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Austin Lucas / Frank Turner

Under the Influence Vol. 8 [7 inch] (2009)
Suburban Home Records

Reviewer Rating:

Contributed by: Torgo
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on April 14th 2009

Austin Lucas and Frank Turner both had the same mission for their Under the Influence split: Take a relatively peppy tune and turn it into a stark acoustic track. Spoiler alert: They both over-exceed their goals, making extremely noteworthy covers.

Austin Lucas covering a poppy Dolly Parton song may not make sense to the average Austin Lucas fan. But Austin has the edge that we don’t: how he hears Dolly Parton’s “To Daddy.” Dolly’s song about a mother bogged down by her husband is anguished, but its internal sadness is hidden by Dolly’s cavalcade of country instrumentation. Austin alone with his guitar takes the lyrics front and center and it’s absolutely heartbreaking. Such a sparse sound could have been recorded in someone’s laundry room, but it hits you on a high emotional level, making it easily the most affecting song of this entire series so far. Would be absolutely appropriate if it became a live standard of his.

I love Bruce Springsteen (I live in New Jersey, if I didn’t I’d get kicked out), but I rolled my eyes when I read Frank Turner was doing a Bruce cover for this series. “Haven’t we had enough?” I thought. I continued to think so the first time I heard this cover of "Thunder Road"; I thought it was slight and beneath Mr. Turner. A run-of-the-mill acoustic cover? He could do better than that. Then I listened to it again. And again. I started to hear the subtleties and vocal flourishes I didn’t hear the first few times and fell head over heels in love with it. The buildups and tear-downs are just as effective as Bruce’s original version. Springsteen’s solo piano cover on his Live/1975-85 box set is legendary, and at the very least this equals it. If Bruce never made it as a musician, this is how he would playing "Thunder Road" in the subways of Manhattan for change: completely passionate with no pretense, the sound of a man who has seen it all but doesn’t have the mansions in the Jersey suburbs to show for it.

Both of these tracks culminate to being the best Under the Influence so far, setting the bar for future additions.

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MN_punkmaster-skaman (May 11, 2009)

Two excellent covers. The Frank Turner take of "Thunder Road" reminds me a lot of Townes Van Zandt taking on the Boss with 'Racing In The Streets".

preston (April 15, 2009)

I believe the delay of vol. 7 was because of the cover art. Mitch was having trouble getting the Off With Their Heads cover to look the way he wanted.

Torgo (April 14, 2009)

Why would Suburban Home release Volume 7 two weeks after Volume 8? Ask them.
Oh, didn't know that got delayed, Virgil is slackin'

Dante3000 (April 14, 2009)

Yeah, the cover delayed this one quite a while. According to Austin during the Denver show on his tour with Tim Barry, Virgil brought some merch for them to stock up on and one of the boxes said "Frank turner/Austin Lucas UTI"on the side and Austin got stoked. Apparently Virgil was like, "Oh, that's the Tim Barry 7"...I'm not even sure why it says that on the side". Huge delays.

Anyhow, I dig this record and I can see why they used "Thunder Road" since it was the b-side to a UK only 7". If you don't want to fork over the $14 for the one track, this is a good way to get it in America.
-Dante

inagreendase (April 14, 2009)

Man, good call on that cover. What was Mitch doing on that one?

Why would this get posted before my Volume 7 review?? Unless you're saving it for yourself, you rascal.

Why would Suburban Home release Volume 7 two weeks after Volume 8? Ask them.

mikexdude (April 14, 2009)

Frank Turner > Austin Lucas

This split could have been better to me.

red_eye_inc (April 14, 2009)

You really think this rivals the live piano version of "Thunder Road"? You're out of your fucking mind.

crackpotdemagogue (April 14, 2009)

if it wasn't so brazely obvious that easyd2 is an idiot, i would have declared the pairing of "faggot" with "redneck" as genius. his use of the phrase is just about as ironic as the phrase itself... if only he knew

Torgo (April 14, 2009)

aarontoben: Yes Mitch did mess up originally but it was fixed

saladfingers: Yeah I agree it's kinda weak it's not an exclusive track, and when I found out it kind of messed up my opening paragraph but whatevs, still a killer cover.

Torgo (April 14, 2009)

Why would this get posted before my Volume 7 review?? Unless you're saving it for yourself, you rascal.

eazyd2 (April 14, 2009)

faggot redneck shit

saladfingers (April 14, 2009)

This release would be 50% more interesting if the Frank track hadn't already been a b-side on one his singles.

Still a fucking belter of a track though.

aarontoben (April 14, 2009)

i hope that artwork isn't finalized because they spelled the last name incorrectly.

ashtraymonument (April 14, 2009)

seeing Frank Turner cover Thunder Road live > this split