As part of their end of year round-up, Cokemachineglow have put up a podcast of new and upcoming artists covering songs from 2006′s best albums. There are two covers from one of my favourite finds this year – Japan’s Shugo Tokumaru.

He covers M. Ward’s “To Go Home” (Itself a cover of a Daniel Johnson tune) and Peter Bjorn and John’s catchy as fuck “Young Folks”. “To Go Home” is a shorter version of the original and has that great pounding piano Shugo does so well with singing in Japanese while “Young Folks” is a fairly straightforward take on the song adding twinkly percussion with some great whispery female vocals.

Shugo Tokumaru – To Go Home (M. Ward cover)

Shugo Tokumaru – Young Folks (Peter, Bjorn and John cover)

Oh and seeing as it’s Christmas, he’s also got a short version of “Sleigh Ride”.

Shugo Tokumaru – Young Folks (Peter, Bjorn and John cover)

The video for his song “Karte” is definitely worth your time too :)

[Shugo's site and his Myspace page]