Portland Cello Project and Alan Sparhawk of Low cover Suicidal Tendencies

The Onion’s AV Club has been doing a pretty cool weekly series called Undercover, where artists come into their offices and cover a song from a pre-existing list. This week features one of the oddest ones they’ve done: Alan Sparhawk of shoegazey band Low with the eight-person Portland Cello Project backing him for a cover of Suicidal Tendencies “Institutionalized.” Sparhawk does a pretty good job of channeling Mike “Cyko Myko” Muir, complete with a headband and a bottle of Pepsi (which is all he wanted). He sounds a lot like the paranoid, ranting Muir through the verses, but adapts a black metalish shriek for the chorus. And the Portland Cello Project, who have been known to sprinkle covers of Kanye West, Britney Spears, and A-Ha into their sets, hold up admirably, even if they come off as a more indie rock version of Apocalyptica.