As we near the end of the The AV Club’s second Undercover series — in which bands drop in on the site’s Chicago offices and pick a song off a predetermined list to cover live in a very small room — we find nerd-pop duo They Might Be Giants enlisting the website’s staff to help perform a delightfully unhinged version of one-hit-wonder Chumbawumba’s sing-along anthem “Tubthumping.”
Earlier, we brought you power-pop kings Sloan doing a number on Gary Numan’s “Cars,” indie buzz band Surfer Blood plowing through the Pixies’ “Gigantic” and Rocky Votolato and the members of Matt Pond PA doing a stripped-down take on The Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me.” Still on the AV Club’s list of songs to be covered: The Clash’s “Janie Jones” and Sugar’s “If I Can’t Change Your Mind.”
this is great, i love it. leave it TMBG to “get” the gimmick of the show, as opposed to the usual pouty poseurs. but hey, what’s w/ the chumbawumba crack–1-hit wonders? first, that’s one more hit than 95% of the bands on this site. second, they have a long long history of great music. they want to torture jame hetfield, you wanna give him a medal for playing w/ lou reed–to each his own, i guess.
Couldn’t help but notice how decidedly Caucasian the AV Club staff is.