YoBeat!

Punk Cover Records

I have two stipulations when buying a CD. 1) It’s from southern California (everything cool is from SoCal), and 2) It has a cover of any old song on it. You can probably imagine my great delight when in my travels,  I came across not one, but four punk cover records. If you are a dork like me, read on.

Even though I thought I was getting a deal by only paying $13.99 for a record at the mall, I soon realized that this record only has eight tracks. With the approximate length of two minutes each, I will have to listen to this CD far too many times to make it worth my while, however, all eight tracks are covers, so it’s not so bad. MxPx is cool because they have bleached hair and can’t play their instruments well. I think this is why they chose to cover a song written by a pro skater, and performed by some band I’ve never heard of. Other classic covers included are Take on Me, by Aha, and Summer of 69 (come on, you own Wakin’ up the Neighbours). Surprisingly missing are any songs about god. Christian Punk rules!

If you hated the 80’s for more reasons than big hair (namely the music), and you don’t like snowboard rock, buy this album. It is all your favorite 80’s songs, without synthesizers, and a lot more uses of the word "fuck". The best about this record, is that the cover art and booklet contain year book photos of random 80’s looking characters. Good Riddance, No Use for a Name, Bracket, Automatic 7 and Unwritten Law among many others make this a quite a punk rock experience, which I think makes this my favorite punk cover record ever.

This is exactly what a cover record should be, sappy top 40 hits, done by artists who are probably still in high school. The best thing about covers is that people laugh when you put them on, and you always seem to know the words. This is exactly what this album is all about. From Wilson Phillips to John Denver and back to Nena, every single song on it, has been converted from radio friendly to flat out hilarious. Tracks are from bands such as Agent Orange, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Youth Brigade and 7 Seconds. KPNK (Punk Radio) is pretty much more about amusement than anything else, but hey, I know the words to the songs!

This almost doesn’t make the cut of the cover records, because the songs aren’t radio hits (with the exception of that god awful Friends song), but rather prime time classics from all your favorite television programs. Laverne and Shirley, Saved by the Bell, Cops, Cheers, Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?, and Hee-Haw, yes they are all here. It’s pretty amazing that songs which are incessantly irritating each day on the television are here in versions which are actually pretty good. I’d listen to this stuff if it came out on some random bro cal punk band’s record as new material and I didn’t know any better because I wasn’t a TV junkie. C’mon get happy.

Other cover records I don’t feel like writing about:

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes: Have a Ball