Pitchfork

No matter how much people talk about having no guilty pleasures, it's hard to deny that some artists and songs have a little stink on them, rightly or wrongly.

But that's not all bad. There can be a lot of catharsis in screaming from the rooftops about your love for, say, the Deftones (so good!) after so much repression. And when you're a musician yourself, sometimes screaming from the rooftops about your guilty pleasures turns into covering them.

It's under this premise that Engine Room Recordings rounded up some of the biggest names in independent music to have them record versions of their favorite guilty pleasures for a compilation it will release August 7 called Guilt by Association.

Will Oldham, Devendra Banhart, Superchunk, Minutemen/Stooges bassist Mike Watt, Jim O'Rourke, Luna, Petra Haden, Geoff Farina, and the Concretes all contributed to the compilation, which includes covers of songs by Journey, Oasis, the Spice Girls, Destiny's Child, Paula Abdul, Fall Out Boy, Cher, Shania Twain, System of a Down, Blue Oyster Cult, Eddie Money, and the cast of High School Musical. Seriously, this tracklist is amazing.

The folks at Engine Room are also holding a video contest in conjunction with the compilation. The label is currently accepting video proposals for one of three tracks from Guilt by Association: Will Oldham's cover of Mariah Carey's "Can't Take That Away", Devendra Banhart's cover of Oasis' "Don't Look Back in Anger", or Petra Haden's cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing".

To enter the contest, budding directors should submit a brief email to videocontest@engineroomrecordings.com that contains a video concept for one of the songs as well as a link to their previous work. The first round deadline is May 15, at which time the label and a few of the contributing artists will pick five proposals to make. The winning video will be chosen from the resulting five videos (all completed by July 1) and will become the compilation's official music video, with all of the press and prestige that includes. For more information about the compilation and video contest, visit the Guilt by Association MySpace page.

As for how all this mutual, guilty love came about, Engine Room General Manager Wes Verhoeve told Pitchfork that "the concept originated about five years ago, and we resurrected it in early 2006. Together with Randall Poster and Jim Dunbar, who have served as music supervisors for Zodiac, The Aviator, [forthcoming Dylan biopic] I'm Not There, and several Wes Anderson movies, we pulled together this exciting cast of musicians. Sometimes we'd suggest the songs, but sometimes the artists were already enthusiastically armed with their pop song of choice." Associate producer Morgan Lebus was also instrumental in getting in touch with several artists, including Banhart, Oldham, and the Concretes.

As for these artists' pop songs of choice, Mike Watt has never had any problems showing love for the Blue Oyster Cult, but who could have guessed Jim O'Rourke felt so strongly about the Spice Girls?

Guilt by Association:

01 Petra Haden: "Don't Stop Believing" (Journey)
02 Devendra Banhart: "Don't Look Back in Anger" (Oasis)
03 Mark Mulcahy: "From This Moment On" (Shania Twain)
04 Luna: "Straight Up" (Paula Abdul)
05 The Concretes: "Back for Good" (Take That)
06 Jim O'Rourke: "Viva Forever" (Spice Girls)
07 Goat: "Sugar We're Going Down" (Fall Out Boy)
08 Will Oldham: "Can't Take That Away" (Mariah Carey)
09 The Woodrow Jackson Orchestra [ft. Money Mark]: "Love's Theme" (Love Unlimited Orchestra)
10 Porter Block: "Breaking Free" (High School Musical)
11 The Mooney Suzuki: "Just Like Jesse James" (Cher)
12 Geoff Farina: "Two Tickets to Paradise" (Eddie Money)
13 Casey Shea: "Chop Suey" (System of a Down)
14 Superchunk: "Say My Name" (Destiny's Child)
15 Mike Watt: "Burning for You" (Blue Oyster Cult)