For a cover song to be any good, a band’s got to put its own spin on it. Minneapolis’ The New Standards do just that on Rock and Roll, a collection of 10 covers. Made up of singer-pianist Chan Poling, vibraphone player Steve Roehm and bassist John Munson (of Semisonic fame), The New Standards apply their jazz, rock and pop chops to classics like Lou Reed’s Rock and Roll and The Clash’s London Calling, as well as (relatively) recent hits like Outkast’s Hey Ya and Britney Spears’ Toxic. The idea here is that the pop music of the last 40 or 50 years are our “new standards,” the songs we’ll be listening to and singing for years to come. Whether or not that’s true remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure: Rock and Roll is a fun record that will make you revisit some of your favourite songs.

Published in Volume 63, Number 24 of The Uniter (March 19, 2009)