Download: Spin's Purplish Rain Compilation, Featuring the Riverboat Gamblers, of Montreal, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, and Many More...

By Pete Freedman Tue., Jun. 23 2009 at 2:35 PM

As we discussed last week, the Denton ex-pats in the Riverboat Gamblers are among the artists who've been asked by Spin to participate in the magazine's celebration of all things Prince this month, appearing on the magazine's Purple Rain tribute called, quite ingeniously, I think, Purplish Rain in the lead-off hole with the song "Let's Got Crazy." You can download the comp here. But you need to know the secret password, guy--and I ain't about to openly spill it.

Let's just say that theirs is an, um, interesting cover. There are parts of it I really do dig--and others where it becomes pretty clear that the Gambers just can't do the song the justice it deserves. Which might explain why Merritt Martin shouted across the office just now, yelling at me to turn it off. Oh well.

For what it's worth, I too prefer the Gamblers doing the Gamblers, I guess. But it's still a fun effort--and some of the other tracks on the disc are pretty solid (namely the Twilight Singers' "When Doves Cry").

But back to the Gamblers: Because I haven't seen it before and, therefore, it's new to me, check out the band's fun video for its own energetic "A Choppy Yet Sincere Apology" after the jump.