A.V. Club's Undercover series has paired some of today's most talented acts with unlikely cover songs, and the most recent clip has Strand of Oaks reworking Asia's 1982 hit "Heat of the Moment."
Strand of Oaks, otherwise known as Timothy Showalter, jokingly explained his decision to cover the supergroup's single. "I live in the heat of the moment," he says in the video below, smiling and petting his bulldog. "He's a huge fan of Asia, though. He's such a big fan." With all joking aside, Showalter and his band hit the Club's circle room and put on a steamy, slow performance. Although Showalter shakes into an interpretive dance and the keyboardist snacks while she plays, the updated cover is a knockout.
Showalter's summer release, HEAL, is his fourth studio effort, and it has gotten the singer-songwriter some major props around the web. "HEAL is an album as memoir: stark and at times emotionally harrowing as it recounts with bracing candor the artist's struggles with friends, family, and most of all himself," Pitchfork, which gave the album a 7.9, wrote. "The choruses may swoop and soar, the guitars may churn valiantly, but Showalter's nostalgia for his own past is never rosy."
The Philadelphia musician has a few dates in Pennsylvania and Delaware before he heads to Europe for a long stretch. Showalter will return in December for shows in Toronto, Philadelphia and a recently announced New York gig at the Bowery Ballroom.
This year's series has already been intriguing, with Wild Cub doing Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love," Real Estate taking on The Cranberries' "Linger," and Courtney Barnett trying The Breeders' "Cannonball."
