The Shebrews are John Crozier and Stephanie Winter who both played with The Legendary Jim Ruiz Group. They are a fantastic retro-pop duo from Minneapolis who released a split 7″ and an EP in 2004. This is a great cover of The Kinks “This Strange Effect” from the EP.
[audio: http://thesoundofindie.com/archive/20051118/Shebrews-StrangeEffect.mp3|titles=Strange Effect|artists=The Shebrews]

Download: The Shebrews – Strange Effect

3 Comments

  1. Came across your blog through looking for the Legendary Jim Ruiz Group. I wish Minty Fresh would compile the non-album tracks and give them a release. Anyway, the Shebrews cover is good. Kinks are my favourite British group and it’s hard to overdo the original. However, the Shebrews version comes without the very very annoying BBC guy voice over one finds on the BBC sessions compilation. And it’s just good to hear old heroes play good pop. So cheers:)

  2. Great cover of this obscure Kinks track. Steve Wynn also does a great job covering this same tune. It’s on the MOJO Magazine Tribute to Ray Davies. I’m off to look for more SHEBREWS tracks. I’ve been a Kinks fan since the release of You Really Got Me.

  3. To my knowledge although Ray Davies wrote THIS STRANGE EFFECT, the Kinks never recorded the song. Of all the versions that i’ve heard: A vocalist from South Africa called: HANK SQUIRES performed the best version in 1965 on Columbia records; next best was Britains Dave Berry’s version. the hooverphonics and Shebrews versions certainly do not stand up vocally, however the musical arrangements are fresh and dyanamic; Keep in mind in this case it’s the song that’s great. In this day and age with all the music technology that’s available, almost anyone is able to produce a somewhat reasonable recording as in the case of the Hooverphonics and Shebrews.
    The simple fact of the matter is that both the Hooverphonics and Shebrews vocals are inferior to the strong vocals performed by HANK SQUIRES & Dave Berry some forty [40] years ago when music technology was limited therefore you had to have shown some talent.

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