This is Matt Kennedy from the X Radio X podcast,
and you are listening to My Weekly Mixtape, the
punk covers edition. Let's mix it up. Welcome
to My Weekly Mixtape, a podcast that takes the
classic mixtape approach to building a modern
playlist. I'm your host, Brian Colburn. Joining
me tonight as guest curator is Matthew Kennedy,
co -host of the X Radio X podcast. Matt, thank
you so much for joining me on my weekly mixtape.
I am super excited. Thanks for having me on.
Pleasure's mine. And I'm going to start by asking
you the same question I ask every one of my guests.
Matt, what does the word mixtape mean to you?
You know, and I've listened to. the show so i
should be prepared but it means so many things
it's like wearing a band t -shirt it's like having
a tattoo of something on you like it's a way
of representing the things you care about the
things you think about the things that mean something
to you it's a way of kind of putting that into
a medium and saying here i'm going to give this
to you i want to see what you think of it i want
to share my feelings about this with you, or
I want to share my feelings about something else.
And I'm using this as a way to do it. It's such
a, especially when I was younger, like it was
a tool that I used for almost every situation.
And it was something that I could do to either
work out my own feelings about something, or
it was something that I could do to express to
somebody else, this is where I'm coming from.
And it wasn't always about romance or anything
like that. It was about, this is a... what I
do to get pumped up. This is what I do to just
kind of chill. This is what I, you know, there's
a way to do a mixtape about virtually everything.
And nowadays I have to admit, I don't have a
cassette player. I have one in my workshop downstairs,
but I don't make mixtapes. I make, I still make
some mix CDs from time to time, but less and
less people even have CD players. Have you noticed
that? Uh -huh. Unfortunately. Yeah. So like I
still buy CDs. I know you buy CDs, but when you
make a mix CD, you have to find someone who actually
has a CD player. So now we go down to playlists
and making Spotify playlists and my Spotify,
I have like easily 30. playlists running just
for my own personal benefit but it's a nice way
to sort of it's the future of the mixtape if
you will you can send somebody here's my spotify
playlist about this situation and it's not the
same but at least it you can continue that process
if it's something that worked for you right and
what i like about your thought process here is
you're putting the songs into these playlists
in a specific order the thing that i want to
try to drive listeners away from is just grabbing
a bunch of songs throwing them into that playlist
and hitting shuffle putting the thought behind
how the songs tie together and you and i are
taking that challenge tonight to punk rock cover
songs something that i know You at X Radio X,
you and Jace are big fans of because you have
done some fantastic cover song episodes. And
I'm really excited to dive into some punk rock
covers with you tonight. How tough was it for
you to put together a list of songs to choose
from? It was very difficult. I luckily have,
again, a Spotify playlist that I have been building
for over a year now of punk and ska covers. And
I have a lot of them on there. There's so many
to choose from. And honestly, some of them I'm
not even like a huge fan of, but I keep it because
I want to know that it's there. And I want to
be able to reference it because I'm sort of a,
as you are a collector of music. And so, you
know, going through the songs that really hit
me and really make me excited about the cover.
And there's a reason for it. And there's a reason
why I enjoy it. getting through those was tricky
because there's a lot of them. And there are
some bands that almost every song they have,
I could include on this. And so it was tricky,
but the nice thing that makes it even more tricky
is that it's interactive now. So it's a way to
engage with you and we can work on it together,
which is really fun, but also kind of, I don't
want to say nerve wracking, but it's different.
It's a different challenge. Yeah, we have to
have a conversation through these songs because
we're not just throwing random songs together
like a draft style, if you will. This is the
order you're going to listen to this playlist.
And when we post it at myweeklymixtape .com,
you're going to hear what Matt and I come up
with. And we could either get it really right
or really wrong, depending on how the fellow
mixtapers go. And that's where the fun lies.
I know it's going to be full of good music. I
know that. But how it flows will be up to the
future. Well, then let's get down to that future
right now. Tonight, as I mentioned at the top
of the show, Matt and I will be curating a punk
rock cover songs mixtape. And we're going to
use that old cassette deck approach, meaning
our mixtape will be broken up into two sides,
side A and side B. Matt, as my special guest,
will begin Side A with his first song choice,
and then I'll add a song that I feel best follows
up that choice. We'll then flip -flop choosing
songs until we've mapped out 10 songs for Side
A. We then give our mixtape that proverbial flip,
and we map out Side B, only this time I kick
things off with Matt choosing second. Our overall
goal for this episode is to craft the best punk
rock cover song mixtape possible. through only
20 songs. At the end of the show, you can take
our conversation to the next level by visiting
the Punk Rock Cover Songs page at myweeklymixtape
.com and you can give our final mixtape a listen
via the embedded playlist. And if you like what
you're hearing on My Weekly Mixtape, please consider
becoming a Patreon mixtape or at patreon .com
forward slash myweeklymixtape. And a few of our
Patreon mixtapers chimed in with what they feel
would best kick off. a punk rock cover songs
mixtape, and I'd like to shout a few of those
out right now. Kevin Seeker chimed in with Me
First and the Gimme Gimme's cover of Blondie's
Heart of Glass, as well as the Atari's cover
of Don Henley's The Boys of Summer. Cactus Pete
chimed in with Wake Me's cover of Everybody Wants
to Rule the World by Tears for Fears. Ben from
the Too Vague podcast chimed in with Screeching
Weasel's cover of Tiffany's cover of Tommy James
and the Shondells, I think we're alone now. I
wanted to make sure I put that in there because
obviously Screeching Weasel was probably going
after Tiffany's version, but I didn't want to
not point out that Tiffany's was a cover in and
of itself. And Mally Hart chimed in with Pinhead
Gunpowder's cover of Thelma Houston's Mahogany.
