Smith Westerns Give Tongue-In-Cheek Twitter Apology For Kinda Crappy Tom Petty Cover

By Jon Graef in Arts & Entertainment on May 17, 2011 7:30PM

Photo via Smith Westerns MySpace Page

The A.V. Club's "Undercover" video series has a brilliant conceit: Take up-and-coming bands and film them covering a popular song in an intimate space. The stripped-down nature of "Undercover" yields some great results. But there are some duds in there too. To wit: Local hooligans Smith Westerns lackluster take on a Tom Petty classic.

The AV'ers debuted video of Smith Westerns covering "American Girl," and, to the band's credit, the young glam-garage rockers attempt to put their own spin on it. They slow down the original tempo, which is even slowed down further for the iconic chorus. Unfortunately, the execution of the cover is simply lackluster. The Smith Westerns sound tired and uninterested, and vocalist Cullen Omori doesn't even bother to hit the high notes. The end result is snotty and bratty for all of the wrong reasons.

With this near-failure in mind, Omori took to the Smith Western Twitter feed to make apologies that strike a variety of tones.

Here's the self-deprecating first shot:

Then Omori appeals to a higher power -- and not just LoudLoopPress editor Richard Giraldi -- for forgiveness. Not once, but twice!

Finally, empty threats for the Smith Westerns fanbase:

Now, mind you, Omori's tweets are pretty amusing -- removed from the context of the obnoxious reason given to a flummoxed AV Club interviewer as to why they picked this song to cover. Or the kind of obnoxious interview they gave Jessica Hopper around the time Dye It Blonde came out. Or the who-gives-a-shit run-through of the song (at least up until the end solo, where lead guitarist Max Kakacek injects some great T.Rex soul into the song). We could go on. Instead, we'll let you watch.