Low plays Toto's Africa

The new album from Low, titled C'mon, is rather excellent. Sadly not on the album is Low's cover of Toto's Africa, performed here for the AV Undercover series. I truly dig this. Not even ironically. "Low Covers Toto"

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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FnordX

I thought Neil from the Young Ones played guitar, not keyboard?
Anonymous

Low absolutely rules. One of my favorite bands to see live. Simply amazing.
JPW

Re the performance–really, all of it–but especially from 3:05 on: Ouch. That was a solo?

I feel bad for being harsh, but seriously. When you attempt a remake, at least try to flatter whoever you’re covering.

If nothing else, Toto had some serious studio musicians.
Tdawwg

Ah, shit-slinging over indie pop. Everybody wins.
Gulliver

Good to know Boingers are focused on the real problems facing the world today…like Toto.
KilgoreTrout XL

That was great- and I’m in the middle of a huge Drums and Guns kick right now.

I’ve never actually seen the band until today though. So you can imagine my surprise when I found out that Neil from The Young Ones plays keys for them.
Anonymous

If you like this song you should check out Hackney Collieri Band`s version @ their site… ;-) (http://www.hackneycollieryband.co.uk/).
It`s awesome!!!
Anonymous

i like it also. less reverb on the voices could have made it even more intimate and fragile.

and by the way, watch it until it’s pulled (or geofucked) by sony.

where’s the video link this time? please keep adding them to the articles. it makes it so much easier to watch through a web proxy service if you have to.

thank you!

.~.
Anonymous

for some reason i am not satisfied with the harmonies in this. in fact, even toto really doesn’t give this song due justice. one day someone will, at least a lot of people’s opinion anyway. there is, in this piece, something sweet…
judonerd

I work in the same building as the Onion, and my office is directly above the space where they do the Cover Series. It gets loud.

Some artists barely know the song they are playing, some can’t even physically play the parts they are given, and some nail it on the first try.

However, it’s always awesome to hear them playing right below me. It’s fun and informal. You never know who is coming in and what they are going to take a stab at playing.

A highlight was when Andrew WK did a Christmas-song duet with our building’s regular mailman. Anybody wondering why the performance isn’t perfect is missing the point of the series.
empirechick

My favorite version by Straight No Chaser:

http://youtu.be/8SpDIW5dKhs
Rob Thornton

It sounds just like the original. If you aren’t going to play around with it, why bother?
skeletoncityrepeater

Low is one of the greatest bands of all time. True legends who have stuck to their guns for their entire career. This is the fastest thing I’ve even heard them play, they must not have had time to arrange it in a minimal fashion. Check out their other music if you haven’t heard of Low before. Albini’s ‘Things We Lost In The Fire’ is a great piece on any level.
dia sobin

Thanks, David, I’d never heard this band before. The vocalist brings to mind singers in the British ballad tradition I so adore… Sandy Denny, Maddy Prior, June Tabor.
I don’t know about Low’s version of “Transmission” though… Joy Division had it’s dirges (we all know and love) but this might be overkill! ;-)
Bionicrat2

My family has been digging this BBC series Walk on the Wild Side. Here’s a clip of some elephants “car singing” along to the Toto song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsvA7p0LYUk
futnuh

Musically-speaking, Low’s cover is really quite pedestrian. The sort of performance I’d expect from a high-school quartet. Dan Holloway’s finger-style guitar version has a lot more chops, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrQtxumWGUg. (Yes, he looks like Bilbo).
raytube

My new favorite is this version by Golden Ages:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPKLjc0EyZk
The sound is not the best, but wow!
Brett Myers

Wow, not really very good.
Wingo

Great rendition. This AV series is pretty killer. Lots of good stuff there.

Toto was a talented band, as corny as they sound now. They could certainly play, and nailed the harmonies. Also, legendary partiers…
deejayqueue

Kinda disappointed nobody posted this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjbpwlqp5Qw
before now. Considering I think I heard it here first to begin with.

Hands down IMHO the best cover of this song ever crafted.
- millie fink
  
  Thanks for posting that!
  
  I see white people.
  
  Which clears up a lot for me, actually. It’s a white-people song. About Africa. It’s just that, as with most white-people stuff, white people don’t see the “white.” To them, it’s just “people.” And this song is “just a song.” But (thanks again), it’s actually a white-people song.
  
