Music Blogs

A few years ago, ailing UK music rag Q carried out a busking research feature to see which songs gave Underground users the biggest thrill as they went about the daily grind. From what I recall, "How Soon Is Now" by The Smiths came out on top donation-wise, despite there being no obvious way to play the howling guitar affect on an acoustic instrument. "Wonderwall" by Oasis was also up there having become a stable of the street musician, full as it is of melancholic triumphalism and a very pleasing tune.

Last October, the band enlisted the assistance of a collection of New York buskers to reinterpret songs from their new album "Dig Out Your Soul" and this week released a mini-documentary capturing the results. It includes the unlikely spectacle of tracks including "The Turning", "Bag It Up", "(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady" and "The Shock Of The Lightning" turned into strange acoustic symphonies where saxophone, flute and electric violin replace the crunching rock of the originals.

The 18-minute clip sees Liam Gallagher and co on-hand at rehearsals, before the songs were taken out to the people at subways such as Grand Central, Times Square and Penn Station. The results are actually pretty interesting, as the band's unusually humble singer admits: "Without sounding like a w*nker man, I am totally blown away. I didn't think it was gonna be like this. I thought it was gonna be like 'Opportunity Knocks' or ‘The X-Factor'. It's real people doing what they love." The chances of Noel Gallagher allowing a sax onstage for this summer's Wembley Stadium shows, however, still seem rather unlikely.