In the latest edition of ‘things you didn’t realise you needed’ The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus have released a cover of Men At Work‘s 80’s classic ‘Land Down Under’.
The pop punk overlords have given the Aussie pop classic the emo treatment, with frontman Ronnie Winter Defoe soaring through lyrics like, “Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder? /You better run, you better take cover” and “He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich.”
The cover is the first of a series of single cover releases to be drip-fed to fans this year.
Stream the cover of ‘Land Down Under’ below:
Frontman Ronnie Winter Defoe said, “After over a decade of being asked by our fans to release some cover songs we have decided to give them what they want. So, we are releasing 10 covers this year (one at a time) then creating a playlist to share after the last one!”
The band seem to have removed the now infamous flute riff that supposedly plagiarised the old campfire tune, ‘Kookaburra Sitting In The Old Gum Tree’.
The distinctive flute part, played by Men At Work’s Greg Ham, was deemed by a Federal Court judge in 2009 to be a copy of “Kookaburra…’. The band were later ordered to pay 5% of the song’s royalties to Larrakin Music, the publishers of the classic children’s song, and have since released a reworked version of the song.
Next month, Red Jumpsuit will head out on tour with fellow pop punk overlords Cute Is What We Aim For and special guest Saywecanfly throughout the US.
‘Tis the season of throwback acts releasing cover tracks. Weezer recently shocked their entire fanbase by dropping a surprise album full of cover versions. Titled Weezer (The Teal Album), the ten song release dropped without warning and included songs by the likes of Michael Jackson, Eurythmics, a-Ha, Tears For Fears, Black Sabbath, and of course, Toto.
