A cover of a cover is still a cover, but the best kind of cover is one that covers those affected by tragedy. Boston rock bandits Mellow Bravo have recorded their take on J. Geils Band’s rendition of the Show Stoppers’ 1969 anthem “(Ain’t Nothin’ But A (House Party),” with all proceeds going to victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. The money raised will go to through the American Red Cross.
Vanyaland caught up with Mellow Bravo loud mouth Keith Pierce on how the song came to fruition — and how it was a local fund-raiser that got the ball rolling.
Back in April during a benefit show for Boston Marathon bombing victims at T.T. The Bear’s Place, Pierce won a raffle prize of a free day of recording at Brian Charles’ Zippah Recording Studio in Brighton.
“We decided that to do something positive with whatever coin we make,” Pierce tells Vanyaland. “Then a week or two before we went in to record I ran into Peter Wolf from The J. Geils back stage at Redstar Union and had a short chat. I told him what we wanted to do and he gave us his blessing to track their sexed up version of ‘House Party.'”
A song that was re-energized in 1973 suddenly got a re-boot.
“That psyched us all up to go in there, and do it as live/raw as they would have,” Pierce adds. “The plan was to donate to the One Fund but it took a while to get it mastered and ready for release. Now that it was finished we had a talk and felt like people in the Philippines need that help more than anyone right now so we decided to pay the Boston love forward to them.”
Check out the track below, and shell out whatever you can to aid those in need.
