Mikey and His Uke is a YouTube channel manned by Mike Hawdon of Fairmounts who does covers of iconic punk songs with a range of A-list guests from all over the rock spectrum — members of the Offspring, Bad Religion, Dead Kennedys, Dinosaur Jr. and many more have previously participated.
Today (September 22nd), we're stoked to be premiering his latest musical concoction, which is two covers of classic Operation Ivy songs featuring vocals from none other than skateboard legend Tony Hawk, NOFX/Fat Wreck founder Fat Mike, and members of other punk bands like the Bouncing Souls, the Interruptors, Bad Cop/Bad Cop and Youth Brigade. Plus, Rancid/Op Ivy frontman Tim Armstrong makes a special cameo in the studio with Hawk, and even rips a lick on guitar at the end of the video.
It's an ensemble cast of SoCal (and SoCal-inspired) punk legends playing "Jaded" and "The Crowd," songs from Operation Ivy's short yet massively influential punk-ska catalog. Watch it above via YouTube.
"This series began because of the pandemic; just a way to continue playing music after all gigs and tours had been canceled," Hawdown says. "It started off as just a fun project to stay busy playing music, covering songs that we love, but ended up snowballing into something truly special. Tony Hawk has become a bit of a regular on the series as this his third appearance.
"This was an easy cover to put together as most punks are big fans of Operation Ivy. This is our first video to feature Fat Mike and we were stoked to have him come onboard for it. The Mikey and His Uke channel is still just taking off, but it's full of incredible content. I know if I stumbled upon this channel randomly, I would certainly subscribe. We have a ton of awesome videos in the works too that I can't wait to release."