Now, before I turn it over to Matt to reveal
his track one, some of the fellow mixtapers who
follow me at My Weekly Mixtape on Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, TikTok, and Spoutable have chimed
in with their ideal opening tracks. So I want
to give a few of those a shout out. John Porable
chimed in with Dead Kennedy's version of Johnny
Paycheck's Take This Job and Shove It. Amanda
Myers also chimed in with the Dead Kennedys in
their cover of Elvis' Viva Las Vegas. Billy Goodheart
chimed in with the Dickies version of the Moody
Blues Nights in White Satin. Steve Moore chimed
in with Down by Law's version of the Proclaimers'
500 Miles. Jim Santora chimed in with the Circle
Jerks cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's
Fortunate Son. Gavin Colopy chimed in with the
Clash's cover of Vince Taylor's Brand New Cadillac.
Nevin F. Dobre chimed in with the Dropkick Murphys
cover of the FU's Warlords. Corporate Gorilla
chimed in with the Descendants cover of Buddy
Holly's Everyday. Bill Tucker from a Gamer Looks
at 40 podcast chimed in with Me First and the
Gimme Gimme's cover of John Denver's Country
Roads. The Prisoners of Rock and Roll podcast
chimed in with Social D's cover of Johnny Cash's
Ring of Fire. Seven Rocklists from Australia
is going Aussie with Body Jars version of Simon
and Garfunkel's Hazy Shade of Winter. Jay Hall
of the Okie Bookcast and Jen Cohen both chimed
in with the Atari's cover of Don Henley's The
Boys of Summer. Jason Whistle from the It's Not
That Bad and There Can Only Be One podcasts chimed
in with High Standards cover of the Mamas and
the Papas' California Dreamin'. Simon Evans chimed
in with Real Big Fish's cover of A -Ha's Take
on Me. Molly Tai chimed in with the Ramones cover
of the Ronettes' Baby I Love You. Lazy Supper
chimed in with Seven Seconds cover of Nina's
99 Red Balloons. Sergio Alonso chimed in with
Limp Bizkit's cover of George Michael's Faith.
Dooser chimed in with Pennywise's version of
Benny King's Stand By Me. Big Dave chimed in
with Big Wig's cover of the theme from Cheers.
Bobby chimed in with Motorhead's cover of The
Sex Pistols' God Save the Queen. Hutch chimed
in with The Living End's cover of Soft Cell's
Tainted Love. Alvin and the Angry Barrels chimed
in with Lars Fredersen and the Bastards' cover
of Billy Bragg's To Have to Have Not. Amy Borchin
chimed in with Thrice's cover of Real Life's
Send Me an Angel. Buffalo Retro Gaming chimed
in with NoFX's cover of Fleetwood Mac's Go Your
Own Way. Doug Miller chimed in with the Lemonheads
cover of Simon and Garfunkel's Mrs. Robinson.
Benny Burrito chimed in with the Sex Pistols
cover of Frank Sinatra's My Way. And both Philip
Bergman and Greg Vorab both chimed in with Joey
Ramone's version of Louis Armstrong's What a
Wonderful World. Matt, I could tell you right
now the mixtapers have brought the A -game to
tonight's episode. Wow, that would make a good
tape right there. All of those choices. Amen.
I couldn't agree more. And those are just scratching
the surface of punk rock cover tunes. So with
that, Matt, I'm officially pressing record on
our mixtape and the floor is yours. What song
would you like to kick off side A with? So this
is going to have a little bit of history to it.
When I was a college radio DJ, I was. nearing
the end of my tenure there at Radio X in Northern
Michigan University. And we had our last all
request Saturday night show that we were going
to do before I was done being a college radio.
I was moving on. I was working in commercial
radio and all the fun of college radio was kind
of waving goodbye to me. And one of the songs
that I wanted to make sure I played during the
last show was. queens don't stop me now because
the theme of that song was just tonight i'm gonna
have a good time i mean it was just like this
is it let's just have a blast and so track one
for me is going to be the vandals cover of queens
don't stop me now from the hollywood potato chip
album of 2004 what an awesome story and what
a great way to kick things off because the vandals
are real old school nineties, eighties punk.
I love it. It's not that pop punk, which I'm
sure we're going to get into at some point tonight,
but we're staying with a little bit of the classic
punk sound. And I think I'm, I know exactly what
I'm going to follow that up with because for
my first song of the night and the second song
of this playlist, I want to show the mixtapers
that you and I mean business. All right. And
when I think of the Vandals, which covering Queen
is a hefty, hefty task, and they do it in true
Vandal style. One of the covers that the band
did for their Oi to the World album was a cover
of a song that I went to a Catholic high school
and was used a lot during mass. Here I am, Lord.
