Coast Toasting

Lisa Marr composed one of the best heart-breakers about Los Angeles called "In California" in early 2000 but it was Neko Case's near-majestic cover version a year later that took complete ownership of the song and made it a modern classic. Neko's vocal ability is a little leap and a baby bound over Marr's and even the instrumentation on the covered version sounds significantly more soulful. (Sorry, I can't believe I just used "soulful" to describe a song but at least I went with "sounds" instead of "feels.") This is not to diminish the talents of Marr. Her first band Cub practically defined "cuddle-core" (nitpickingly described as a mix of punk-pop and twee pop if I must take this to a ridiculous level and apparently I do) and her indie rockin' alt-country solo stuff easily clears the fence and keeps on running without missing a beat or stepping in cow shit. I'm a big fan of everything either of these women have been a part of, especially the New Pornographers in (prepare rimshot) Neko's case. Here's one from each with a bonus sub-plot of LA vs NYC for some MTV-heightened drama.

Neko Case - "In California"
Cub - "New York City"