August 19 — “That’s All”, as covered by Zeus

Zeus

Zeus is an indie rock band from Toronto who have released one EP and two full length albums since 2009. After doing some time as the backup band for Jason Collett, they decided to move to the front of the stage.

Their debut record —Say Us— made the 2010 Polaris long list, and their second album just came out this spring. They’ll be one of the more than 170 bands on the bill at the 2012 Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh next month.

Today’s song comes from their EP Sounds Like Zeus, which was released in the summer of 2009. Three of the five songs on that EP were also included on the Say Us album. Of the two exclusive songs, the better one is your song of the day today. It’s a cover of the Genesis song “That’s All” (1983, from the album Genesis). This is that song.
“That’s All”, as covered by Zeus

I bought the EP because of the song “Marching Through Your Head”, and didn’t know that “That’s All” was a cover of the Genesis song. The first time I listened to it, I didn’t recognize it right away. Finally, at the first chorus, it became evident, and I was really impressed that they were really able to reinterpret the song.

Stick with me here for a second. I’m going to take the circuitous route to get to the point.

Genesis had been a progressive rock band for a long time until about 1980, when they started the gradual transition into a mainstream pop rock/light rock/adult contemporary band. While they were once known for their technical prowess, lineup changes and other things forced them into a situation where they were dumbing their style down to appeal to the masses. When I was in my teens, I was a fan of the pop-rock version of Genesis without even knowing about their early roots. Genesis was actually the first CD that I ever owned. To be completely fair, there were three CDs, bought together, that I could say that about.

At Christmas 1988, my parents bought a CD player for the family. Really, though, it was for me. My older sister was already out of the house, and my parents never really were very much into music. I was also awarded a CD shopping spree for three titles. The three that I chose were the self-titled album by Genesis, Boy by U2, and Rank by The Smiths. I grew out of my post-Peter Gabriel Genesis stage after about a year. I got fed up with U2 and purged my entire U2 catalog (and I was a huge, huge fan) after the release of Zooropa. At some point while I was in college, I sold off my Smiths collection. The point of that is that I no longer have any of those “original three”, and the only one that I miss is Rank.

I’ve never been a fan of “progressive rock”, and I’ve been known to roundly mock the likes of Steve Vai, Yes and Echolyn. While I have some degree of respect for technical wizardry, that style of music just isn’t for me.

The way that Zeus does the song isn’t exactly “indie rock”. They play it like a prog rock band. With those silly wailing guitar solos and rapid-fire drum fills. When Zeus plays this song, it sounds more like Genesis than did the version of Genesis who originally wrote the song. The fact that this cover sounds more like Genesis than Genesis did reminds me of celery seed, which tastes more like celery than celery does.

You can buy Sounds Like Zeus from the amazon store. Get their new album —Busting Visions from the Arts&Crafts web store.

It looks like they’re going on an autumn festival tour through Ontario and into the Lake Michigan area. Although it’s not listed on the band’s website, they’re playing at Hopscotch. They’ve got the 11pm-midnight slot at White Collar Crime on Saturday night, September 8. I’ve got a lot that I want to see that night, and a lot during that tome slot, but I’m going to try to catch at least a few songs of their set.