You Know Squarepusher, Warp; 2002
[MP3]: Nine Inch Nails  ”Dead Souls”
The Crow: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Atlantic/Wea; 1994
[MP3]: New Order  ”Atmosphere (Live)”
Peel Tribute – Oct. 12, 2005 – Royal Festival Hall, London
[MP3]: Low  ”Transmission”
A Means to an End: The Music of Joy Division, Virgin; 1995
[MP3]: Ola Podrida  ”Atmosphere”
The Signal Soundtrack, Lakeshore; 2008
[MP3]: Tortoise  ”As You Said”
A Means to an End: The Music of Joy Division, Virgin; 1995

I was browsing around Som Records in Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago when I first heard the music of Sunil Ganguly. The owner of the shop had just received Ganguly’s Electric Guitar Hindi Film Tunes from an outside source and was playing it for the first time. I listened to the first three or so songs before approaching the dude working at the shop with a couple questions. Unfortunately, this was the first time that the shop owner had ever seen or heard a Ganguly album, so I had to result to Google and a co-worker to find out more about the Indian musician.

While I was still in the shop, the first thing I noticed about Ganguly’s tunes was his use of a Hawaiian electric guitar and a little research led me to discover that’s exactly what the respected gayaki style guitarist was known for in India. The Hawaiian guitar was used in Indian films during the 40s and 50s as background music as a sign of sorrow. The guitars were very popular in India because of the style in which it is played and the fact that traditional Indian music is built around melodies. Ganguly, a skilled classical Indian musician, re-made a bunch of hit Bollywood songs spanning the decades between 1940 and 1980 using a Hawaiian guitar. His mastery of the traditional song structure was meshed with elements like sitar synthesized sounds, funk, strings, flutes, Afro-Cuban claves, and of course the steel guitar.

I was talking to my co-worker about Ganguly and sent her “Kitne Bhi Tu Karle Sitam” that I ripped from vinyl. She instantly remembered the song from her childhood in India and said it was from the popular Bollywood film “Sanam Teri Kasam.” You can check out the original song (with vocals by singer Kishore Kumar) and scene from the 1982 flick via YouTube and stream it on Music India Online. I’ve read that Ganguly didn’t always cite the films from which he covered songs, but on the record I have he did cite them.

Ganguly died in June of 1999 after a recording career that spanned more than 40 years that began in 1957 when his first album dropped on HMV. Check out the festive “Kitne Bhi Tu Karle Sitam” below and for more from Ganguly and Hindi film instrumentals, head over to Bollywood Vinyl and Hamara CD. [Note: sorry for the lack of bass on the recording, I'm just getting the hang of converting vinyl to MP3 format]

[MP3]: Sunil Ganguly  ”Kitne Bhi Tu Karle Sitam”
Electric Guitar Hindi Film Tunes, EMI; 1982

I’m sure a lot of you saw this on Friday. I actually didn’t see it until over the weekend — I guess that I was too busy being stoked about the My Bloody Valentine news. Pretty rad when one of your favorite bands cover your favorite Joy Division/New Order song. Doesn’t happen everyday.

Originally written by Ian Curtis, the song was released as New Order’s first single in 1981 after Curtis’ death, but first appeared on Joy Division’s Still album. Download the mp3 below.

[MP3]: Radiohead  ”Ceremony (Joy Division/New Order cover)”
Cover, Unreleased; 2007

Above pic via rekha_is_batman

Beautiful…

[MP3]: The Antlers  ”When You Sleep (My Bloody Valentine Cover)”
Covers; 2007