Prince really wails on a cover of Pearl Jam’s “Even Flow”

MICHAEL ROFFMAN/Consequence of Sound

Even though Prince has some half a billion songs of his own, he enjoys a good cover. In fact, many fans would argue he’s just as likely to pop off a classic FM jam on the whim as The Boss or Phish. Here’s some fuel for that reasoning: Recently, the Twin Cities royalty has turned his head to the Pacific Northwest with a silky rendition of Pearl Jam’s classic hit, “Even Flow”.

As Dr. Funkenberry.com points out, the eccentric icon has been rehearsing a spin on the song, which “features a guitar duel between Prince and Donna Grantis that morphs into Aretha Franklin’s version of ‘Rock Steady’ before reprising the end vamp of ‘Even Flow’.” He’s currently prepping for tomorrow night’s hometown gig at Minneapolis’ The Myth.

Can’t make it? Stream portions of the rehearsal at Dr. Funkenberry, or via the SoundCloud player below.



Earlier today, Prince dropped some visuals for his latest single “FIXURLIFEUP” following his jack knife-less performance at Billboard Music Awards. Big stuff ahead for the Purple One.

Ghost B.C. Theatrically Cover Depeche Mode's 'Waiting for the Night'

Kyle McGovern/Spin

We may not know the true identities of the members of Ghost B.C., but we do know this: Papa Emeritus II and his backing band of Nameless Ghouls know their way around a cover. The Swedish metal oddballs have shared a hammy, theatrical cover of Depeche Mode's "Waiting for the Night," the meditative centerpiece on the synth trio's 1990 LP, Violator. While the original hovers in a mid-tempo abyss, this just-released alternate take — which appears as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of Ghost B.C.'s second album, Infestissumam — chugs along with the help of doom-pop guitarwork and cheeseball organ playing. Hear it above, and revisit Ghost B.C.'s Dave Grohl-assisted cover of ABBA's "I'm a Marionette."

Sony's Cute Speaker Ball Is Music to our Ears

Pete Pachal/Mashable

I'm kind of in love with Sony's little egg-shaped speaker, the SRS-BTV5. The tiny, tennis-ball-sized gadget is so cute, it really deserves a name other than the seemingly random series of characters. Maybe Veronica. It looks like a Veronica.

At least mine does, but that's probably because it's raven colored. I really wanted one of the bright pink ones — it just seems to go better with the spherical shape — but black still makes a statement, if a quieter one.

And by quiet, I'm referring to the design, of course — not the sound. Veronica actually plays fairly loud for a tiny ball. She's not going to sustain a house party, but a hotel room, definitely.

Part of a growing trend among accessories, Sony's egg is equipped with NFC (near-field communication) for instant pairing with any NFC phone. That includes almost all top-line Android models, including Sony's as well as franchise players such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One, but not the iPhone.

To pair, just enable NFC through the phone's settings and hold it over the top "bridge" over the driver, where the NFC tag sits. This will immediately links the phone with the speaker via Bluetooth. Those without NFC phones can fall back to the plain old Bluetooth pairing, which is hardly cumbersome, but still complicated enough that it prevents many from ever using it. There's also a mini-jack input for a hard-wire connection.

I had some trouble pairing Veronica with my iPhone 4S via Bluetooth (I kept seeing "ubuntu-0" appear as the speaker's name in my Bluetooth device list, which never paired), so I switched to an HTC One with NFC. A few seconds later, I was rocking out to Pandora on the Sony.

I listened to various types of music — from the slow, airy notes of the soundtrack to Chocolat to the rough-and-tumble Three Days of Grace's "Animal I Have Become" — and Veronica performed extremely well. That is, except when I turned the volume all the way up. At maximum volume, her sound started to break up with distortion, so I kept things a couple notches down for the rest of my listening (side note: volume controls aren't integrated, which is a tad disappointing).

That was still loud enough to fill a conference room with good sound. Comparing the Sony's performance with that of the little Jambox, Veronica held her own. She couldn't match the Jambox's volume, but her small 360-degree driver gave a little extra oomph to the midrange. Overall, though, the Jambox won.

Still, not bad for $69.99 (the li'l Jambox is $179.99). My favorite Bluetooth speaker right now is still the UE Boom, but for something a little more portable, pairable and — let's face it — pretty, Veronica ... er, the Sony SRS-BTV5, is a great cheap date for a casual night out.

Images by Emil Lendof, Mashable

Webcast: Primavera Sound 2013

COS Staff

Barcelona’s Primavera Sound will will stream a number of this weekend’s sets live onYouTube, including Phoenix, The Postal Service, Wu-Tang Clan, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Tame Impala, James Blake, Animal Collective, Hot Chip, Swans, Dinosaur Jr., Dead Can Dance, Wild Nothing, and more. Tune in here.

Check out the full schedule below (all times in EST).

Thursday, May 23rd:11:40 – El Inquilino Comunista
12:25 – Wild Nothing
01:20 – Delorean
02:30 – Tame Impala
03:45 – Dinosaur Jr.
04:55 – The Postal Service
06:15 – Grizzly Bear
07:14 – Phoenix
09:10 – Animal Collective

Friday, May 24th:11:50 – Pony Bravo
12:40 – Nick Waterhouse
01:30 – Peace
02:30 – The Bots
03:35 – Manel
04:45 – The Jesus and Mary Chain
06:15 – James Blake
07:20 – Swans

Saturday, May 25th:11:00 – Guadalupe Plata
11:50 – Extraperlo
12:35 – Adam Green and Binki Shapiro
02:00 – Poolside
03:00 – Dead Can Dance
04:20 – Wu-Tang Clan
05:45 – Orchestre Poly Rythmo De Cotonou
07:05 – Los Planetas
08:30 – Simian Mobile Disco
09:50 – Hot Chip