Ruston Kelly – “Dammit” (Blink-182 Cover)
This is going to be hard for a lot of people to accept, but Blink-182 are a canonical and important band. Sorry. That’s happening. It’s been 20 years since Enema Of The State, and a whole lot of the people currently making music grew up on the band. “Dammit,” Blink’s 1997 breakout single, is a modern standard. And now, like Colleen Green and Oozing Wound before him, Ruston Kelly has offered his interpretation of the song.
Today, Kelly, the warmly gravelly roots-music singer-songwriter who happens to be married to Kacey Musgraves, releases his new covers EP Dirt Emo Vol. 1. We’ve already posted his takes on Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well,” the Carter Family’s “Weeping Willow,” and Dashboard Confessional’s “Screaming Infidelities,” the last of which features Dashboard Confessional main guy Chris Carrabba himself. And today, with that EP out in the world, we get to hear what Kelly does with “Dammit.”
It turns out that “Dammit,” a song about learning to accept a breakup and awkwardly move into adulthood, works perfectly well in a roots-rock context. Those melodies are arguably even prettier when they get some room to breathe. Below, hear Kelly’s version of the song and watch the video for Blink-182’s original.
And while we’re at it, we might as well point out that Kelly’s EP also features a minute-long cover of My Chemical Romance’s “Helena.” Because that revival is coming, too. Just fucking wait. Here’s Kelly’s version of that one:
Dirt Emo Vol. 1 is out now on Rounder Records.