Five years ago, System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan began a cover band with guitarist James Hazley, called These Grey Men. On Monday, we found out that the two, along with Avenged Sevenfold singer M. Shadows spent Saturday filming a video for an unnamed song. Turns out, the track is a cover of Radiohead’s “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” and also features Tom Morello on lead guitar, along with bassist Tom Copossela and keyboardist Danny Shamoun.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, Dolmayan talked about why he chose to cover this song:
“This song in particular is a really touching and moving song. I love the morose, in-your-room-and-it’s-raining-outside, it’s cold, and your girlfriend dumped you feeling that this song always gave me.… But when I listened to it, I’d be like, ‘I kinda wish the drums came in earlier,’ or, ‘How would [John] Bonham approach this song if this was a [Led] Zeppelin song?’ Because I’m such a fan of the song, I wanted to do a version of it in homage.”
Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows said in a statement:
“When John told me he wanted to reimagine some of his favorite songs for an album, I was very intrigued. I’ve always respected Radiohead but wasn’t familiar with their full catalog. When John sent ‘Street Spirit’, I instantly was blow away by the sounds. Since then, I have been on a huge Radiohead kick. Adding Tom Morello to our version was the icing on the cake. I feel this recording stays true to the original while adding John’s overall vision.”
The album, due out February 28th, boasts a slew of unique covers and includes an appearance by System of A Down frontman Serj Tankian on a cover of David Bowie’s “Starman” and on the Talking Heads’ track “Road To Nowhere”.
These Grey Men Track List
1. “Hung Up” — Madonna
2. “Street Spirit” — Radiohead
3. “Beautiful Thieves” — AFI
4. “Road to Nowhere” — Talking Heads
5. “Rock Bottom” — Eminem
6. “Runaway” — Del Shannon
7. “Starman” — David Bowie
8. “What You Know” — Two Door Cinema Club
