The Mad Caddies, who first surfaced during ska’s third wave in the 1990s, are still going strong in 2018, having put out a new covers album called Punk Rocksteady. On the record, they pay tribute to their punk heroes of yesteryear with ska versions of songs by the likes of Green Day, Bad Religion, the Descendants, Operation Ivy and the Misfits. The band even pays homage to their label boss, and the album’s producer, Michael Burkett (aka Fat Mike) by covering his band NOFX.
In Pick Five, great artists pick five cover songs that matter to them.
We launched our new series “Pick Five” last week with Emel Mathlouthi, and today the great singer-songwriter Frank Turner tells us about his five favorite cover songs.
Dubbed “the people’s prince of punk poetry,” Turner has broadened his sound on upcoming seventh studio album Be More Kind (out May 4th), the follow-up to his acclaimed 2015 release Positive Songs For Negative People. He told NME that he incorporated sounds fans might not associate with the guitar-basher, like keyboard synths and sampled loops. For a taste of this lusher production, listen to the latest single:
Such eclectic influences can also be seen in the five covers he picked for us. He mixes in the guitar-strummers and punk-blasters fans might expect (Johnny Cash and NOFX, respectively) with artists like Joe Cocker and Tori Amos. He also illustrates the depth of his musical knowledge; as he notes, few people even realize the Blondie song he picks is a cover. So let’s turn it over to him. Continue reading »
Fun, Sing in Japanese proves, is not language-specific.
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are longtime punk stalwarts with a bent for alcohol consumption and other people’s songs. Their whole “career”–not that this is any of the Gimmes’ main gig (guitarist Chris Shiflett of Foo Fighters fame, bassist Fat Mike of NOFX and drug-fueled-antics-on-basic-cable fame)–has been based on the phenomena of the punk rock cover, a special breed of aural pleasure reserved for the…warped…part of all of us.
Sing in Japanese is another theme collection from the Gimmes like Go Down Under or Love Their Country, only these songs might be a little more foreign to you (I would say no pun intended, but after I realized that I was about to say it I went ahead and typed it out anyway, so there, cliche). Have you ever heard of Yoshida Takuro? Didn’t think so. Continue reading »