Two Minutes To Late Night shared a mashup of Stan Bush’s “The Touch” from The Transformers: The Movie (1986) and “Jump” by Van Halen. It was performed by a Transformers-themed rock band called The Cybertronic Spree in collaboration with Poison the Well’s drummer Chris Hornbrook, Courtney Cox of The Iron Maidens, Stephen Brodsky of Cave In/Mutoid Man and Gwarsenio Hall. 

It’s mostly a cover of “The Touch,” but becomes a mashup with “Jump” at the end. Arcee of The Cybertronic Spree sings the lead vocal part for “The Touch,” but Two Minutes To Late Night host Gwarsenio Hall takes over for the “Jump” section. Overall, it’s a much heavier take on “The Touch,” thanks to the presence of four guitarists and Hornbrook’s quick drum fills. Cox shreds through an intro and a guitar solo while Brodsky, Hall and Unicron of The Cybertronic Spree add some metal riffing to the recording. Hotrod of The Cybertronic Spree plays the bass part and other members of the group add additional vocals.

The mashup section of the track transitions through the iconic “Jump” synthesizer part back into some similar guitar playing to “The Touch” while Hall passionately merges the lyrics from each. Although both original track’s keyboard parts play huge roles in each classic, the keys otherwise take a backseat to the four guitarists for this mashup.

In the accompanying video, a drone zooms in on Cox as she plays guitar while standing up in a bright orange convertible on a rooftop at sunset. Meanwhile, members of The Cybertronic Spree jump around in foam Transformers costumes and Hall wears Van Halen overalls with his usual corpse paint. There’s also a green-screened Brodsky floating around and plenty of movie clips.

It’s the 43rd cover from Two Minutes to Late Night’s quarantine covers series, following a version of Jefferson Starship’s “Jane.” Other covers they’ve released this year include a version of Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U” performed with 20 backing vocalists, a full-band cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” by Thursday, a metal-inspired rendition of Björk’s “Hyperballad,” a ‘90s club songs medley, a gritty cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Rocks Off,” a more aggressive take on Pantera’s “Mouth for War,” a parody of Elton John’s “Step Into Christmas” and a rendition of Anthrax’s “Caught in a Mosh.” 

Photo credit: Raymond Flotat