As part of Merge’s sold-out “Born Under a Good Sign” vinyl subscription series, A Giant Dog have covered Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible in its entirety. It’ll be available to stream at midnight tonight and will be available to purchase on black vinyl at select record stores. A Giant Dog’s version of the album cover, below, is similar to the original, but it prominently features a butthole. Listen to the Texas band’s version of “Intervention” below.
The band’s Sabrina Ellis explained in a statement that A Giant Dog were allowed to choose any album to cover and debated multiple ideas, including Queen’s Sheer Heart Attack and Prince’s Purple Rain. They ultimately decided to cover Neon Bible. “The themes in the album, of outrage at U.S. leadership in the early 2000s, and a need to escape our social climate, sadly, remain pertinent today,” Ellis said. She continued:
Recording a cover album, we felt like actors in a movie. Taking
someone else’s lines and embodying those emotions, and expressing
those ideas through our own selves, made us portals of human
expression… and that’s why the album artwork is an open butthole.