A.V. Club Undercover

Welcome to the fourth year of A.V. Undercover—we're delighted to be back and delighted that you've decided to join us for another round of covers. But one thing that isn't round (amazing segue!) is the room: We sadly left the round room behind at our old office, and though we briefly considered fabricating a new one, we thought we'd just start fresh instead. And fresh it is! We're sharing a large new studio with our brothers and sisters at The Onion, and Chicago poster artist Jay Ryan created an amazing new backdrop for us in one corner of that studio. First up, we were honored and thrilled that the legendary Yo La Tengo was able to inaugurate the new space. The New Jersey band, which had just started a tour behind its excellent new Fade, has done a ton of covers over the years, and this one—of the Holland-Dozier-Holland composition "Come See About Me," made most famous by The Supremes—ranks among the best (in one man's humble opinion).

"Semi-Charmed Life" is one of those songs that inspires complicated feelings: It's sort of obnoxious and ridiculous and yet catchy and... good(?). One minute, dude is singing about meth, the next he's all, "The beach gives a feeling, an earthy feeling." (And then he sort of raps.) But none of this hand-wringing matters: "Semi-Charmed Life" was so massive that it will live damn near forever, and we found a band that really, truly likes it. There are no tongues in cheeks in this performance by Frontier Ruckus, a Michigan band that just released its excellent third album, Eternity Of Dimming. We hope you'll enjoy the singing saw, the banjo, and the speaking to you like the chorus to the verse, chop another line like a coda with a curse.

It makes sense that ZZ Ward chose Frank Ocean's "Thinkin Bout You" from this year's Undercover list; after all, her Eleven Roses mixtape featured nods to Tyler The Creator, Childish Gambino, and Freddie Gibbs—she's familiar with smoothness and hip-hop. Covering the song is no simple feat, but Ward and her band do it soulful justice. Ward's debut album, Til The Casket Drops, came out late last year. and she'll appear at Sasquatch this year, along with a bunch of other festivals.

Night Beds' debut album, Country Sleep, is one of this year's strongest—a gorgeous, country-ish, kinda weird set of songs masterminded by singer-songwriter Winston Yellin. We wouldn't have expected Night Beds to gravitate toward Robyn's monstrous club hit "Dancing On My Own," considering its basis in electronic beats. But a great song is a great song, and Night Beds make it their own in this performance, pulling out some pathos and changing the emphasis in the chorus. Enjoy.

Frightened Rabbit first joined us for A.V. Undercover way back in 2010, when Scott Hutchison offered up a very Scottish version of The Lemonheads' "Confetti." (The wall was nearly blank!) For this season, Scott was accompanied by his brother Grant for a longing version of the Cheap Trick classic "Surrender." Originally the brothers planned to attempt "No Diggity" by Blackstreet, but apparently found more common ground with this song. Frightened Rabbit's latest album is the excellent Pedestrian Verse. Enjoy.

The last time the aliens of GWAR visited A.V. Undercover, they had no choice about what to perform: They finished last year's series out by mutilating Kansas' "Carry On Wayward Son" in our old round room. This time, the blood-soaked outfit had a few left, and Billy Ocean's 1988 hit "Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car" apparently piqued someone's interest. (Our money is on guitarist Pustulus Maximus.) The band showed up to our new studio a little concerned that it was too large, but not only did they blast through the Billy Ocean song, they appended a little something extra to it. (You'll have to watch to find out.) GWAR's latest album is Battle Maximus. There are two songs left this year: Heart's "Barracuda" and Rollins Band's "Low Self Opinion."