These are the show notes that go with the final episode of Season Four of The Infected, where we close off another epic set of shows with a themed episode. This one is all about alternative mixes and cover versions! We hope you’ll enjoy meeting these old friends – in their new skins.

The Cure – The Walk (Everything Mix) 1990

The idea for the Mixed Up album came to Robert Smith when he was wondering what came next
after the Prayer Tour, the 76 shows which followed the release of the epic album Disintegration in 1989.

There were “increased tensions in the band”, according to a quote from Smith in the booklet.
“I had to think of something else in the meantime.” The Cure kicked off the 1990s with the release of Mixed Up, an album collecting the band’s rarer 12-inch mixes. It wasn’t just a straightforward compilation, because two songs (“A Forest” and “The Walk”) weren’t just remixed, but completely re-recorded, and a wholly new track (“Never Enough”) was also made for the album.

Robert Smith says that Brian New’s dub-style remix of “Pictures Of You” inspired him: “That mix
turned the music on its head, but at the same time left the essential heart of the song intact. As soon as I heard it, I updated the entire Mixed Up plan”.

The album was successful, earning a Gold certification in the United Kingdom and a Platinum
certification in the United States. I think it stood the test of time, especially my favourite track,
The Walk.

Are Friends Electric? by The Dead Weather (2009)

In the twilight of 1979, Tubeway Army, a punk band with Gary Newman at its helm, birthed “Are
Friends Electric” as the swan song before their dissolution. It was written on an ancient pub piano
that sang off-key, melding two disparate melodies into one.

In the studio, Newman’s fingers danced upon a Minimoog, left behind like a forgotten whisper; thus began his electronic odyssey. With the wires and keys of a Polymoog synthesiser, he birthed life into the track alongside the heartbeat of conventional bass and drums.

The soul of this track echoes Newman’s youth. As with all of his songs at the time, its narrative spun
from threads of isolation and misunderstanding. Diagnosed with Asperger’s, he found refuge in
worlds woven by sci-fi sages Philip K. Dick and J.G Ballard. He started writing Science Fiction about London’s future, which morphed into a tale where mechanical companions rapped gently at your
door, offering clandestine services while masquerading as human—their true nature veiled to prying eyes next door.

“Are Friends Electric” was masked under inverted commas for a good reason. The song about a robot prostitute paraded unnoticed to top charts without revealing its risqué core to an unsuspecting BBC, who would indeed have banned the music had they understood its meaning.

In 2009, The Dead Weather—an American rock supergroup —claimed their stake within music’s vast tapestry through members Alison Mosshart (of The Kills), Jack White (the alchemist behind The White Stripes), Dean Fertitta (a staple amongst Queens of the Stone Age), and Jack Lawrence
(another Raconteur twining strings).

During a White Stripes Memphis set, Jack White had lost his voice. This led to an incidental performance when Mosshart, who was opening the show with the Kills, used her vocal fire to fill the silence left by White, with White rediscovering a childhood love in the rhythms on the drums.

Later, the Dead Weather members met for an impromptu jam session at White’s Third Man
Studio. They rode creation’s wave, and the songs just started appearing. “Are Friends Electric”
emerged anew from those sessions: reverent towards its synthetic roots but reimagined in a way
that echoes its punk heritage.

WE ALSO WANT TO THANK YOU, OUR LISTENERS
We shared on social media that we were working on a final episode that had all covers and
alternative versions, and we got a bunch of suggestions that are worth checking out, so there is a special Spotify Playlist that combines them all.

For this beautiful collection of covers, a special thanks goes out to our Insta friend Ben Better Ben Worse, who suggested a fair number of them? Thanks to you, Ben, and everyone else who contributed!

Here on theinfected.nl you will also find a Spotify Playlist of all the tracks played on our show, called The Infected Selected, as well as all the previous show notes as blog posts and interviews linked on the homepage.

Siouxsie and the Banshees – Hall of Mirrors (1987)

The entire album “Through the looking glass” from 1987 consists of cover songs. Hall of Mirrors is a cover of the song from Kraftwerk that appeared on their album Trans-Europe Express from 1977. Ralf Hütter of Kraftwerk applauded the version of “Hall of Mirrors” and stated: “In general, we consider cover versions as an appreciation of our work. The version of ‘Hall of Mirrors’ by Siouxsie and the Banshees is extraordinary”

The title of the record, Through the Looking Glass, referred to Lewis Carroll’s book of the same name. The band had already been inspired by Carroll’s work when naming their label, Wonderland, which was derived from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The record was also an ode to David Bowie’s Pin Ups, a covers album recorded in the early 1970s.
After spending more than a year working on 1986’s Tinderbox, the Banshees wanted spontaneity
and quickly returned to the studio after the tour to record their own covers album. It was a project
they had been considering since recording a version of the Beatles’s “Dear Prudence” in 1983.