  (Sorry for going on about it, but that kind of stuff is interesting to me, and it’s good to get some of that invisible murkiness–murky invisibility–cleared up.)
Anonymous

I saw this band in Toronto last week and they are absolutely at the top of their game. It was incredibly devestating. I had to go home and lay down and think about stuff afterwards.
GaryG

As a long time Low fan, I think it’s great to see them goof about on a corny old track like this. It’s not all glacial paced slowcore y’know. ;)
jay

Well, this should redeem Duluth, however slightly, after the Ball-slashing dude story.
jere7my

And if so, whattaya gettin so hot under the collar about?

I’m not the one who reached for the sarcasm guns, puddin’. “Okee, rightio”?
Anonymous

second the the Hackney Colliery Band rendition as *the* version
http://www.youtube.com/user/wahwah45s?blend=9&ob=5#p/u/0/iqWNOUOxjPI
kidincredible

Why would you cover a song you don’t like/know enough to not have to have a lyric sheet to sing off of?
- Anonymous
  
  I lost track of the double / triple / … negatives. What are you asking?
- wrybread
  
  I recently saw a rapper reading his own songs off his iPhone. His own songs! And he was still spectacular.
- kuanes
  
  Taking the time to follow the link points you to the A/V Club’s Undercover series, in which a list of about 18-22 songs is created, and the band which choose to participate in this must choose from that list (and once a song is performed, it is off the list).
  
  Perhaps Low wanted a challenge. When you’ve put out the amount of material they have over the last two decades, I’m not surprised they might need lyrics for their own songs.
  - kidincredible
    
    Seems dubious. Titus Andronicus knew all of “Birdhouse In Your Soul” and was prepared enough to have a Charles Bukowski sample at the beginning of it.
    
    If Low had been blindsided by the request, I’d understand, but clearly they have time to prepare?
    
    I will grant them that Low sounds 1000x better covering Africa than Titus Andronicus sounded butchering Birdhouse.
Moriarty

Let’s get the rest of the standard concern trolling out of the way. What do you think the carbon footprint of this little performance was? Seems a little frivolous, no?
Bob Rossney

To me, the fact that Low is playing Toto is the least startling thing about this (you should hear their version of the Bee Gees’ “I Started A Joke”), after the presence of a fourth person, the absence of a guitar, Alan playing Mimi’s drums, and a synthesizer. I don’t even know what’s true anymore. Dogs are mating with cats. But damn, those vocal harmonies are perfect.
Uncle Geo

MS. Parker has a lovely voice. It reminds me of Annie Hasslam of Renaissance. Now you see how very old I am. Link to only song you might have heard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtSQFewjDD0
- chgoliz
  
  I have all their albums.
  
  *fist bump*
gobo

@kidincredible: Because apparently they were challenged to do it by one of the producers of the show.

I’d be happy listening to Mimi Parker sing the phonebook, myself. Lovely.
olmsteader

Wow, Elton John is looking really young these days!
SamSam

Oh man, I’ve never understood people’s obsession with that song. The lyrics are so… terrible. What’s the word for “Orientalism” for Africa?

Oooohhh, I long for exotic Africa. The sound of the drums at night. The snow on Kilimanjaro. The old man with forgotten melodies.

I would think the whole thing was an ironic joke, but people actually seem to think it’s serious.
- Anonymous
  
  I agree; the line
  “As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the
  Se-ren-get-i” is one of the worst lyric lines ever.
- millie fink
  
  I’m with you, SamSam.
  
  What’s next, boingers, a cover of “Brown Sugar”?
  
  http://stuffwhitepeopledo.blogspot.com/2009/04/listen-to-racist-music.html
- millie fink
  
  “What’s the word for “Orientalism” for Africa?”
  
  All I can come up with is primitivism. Romanticization is in the right area, but too general.
- jere7my
  
  I would think the whole thing was an ironic joke, but people actually seem to think it’s serious.
  
  The whole thing is an ironic joke. It’s about someone who’s never been to a place expressing his love for it based on magazines and TV.
  
  Jeff explains the idea behind the song: “… a white boy is trying to write a song on Africa, but since he’s never been there, he can only tell what he’s seen on TV or remembers in the past.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa_%28Toto_song%29
  - millie fink
    
    Oh, well, if that’s what he MEANT, then everything’s okay, cuz what really matters is intentions, not effects, amiright? And I’m sure everyone who loves that song is totally clued in to the ironic nature of its primitivist cliches and stereotypes. Okee, rightio.
    - Anonymous
      
      Does the song have any effects? It sounds like perceived intentions are all there is to criticize.
    - jere7my
      
      I’m sure everyone who loves that song is totally clued in to the ironic nature of its primitivist cliches and stereotypes.
      
      So irony is only acceptable if every listener gets it?
      
