Pete Yorn Covers Pixies Hit “Here Comes Your Man” with an Assist from Liz Phair

The Pixies hit “Here Comes Your Man” gets revamped in Pete Yorn’s cover, out today, Aug. 10. No stranger to covers, Yorn’s lead single off his recent EP Apart with Scarlett Johansson (yes, the actress) is called “Bad Dreams” and is their take on The Echo Friendly’s “Worried.” Yorn’s most recent album, ArrangingTime, was released in 2016. On this new track, Yorn is joined by Liz Phair, who recently released Girly-Sound to Guyville: The 25th Anniversary Box Set.

The cover remains mostly faithful to the original track while shifting the atmosphere to a more soulful place. Yorn takes the surf-rock guitar of the original song, one of its focal points, and dilutes the surf vibe with a fuzzed-out sound that is more readily masked by other instruments. The jangly Pixies song leans towards a whiny tone in some of the vocals, and overall, Yorn offers a smoother sound, with Phair’s background vocals swooping in to engulf the listener.

“It was one of those songs that stopped me in my tracks when I first heard it back in the day,” Yorn said of “Here Comes Your Man.” “It informed my sense of melody in a big way and I always wanted to sing it.”

Yorn’s affection for the song is evident in the intricacies of his cover—such as maintaining the twinkling guitar in the verse and softening the song with shakers, as well as adding a greater focus on the lead vocals—and in turn his connection with the song.

This fall, Yorn is heading out on his “An Evening with Pete Yorn” tour, which will start in Franklin, Tenn., and run up the East Coast, ending in Boston. You can find tickets for this live acoustic show run here.

Listen to Yorn and Phair’s cover of “Here Comes Your Man” below and a performance by Yorn from the Paste archives beneath that. Find his fall tour dates further down.

Pete Yorn Tour Dates::

September
23 – Franklin, Tenn. @ Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival *
25 – Durham, N.C. @ Motorco Music Hall
26 – Washington, D.C. @ The Howard Theatre
27 – Philadelphia, Pa. @ Ardmore Music Hall
28 – Asbury Park, N.J. @ The Stone Pony
30 – New York, N.Y. @ Gramercy Theatre

October
02 – Ridgefield, Conn. @ Ridgefield Playhouse
03 – Boston, Mass. @ Middle East Downstairs

(* = Full band)