Weak13 are a guitar, bass and drums three piece hailing out of Birmingham/ Black Country. Describing themselves as ‘low-tuned punk metal terror’ their take on the Otis Redding classic Sittin’ (on the Dock of the Bay) is the third of three cover versions intended to slate demand between their 2017 debut They Live and Aluminium, a double album due for release this summer. That’s the introductions out of the way so let’s cut to the chase.
There are lots of things you can do to make a cover version different; change the speed, the style, change the gender of the singer – you might be tempted to change a word, say Memphis to Bloxwich (they weren’t) – you can even turn a much loved classic into a quite awful racket (they didn’t) but what is impossible to do is to kill the song. Weak13 have thrown if not the kitchen sink at Redding and Steve Cropper’s classic then certainly the contents of a singletons fridge. Nice whistling at the start before it begins its journey to the open sea, thumbing its nose as it goes via so much budget studio trickery; swathes of fuzzy guitar gunfire ricocheting hither and yon and with the rhythm section gamely keeping up. As my mum might say ‘what it lacks in wham it more than makes up for with bam’. Thank you Mam.
Listening to this more than once probably won’t reveal any unsuspected hidden depths, despite the style change it still feels a fairly respectful version. However what might be worth having a look at is the accompanying video – set in space and incorporating lots of Lo Fi Sci Fi fun (including possibly the first suggested intergalactic blow job – ‘can you queer me Major Dom’?) – and possibly where most of the budget ended up.
By: Various artist