So Ben Lee likes Against Me! so much that he’s covered their new record, New Wave, acoustically and in it’s entirety. The A.V. Club says it sucks, and I haven’t heard it yet (it’s downloading as I type), so I can’t say whether or not I agree, but if I had to guess… trying to imagine Lee’s voice singing Gabel’s parts… Yeah, it’s not gonna be good. Still, for the curious, I present you with Ben Lee’s New Wave and his explanation of the project via his blog:

A couple of weeks ago I downloaded the new “Against Me!” album “New Wave”. I didnt really know too much about this band but had been reading lots of good things about it, and my friend Tegan sings on it. I like to keep myself up to date with whats going on musically in the world, so I checked it out. I fell in love with the album. Really. Like, couldn’t stop listening to it. As heavy and gnarly as it sounds at times, it is unmistakably a pop masterpiece. Listening to it on the way to Australia, I wondered to myself how these songs would sound acoustically.

A couple of days later I was on a flight from Sydney to Melbourne and had the thought “I’d love to cover this album.” The whole thing. Beginning to end. So I did.

Anyway, here are the results. If you already know the original album, I hope these recordings shed a different light on it. If you don’t know “Against Me!” and like what you hear, go check them out.

I don’t mind Ben Lee (I’ve even swooned over a few of his songs in the past) but this can’t be good.

(Thanks to my friend Matt for passing along the link to the the A.V. entry.)

UPDATE: OMG IT’S SO BAD! I just listened to “Thrash Unreal” and it. is. killing me. Hahahahahaha! It’s as close to being a musak version without actually being musak… Can’t stop laughing. Face hurts. Can’t breathe. Sigh.

Also, does anyone else think it’s funny that he censors the word “piss”? P**s? Really? Weird.