Song of the Day: 'When You Were Mine' by Prince, Etc.

Kinda got (re)obsessed with "When You Were Mind" over the weekend after hearing Prince's original at the gym on Songza Friday morning. (Has there ever been a line that the heartbroken related to more than "I love you more than I did when you were mine"?) Like many people my age, however, Cyndi Lauper's synth remake is the version I'm most accustomed to. (Prince writes so many good songs that it was never even a single, although a promo 12-inch was issued.) But while looking for a clip of the "Dirty Mind" version, I came across a bunch of other great covers, including Tegan and Sara and this delightful ukulele version by Hannah Ziegler:

Advocate's 40 Under 40 Starring Tegan and Sara

Via the Advocate: Musicians Tegan and Sara, with their seventh album, "Heartthrob," and a decade-plus experience under their belts, lead the pack of accomplished leaders in politics, sports, science, religion, and the arts named to our annual "40 Under 40" list. Read HERE.

Song of the Day: 'Now I'm All Messed Up' by Tegan Sara

Any hardcore Tegan and Sara fans out there care to weigh in on sisters' new LP, "Heartthrob," which seems to be their "Liz Phair"/Matrix attempt at mainstream success. "Closer" didn't exactly bowl me over, but "Now I'm All Messed Up" is growing on me. Thoughts?

Music Box: Tegan and Sara

This week I'm completely obsessed with Tegan and Sara's "I Just Want Back in Your Head." But for reasons that are completely unclear to me, the girls' label has disabled the embedding code for the official video (NOTE TO RECORD LABELS: Videos are by definition promotional tools -- WHY would you want me to not be able to share YOUR artist's song, which in turn may make someone else want to buy it too?). Instead, I found this fun demo version, which is apparently from "The Con Demos," a limited edition CD Tegan and Sara released for charity.

 

Music Box: Tegan and Sara

Is there any question that Tegan and Sara would be my "favorite duo of all time" if their debut had come out in 1982 instead of the late '90s? Obviously the answer is no. But now that they have six albums -- including the just-released stylistic change-up "Sainthood," which features a song called "Alligator" that The Washington Post says "sounds like vintage Madonna, whose presence looms large both here and on the Material Girl-referring 'Paperback Head'" -- where do I even begin? My pal Russell invited us to see them in concert later this month but it looks like there are no more tickets ("Damn lesbians bought 'em all," he explained). Right now, the only two songs I know are "One Second," which my pal Christopher included on a playlist he did for me last year ("The weekend reminded me that Canada is an enormous country with a small population. Apparently Tegan and Sara need to live on opposite sides of it in order to get along. I didn't know this song from their 'I'll Take the Blame' EP before I heard them play it live last month. It sounded much more like a new wave nugget than this studio version, but I love the creepy calliope quality it achieves. They are by far Canada's best identical twin lesbian folk rock duo") and the wonderful "Not Tonight," a version of which I have by Matt Sharp and Maya Rudolph. I'm tempted to just dive into the new LP, but am open to suggestions -- from lesbians or otherwise.