Photo by Shervin Lainez
Mike Kinsella has had a long history of writing songs that make you sad. From his work in the seminal (and recently reunited) American Football to Joan of Arc to Cap’n Jazz, Owls, and of course his solo project, Owen, Kinsella has written the soundtracks to looking longingly out a rain-dripping window. Don’t even pretend like you’ve gone through a breakup without flipping on one of his records. Now, under the Owen moniker, Kinsella would like to play sorrowful with other people’s songs and has an appropriately titled album out soon called Other People’s Songs, featuring all covers. Eight bands get the acoustic treatment—from ALL to Lungfish to Smoking Popes.
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Here, Kinsella digs in to Against Me!’s catalog with a cover of “Borne On The FM Waves Of The Heart,” which you may remember as the song featuring Tegan Quin of Tegan and Sara, off their 2007 major label debut, New Wave. He proves he can take pretty much any song and repurpose it into a weapon of infinite sadness against you. Kinsella could take a Slipknot b-side and turn it into an emo classic.
Check out Owen’s cover of the song below and order the record from Polyvinyl Records. It’s out on December 2.