For the Through the Looking Glass recording sessions, they chose material mainly dating from the first half of the 1970s. Most of the songs were from artists who had influenced them: Roxy Music,
John Cale, Iggy Pop, the Doors and Kraftwerk

Marsheaux – Eyes Without a Face (2010)

In the shadow-draped streets of Athens, amidst the whispering winds of 2007, a synth symphony was born from the union of two Thessalonian sirens—Marianthi and Sophie. As Marsheaux, for ten years, they wove a tapestry of sound that danced between darkness and light—a confectionery blend of electronic music with tendrils reaching back to synth-pop royalty.

Their music is an echo chamber where whispers from Depeche Mode, The Human League and OMD collide in melodic reverie. In their album “eBay Queen Is Dead,” you’ll find sonic snapshots from a bygone era reimagined through modern beats. Marsheaux had something to prove— first of all, to their sceptical boyfriends who doubted their musical prowess. Later, those doubts dissolved into silent admiration, unspoken due to stubborn pride.

A Depeche Mode-themed party set the stage for their first meeting. Little did they know that this encounter would spark friendship and artistic collaboration. In time, they were noted and even celebrated for their original work by the artists who inspired them. For instance, Andy McCluskey, whose soft spot for them became apparent when he asked them to remix an OMD track, or The Human League, who gave them a friendly nod when they covered a song by Marsheaux.

For us, they resurrect Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without a Face”—a labour of love Marsheaux once created for an 80s tribute CD, which was lost in time’s abyss. The haunting melody of this track transcends its punk roots; it speaks in tongues—a French chorus veiled beneath Idol’s English translation — intriguing listeners with cryptic beauty drawn from cinematic horror.

The song is a direct reference to the 60’s French Nouvelle Vague film ‘Les Yeux Sans Visage’ (Eyes Without a Face), about a brilliant plastic surgeon who vows to restore the face of his daughter, who has been horribly disfigured in a car accident. This vow leads him to murder, as he sets out collecting the facial features of his victims, which he then grafts onto his daughter’s hideous countenance, attempting to restore her beauty. Her staring eyes remain the only thing visible.” Idol himself weaved this enigma into his narrative fabric.

At more than three decades old, “Eyes Without a Face” still resonates—the alchemy of the E major Seven Chords still works, even if the scorching riffs of Steve Stevens’ are given a synth treatment by Marsheaux that breathes new life into this classic track.

‘TAG EM AND BAG EM’ CONTEST
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner in our ‘TAG EM AND BAG EM’ CONTEST! We will ship the
famous The Infected Luxury Backpack to…. Tea White from Los Angeles, California!

To all other participants, from the bottom of our hearts; Thank you for sharing the links to our podcast! And please continue to do so because this is how deserving music finds its way to new listeners!

Paul Young – Love Will Tear Us Apart (1983)

Originally made by Joy Division, of course. I do like Paul Young’s take on it. It sounds very suave and smooth but with the same emotional touch. This is on the Album No Parlez from 1983. Most famous for the track: Come Back and Stay. The album reached number one on the UK Albums Chart for 5 weeks. The original version was written about Ian Curtis’ troubled relationship with his wife, Deborah Woodruff, whom he married in August 1975. Additionally, it deals with his own struggles with epilepsy, which he was diagnosed with in 1979, and the overwhelming stress of holding down a day job and his growing career as a singer.

The original Joy Division version was also used in the movie Donnie Darko, as many of our listeners will know. Here is that clip:

Search & Destroy – Florence + The Machine (2022)

I chose this song because it was the crucial song to ignite the Punk movement, and it is covered here by one of the recent post-punk artists I admire most. In a way, this cover song spans 50 years of Punk and post-punk music.

Florence + the Machine, covering this track, is an English post-punk band formed in London in 2007. The core consists of lead vocalist Florence Welch and keyboardist Isabella Summers, who have made music together since childhood. At the time, they performed together under the name Florence Robot/Isa Machine, which eroded into Florence + the Machine.

