J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., Robby Takac of Goo Goo Dolls, Chad Price of ALL, Darrin Pfeiffer of Goldfinger and Mikey Hawdon of Inner City Surfers have joined together to perform a socially-distanced cover of the Replacements’ “Favorite Thing.” The cover comes as part of Hawdon’s YouTube cover series, “Mikey and His Uke,” where Hawdon plays his ukulele and is joined by members of various punk bands.

“The very first song I ever heard by the Replacements was ‘Bastards Of Young’ when I was 15 years old,” Hawdon said in the video’s description. “The iconic video came on TV and was forever ingrained in my memory, and is still one of my favorite songs ever. Years later I got their ‘Stink’ EP and really enjoyed it, but when I heard the album ‘Let It Be,’ I fell full in love with The Replacements. From start to finish, this album is incredible. It was hard to pick which song to cover.”

Hawdon begins the song playing his ukulele by himself, quickly being joined by Mascis, Takac, Price and Pfeiffer. Price sings the majority of the lyrics, each musician putting their all into the track. The camera alternates between all of them, showing each of their homes as they play the song and remain socially isolated. The cover keeps the same energy found in the 1984 original, Price bouncing the lyrics around as much as Paul Westerberg had done. The video ends with each musician putting their instruments down, Hawdon writing the message, “stay positive, stay educated, stay safe. We will get through this.”

Another recent cover performed on “Mikey and His Uke” had been Black Flag’s “Rise Above,” with Tim McIlrath of Rise Against, Lou Koller of Sick Of It All, Mike Herrera of MXPX and Moby. The series has also seen star-studded covers of Operation Ivy’s “Unity,” Minor Threat’s “Betray,” Bad Religion’s “No Control” and Pennywise’s “Bro Hymn.” In addition to joining in on Hawdon’s most recent cover, J. Macis and Dinosaur Jr. performed at a socially-distanced drive-in concert in Connecticut and New Hampshire over the past weekend.

Photo credit: Marisa Rose Ficara