Viagra Boys cover John Prine’s “In Spite of Ourselves” w/ Amyl & The Sniffers’ Amy Taylor
Sweden's Viagra Boys will release new album Welfare Jazz on January 8. The album closes with a cover of John Prine's "In Spite Of Ourselves" where frontman Sebastian Murphy duets with Amy Lee from Amyl & The Sniffers who takes the part that was originally sung by Iris Dement. They keep things country-ish but put their warped twist on the song.
"When I heard 'In Spite of Ourselves' the first time, I instantly had an urge to do a cover or it and I immediately knew that I wanted Amy to sing Iris Dement's part because of her unique voice," says Sebastian. "I love that she sings with an Australian accent which isn't not too common in country songs. Amy is a goddess of punk rock and a very important part of music today, and one of the smartest people I've talked to. Its an honor to able to make music with her and I hope we can do more in the future!!"
Amy says, "I was so excited when Viagra Boys asked me to do a duet with them. Sebastian is a classy man but let's be true, we're both insanely feral and gross, so the lyrics are perfect, I love tomato sauce and have a foul mouth so it's like his singing right to me, what an honour. Sebs a country music fan, and so am I, so it was really sweet to do a little nice duet and he actually introduced John Prine to me now i'm a fan. Viagra Boys and Sniffers see each other here and there around when we're touring, i've got all the time in the world for them and their music. Gus our bass player even represents a full VB track suit, hat and all! I remember when we were in London once and Viagra Boys were playing, Gus and Bryce went and ended up sleeping in a park because they had too much fun. I rode a ferris wheel with Benke once when they were in Australia last year. I want to try that hectic stupid canned fish they always talk about. Shrimp Jazz for life!"
The video for "In Spite Of Ourselves" is a fun riff on karaoke and you can watch below.
Welfare Jazz was produced by Matt Sweeney (Chavez), Justin and Jeremiah Raisen (Yves Tumor, Kim Gordon, Sky Ferreira), as well as past collaborators Pelle Gunnerfeldt and Daniel Fagerström (The Hives, The Knife).
Amy Taylor is also on the new Sleaford Mods album which will be out a week after the Viagra Boys album.