We've been none too shy about our fondness for Against Me!'s major label debut. As if dating Claire Danes for a bunch of years wasn't enough, Ben Lee went and one-upped our AM! love by ably covering New Wave start to finish -- on top of that, he's graciously offering it as a free download over at his blog. Why the homage to a record that's only been out a month? Lee explains:
A couple of weeks ago I downloaded the new Against Me! album New Wave. I didn't really know too much about this band but had been reading lots of good things about it, and my friend Tegan sings on it (ed's note: She sings on "Borne on the FM Waves of the Heart" ? and yup, it's Tegan of & Sara fame). I like to keep myself up to date with what's going on musically in the world, so I checked it out. I fell in love with the album. Really. Like, couldn't stop listening to it. As heavy and gnarly as it sounds at times, it is unmistakably a pop masterpiece.
Listening to it on the way to Australia, I wondered to myself how these songs would sound acoustically. A couple of days later I was on a flight from Sydney to Melbourne and had the thought "I'd love to cover this album." The whole thing. Beginning to end. So I did.
We're hosting "New Wave" because it's the first song, a sorta intro, and Lee does a great job stuffing the original's anthemic upswing into strummed, still anthemic acoustic pop.
Ben Lee - "New Wave" (MP3)
By the way, Ben's onto something ? Against Me!'s releasing unplugged versions of "New Wave" and "Animal" via iTunes on 9/4, along with that goofy, wine-soaked "Thrash Unreal" video. Ah, what the heck: Here's Lee's truly excellent version of "Thrash Unreal," too.
Ben Lee - "Thrash Unreal" (MP3)
Grab the rest over at Ben's blog. When not covering Against Me!, Lee's dropping multi-colored, water-balloon smashing videos, like this one for "Love Me Like The World Is Ending." (Pretty slick suit!)
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And when Against Me! isn't being covered by Ben Lee, they're being Captain Perfect-baiting, hat-grabbing jokesters on Pancake Mountain.
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We're glad to see everyone's multi-tasking.