Current band members include Robert on guitar, Chris on drums and percussion, Mark Saunders on bass guitar and Tom, who is, go figure, a harp player. By the way, this is where you can find the eclectic lady harp player’s YouTube channel that Goof mentioned in the show:

Now, about The Stooges and their iconic song ‘Search and Destroy’: Fifty years ago, in 1973, after two unsuccessful albums, The Stooges disbanded, the band members were spiralling into poverty and chaos when they received an unexpected lifeline from David Bowie. With no money or prospects on the horizon, guitarist James Williamson recalls his excitement when Iggy called about Bowie’s offer. They went from abject poverty to luxury overnight. Reassembling under the name “Iggy and The Stooges,” they spent six months labouring over their album Raw Power, which featured Search and Destroy.

Though not an immediate success, Raw Power gained recognition over time as one of history’s most influential songs. Lyrically inspired by the Vietnam War and frustrated with the manipulative music industry, “Search & Destroy” became a powerful fusion between artistry and rebellion against conformity with a dynamic chorus built upon layers of fast-paced chords. But the album’s sound was so bad when Iggy had mixed the record that producer James Williamson refused to release the album.

And then, under the watchful eye of David Bowie, Iggy Pop and The Stooges converged in a dimly-lit London studio. As Bowie’s fingers danced over the ancient mixing board, he breathed new life into their album “Raw Power.” Though the circumstances were less than ideal, Bowie delivered.

Despite initial poor sales, Bowie’s mix birthed a unique sound that inspired countless bands. Raw Power echoed with angst and chaos; it was punk before punk existed. Famous music writer John Savage even claimed only two records were needed to understand this genre: ‘Nevermind the Bollocks’ by The Sex Pistols and ‘Raw Power’ by Iggy & The Stooges.

Search and Destroy stands as an undeniable influence on music history. Rolling Stone ranked it among the 500 greatest songs of all time, and in 2010, The Stooges were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. With Search and Destroy, they crafted not just a song but ignited a movement — a flame that still burns brightly within Punk Rock today.

Curve – I Feel Love (1992)

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000’s Curve created a huge wall of guitar noise. It’s danceable shoegaze if you ask me. It reminds me a lot of the better alternative music nights on MTV. When MTV was still about Music.

The two band members are Dean Garcia, half Hawaiian and half Irish, and the English-born Toni Halliday. They successfully got airplay on the UK and US rock radio stations. But their following was still limited. In the later stages of their career, they focused more on dance music, as you can already hear in this one.

The original version of this song was by Donna Summer, of course, and produced by Giorgio Moroder.

The Light 3000 – Schneider TM, KPT.Michi.Gan (2000)

In the legacy of The Smiths, ‘There is a Light that Never Goes Out’ is an enigmatic gem. The song was born in a combination of inspiration and spontaneity. As Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr recalls it, it merged out of nowhere in a 40-minute burst of creative morning magic in the studio.

This anthem, adored by fans, was deliberately never released as a single during the band’s heyday. Johnny Marr wanted each Smiths album to harbour an unsung hero—a track even better than the strongest singles released from the album, to show off that the band had such great songs that they could afford not even to release a track with that much potential.

And Marr was right that it was the best song on the album: years later, digital devotees crowned “There is a Light” supreme in streams. It was streamed almost 500 million times on Spotify alone. For reference, the second most popular song on the album ‘The Queen is Dead’ is ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’, which “only” has nearly 200 million streams, so not even half as many. In the age of streaming, ‘There is a Light’ finally seized the throne, without ever having danced in the limelight as a single. It stands as a testament to the timelessness of great music.

The song’s intro has a unique little story, which carries echoes of rock royalty. The original Smiths intro was a nod to the start of the Rolling Stones’ cover track “Hitchhike”. Which was itself influenced by the intro to Velvet Underground’s ‘There She Goes Again’.

However, the version we’ll play now is from the year 2000, and it drops the intro entirely because it’s such more than a cover version; it is a complete musical deconstruction and reconstruction of the track.

This German interpretation of the song echoes through generations. It was created by Schneider TM and KPT.Michi.Gan. The men behind these names are an electronic alchemist named Dirk Dresselhaus and Michael Beckett, a producer from Dörentrup, Germany.

Together, they bend soundscapes into glitch-pop gold. Their cover bridges past and present, fuelling indie electronica’s rise while paying tribute to The Smiths’ undying flame.

By the way, Schneider TM is still active today, 23 years later. He has travelled through sonic realms— from his beat-driven debut Moist (1998) to his latest odyssey, ‘Ereignishorizont’ from 2023 – an experimental journey marked by that mirror of life’s unpredictable symphony.

Enough background. In this track, you’ll find both reverence for what once was and curiosity for what yet may come—The Light endures.

Sayonara, and thanks for listening to this season of The Infected!