So you play bass in a solid but underrated punk band who got signed to Vagrant but never came close to reaching the popularity of that label's biggest hitters, returned after a lengthy hiatus with an EP that went virtually unnoticed, then just kind of fizzled out. What do you do next? If the band is No Motiv and you're Jeff Hershey, you recruit a band of trained jazz musicians and punk rock ringers including Sam Bolle, formerly of Agent Orange, and start playing soul. And just in case people forget where you came from, you record a quickfire EP of classic punk covers.

Jeff Hershey and the Heartbeats' Underground Classics is that EP. Fear's "I Love Livin' In The City" kicks things off, and it’s immediately apparent that sprinkling a touch of soul doesn't mean sacrificing the energy and attitude of the originals. It's a reasonably faithful cover until Hershey yells "New York's alright if you like saxophones" and the sax licks from that other Fear song replace the expected guitar solo.

Misfits' "Some Kinda Hate" is next, propelled by a steady soul rhythm that could have shuffled right off an early Stax record. Hershey sounds more soulful than a man singing about how "the maggots in the eye of love won't copulate" has any right to, the trademark "woah ohs" are present and correct, and again the saxophone is prominent. Don't be put off by the sax -- it's more Rocket from the Crypt than Kenny G.

Next comes Agent Orange's "Bloodstains." Once again, the sax drives the song, lending an eastern flavour to that classic surf guitar riff. The badass surf guitar solo from the original is also saxed up, of course. Bolle must have played this song hundreds of times live, but never like this.

The record ends with "Oxnard," Ill Repute's Nardcore anthem, played at full pelt. It's spun out to almost two minutes, which Ill Repute might not approve of -- they didn't much go in for songs longer than 90 seconds -- but the additional time allows the Heartbeats to cram in a finger-snapping jazzy breakdown, before one final hectic chorus.

Underground Classics is a whole heap of fun, and its nine-minute running time flies by. It could easily come across as gimmicky -- Me First and the Gimme Gimmes in reverse -- but the band's energy and Hershey's committed vocal performance sell the concept, and Kyle O'Donnell's sax puts it over the top. Available on Bandcamp as a pay-what-you-want download, it's well worth checking out.