{"id":803368,"date":"2020-01-23T11:33:47","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T18:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=941496"},"modified":"2020-01-23T11:33:47","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T18:33:47","slug":"system-of-a-downs-john-dolmayan-taps-tom-morello-for-cover-of-radioheads-street-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/system-of-a-downs-john-dolmayan-taps-tom-morello-for-cover-of-radioheads-street-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"System of a Down\u2019s John Dolmayan Taps Tom Morello for Cover of Radiohead\u2019s \u2018Street Spirit\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

System of a Down<\/a> drummer John Dolmayan unveiled a hard rock reworking of Radiohead\u2019s \u201cStreet Spirit\u201d \u2014 featuring a searing guitar solo from Tom Morello<\/a> \u2014 that will appear on his upcoming solo debut, These Grey Men<\/i>, out February 28th.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis song in particular is a really touching and moving song,\u201d Dolmayan tells Rolling Stone <\/i>about why he chose to cover the standout track from The Bends<\/em>. <\/span>\u201cI love the morose, in-your-room-and-it\u2019s-raining-outside, it\u2019s cold and your girlfriend dumped you feeling that this song always gave me\u2026 But when I listened to it, I\u2019d be like, \u2018I kinda wish the drums came in earlier\u2019, or, \u2018How would [John] Bonham approach this song if this was a [Led] Zeppelin song?\u2019 Because I\u2019m such a fan of the song, I wanted to do a version of it in homage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cover arrives with a video about a down-and-out artist who still finds solace and fulfillment in his work. Dolmayan\u2019s cover itself is a complete transformation of \u201cStreet Spirit,\u201d making it a larger-than-life arena rocker that still retains the same pathos as the original. The track ends with the delirious buzz of Morello\u2019s guitar; Dolmayan says of the collaboration, \u201cI gave him an idea of the vibe I wanted and said, \u2018Just be yourself and play throughout the song.\u2019 The point isn\u2019t to agonize over something, it\u2019s to just be spontaneous and create something cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Along with Morello, the \u201cStreet Spirit\u201d cover features Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows on vocals, guitarist James Hazley, bassist Tom Copossela and keyboardist Danny Shamoun. Dolmayan provided the drums and arranged the strings and sounds with the the help of Shamoun.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen John told me he wanted to reimagine some of his favorite songs for an album I was very intrigued,\u201d M. Shadows said in a statement. \u201cI\u2019ve always respected Radiohead but wasn\u2019t familiar with their full catalog. When John sent \u2018Street Spirit\u2019 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\u2019s overall vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rest of These Gray Men<\/i> boasts an interesting mix of covers and guests, including Dolmayan\u2019s System of a Down bandmate Serj Tankian singing David Bowie\u2019s \u201cStarman\u201d and the Talking Heads\u2019 \u201cRoad to Nowhere.\u201d Other covers include Eminem\u2019s \u201cRock Bottom,\u201d Two Door Cinema Club\u2019s \u201cWhat You Know\u201d and a reworking of Madonna\u2019s \u201cHung Up\u201d \u2014 itself an interpolation of ABBA\u2019s \u201cGimme! Gimme! Gimme!\u201d \u2014 that Dolmayan\u2019s mashed up with a bit of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young\u2019s \u201cOhio.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be someone that does just great covers,\u201d Dolmayan says. \u201cIf I had any goal it would be that the casual listener wouldn\u2019t know it was necessarily a cover \u2014 that it\u2019d be different enough to where they thought, \u2018OK, there\u2019s something original happening here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

These Gray Men<\/strong><\/em> Tracklist<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. \u201cHung Up\u201d \u2014 Madonna
2. \u201cStreet Spirit\u201d \u2014 Radiohead
3. \u201cBeautiful Thieves\u201d \u2014 AFI
4. \u201cRoad to Nowhere\u201d \u2014 Talking Heads
5. \u201cRock Bottom\u201d \u2014 Eminem
6. \u201cRunaway\u201d \u2014 Del Shannon
7. \u201cStarman\u201d \u2014 David Bowie
8. \u201cWhat You Know\u201d \u2014 Two Door Cinema Club<\/p>\n

\n

Popular on Rolling Stone <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan unveiled a hard rock reworking of Radiohead\u2019s \u201cStreet Spirit\u201d \u2014 featuring a searing guitar solo from Tom Morello \u2014 that will appear on his upcoming solo debut, These Grey Men, out February 28th. \u201cThis song in particular is a really touching and moving song,\u201d Dolmayan tells Rolling Stone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-803368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-24 21:52:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}