Back in the early eighties, Richard Hell and Jonathan Richman wanted to be like Cat Stevens. They also wanted to be inside each other. Somehow, they managed to reconcile their gayness with Islam. Less amazingly, they birthed a bastard brood through the wonders of science and gave them a collective name that expressed their new calling: the Muslims. Familial bliss was short-lived. Dick and Jon realized they didn’t like each other’s wieners anymore. And so, they expressed their [flaccid] state of affairs once again by changing the name of their children. Hence, Soft Pack.

You heard it here first, kids.

Yeah, we could’ve called the name change. But we didn’t. Moving on, San Diego’s Soft Pack have been on a roll of late. My own soft pack got a little semi back when they were still called the Muslims and I heard their rowdy cover of “Walking With Jesus.” Funny that I rediscovered these guys through another irreverent cover of theirs: their hung-over “remix” of Phoenix’s “Fences.” These guys have been touring with the likes of Phoenix, Franz Ferdinand, and the Breeders. They also have a debut that’ll get released in February. Until then, you can eat pizza while you check out their new video for “Answer To Yourself” and check out the MP3s below. You’re welcome:

Playing live on San Diego’s 91X:

The Soft Pack – Answer To Yourself

The Soft Pack – Fences (Phoenix cover)

The Muslims –  Walking With Jesus (Spacemen 3 cover)

The tracklist of their debut:

01 “C’mon”
02 “Down On Loving”
03 “Answer to Yourself”
04 “Move Along”
05 “Pull Out”
06 “More Or Less”
07 “Tides of Time”
08 “Flammable”
09 “Mexico”
10 “Parasites”

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