And they did it in true Vandal style. Oh, wow.
I had that on my list, but I didn't know if we
were going to go Christmas. So we're not going
there, but the Vandals are off the board. And
following that up, I want to go big, and I want
to take an iconic song like you did with Queen's
Don't Stop Me Now and go with an iconic punk
version. So with that, I'm going to take us back
to 1990 off of Social Distortion's self -titled
album. I am going with their cover of Johnny
Cash's Ring of Fire because let's just be honest
here. Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire is one of the
most iconic country songs ever recorded. Period.
And if you're going to do a cover of that, you
need to really bring your A -game or else you
are destroying a classic. You can't take a goofy
stance on Ring of Fire. No. And Social Distortion
brought... their unique punk sound to it, but
still maintained the essence of the original.
And to me, that is what makes this cover so amazing.
They were able to make it a true social distortion
song, but honor an absolute classic in ring of
fire. So that is what I'm going to follow up.
The vandals don't stop me now with. That's a
great choice because I think if you were to ask.
real music fans to name some great punk covers.
I think that that would be on the top of a lot
of people's lists. It's certainly probably in
my top 20 best punk covers. It's iconic. Social
D is awesome. And like you said, they just own
it. They make it their own. So that's an awesome
choice. I'm looking at my songs and I'm trying
to think of what would be a good follow -up to
a Johnny Cash. This might be a reach. But Johnny
Cash is sort of a singer -songwriter troubadour,
if you will. I think that what I would like to
do is take it in that troubadour direction and
go with a Don McLean cover. I'm going to go with
Noah Fex's cover of Vincent. Ooh, interesting.
It's an amazing cover. beautiful i mean it's
fun you know it's still got heart to it it's
a punk song but it's still got heart and and
it kind of freshens that song up for a generation
of people who probably never really gave other
than american pie probably didn't give donna
clean too much attention but no effects just
rocked vincent and so i would uh have to say
that's that's a good follow -up Well, I love
it. You scooped me on no effects. Obviously,
no effects is probably going to be in this conversation
at some point. And I had go your own way from
1989 S &M Airlines, which was originally recorded
by Fleetwood Mac, just because Fleetwood Mac
has such an iconic vocal sound and no effects
is so far from that, that it really gives it
that kind of true no effects sound like that
real punk. You know what I'm saying with that,
right? I do. I think at one point, I think Fat
Mike says, if I could, I would give you my socks.
Yeah. I'm pretty sure. I love that song. That's
a great cover, too, for sure. Yeah. I'm sorry
that's not going to be on this side. Yeah. It's
a good one. And now following up a singer -songwriter
cover like that, I don't have a singer -songwriter
song. Actually, I do. And we've been I feel like
we're already four songs into this and we haven't
mentioned this band. It's crazy. I know who you're
talking about. Yeah. So the fact that we've gotten
this far and me first, the gimme gimme hasn't
come up. People were probably yelling at their
speakers. So let's let's give the listeners what
they want. Just get it over with, guys. Just
get it over. Yeah. Yeah. Let's let the elephant
in the room be. And that elephant in the room
is off of 1997's Have a Ball, originally recorded
by Loggins and Messina. I am going with Danny's
song. The first song on a Me First and the Gimme
Gimme's album. And it is such a fun cover of,
like, not a singer -songwriter, but it had that
kind of 70s yacht rock, the original sound. And
this is taking that and pummeling it. at 100
miles an hour. And that's what I love about it.
I love it too. It's my favorite Me First in the
Gimme Gimme song. I was actually going to include
End of the Road by Me First in the Gimme Gimmes
for one of our closing out one of the sides because
it's End of the Road. And it has one of those,
what I like to call, hey girl moments where they
just talk over the music. like they used to do
in the 90s R &B songs. But that was going to
be, I was going somewhere different with Me First,
but I'm glad you hit it with Danny's song because
that is my favorite of theirs. Well, dude, you
and I are legitimately, now we don't share these
lists. No. I had two Me First and the Gimme Gimme
songs on my list, and it was Danny's song and
End of the Road, and I had that exact same thought
process to close out a side with. but we were
playing chicken with the me first and the gimme
gimme strain. And I gave in too early, I guess,
but I still love Danny's song anyway. So I don't
regret the decision. Perfect. All right. Excellent.
All right. So this is tricky now. Okay. I'm going
to go on a slight tangent. Here's the thing.
I follow you on Twitter. We chat on Twitter quite
a bit. And I know that you are a Tom Petty fan,
right? So because of that, I made sure that one
of the songs that had to make it on this mixtape,
because it represents you and it represents me,
I included Real Big Fish's cover of Won't Back
Down. Yes. So that'll be our track five. Dude,
I absolutely love it. Obviously, Real Big Fish
I had in my list. I had other Real Big Fish songs.
I had Take On Me from 1988's Basketball Soundtrack.
And I had other Tom Petty covers in my list.
I had Taking Back Sunday's You Wreck Me, which
was on that cover to Revolution and Sound compilation.
But Taking Back Sunday's got a little bit more
of an emo vibe, and I didn't know if we were
going to go there. Yeah, that's true. And then
in the 90s, you also had Everclear's version
of American Girl, which at the time had a very
punk -esque quality to it, even though Everclear's
not. necessarily a punk band so i had those two
sitting in the wings but i love it thank you
for checking off tom petty because that is one
of my favorite artists of all time and real big
fish is probably one of my favorite punk ska
groups so now as i scroll through here what do
i go with next iconic like tom petty oh tough
It is. It really is. Meanwhile, I'm going through
my list and checking off songs that aren't going
to work anymore. I know that feeling, man. Okay.
I think I know what I'm going to go with here
because this is tough because Real Big Fish is
a little bit more of their version is definitely
more in the ska range. Very true. Then the punk.
So I'm going to take us to a modern. singer songwriter
that is as the kids say all the rage okay and
this is a 2020 digital single by one of my favorite
modern ska punk bands and that is the interrupters
covering billy eilish's bad guy that was on my
list too i love that awesome and the reason i'm
putting it in here i'll just say this and i might
catch some flack for this But in my universe,
the Interrupters version is better than Billie
Eilish's version. I love this version so, so
much. And the Interrupters are blowing up big
time right now. And I'm so glad they are. And
I'm so glad I knew them back when. And this is
one of those. They were already on the way up
at this point because they played this when they
were out on the Hella Mega Tour with Fall Out
Boy, Weezer, and Green Day. much bigger audience,
but this song, their version, unbelievable. It's
fantastic. It's a great song. It was actually
the first song I put on my playlist when I started
building this list for this show. It was the
very first song I said, this has to be on there.
When Billie Eilish's version, the inferior version,
came out, I immediately got, I don't know, kind
of like a madness vibe. play on the radio, I
would start yelling out one step beyond just
because it kind of that tempo kind of fit. And
so when the interrupters did it and they added
in the horns and everything, I was like, Oh,
perfect. They heard what I was hearing and they
made it even better. So great song, great song
choice. And now you have the challenge of following
that up though. Oh man, that was my big zinger.
Okay. Let's see. Got the interrupters. And okay,
okay, I can do this. Okay, so again, a little
bit of a reach. I'm going to go back to, let's
say, 1995. And because the interrupters have
a female vocalist, I'm going to go with... Joan
Jett and the Blackhearts from the Tank Girl soundtrack
doing Let's Do It, which is a, I can't even remember
who did the original. It was back in the 60s,
I believe. But she rocks it. She punks it up.
She makes it fitting of a Tank Girl soundtrack.
And it's full of lots of really colorful innuendos.
that when you're in college, it's extra cool,
but still cool when you're an adult. So I'm going
to go with that to tie in with another female
vocalist, Joan Jett and the Black Cards. Let's
do it from the Tank Girl soundtrack. I love that
you went with Joan Jett following the interrupters
because when people ask me what I hear when I
hear the interrupters and I'm supposed to describe
them, I said as if you take certain, and I use
the word certain because If you say the next
band name, I'm about to say people automatically
go directly to a sound and it's not that certain
aspects of no doubt. Yeah. Joan Jett and the
Blackhearts and then the English beat and put
them together. That is what gives you the interrupters.
That is my kind of like it's like second wave
ska, third wave ska and Joan Jett punk had a
child. Yeah, that's a really good recipe to get
there for sure. So following that up, I'm trying
to think of where to pivot from there because
it's going to be a pivot. But what I'm going
to do is bring it back to the male vocals. Okay.
Only I'm going to stick with this female theme
we've got going for a few songs here between
Billie Eilish, The Interrupters, Joan Jett. And
now I'm going to go with a Madonna cover. Ah.
Now, back in my day, 22 years ago, when I got
this on CD, I didn't know this cover was on the
album. I was listening to it for the fact that
I like H2O. But when the last song on the album,
Underneath the Flames, finished, it was a little
bit of a pause, like they did in the 90s and
the early 2000s. And as you saw, the CD didn't
go back to track one, excitement built. And if
you patiently waited through that silence, the
end result is what might be, for me, my favorite
song on the album Go, and it's their cover of
Madonna's Like a Prayer. Intense, heavy, starts
off just like the original, only with a very
punk delivery, very soft, and then it's a million
miles an hour, and it is one of the highlights
of a great... hardcore punk album so i'm going
with h2o's cover of madonna's like a prayer you
know what every time i listen to your podcast
i i find at least one song that i either forgot
about or i've never heard of and i don't think
i've heard that one so i'm definitely gonna have
to give it a listen because That sounds fantastic.
It is. It truly is fantastic. They're not a household
name, unfortunately, but around the New York
City hardcore scene, they were definitely a band
that I heard a lot in this area. And if more
people aren't familiar with them, I hope they
become because they're just a fantastic group.
Nice. All right. H2O, Like a Prayer. All right.
So Like a Prayer. Is that an 80s song or is that
a 90s song? I think it was 89. All right. I'm
going to once again make a little bit of a pivot
because the connection is weak. I'm going to
say we'll go with the same range of time that
the cover came out. And I'm going to go with
a Down By Law cover from their Punk Rock Academy
fight song album. It's the Proclaimers 500 miles.
Yes. Thank you. Super fun. I love what they do
with it. I love that they don't even understand
all the words and they sing it like that. It's
just a really fun, you know, they're having fun
playing it and you know, they're just like, I
don't know. We're just going to rock this out.
Whatever Heaver means, let's just keep going.
And it's just a really fun way to take. a hugely
popular song and make it their own and make it,
I think, even more fun. So that's 500 Miles by
Down By Law. Absolutely love it. Was 100 ,000
% on my list. I love that version. Steve Moore,
a guy I went to high school with, chimed in with
this version as well. It is unbelievably good.
And about a decade later. mxpx put out a covers
album and they did a cover of 500 miles and a
lot of people were talking about it because they
incorporated surrender by cheap trick into the
mix and they're like oh but but it's such a creative
cover i said of down by law's cover and they're
like what i'm like no really this has been done
before yeah except down by law didn't put in
the cheap trick song however when he screams
out and if i have or whatever the That means
I think that is almost better than adding in
the whole extra cover song into the mix. Yeah,
I agree. It's it's so fun. And I mean that the
other one is a really good cover, too. But but
this is just I had to include it because it's
just there. You can tell that they are enjoying.
And that's one of the like broader things that
I like about cover songs is like when an artist
likes the song. you can tell when they enjoy
that they're doing it and not just doing it to
mess with the original artists. When people do
it for that, it kind of shines through. And when
a band genuinely likes the song or at least respects
what the song is, then it, in my opinion, makes
it a much better cover. And it usually becomes
one of my go -tos because you can tell that the
band's having fun with it. And I think in this
case, they were really having fun. I could not
agree more. And I think I know exactly what I'm
going to close out our side with. I had about
three or four songs. And in my head, I'm thinking
if Side B plays out the way I'm hoping, I could
still get all those songs in and still include
this one. And this is an iconic song that came
out in the 80s. And it was not a punk song, but
it was definitely inspired by and has a punk
vibe to it. And the band is REM. And I'm going
to go with a cover of an REM song by the Suicide
Machines that came out on 2001's Steal This Record.
I am going with their version of It's the End
of the World as We Know It and I Feel Fine. Because
the original has a punk vibe to it. But to be
able to speed that vocal delivery up. and still
get it out and maintain the integrity of the
original's manic presence. To be able to take
that up a notch is not an easy feat. And I feel
like they knocked it out of the park with this
version. And I know it's not the Suicide Machine's
most popular, infamous album, but it's such a
damn good cover. And I definitely wanted to close
out the side with something big and something
that really brought... kind of this side to a
close. And I feel like it's the end of the world
as we know it does just that. Perfect. Yep. It
was on my list. I'm glad that you did it because
if you didn't, I would have, that was also one
of my closing ideas. So good on you for including
it. I love that. REM is my favorite band. So
I had to have a song that at least somehow linked
to REM. So that was, that's a great one. Fantastic.
And that mixtapers concludes side a of our punk
rock cover songs, mixtape. which consists of
the Vandals cover of Queen's Don't Stop Me Now,
Social Distortion's cover of Johnny Cash's Ring
of Fire, NoFX's cover of Don McLean's Vincent,
Me First and the Gimme Gimme's cover of Loggins
and Messina's Danny Song, Real Big Fish's cover
of Tom Petty's I Won't Back Down, The Interrupter's
cover of Billie Eilish's Bad Guy, Joan Jett's
cover of Cole Porter's Let's Do It, H2O's cover
of Madonna's Like a Prayer, Down By Law's cover
of The Proclaimers' 500 Miles, and The Suicide
Machine's cover of R .E .M.'s It's the end of
the world as we know it, and I feel fine. Remember
to head over to myweeklymixtape .com to hear
all the songs we've talked about tonight. in
the mix embedded on the episode page. Now, before
we flip our proverbial mixtape over to Side B,
Matt, why don't you tell the listeners a little
bit more about X Radio X? All right. So X Radio
X is a podcast that my best friend and I put
together about basically college radio. We both
met at a college radio station and we are huge,
huge music fans and we're... cross genres in
a lot of different ways. And so we often talk
about music. And then after college, we went
into, we both went into commercial radio for
many years and were either in love with it or
jaded by it or both. And so we decided after
we got out of that field as well, we were craving
the music discussion and the things that. made
radio so interesting to us and the good and the
bad. And so we decided, well, let's, this is
an excuse for us to get together, to talk about
radio, to talk about music, to kind of share
our knowledge of radio, music, college radio,
that whole different niche of subject matter
and to share it with people and see, you know,
if people might be interested in, and it's super
fun. I mean, we have a blast every time we talk
about, you know, we do cover song. topics. We
talk about the different genres that you'd find
on radio, the formatting and things like that.
And so if you're interested in radio, if you're
interested in music and pop culture and that
sort of thing, then X Radio X is where you might
find us. And it's a good time. It most certainly
is. I love listening to the episodes. You guys
have a fantastic product over there. And I am
excited to be talking music with you tonight,
especially cover songs, because your cover songs
episodes are some of my favorite that you guys
do, because I'm always finding myself screaming
at my car radio saying, why haven't you mentioned
this one yet? And I love those type of conversations.
Yeah. For sure. And that's what I'm hoping we're
getting a little bit from other people tonight.
Maybe not yelling so much, but trying to nudge
us in the right direction. And hopefully they've
nudged me in the right directions because kicking
off Side B, I'm going to go with a cover of a
1980s song that I feel like the 1980s song is
iconic. However, depending on what generation
you ask, the Atari's 2003 cover. might be the
one that's more iconic. And I'm going with the
Boys of Summer, originally done by Don Henley.
Instead of the deadhead sticker on the Cadillac,
you have the black flag sticker on the Cadillac.
I absolutely love their version because it's
everything I love about punk versions. It honors
the original and it kicks it up a notch. I know
that's like an Emeril catchphrase or whatever,
but it really, the Atari's version. brings the
energy to an already energetic 80s song but it
totally does not sound like an 80s song anymore
the ataris bring it and make it their own so
love that version love the energy when my band
covers this song depending on who the audience
member is i will actually say don henley's boys
of summer or the ataris boys of summer because
depending on the age of the audience they want
to hear two different versions Right. That's
a good point. Yeah, I love that song. I mean,
that is one of my favorite cover songs for sure.
I think that, like I was saying before on side
one, the Ataris get it. They like the song. You
can tell they get the mood. They get the subtext.
They understand what Don Henley was singing about.
It's not just words and music that they have
to learn. They know what they're singing and
they make it their own and they modernize it
for their audience in a way that. really defines
that they are clearly hearing where he is coming
from and and they appreciate the song and they
respect the music and so i i just think it that
makes for a fantastic cover and now you get the
fun opportunity of following it up because you
could follow it up 80s style you could follow
it up punk rock style depends which way you want
to take it yes so i i'm gonna go with 80s style
but it's going to be a screeching record of a
theme change. So we're going to stick with the
80s feel. But when you go from Boys of Summer
to this song, it is going to be a little bit
of a jolt, but it's an 80s cover. It's no use
for a name covering the vapors turning Japanese.
Nice. It's such a good song. And I mean, the
original is so fun and noise for a name. Just
they rock it. It's from, I believe they had a
full covers album and it's one of the best ones
in my opinion that they had. So no use for a
name turning Japanese from the vapors. Great
pick. There's something about those nineties
punk style covers. They didn't have a home in
the nineties because punk rock wasn't on main
rock radio at that point. Sans your green days.
So these were the songs that were kind of, for
at least between my buddies and I, were getting
traded through recording CDs onto cassettes that
we would get because we were going to punk rock
shows and trying to find out more about punk
rock bands through people that were kind of in
that scene. There was no internet to kind of
find these songs back in the 90s. So No Use For
A Name was a band I discovered through one of
those tapes. Yeah, all of my... punk knowledge
pretty much exclusively i can thank the college
radio station i worked at because there were
some punk djs that had actual full -on six three
six hours of punk music all like top to bottom
front to back it was they were immersed in punk
culture and and so no use for a name was a big
one for them And so I just threw osmosis because
I was always at the radio station. I started
listening. I started saying, hey, this is this
is something more accessible than I thought.
And so I got into a lot of the punk bands that
I still listen to from college radio. Absolutely
love it. And I think I know where I'm going to
go with this, because along with those tapes
that my buddies and I would record for each other,
there was a band that I discovered along with
No Use for a Name on one of those tapes. And
the band is Face to Face. And in 1994, they put
out an album called Big Choice. And they decided
to cover a song by one of the most iconic punk
bands ever, in my humble opinion, being The Descendants.
And when you're going to tackle a Descendants
song, which is already groundbreaking punk, you
best bring it. to a new level and honor the original
with class and respect. And they did that in
their cover of bikage. I know this is going to
be a deep cut, but I'm assuming that there's
some people listening to this episode that are
punk fans more than cover song fans. So this
is my hat tip and shout out to all of those people,
because this is a punk band paying homage. to
another iconic punk band. And I feel like it
deserves a place in this conversation tonight.
Okay. Yeah, I could hear that for sure. And that's,
that's something that doesn't happen too often.
You hear every once in a while, a punk band will
cover another punk band. I know like green day
has done it once or twice, but like, yeah, it's,
it's cool for them to say, you know, here's somebody
that really either motivated us or inspired us
or whatever it might be. So that's cool. It's
a good choice. And now I throw it back to you.
All right. So we're going to go. Hmm. What do
we have that I haven't used yet? Well, you know
what I have to go with because we haven't we
haven't included them yet. It would be weird
to not have any Ramones songs on the punk cover
list. And so I have to include. the ramones cover
i think from 19 i want to say it was even 1979
california sun it's a great song they just are
having a blast doing it and they've done a number
of covers but that song is i think just one of
their one of my favorite covers of theirs so
i have to include it great pick originally recorded
by rhythm and blue singer joe jones but most
people Knew the original is the Riviera's version.
Yeah. So I think we can go with that. Although
even that version was it's one of those covers
that a lot of people didn't know was a cover.
Right. And I had the Ramones on my list because
you have to go iconic when you're talking about
a punk list. And there's certain bands that if
we did a punk anything list and you don't mention
them, I feel like we. we would lose some punk
cred, so to speak. Right. I had their cover of
Surf and Bird by the Trash Men from Rocket to
Russia. Nice. Because if I was going to put it
in, I wanted to do something fun, and it gave
me an excuse to shout out the Family Guy episode,
which is probably one of my favorite Family Guy
moments of all time. That is funny. But I am
going to follow up the Ramones with another iconic
punk band that if we don't include on this episode,
will lose some some punk cred here and i feel
like following up the ramones is a tough challenge
but the clash can stand up to that challenge
and i'm going to go off of 1979's ep the cost
of living or for us here in america the american
edition of their self -titled album originally
written by sonny kernis of the crickets and popularized
by bobby fuller for The Clash made it iconic.
I fought the law and the law won. Believe it
or not, I also had Mike Ness's version of I fought
the law on my list. But when we're talking punk
covers, the Social D cover of Ring of Fire blows
away Mike Ness's version of I fought the law.
And Mike Ness's version of I fought the law is
awesome. It is. We're talking about The Clash
and The Clash wins out here. Following up the
Ramones, I Fought the Law. All right. Excellent
choice. So then I'm going to go for track six.
I'm going to take another thematically. This
is a band covering an oldie, I think, by most
people's standards. Even nowadays, the 80s are
considered oldies, but a true oldie from Ben
E. King. It's going to be Pennywise's cover of
Stand By Me from their Word to the Wise album.
Such a good song. Pennywise, just. And in fact,
it doesn't even start out as a punk song. It
starts out pretty true to the original. And then
about midway through or so, it starts kicking
you in the teeth. But it is such a good. I think,
I mean, in a way it kind of shows Pennywise's
range, but it's just a really good song that
they took and they obviously care about it. They
did a good job with it. And then they also decided,
well, you know what? Our fans want us to rock
out. So we're now we're going to rock out. And
so they did. And it's a great one. Stand by me
by Pennywise. Absolutely love it. I had Pennywise
on my list. And that was actually their cover
of Down Under, which you can only find as I go
nerd here on the Australia and New Zealand editions
of their album Straight Ahead. So I give a shout
out to Seven Rock Lists, Kevin Seeker, Hutch,
and all the other folks down there in Australia,
because you guys could probably get your hands
on that CD for me. So, you know, men at work,
get to work and hopefully find me a copy of that.
I've been dying to get that on disc. I love.
Pennywise. I love their cover of Stand By Me.
It's fantastic. Coming out of that, though, is
tough because that's like an old school kind
of R &B tune. Yep. They made it not suitable
for work, though. Yeah, exactly. But I want to
come out of that and kind of stick with these
iconic groups we're talking about. So I'm going
to go with a real iconic punk band, in my opinion.
It's a band that. Help set the stage for punk
as we know it in all decades. And it's one of
their newer songs, however, came out in the 90s
for this band. And I had the amazing fortune
with my punk band all at random to open up for
the damned agnostic front, the misfits and the
band that I'm choosing for this list, the Dickies
and their cover of the human beings. Nobody but
me. From 1998's Dogs from the Hair That Bit Us.
Or, as a lot of people in America know it, 1998's
Basketball Soundtrack. Ah. If you don't know
the song, it's been in commercial jingles. It's
been in movies, cartoons. It's no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no. And you take the Dickies punk
flair and you add it to this. And it's a recipe
for success. And the song kicks ass. And because
I got the chance to share the stage with this
band, I wanted to find a way to get them into
this mix somehow. Nice. Very good. I love that
song. That is a great. And that soundtrack is
so fun. The basketball soundtrack. So that's
one of the really good ones from that album.
Yeah, Take On Me is another cover from that.
I mean, you had Cherry Poppin' Daddies doing
a cover of Jumping the Line, Shake Sonor. Right.
That soundtrack was awesome. Yeah. For sure.
All right. So for my next one, let's see. I'm
going to go with another one that I would have
never heard of this band if it weren't for Radio
X. And this was a band that got quite a lot of
airplay during the punk shows that would play
when I was in college. And it's a band called
Bucko Nine. and they are doing a cover of musical
youth past the duchy it's a it's a great song
and i mean the original is a great song too it's
it's but bucko nine just you know they do it
bucko nine style and and and it's such a fun
cover and definitely got All of our feet tapping.
I think it came out in 1998. I think it was actually
on the past the Dutch EP and had a couple other
good songs on it. But that was definitely a song
that I would request when I called into the punk
show. And they would be like, oh, yeah, another
cover. Good one, Matt. And then, of course, you
know, they would play it for me. So absolutely
love it. And oh, my God, you are leaving me with
such a tough decision here because I only have
one song left. Yeah. And there are so many ways
I can go. I could follow that 1980s vibe that
we have going now with Past the Duchy because
it was a bit of a turn. Yeah. Bucko Nine was
more 90s punk, but I've been throwing in along
with this mix. There's a lot of 90s and a lot
of classic artists kind of sprinkled out through
this. It's almost kind of like a scale and we're
trying to balance it with 90s punk and classic
punk. So I think what I'm going to do is try
to balance it with another classic punk band
that I feel like deserves to be on this playlist
with a cover that might be more infamous than
famous. But if there's only one way to do it
and you're the Sex Pistols, you do it my way.
Their cover of Frank Sinatra. I mean, come on.
Yes. When you talk about punk attitude. Sid Vicious
embodies punk rock. And this version starting
off kind of serious and whatever you want to
call it, if you want to call that serious in
the beginning, starting off slow. Right. And
just kind of singing it kind of bad and out of
tune and then taking it into a true Sex Pistols
punk song. I know there's a lot of controversy
around the great rock and roll swindle and how
the label put that album together and everything.
But regardless, at the end of the day. This song
always sticks out to me for punk covers. And
if it's the last song I get to include on this
mix, I thought what a perfect kind of pre exclamation
point to the exclamation point. Matt will be
putting on this entire tape. Very good. So my
track nine sex pistols my way. Excellent choice.
I love that song. It's such an iconic version
of that song. If someone gave me the choice to
listen to the Sex Pistols version or the Frank
Sinatra, I would pick the Sex Pistols every single
time. So a wonderful choice. And I'm so glad
that you didn't pick the band that I... It was
my last choice for a wrap -up song. And so you
didn't, thank goodness. But the reason... So
the reason I chose this song for a wrap up song
is I don't know if you were this is going to
be obscure. I don't know if you ever did you
watch Conan O 'Brien when he was on TV before
he was on like whatever channel he's on now,
like when he had a network show? Yes. So when
he was finishing up his show, there was all sorts
of controversy about him getting canceled and
being replaced by Leno and blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. And so he went out the way Conan
O 'Brien wanted to go out by rocking. And I don't
think he played this song, but it was playing
as a montage at the end of his one of his last
programs. It was Cheap Trick Surrender. And it
just kind of encapsulated that sort of feeling
of. It's going to be all right. You know, things
are changing. Things are different. Things might
feel nervous and scary, but, you know, it's OK.
And so it was kind of a feel good way to end
that sort of era of that show. And so it kind
of stuck with me like that. And so when I was
thinking of songs to finish up a playlist, I
thought it would be really cool to use Surrender.
So I chose less than Jake's cover. of surrender
by cheap trick for track 10. Awesome. I was hoping
you were going to, I know there's a bunch of,
like I even mentioned earlier in the show, MXPX
included it with their cover of 500 miles, but
less than Jake's at the end of Anthem is a superior
cover. I love, love, love it. It's so good. And
just the, the drumming alone is amazing. The
fact that they, the regular version is difficult
to do, but then they, they, punkify it and it's
like his arms must have flown right off it's
so good it's a if you have not heard that cover
you just have to check it out certainly and i
had less than jake on my list although i went
with something that i thought was really tongue
-in -cheek because at the end of the song even
they inject into the lyrics covers are lamey
which is their cover of the Animaniacs theme
from 2010's TV EP. I did not see a universe we'd
be able to talk about this song on the episode.
So just the fact that you scooped me on Lester
Jake and I got to shoehorn that fun fact in,
I love Lester Jake. They're such a great band.
And I'm looking at this list and I think we did
a kick -ass job, but there's a lot of bands that
I know people are going to go, how did you do
a punk playlist and not include? Question mark,
question mark, question mark. So I could definitely
see a volume two down the road for this one,
for sure. I would love that. That would be fun.
Well, there you have it, mixtapers. Side B of
our punk rock cover songs mixtape includes the
Atari's cover of Don Henley's The Boys of Summer,
No Use for a Name's cover of The Vapors Turning
Japanese, Face to Face's cover of The Descendants'
Bikage, The Ramones' cover of The Riviera's California
Sun, The Clash's cover of Bobby Fuller 4's I
Fought the Law. Pennywise's cover of Ben E. King's
Stand By Me. The Dickies' cover of The Human
Being's Nobody But Me. Buck 09's cover of Musical
Youth's Past the Duchy. Sex Pistols' cover of
Frank Sinatra's My Way. And Less Than Jake's
cover of Cheap Trick's Surrender. Head over to
MyWeeklyMixtape .com to hear the full mixtape
that we have discussed tonight. through the playlist
embedded on the episode page. Matt, thank you
so much for doing this show with me tonight.
I had an absolute blast. Why don't you let listeners
know where they can find the X radio X podcast,
as well as connect with you on social media.
All right. Well, you can find our podcast really
anywhere that you get your podcasts. We're on
the Spotify. We're on the GoodPods. We're on
the Apple thing. We're on all of those podcast
outlets. And if you want to find us at XRadioX1
on Twitter, we try to talk music as much as possible.
We love the dialogue and we love exchanging musical
ideas, if you will. But Brian, thank you so much
for having me on the show. It was a blast. I'm
definitely down for a round two. The challenge
is accepted anytime. All right. We'll get to
that very soon. And mixtapers, thank you so much
for listening again. Remember, you can find my
weekly mixtape on Facebook, Twitter. Instagram,
TikTok, and spoutable at myweeklymixtape. You
can also head to myweeklymixtape .com to check
out the full catalog of My Weekly Mixtape episodes.
If you want to support the show, please consider
becoming a Patreon mixtaper at patreon .com forward
slash myweeklymixtape. That's all for this week.
Thanks again for listening. Until next time,
enjoy the tunes.