It just so happens that this song is an indictment of the kind of holier-than-thou punk attitudes that Darnielle probably can't relate to personally. Though the band-song pairing seems a little incongruous, it actually makes a lot of sense: Both Jawbreaker and The Mountain Goats were/are led by literate guys who like to put their feelings right out there, naked. When they actually came in and played it, we were delighted. When we heard from John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats that the band had chosen Jawbreaker's 1994 classic of punk-scene angst, "Boxcar," to cover for us, we were tickled. (Oh, by the way, Wye Oak will be the only repeat performer from last year. This song was chosen for Undercover by way of reader suggestion: About six of you thought it would be a good one, and you were right. Jenn even wore a special black hoodie and allowed herself to be temporarily tattooed in an homage to the former Misfits frontman. They tackled Danzig's "Mother" with exactly the amount of seriousness it deserves. And oh man, Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack (along with Callers' Don "Donzig" Godwin on tenor horn) didn't disappoint. Their new album is called Civilian, and it's an early-ish contender for best of the year in at least one book around here. But really the reason we wanted to invite Baltimore duo Wye Oak back into the round room is that they're awesome. But if you look at the numbers carefully, you'll see that lots of people (47%) were okay with returning acts, particularly if they were one of the top vote-getters from last year. Yes, we're well aware that you voted for this year's Undercover to include only bands that hadn't played last year. Oh, and yes, that's Marketa Irglova from Undercover alums The Swell Season singing backup here! So if you want to spoil some upcoming surprises, look closely at the wall. In the meantime: SPOILER ALERT! Though Iron And Wine was the first band to choose a song, they weren't the first to perform. We're hoping against hope that Iron And Wine and their special duet guest can come back before the end of the run and perform "Islands In The Stream" as sort of a bonus track. That special guest couldn't make it at the last minute, and rather than have Sam pick a different song from the list, we let him play one that he'd been itching to do anyway (and a song that feels completely in the spirit of Undercover). Here's what happened: Iron And Wine's Sam Beam chose "Islands In The Stream" to cover, and had a special guest lined up to sing with him.
Undercover, you'll know that "One More Try" by George Michael is not actually on this year's list. Clem Snide's latest album is The Meat Of Life. Here's an amazing line from Wikipedia about Journey's original video: "Steve Perry can be seen shaving his short-lived but talked-about moustache in the video." Don't bail on this video, either: There's a surprise at the end that's even better than moustache-shaving. It helps that the slightly cheesy lyric is something that Barzelay can relate to-missing your family while out on the road. When he told us it'd be performed in solo-ukulele form, that delight was doubled. Clem Snide frontman (and only constant member) Eef Barzelay has made other artists' songs his own many times before, from Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" to Hank Williams' "Lost On The River" to The Velvet Underground's "I'll Be Your Mirror." When we told Ben Folds that Barzelay would be shooting an Undercover, he said something like, "I can listen to that guy sing anything, all day." When he chose Journey's 1983 power ballad "Faithfully" for Undercover, we were delighted.