Guilt By Association 2

“For round two, the comp seems to have evolved from a collection of covers of guilty pleasures to an unabashed celebration of pop, probably since nobody should ever feel ashamed for liking something..” Pitchfork (11.19.08)

Check out the Pitchfork exclusive video post from Frightened Rabbit covering N’Trances “Set You Free”

AND now, don’t miss the LIVE event
On Feb 5th at Bowery Ballroom Francis and the Lights and the Bloodsugars will play along with Savoir Adore. It’s a double release show for Guilt By Association 2 and Francis’s single on Cantora Records.

The second installment of 07’s sing-a-long darling, Guilt By Association, with yet another volume of pop music gems sung by your favorite indie artists. Guilt By Association Vol 2 is brings together your most beloved underground bands with your Top 40 Radio hits of the 80’s, 90’s and today. The series is more “elegy than irony and offers a primer on how to cover songs successfully”. (Harp, 07)

covering My Chemical Romance, Guilt By Association Vol 2 looks and plays like a cassette tape that you might have made for a friend or, lets face it, your cutie crush in high school with love notes and all. Vol 2 features Robbers On High Street doing New Edition, Matt Pond PATakka Takka tackling Phil Collins, Cassettes Won't Listen covering INXS.

Guilt By Association Vol 2 was conceptualized and produced by Wesley Verhoeve and lends towards danceable covers of some of the artists favorite pop songs. “We wanted to take what was done on Volume 1 and pour it into a cohesive framework. We're big fans of pop music, but also of indie music and in that sense there's nothing ironic about this project. Together with the artists we picked pop songs they loved that might sometimes be painted as guilty pleasures by some (but not us), and then attempted to shine a light on them in a way that exposes what is so awesome about these songs,” says Wes.

The Forms's cover of Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start The Fire' or My Brightest Diamond's take on 'Tainted Love', are transformed into a slamming modern indie dance party track that fits right into today's' Brooklyn scene. Others like Matt Pond PA's version of My Chemical Romance' “I'm Not Okay” provide us with a quick mellow moment of melancholy.

The Guilt By Association is a compilation series conceived by Peter Block, co-founder of Engine Room Recordings, will release the Vol 2 on Feb. 17th with a third not far behind. The first volume was produced by renowned music supervisors Randall Poster and Jim Dunbar (All Wes Anderson films, Squid & The Whale, Lost, etc.) and included tracks by indie luminaries Devendra Banhart, Will Oldham, Petra Haden and many others. As an overarching theme for Vol. 1 there was a moody early 90's indie feel.

Click Here To Listen To My Brightest Dimond Do "Tainted Love"

Track Listing:
01. My Brightest Diamond - Tainted Love
02. The Bloodsugars - Self-Control
03. Robbers on High Street - Cool It Now
04. Frightened Rabbit - Set you Free
05. Matt Pond PA - I'm Not Okay
06. Takka Takka - In the Air Tonight
07. Kaki King - I Think She Knows
08. Francis And The Lights - Can't Tell Me Nothing
09. Lowry - Africa
10. The Forms - We Didn't Start The Fire Final Mix
11. Rafter - If You Leave
12. Cassettes Won't Listen - Need You Tonight
13. Jukebox the Ghost - It's A Beautiful Life
14. Max Vernon - I Kissed a Girl

Volume 3 is already in the works and takes it down a notch into an a Ditmas Park inspired organic and delicate folk direction with a few bursts of energy from the West Coast.