MP3 Download: PS I Love You's Gritty Rush Cover 'Subdivisions'

PS I Love You

Trevor Larocque

Click to listen to PS I Love You's 'Subdivisions (Rush Cover)'

Canadian indie rock group PS I Love You released a rarities album, Figure It Out, to follow up their debut from last year on August 30th. While it may seem to be a logical step for the duo to cover a song from fellow Canadians, Rush, singer/guitarist Paul Saulnier tells Rolling Stone that this almost wasn't the case.

"'Subdivisions' kind of worked as a gateway drug on me. For most of my life I've hated Rush. Like, passionately hated them. I found their music to be the kind of challenge I wasn't up to. It just didn't speak to me," Saulnier explains. "When I was about 16 and I first heard that epic synth intro, 'BAH BAH BAH,' 'Subdivisons' instantly grabbed my attention. I was sucked in." It took an emotional connection to the song for Saulnier to become a self-proclaimed Rush mega-fan. "It still took me several years to become the mega Rush fan I am today. Their songs just kind of crept into my mind slowly over time until I realized that I couldn't get enough Rush," Saulnier continues.

PS I Love You's cover of "Subdivisions" loses some of the original synth, and gains a grittier, more updated reverb-filled sound. Saulnier explains "Our cover is a shaky at best interpretation of a masterpiece, an homage by some lifelong fans to a band that has taught us so much." PS I Love You's Figure It Out was released on August 30th, but you can download their cover of "Subdivisions" for free here.

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter