With Unplugged, Nirvana did something no artist has ever done before to my knowledge: they usurped a David Bowie song to the point that entire generations don’t realize that the unplugged classic “The Man Who Sold the World” is, in fact, a cover. Yet that’s just one track among the groundbreaking 14 the band recorded live in New York in November of 1993, with the iconic album MTV Unplugged in New York arriving one year later—the set list also included a few Meat Puppets covers as well as another cover version that’s nearly as popular as its predecessors, not to mention familiar hits spanning the grunge purveyors’ three-album discography.
With the album’s 30-year anniversary landing back in November, what better way to honor the release than paying it forward with a covers tribute? On February 7, Current Joys, Brad Stank, Far Caspian, and more will be featured on a new collection simply titled A Tribute To Nirvana, The Songs of MTV Unplugged in New York, which illustrates the wide array of artists that Nirvana has inspired over the past three decades. Today we’re sharing Casino Hearts’ contribution to that project: one of two covers of Nirvana’s cover of The Vaselines’ “Jesus Don’t Want Me for a Sunbeam”—itself a riff on “an old Christian song,” as Kurt Cobain puts it in the concert.
In Casino Hearts’ hands, the orchestral instrumental gets repurposed for the trio’s dream-pop agenda without veering too far from the source material’s soft textures—well, at least before the icy beat drops. “We liked that it originated from an old Christian hymn,” band leader Nick Minor shares. “Lyrically, there’s a sentiment expressed that we felt aligned with. I think we often go back to ‘Christian’ upbringing as kind of a shared history between the three of us. We felt like it was a good fit for us thematically and that we had a place we could take it to.”
“I started the cover out making a demo with the drums and synths, then the boys added in their guitar magic,” adds lead vocalist Forest Holter, before elucidating on Minor’s statement. “We wanted to make the track feel innocent and sweet, like something that would be sung during worship at Christian camp.“
Check out the cover below, and pre-order the album here. You can also hear Levitation Room’s version of the song for the comp here.
