
The A.V. Club has been running this cool project over the past couple months called A.V. Undercover, where bands swing through the A.V. offices in a Chicago-flagged circular room and cover a song that resonates with them. In this case, they supply each band with a list of songs to choose from. The sooner the band comes in to perform, the more choices they’ll have.
When Barsuk recording artists Mates of State stopped by the office to cover The Replacements’ “I Will Dare,” the first song of the band’s seminal 1984 album Let It Be; they brought their trademark husband and wife indie-charm, but that wasn’t all. With them, they had a trumpet player, a guitarist, and our favorite dry-witted comedian, Todd Barry in tow!
Barry is no stranger behind the kit. Around the time Let It Be was released, Todd was living in Florida and playing drums for The Chant (and more recently, fill-in drums with indie-rock heavyweights Yo La Tengo). Todd dons some improvisational drummer Mechanix gloves (commonly worn by mechanics and pro-wrestler Sting) and plays along with the band on this 1984 classic.