Premiere: Jersey Interchange reintroduces Wholesale in cover featuring ex-members of Houston Calls and Midtown

One of the few bright spots of the global pandemic has been music. We’ve all experienced the lockdowns and quarantines differently, but for many of us the overabundance of down time has given us the opportunity to revisit the music we loved when we were much younger and experience it again from a completely changed perspective. Thanks to this renaissance we have had the opportunity to see members of our favorite local bands from 20 years ago performing streaming concerts while sitting on our couches with our kids and we have the pleasure of hearing our musical community working together to create one-off covers of their favorites.

Jersey Interchange, a collective of Garden State musicians coming together to cover classic songs from the local punk, ska and hardcore scenes is taking care of the latter.

Previous Jersey Interchange collaborations feature members of Bigwig, The Ergs, Folly, and Wisdom in Chains among others covering the likes Saves the Day, Weston, Lanemeyer and Lifetime. You can find many of the original tracks along with the entire discography of the Jersey Interchange at the NJPP Archives here.

Today TGEFM has the absolute pleasure of premiering the newest (Drive-Thru Records heavy) track in the series, as vocalist Tom “Chitty” Keiger formerly of Houston Calls, Face First and currently of Throw Thermal Pod joining Midtown and Senses Fail virtuoso Heath Saraceno on guitar, drum, bass and production for a re-imagining of “Empty.” Originally appearing on 1999’s EP Saying More By Saying Less, “Empty” was written and originally performed by the exceptional but underappreciated Wholesale. The track also features an “if you know, you know” nod to Wholesale’s previous incarnation OL Rebellion.

Jersey Interchange mastermind Christian Lesperance of Never Again details his feelings on Wholesale and how the track came together:

“Wholesale was an interesting case of a band who had an extraordinary amount of talent for a group of kids who were 16 & 17 years old. They only released one album, and then broke up to pursue education and other projects, but had they continued on, I have no doubts they would have been a major part of the pop-punk wave of the early aughts that swept through New Jersey to wider audiences. This was always a song that I wanted to cover for the project, and I wanted it to be done a certain justice that only Tom & Heath could bring to it. I was blown away by the new ideas and textures that they both brought to it, as were the members of Wholesale when we debuted the song for them. To quote Wholesale guitarist David Jacobs after hearing his song covered over twenty years later, “That was one of the best things to ever happen to me.”

Keiger, who just finished up an impressive and brilliant series of Green Day covers (in album and tracklisting order) on his Instagram, says of the track:

“I always loved the Wholesale EP that “Empty” is featured on. The guitars are killer and the vocals drive and inspire a lot of emotion for me. I knew I couldn’t pull off the original but I also knew that I wouldn’t destroy it entirely just based off the fact that I am so enamored by the song. Heath and Christian set up a perfectly executed track for me to sing over and without them it would be nothing! While we didn’t change a ton, I also think this version brings a warmth and reinvigorating take on the song that’s quite fun to listen to. Never can beat the original, but it was incredibly fun participating and being able to lay down some nuances and personal touches.”