Ben Lee goes New Wave

In a remarkably swift and deconstructivist move, Ben Lee has remade Florida rock band Against Me!'s latest, New Wave.

"As heavy and gnarly as it sounds at times, [New Wave] is unmistakably a pop masterpiece," Lee gushed in a MySpace bulletin earlier this week. "I was on a flight from Sydney to Melbourne and had the thought, 'I'd love to cover this album.' The whole thing. Beginning to end. So I did."

That Lee would cover an entire album of songs by another artist (and do it well) is not surprising, nor is the fact that his super-melodic take on the Against Me!'s pseudo-punk stylings somehow renders the band's particular brand of angst even more essential.

What's crazy about the whole thing is that 1) Lee conceived the idea only days after the Butch Vig-produced original was released on July 17, and 2) less than four weeks later, his version (recorded and mixed by his friend Nic Johns) is not only complete, but also available for free download.

While free downloads will undoubtedly continue to stir up controversy, Lee's refreshing stunt harkens back to a time in music history when jazz musicians proudly and blatantly retooled each other's arrangements overnight. It also speaks to the future of the traditional album "release," and why some artists' refusal to play by the rules is the only thing that keeps the music business moving forward.

Meanwhile, fans have four more weeks to wait for Lee's own new album of original material, Ripe, due out in the U.S. On September 18.

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