Local folksters Bears of Manitou have been covering Damien Rice since the band first formed.
"He [Gabe Williams] said that he'd been practicing 'Volcano,' and I love that song so much," says guitar/guitarist/pianist Maria Sais de Sicilia. "It was just crazy, the first time we played it. It felt so awesome, so we've continued to play that."
But Bears of Manitou's version of "Volcano" has changed a bit over the years.
"It was an acoustic song -- just an acoustic cover -- and then it went to acoustic with drums, then it slowly started to morph into a more electric sound, which is kind of cool because our music has kind of morphed into a more electric folk rock from the folk roots that it started from," says singer/guitarist Gabe Williams, "It's funny how a cover song that we started playing has transitioned along with our own music."
The band released a recording of "Volcano" a couple of weeks ago through TwitMusic and does not plan on including the cover on forthcoming album, Origins.
"We recorded it and we knew we loved it. We didn't want to put it on the album, we wanted to make it all originals," says Sais de Sicilia.
Bears of Manitou is scheduled to play Micah Bentley's CD release party on Friday, June 1, at 3rd Place in Peoria.
If you play in a local band and would like to have a cover featured on our blog, please e-mail us at [email protected].
See our Take Cover archives for more Arizona bands taking on national songs.
