Who knew the Pixies' "Wave of Mutilation" sounds best played as a back-porch country stomper? Only Rhett Miller, apparently, who gives the song that treatment halfway through this collection of covers recorded live at the Los Angeles club Largo in 2008. Elsewhere, the Old 97's frontman favors more modest makeovers: David Bowie's "Queen Bitch," with Jon Brion banging away blissfully on piano, becomes a brash bit of dancehall glam that would fit right in on an early Elton John record, while the Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset" gets low, hushed and folky. It would be easy to complain about the lack of Miller originals, but by the end of The Interpreter, he's made other people's material his own.

“Ambling Alp”

The "Ambling Alp" was the nickname of the six-and-a-half-foot-tall Primo Carnera. Though the song is named after the Italian-born 1930s heavyweight champion, Yeasayer are actually paying tribute to boxing legend Joe Louis with this first-person psychedelic dance-rock tune. “I was always interested in writing a song that had boxing mythology in it,” Yeasayer’s Chris Keating said. “It’s pretty fascinating: There were so many amazing characters, and it was so closely entwined with 20th century history.” Yeaseyer also invokes German champ Max Schmeling and hints at the historical significance placed on the historic bouts between the Nazi-era boxer and the African-American Louis.