This Monday marked the four year anniversary of Jay Reatard’s death. As a way of honoring the singer, Toronto Band To Watch PUP have recorded a cover of his “My Shadow.” Here’s a statement about Reatard influenced PUP’s music, via NME.

What we find most influential about Jay’s music is the craftsmanship. His songs have concise structures and interesting hooks that just happen to be buried under layers and layers of fuzz and distortion. We are meticulous in our writing process so that we can throw it all away and be totally unhinged onstage. His music has inspired us because it seems to work in a similar way. Outside of that, it’s the visceral push that comes from songs that just make you lose your mind. We want to write songs that are real and raw and make people give a shit. Jay was good at that.

We found out about his death in 2010 the same way pretty much everyone else gets their news these days: through the blogosphere. It was sad because it felt like he had really hit on something that people were craving. You never want to see someone so talented go so early, but in a weird way he fulfilled that romantic idea of rock ‘n’ roll that people still like to believe no matter how increasingly delusional it may be.

PUP’s new album will be out this Spring via SideOneDummy.