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PREFIX“Cravo é Canela” by Milton Nascimento“All of us in Tortoise love Brazilian music and we’rebig fans of Milton. He’s arguably the most famousBrazilian musician. He’s like Michael Jackson downthere.” Jeff Parker“I think Will just learned Portuguese phonetically forthis track. I think he did a great job singing, though Idon’t know Portuguese. Maybe people in Brazil andPortugal are going to hear it and get pissed and banhim from the country.” John Herndon“Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen“We made this one a slow jam by changing allthe chords to minor chords and slowing down thetempo.” Jeff Parker“It was chosen partly because the fellow that runsOvercoat Recordings, Howard Greynolds, lovesThe Boss. I think it’s great, and I don’t think thatabout a lot of stuff I’ve recorded. I still really love tolisten to it.” John Herndon“It’s Expected I’m Gone” by The Minutemen“Doug McCombs (Tortoise’s bassist) should runthe Minutemen fan club. He loves them like no oneelse I know. This cover is different than the original–alittle slower and chunkier–but we were tryingto stay in the rock spirit. Parker added this sort ofSouthern rock guitar lick at the end, which made allof us go nuts.” John HerndonDeep CoversTortoise dissects cuts from The Brave andthe Bold, their new record with Bonnie“Prince” Billy.The premise behind The Brave and the Bold –putting post-rockinnovators Tortoise in a studio with country-tinged singer WillOldham (Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Palace Music)–sounds like anepisode of an indie rock reality show. But after the assembledmusicians finished the two-week-long recording sessions thatproduced the album, the combination turned out to be a genresplicingsuccess. “It was really natural,” said Tortoise guitarist JeffParker of the collaboration. “Will is something else. His stamina iscrazy. That dude would sing all day.”Parker and Tortoise drummer John Herndon recently toldXLR8R about the process of selecting and reworking the record’soffbeat covers, which span legendary punk tracks, country ballads,and Brazilian grooves. Patrick SissonThe Brave and the Bold is out now on Overcoat.www.overcoatrecordings.com, www.trts.com, www.palacerecords.com“That’s Pep!” by Devo“This one was kind of difficult. I’m not sure wetotally hit the mark. It’s really hard because theyare one of my all-time favorite bands and that kindof makes it more difficult. I don’t think you can getmuch more perfect than Devo.” John Herndon“Pancho” by Dan Williams“Will wanted to do this one because he thoughtit was really, really hilarious. It’s got this kind ofhomoerotic undertone, just the whole thing withthese two cowboys; it kind of shed a different lighton the story of the Cisco Kid. As a tune, there’snot really much to it. It’s pretty straightforward andgoofy.” Jeff ParkerTortoise (Jeff Parker, DougMcCombs, John McEntire, JohnHerndon, Dan Bitney) and Bonnie“Prince” Billy (PHOTO MayaHayuk)34