Dear Landlord: “Knowledge” (Operation Ivy)

Contributed by ianissuperrad. Posted by kira on Monday, January 2, 2012 at 3:00 PM (EST)

A reader has submitted video from The Dopamines Fifth Anniversary show on New Year's Eve. It was the final show at the 30-year old venue Southgate House in Newport, KY. The band lead the crowd in a countdown to 2012 as Dear Landlord joined them on stage to cover the Operation Ivy classic "Knowledge." You can click Read More for the video (cover song starts at about 3:20).

Bands in this story

Dear Landlord

The Dopamines

Operation Ivy

News (32 comments)

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

regulartrite (January 2, 2012)

stop reminding me of this show I couldn't get into! GRRRRR.

porphyriax (January 2, 2012)

...AND THAT'S FINE

I Love it.

NewKid (January 2, 2012)

who went to a new year's eve show this year? Alkaline Trio at Metro was incredibly awesome. played maybe ill catch fire entirely.

porphyriax (January 2, 2012)

I'd rather see FHTI entirely - but that sounds rad.

schaumpton (January 2, 2012)

I thought that's what they played the night before in Palatine @ Durty Nellie's? Still pissed I heard about that show way too late.

wentz_equals_death (January 2, 2012)

i was in california. did anybody go see the spits in chicago? did it rule?

mclz (January 2, 2012)

Someone rip this!!

ianissuperrad (January 2, 2012)

Ryan from Mixtapes and Zack from Dear Landlord's midnight kiss. Magical.

ianissuperrad (January 2, 2012)

Look for it at 2:25

Slacker (January 2, 2012)

http://www.mitchclem.com/nothingnice/152/

superskabro (January 2, 2012)

fuck. i blew it by not going to this...

jpsingh (January 2, 2012)

Yeah I drug ass by not getting a ticket, I assumed I could get one easily, when I finally saw the southgate house was closing it was too late.

anarchypants (January 2, 2012)

A cover of Knowledge? There's a first time for everything I guess.

Bastard_squad (January 2, 2012)

Of all their songs, why is this the only one that ever gets covered?

ashtraymonument (January 2, 2012)

doesn't unity get covered a fair amount?

loveshackbaby (January 2, 2012)

Because people know it.
Knowledge gets people singing along. Room Without A Window gets a room full of people standing around and looking bored.

Skibz777 (January 2, 2012)

That doesn't make sense. If playing any Op Ivy music before a punk crowd makes people bored, then the issue's obviously not in the choice of cover song. I don't see any downfall to covering the more obscure songs from any band's oeuvre if the material holds up regardless of performer...the music should be able to speak for itself: if people know the song, then good, but if they don't, they should still be able to dance and have fun listening to it.

I've always personally been against cover songs, but playing the most obvious ones is usually just the most trite attention grabber any band can fall back on when they don't have enough confidence in their own material, just ahead of wacky costumes or a "funny" band name. So what if people can sing along to "Knowledge"? It's not going to make me think any higher of the next shitty local punk band I'll see covering it sooner or later.

skolarx (January 2, 2012)

I see nothing wrong with wacky costumes, I mean where would the Aquabats be without theirs?

that said, I'm currently listening to D'Angelo covering Black Hole Sun and it's amazing. Not really a fan of his but I love cover songs that are completely reshaped by the person doing the cover

Skibz777 (January 3, 2012)

If this was 1998 I'd agree with you, but then The Aquabats learned how to play their instruments and write decent music and the costumes became merely a secondary element. I'm not against costumed bands, I guess, but I'm pretty sure there's far more cases of bands with more costumes than talent...the key intent often seems to be "pay attention to how silly our hats are instead of how mediocre our music is".

I'm not familiar with that cover in particular, but I agree with your point. If covers must be done, it should at least be done out of necessity (e.g. reshaping someone else's song to your own musical sensibilities) rather than obligation (e.g. a straightforward cover which basically says "you like the original, so naturally you would like our version enough to buy it").

justthetip (January 3, 2012)

Sometimes music is just meant to be fun. It doesn't have to be something challenging or completely intellectually stimulating for it to be good music. I like to hear bands play cover songs sometimes and "knowledge" is a good song that does get people singing, so why not play it on New Year's Eve when it is suppose to be a party. On the other hand, i'm sure people know the words, or would recognize alot of operation ivy songs, so I think you would get a good reaction playing almost any of them.

Skibz777 (January 3, 2012)

I agree with all of your points....I'm not anti-covers, I'm just not partial to them myself. I was only responding to loveshackbaby's comments: there's not really any negative aspects to covering a more obscure song from a notable band. At best, some people will know the words and sing along. At worst, people won't recognize it but will still enjoy the music. I doubt they'd be "standing around and looking bored", unless if they were already so.

nedsammy (January 3, 2012)

I'd go mad for Room Without a Window played live.

baldsteve (January 3, 2012)

'because people know it' is fucking retarded. They weren't a singles band and had no hits.
It being easier to play makes way more sense.

Misanthropee (January 3, 2012)

It's catchy and insanely easy to play on all three instruments. "Plea for Peace" is crazy underrated though, it could easily pass as a Paint it Black song.

Heathbar (January 3, 2012)

3 for 3 with concise truthful statements. For the record, I'm positive Paint It Black would absolutely murder a cover of "Knowledge." Luckily, so does Dear Landlord.

rsplatpc (January 3, 2012)

because Knowledge is the easiest to play drunk on New Years Eve

dancinshoes (January 3, 2012)

Talk about a song being butchered. uggh.

rsplatpc (January 3, 2012)

yes, a crappy phone with a tiny mono microphone and the person holding it only stands on the left side of the room is a good way to tell how it sounded from the PA

dancinshoes (January 3, 2012)

No, I'm talking about how they covered it, which was fucking awful.

rsplatpc (January 4, 2012)

how did they cover it bad? watching the guitarist and drummer and they both played it perfectly in time and looked like the right 3 chords

nedsammy (January 3, 2012)

Speaking, a little late, of Operation Ivy, Classics of Love just debuted a new song called "Castles in the Sky" on the BBC Radio 1 Punk Show, and it's an amazing, raw, slice of ska-core. The last song they previewed for the album wasn't half as good.

cfriedrich (January 4, 2012)

Mixtapes just hangin out.