Pitchfork

Southern California NPR affiliate radio station KCRW is making mornings more eclectic than ever. On the way to the office, listeners can now catch its diverse programming, get their daily grind on with a wide assortment of Starbucks joe, and, while they're at it, pick up a Starbucks/KCRW covers compilation. How's that for variety?

On March 13, KCRW and Starbucks Entertainment will co-release Sounds Eclectic: The Covers Project at select Starbucks locations (Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, San Diego, Austin, Boston, and Washington, D.C.) and online.

The collection features covers from the Flaming Lips (doing Radiohead's "Knives Out"), R.E.M. (John Hartford's "Gentle on My Mind"; made famous by Glen Campbell), M. Ward (David Bowie's "Let's Dance"), Rufus Wainwright and Chris Stills (Neil Young's "Harvest"), Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog" [haHA]), Paul Weller (Rose Royce's "Wishing on a Star"; made famous by Junior Walker), Damien Rice (Radiohead's "Creep"), Gary Jules (Tears for Fears' "Mad World"; made famous in Donnie Darko), and more, all originally performed live in the KCRW studio for Nic Harcourt's "Morning Becomes Eclectic" program. Well...except for the Lips, who took on Radiohead's "Knives Out" in their tour bus on the way to the studio. K.D. Lang also does us the disservice of giving the world yet another inferior cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah".

Proceeds from album sales will assist the station in digitizing its huge (60,000+ albums) music library.

As previously reported, earnings from KCRW's sixth annual A Sounds Eclectic Evening fundraiser will be put toward the same cause. The event is set to take place on April 14 at University City, California's Gibson Amphitheater. The Shins, Lily Allen, Cold War Kids, Rodrigo y Gabriela, and Bitter:Sweet will perform, and the Pinker Tones will entertain at the after-party.

Tracklist (with original artists in parentheses):

01 Girls in Hawaii: "Out on the Weekend" (Neil Young)
02 Sia: "I Go to Sleep" (the Kinks)
03 The Magic Numbers: "Crazy in Love" (Beyoncé)
04 Damien Rice: "Creep" (Radiohead)
05 Nikka Costa: "I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl" (Nina Simone)
06 Dido: "Fire and Rain" (James Taylor)
07 Paul Weller: "Wishing on a Star" (Rose Royce)
08 Rufus Wainwright and Chris Stills: "Harvest" (Neil Young)
09 R.E.M.: "Gentle on My Mind" (John Hartford)
10 Gary Jules: "Mad World" (Tears for Fears)
11 The Flaming Lips: "Knives Out" (Radiohead)
12 Robert Plant: "Black Dog" (Led Zeppelin)
13 Missy Higgins: "Moses" (Patty Griffin)
14 M. Ward: "Let's Dance" (David Bowie)
15 K.D. Lang: "Hallelujah" (Leonard Cohen)