      Hey, Millie. Bite me.
      - millie fink
        
        No, ironic racism aired in mainstream venues is UNacceptable because only a select few get its irony; it recirculates and perpetuates racist cliches and stereotypes.
        
        And I’ll just let you go ahead and bite yourself. I don’t imagine you taste very good.
Teller

Great song. Was that written for Rosanna Arquette, too?
kuanes

*bands which choose…
Anonymous

kidincredible – Because, frequently, the mis-sung / ad-libbed version is superior to the original.

As evidence, I offer THIS masterpiece:
purplerascal

Meh, it’s OK. But this is my go-to cover version of that crazy song, made immortal by the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1sfKtC5Lpc
Anonymous

20 years ago I saw them in MPLS. The very good friend I went with had gone to school with Mimi and Alan and took my back stage into the very corridors seen in ‘Purple Rain.’ My life has been downhill since, but these guys just keep going up and uphill.

/CSB

//And SamSam, that was about 6 months after I left southern Africa, where I heard the drums echo three days/nights on end after the local headman died. But they weren’t bongos.
Anonymous

Pretty fun concept, hilarious mix of songs and some rather bad and surprisingly good results.
muteboy

The first couple of bars sounded like ‘In The Summertime’ by Mungo Jerry

Also this: http://achewood.com/index.php?date=03182002
Unmutual

I prefer the original. And not ironically.
- wrybread
  
  Oh lighten up. And like all very good covers (and this is really good), it makes you realize just how good the original is too.
  
  Anyway very nice bit of music to start the day, I could listen to that lead singer and the drummer do harmonies for hours, thanks for sharing.
TWF

I wonder if it’s an intentional nod to The Book Of Mormon musical or just a funny coincidence.
Anonymous

swear to god, one of these days I’m going to pass out from rolling my eyes just too damn hard after reading a comment section. Almost happened today.
Anonymous

I liked it.
SamSam

Also, just to say that I’ve spent a cumulative total of several years living in Africa, and I’ve never once heard the drums echoing at night. It may surprise those who love this song, but the entire continent of Africa doesn’t reverberate to the beat of bongo drums every night.
- David Pescovitz
  
  OK, fine. But you know damn well that Kilimanjaro does rise like Olympus above the Serengeti.
  - chgoliz
    
    From a deep history point of view, it’s Olympus that rises like Kilimanjaro from Macedonia.
    
    Doesn’t scan as well, though.
David Pescovitz

Also, Low’s take on Joy Division’s Transmission is just stunning. Check it out here.
- inspiredto
  
  i’d forgotten about this cover somehow. thanks for the reminder!
jere7my

No, ironic racism aired in mainstream venues is UNacceptable because only a select few get its irony

See, I think that actively works against the cause of equality, because it removes a potent weapon (satire) from the arsenal of those most likely, by definition, to reach a mainstream audience. It also places an unnecessary burden on artists, forcing them to address racism in the most obvious and Hallmark-approved ways, which leads to a climate of toothless and uninspired mainstream art.

But I can see that fervent glint of orthodoxy in your eye, and I know I’m not going to change your mind. So let’s make a deal: you go on and get as outraged as you want about Toto, Randy Newman, and Archie Bunker, and I’ll keep on kinda liking Toto and not caring what you think. OK?

(You are still welcome to bite me. I have been informed, by unimpeachable sources, that I taste delicious. Don’t want you missing out.)
- Maddy
  
  what a trembling little flower our pal is … I’m the most sensitive — I win! I can be more offended than anybody else on planet earth! Zzzzzz.
  
  I have to admit — the old Indie-Band-covers-the-Elevator-Music-Classic still gets me everytime.
- millie fink
  
  “See, I think that actively works against the cause of equality, because it removes a potent weapon (satire) from the arsenal of those most likely, by definition, to reach a mainstream audience.”
  
  But sarcasm only works for those who know the object of satire.
  
  “It also places an unnecessary burden on artists, forcing them to address racism in the most obvious and Hallmark-approved ways, which leads to a climate of toothless and uninspired mainstream art.”
  
  No one’s forcing them; it’s a free country, with free speech n all.
  
  As for art (is Toto ART?!) that addresses race and racism, no, there are TONS of ways of doing it in non-obvious and non-Hallmark ways–cf. Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash, and on and on and on.
  
  Btw, do you even know what Orientalism is? And why it’s a problem, and why the same thing happens over and over again with a perniciously exotified commonsense set of misperceptions about Africa?
  
  And if so, whattaya gettin so hot under the collar about?