Slurpees & Tacos

Cruel To Be Kind - Lovers & Poets

Here is a song from Lovers & Poets…  Recognize it?  It is originally a Nick Lowe song, who I believe is terribly underrated as a songwriter.  He has great hooks, simple melodies, and short catchy songs.  This is a great cover that, dare I say, is better than the original.  I love Shannon’s smooth vocal with some punchy backing vocals. I love the soul/pop feel of it.  Great bass playing from thee Ben Eisen.  AND they were nice enough to ask me to play guitar on it.  I was so excited, I have always loved this song and loved their arrangement.  It turned out fantastic!

Help. Coferized. | markcofer

I always loved this song of The Beatles, but the lyrics never matched the music (is that called ‘prosody?’) It’s a very sad song and I was originally just going to do it acoustically, but I added a few instruments and I couldn’t stop.  I put in the string quintet and a weird little synth lead.  The synth I wanted to sound like a ‘theremin’ which are so cool sounding, but I don’t have one so I made a sound as close as I could to it.  I think this is my best cover yet!  I called it ‘Help.’ because it’s not as exciting and fast as ‘Help!’

COFER COFERS THE CLASSICS

Come Together - Mark Cofer 

This one was made with a little help from my friends… (Beatles joke intended) The awesome Shannon Hurley lent her talents for the keyboard and Ben Eisen (yes of the Ben 500 and Lovers & Poets) played the bass.  Thank you guys for the help!  

I left most of the song just like the recording.  I played an acoustic guitar and played the lead parts with a slide.  I don’t know how much I made this song my own, but all the parts that make up this song are so great and why mess with perfection?

COFER COFERS THE CLASSICS

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD - As sung by Mark Cofer

ORIGINALLY BY SAM COOKE.  I usually cover songs from the list of Paste’s top 100 living songwriters.  But, I heard this song today and it’s such a great song and I wanted to play it.  I have really fallen in love with simple songs lately.  This song is such a simple progression and such simple lyrics, but it is no less powerful.  I love this song.

CHRISTMAS SONG - A - WEEK

Mark Cofer & The Simpler Times - Santa Claus Is Back In Town

I got the Elvis Christmas album and I fell in love with it!  This was my favorite song off of it.  I’m singing, playing keys, bass, and drums.  Brett Greene is playing all the guitars and singing backup.  I hope you like straight forward rock & roll, if not, don’t listen.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

I Don’t Intend to Spend Christmas Without You - Lovers And Poets

This is a great cover from my favorite duo, Lovers And Poets.  Awesome bass as usual from Mr.  Ben Eisen and great vocals from Shannon Hurley.  This song is great…  I guarantee it will be stuck in your head all day long! Merry Christmas!

The Ampersands - Baby It’s Cold Outside

This is a song I recorded with my new band, The Ampersands.  Here is one of our favorite Christmas songs… well, I don’t know if it is technically a Christmas song.  There isn’t any mention of the holidays, but it is very much infused with this time of season.  Hope you like it!  Merry Christmas!

COFER COFER’S THE CLASSICS

MY MY, HEY HEY - Originally written and recorded by Neil Young

For those of you who don’t know… I am going to go down the list of paste magazine’s list of the 100 greatest living songwriters and covering one of their songs Cofer-style.  I am on #2… Neil Young, one of my favorites. I thought of covering, or cofering, Heart Of Gold, Down By The River, or Out On The Weekend, but I just really love this song and I don’t like Neil Young’s grungier version of this song and his acoustic version is live… which if you don’t know me, I don’t like live recordings very much.  So, I thought this would be a great song to do… Hope you like it.

‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’ - Mark Cofer Version

I have always loved this song and last night I decided to make my own version of it.  I played it on piano and was going to leave it just as that, but I couldn’t stop working on it.  I recorded all the parts in one take each, so the timing isn’t perfect, which I like.  My version is a little cluttered and not perfect, but who cares!  It’s such a great song it doesn’t matter.  Hope you like it!