Camper Van Beethoven's Stevie Covers, Kate's "How To Be Invisible"

[mikebise]

Round about story: I was just listening to Kate's "How To Be Invisible" and the intro of it really reminded me of "Sisters Of The Moon". Not so much the Fleetwood Mac Tusk version, but the Camper Van Beethoven version.

In 1989, CVB recorded a full song-by-song cover album of Tusk, and it remained officially unreleased until 2002. In the liner notes, they talk about how no one could quite muster up enough Stevie-ness to do her songs justice. Or maybe they didn't like them. Also strange, since there were some gay men in that band, and you'd think there would be a Stevie queen amongst them.

So, their "Sisters Of The Moon" is full of weird sounds, and features vocals by what sounds like a female Asian robot. It's kind of cool, and the music really reminds me of Kate's "How To Be Invisible". Which also reminds me of Alan Parsons Project's "Children Of The Moon" from 1982, which always seemed to me to be directly inspired by Stevie's "Sisters Of The Moon".

For my own tastes, CVB's "Sisters Of The Moon" is the best of their 5 Stevie covers. The other 4 are typical off key "Alternative" whiny male vocals. I really dislike their versions of "Sara", "Angel", "Beautiful Child" and "Storms", which is weird, since I LOVE their 1989 hit, "Pictures Of Matchstick Men". I mean, LOVE IT!!!

Kinda rambling, but I was also wondering if Kate was inspired by "Sisters Of The Moon". Have Kate or Stevie ever talked about each other in interviews? I SWEAR I remember Stevie stating she LOVES Kate's music...