FIDLAR – “Running On Empty” (Jackson Browne Cover)
Last year, party-starting LA punks FIDLAR returned with their EP That’s Life. They also, for no apparent reason, dropped a cover of Limp Bizkit’s “Nookie.” I don’t really know what was going on with that one. It wasn’t great. Today, FIDLAR have shared another shits-and-giggles cover. This time, however, they’ve taken on an actual good song.
Jackson Browne released his wistfully chugging “Running On Empty,” and it became a big hit and a car-radio staple even though Browne recorded it live. (I’m just learning today that it was taped at Maryland’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, the same venue where I graduated from high school.) With their cover, FIDLAR haven’t really done anything to punkify the song, other than changing the lyrics so that they’re about partying and barfing. Instead, they’ve made a blissfully low-key version that gives me slight chillwave flashbacks. Below, listen to the FIDLAR cover and the Jackson Browne original.