A.V. Undercover

Country: United States
Length: 150 episodes

The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

Bands come on a web series and pick a song from a list to cover. Once a song is used it gets crossed off so the later acts have fewer choices. Viewers vote on their favorite performances each season.

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What happens

A.V. Undercover is an American live music web series created by The A.V. Club, distributed on their website. The series premiered on March 16, 2010, going into an extended hiatus after the 8th season in 2017. It was revived for a 9th season in June 2024. The concept of the show is that each season, a list of 25 songs is compiled. Bands are then invited to choose a song to cover. Once a song has been played, it gets crossed off the list. The later a band comes on, the fewer songs they have to choose from. In the first season, The A.V. Club staff picked the songs. In the remaining seasons, readers of The A.V. Club voted for them. At the end of a season, there was an online vote for the favorite video. In between season, there were mini seasons of Holiday Undercover (where each artist chose a song with a holiday theme) and Summer Break, where artists covered "songs having to do with summer". In 2010, NPR selected "Wye Oak Covers the Kinks" as one of "Five Great Cover Songs from 2010 (So Far)". It was a 2011 Honoree for a Webby. All episodes have since been deleted from YouTube, with the exception of Season 2, Episode 18, in which They Might Be Giants sang Tubthumping, which is hosted on They Might Be Giants' YouTube channel. The song that plays during the introduction is "Someone Has to Die" by Maritime. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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