If you’ve been wondering why Double J has sounded extra bratty, snotty, and in your face this month, it’s because they’ve been celebrating 40 years since punk rock first exploded onto the music scene with Punk Is Calling.
In addition to special programs, guest presenters, and album retrospectives, they’ve also been inviting some of our most beloved Australian musicians into the studio to record special covers of their favourite punk rock classics.
Double J tapped Aussie rock legends Adalita, Bob Evans, Jen Cloher, and Paul Dempsey to record the covers, and each nailed their renditions whilst sharing their thoughts on the tunes they covered and the importance of punk.
Cloher, remarking on her cover of The Slits’s ‘Typical Girls’, said she chose the song “because it has that kind of first-wave feminist influence, just looking at the stereotypical woman and advertising in magazines and challenging what the typical girl is”.
Meanwhile, Something For Kate frontman Dempsey said he chose to cover ‘Bikeage’ by the Descendents because his band literally would not have existed “if it weren’t for the Descendents”, recounting how he and drummer Clint met because of a Descendents T-shirt.
You can check out some of the killer covers below or see them all via the official triple j website.
