Various

Something To Du [7-inch] (2013)

Rich Cocksedge

There are some things that might sound great in the planning stage but which don't actually meet the expectations when they reach fruition. This release has taken some time to see the light of day and it almost built up some kind of mythical sense about it: was it for real and were people really going to attempt to cover songs by a band that many revere to this day, years since they last played? From my perspective I've been bitten by a couple of releases on which bands cover a band I love, with Bad Religion being one that still causes me to shudder when I recall the results, so part of me hoped that it would remain a myth.

I rarely shut my eyes when listening to music but that's what I did when first putting this on as I really didn't want to have all my fears confirmed as a handful of bands desecrated the memory of Mould, Hart and Norton. It was with much relief that I slowly opened my eyes, as the first band up, Canada's Unfun, took one of my favourite Hüsker Dü songs and didn't try to replicate it fully, as that would be a folly. What Unfun did manage to do though was to bring the band's own brand of fire and energy to the song, allowing it to become something different, something new that I could enjoy without comparing it to the original.

That, pretty much, is how I feel about the five other bands and song choices on this single. In turn, each band does what Unfun did, they give their chosen song a sense of themselves which is clearly heard The Dauntless Elite's version of "I Don't Know What You're Talking About" which has an obvious English edge to it but there also seems to be a bit of Fugazi going on too, which works well. The one minor surprise was the fact that Your Pest Band was the band to give a rendition of their chosen song which was closest to the original – I had expected something much different for some reason: it's still good though.

For reference the full listing including the album from which the songs came from are as follows:

1. Unfun "The Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill" (New Day Rising)
2. Tenement "Obnoxious" (Everything Falls Apart)
3. Crow Bait "Dead Set On Destruction" (Candy Apple Grey)
4. Bent Outta Shape "Terms of Psychic Warfare" (New Day Rising)
5. The Dauntless Elite "I Don't Know What You're Talking About" (New Day Rising)
6. Your Pest Band "Green Eyes" (Flip Your Wig)

With all fears allayed I'm able to enjoy the efforts of the six bands on this single without it sullying the memory of one of the best bands I've had the pleasure of seeing. It's good to see that New Day Rising is the album from which the majority of tracks are culled, seeing as it's the one I like the most. And finally, for the record, my favourite track is Bent Outta Shape's version of "Terms of Psychic Warfare".

Listen to it here.