Punk Covers from Strange Places

Comedic music owes a lot to Dr. Demento. The Los Angeles disc jockey is known for bringing his quirky, strange and unusual novelty songs to the forefront of a rather undiscovered and untapped genre. Years later, his contributions to the genre have brought acts like Weird Al Yankovic to the forefront of not just this weird niche community, but to the country as a whole.

Now Dr. Demento and friends have released over a two-hour, 60 plus track mega box set of songs played on the Dr. Demento radio show, covered by punk bands and other celebrity friends. Dr. Demento Covered in Punk certainly isn’t for everyone, but die-hard fans of Dr. Demento’s radio show will enjoy this, and even the casual punk fan might laugh at some of the punk covers from strange sources.

William Shatner, for one, covering The Cramps is nothing anyone would expect in general. But this is a comedy show, so it’s allowed. His rendition of “Garbageman” is haunting and has that distinct Shatner voice.

“Institutionalized” is a strange cover. Brak does this sort of baby talk, annoying rendition to the Suicidal Tendencies original song. The original was silly to begin with, but fit the Suicidal Tendencies angst and added a sense of comedy to it that Brak makes it cringe-inducing.  

These covers have Dr. Demento’s voice in between almost every track, just like the listener is actually tuned into his radio show.

Not all of these covers are bad; Joan Jett, a punk legend in her own right, covered the track “Science Fiction / Double Feature” from the cult-classic Rocky Horror Picture Show. Jett does a good job of combining her signature sound with the essence of performance in Rocky Horror Picture Show. Philly Boy Roy does a good job of covering the Dead Milkmen “Punk Rock Girl” and then the Dead Milkmen themselves covered Groucho Marx’s “Lydia, The Tattooed Lady.”

The Kids of Widney High, an inspiring ska punk-rock band did an unorthodox cover of “Monster Mash” which made the classic, creepy Halloween song a lot of fun, as the Kids of Widney High always do. The second half of the set finishes up with a cover of the Ramones “Beat on the Brat” by the king of comedy music himself, Weird Al Yankovic. It is a satisfying way to close out the two-hour show organized by Dr. Demento.