KILLER COVERS || Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: "Baby"

As much as any number of current bands are doing retro sounds like 60s girl pop and 70s soul right, there's a certain amount of modernization that slips in during the songwriting process; they never really sound like a song that was both written and recorded in the era indie-band-du-jour is going for... they may get the latter correct, but it's hard to shake off all the influences that have emerged in the 30-40 years since.

You may expect that I'm about to cite this new cut by Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti as the exception that proves the rule. Actually, no, it's a cover in and of itself, more the non-exception that underscores the rule. The original is a 1979 obscurity by Donnie and Joe Emerson.

As Stereogum points out, venerable old school blog Soul Sides did a write up on a couple of years ago. No idea if that's where Ariel Pink picked up on it or not, but it's slated to appear on Pink's new album Mature Themes later this summer (via 4AD).