Obviously Mrs. Dude got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning...

I feel like the old man sitting on the front porch of his house shaking his fist and swearing at the young folks. Still, it's not going to stop me from griping.

Two things:

1. Amy Winehouse is the new "it girl" in music. I'll admit that the song "Rehab" is catchy. And what smacks or irony more than a song about rehab set to a catchy beat? Not much, I say. Anyway, when listening to her single "You know I'm no good" on my way to work, I was reminded of my issue with Amy Winehouse. Katherine Whalen did what Amy Winehouse is doing now, only Katherine Whalen did it better.

Who's Katherine Whalen, you're probably wondering. She was the female vocalist for the swing-revival band Squirrel Nut Zippers. After the band broke up (did you know they got back together?), Whalen developed a solo career. Katherine Whalen's voice is rich and layered, sultry and husky, sweet and soulful. And, while Amy Winehouse isn't a slouch, I have a hard time finding the depth in her voice the way I do in Whalen's. So, if you dig Amy Winehouse's album, you should look into Whalen's newest album "Dirty little secret" or, better yet, check out the Squirrel Nut Zipper's 1997 album "Hot."

2. I'm okay with bands doing covers. In fact, there have been a lot of covers that have been fantastic. One of my favorite Better Than Ezra songs is their cover of the James song "Laid." But have you heard the Green Day cover of the Who's "My Generation?" It's awful. My feeling on covers is that if you don't have something interesting to bring to the song, seriously consider why you've decided to cover it. The Green Day song actually takes away from what The Who did with it. It's raw and stripped down, which I appreciated as a nod to the punk aesthetic that influences them. But it just isn't sung well. To me, there's a difference between Eddie Vedder knowing he can't hit all of the notes in "Reign O'er Me" and Billy Joe just not trying to hit the notes in "My generation." Maybe there's supposed to be some irony in an aging rockstar singing about he'd rather die than get old...