Horse Feathers: Drain You (Nirvana Cover)

Horse Feathers Drain You Nirvana

We just cited this Horse Feathers track in discussion of their recent collaborative tune, and now they’ve given us an excuse to revisit the rare cut. Nirvana’s “Drain You” — one of this, or any, band’s best covers — arrives on April 22nd via KRS Archives: Volume 1, a cassette anthology of their Kill Rock Stars LPs with nine bonus songs. The new release and an intimate tour will celebrate the Portland band’s 10-year anniversary. Whereas many folk covers might deconstruct a tune into bare components, Justin Ringle and Co. do something more interesting here: they open up its chords to new harmonic nuance, transpose the melody with strings, and build dynamic swells from the quiet ground up. As Jon Brion demonstrated comparing Kurt Cobain to Gershwin a few years back, it’s stunning how well this material resonates in any style. Hear it above.