“Punk Goes Noah Kahan” — Knuckle Puck, The Maine, And More Bands On Our Dream Tracklist

Knuckle Puck covering ‘Stick Season’ by Noah Kahan was the crossover event we didn’t know we needed, but we’re SO thankful for it. Considering the difference in genres, KP putting their pop-punk spin on Noah’s folksy twang in ‘Stick Season’ is everything. It got us reminiscing about the good old days, aka the era of Punk Goes Pop. So we started thinking, what other Noah Kahan tracks would we like to see get the pop-punk/pop-punk adjacent twist? If you think about it, Noah’s discography is the perfect candidate for the Punk Goes Pop treatment. The themes on tracks like ‘Dial Drunk’ and ‘You’re Gonna Go Far’ lend themselves perfectly to the angsty, guitar-heavy sound that pop-punk is known for.

With that in mind and with a little help from readers like you, we present our dream Punk Goes Noah Kahan tracklist (in no particular order):

‘Stick Season’ — Knuckle Puck

Of course, we have to list the track that inspired this entire idea. Yes, we said this list isn’t in any sort of order but ‘Stick Season’ (Knuckle Puck’s Version) deserves the opener slot purely for being the catalyst here. In all seriousness, we really do love this version of the song. Knuckle Puck brings their sound through while still keeping the heart of the song, further adding to our belief that Noah Kahan x pop punk is a match that’s meant to be.

‘The View Between Villages’ — Real Friends

It would actually be a crime if we didn’t include Real Friends in this list. We can’t break up the RF/KP blood pact! Aside from that though, Real Friends would absolutely kill this cover. They have the perfect angsty, emotion-driven vibe required to do this song justice. We just know ‘The View Between Villages’ in the style of Real Friends would become an instant favorite of ours.

‘Dial Drunk’ — State Champs

Next up we have ‘Dial Drunk’ A.K.A the Noah Kahan song with one of our favorite bridges. In our heads, this has to be covered by State Champs. We can totally see State Champs covering ‘Dial Drunk’ live, amping it up and bringing the energy. Being in the pit to a State Champs ‘Dial Drunk’ cover would go kind of hard tbh. We just know Derek Discanio would kill the “f*ck that sir, just let me call” line in the bridge and now we need it for reasons.

‘False Confidence’ — Carly Cosgrove

As one of our contributors said, Carly Cosgrove covering ‘False Confidence’ just “feels right” and we’re inclined to agree. Oh, you thought we were just sticking to Stick Season? No no, we’re diving into Busyhead with this list too. Sure, soundwise they couldn’t be more different, but if you pay attention you can see where we’re coming from. For science, we played ‘False Confidence’ and ‘Steered Straight’ by Carly Cosgrove back to back and the connection was there. Hearing ‘False Confidence’ in Carly Cosgrove’s style would probably be a masterpiece and we need it.

‘You’re Gonna Go Far’ — Grayscale

This is one of the tracks on Noah Kahan’s discography that really gets to us. (No, YOU sobbed to this song on your drive home the other day). So for that reason, we feel like Grayscale would do this song justice. They’re not afraid to tackle life and emotions in their music (see ‘Mum II’) and the theme of ‘You’re Gonna Go Far’ feels like it would fit in with this current era of Grayscale’s sound and songwriting. Not to mention, Collin Walsh’s vocals would absolutely do this song justice and we’d love it if they covered it.

‘Maine’ — The Maine

Okay, maybe we’re just choosing this for the haha funnies but hear us out. ‘Maine’ is giving Pioneer so of course it makes sense that The Maine has to be the one to do this cover right? We can totally see Knuckle Puck’s Sad Summer Fest tourmates doing this track justice so it has earned its spot on our list. We just know John O’Callaghan’s voice would fit this song, and honestly this genre, SO well.

‘No Complaints’ — Arm’s Length

‘No Complaints’ has a heavier, angstier, brooding vibe reminiscent of the themes and sound of Never Before Seen, Never Again Found. While Arm’s Length might not be the band you jump to when you think of Noah’s sound, we can absolutely see them doing this song justice. The last 60 seconds of ‘No Complaints’ reminds us so much of the last minute or so of ‘Overture.’ Of course, the sounds are very different, but the vocal style and production make us think that Arms Length would be able to perfectly translate ‘No Complaints’ to their sound.

‘Save Me’ — MM@TA

Meet Me @ The Altar is another one of those bands on this list where you might be thinking, are you sure? But we really do think they could cover ‘Save Me’ so well. We can practically hear Edith Victoria singing the chorus if we close our eyes. Do not ask us to elaborate because we’re right. If they can cover the Jonas Brothers, they can cover Noah Kahan. Maybe they’d keep ‘Save Me’ slower or maybe they’d amp it up to their electrifying, high-energy sound, but whatever they did, we know it would sound so good. The tempo picking up in the last part of the song solidifies this for us because we know they’d take that sound and turn it into something amazing. For science, we need this to happen.

‘Northern Attitude’ — The Wonder Years

Honestly, we were debating between this track and ‘The View Between Villages’ for The Wonder Years, and ‘Northern Attitude’ as a title just feels very TWY-coded. Did we intentionally include a bunch of Sad Summer Fest bands on this list? No, but if something works it works and TWY covering ‘Northern Attitude’ just feels right. It has an angstier edge to it and honestly? It kind of has the makings of a pop-punk song anyway. We can totally see The Wonder Years releasing ‘Northern Attitude’ in an alternate universe, maybe with a heavier pop-punk sound behind it. But “forgive my northern attitude/I was raised out in the cold” feels like it could be a TWY lyric so please TWY give us this cover.

‘She Calls Me Back’ — Young Culture

Young Culture, our beloved. We could 100% picture YC giving ‘She Calls Me Back’ a ‘Whiskey’-esque treatment. The drum kicking in on ‘She Calls Me Back’ and the entire production of the track feels like it would fit in perfectly in Young Culture’s discography if they wanted to give it the pop-punk edit. We didn’t make all those y’allternative jokes about ‘Whiskey’ to NOT include Young Culture on this list tbh, so we would love to hear this cover come to life.

‘Everywhere, Everything’ — With Confidence

Listen, we are concocting a scheme to get With Confidence back (it might involve human sacrifice, who knows?) it’s a work in progress, but until then, we can offer you this. ‘Everywhere, Everything’ may be the furthest thing sonically from what you might think of when you think of With Confidence but consider: covers can sound different. The chorus of this song sounds like it could be a With Con chorus if they sang it in their style. The first “We didn’t know that the sun collapsing /’Til the seas rose and buildings came crashing” was like hearing the ghost of With Con in a folk song, don’t ask us why, it just did. Sit with that and think about Jayden Seeley’s vocals on this track while we work on those schemes of ours.

‘New Perspective’ — Neck Deep

The introductory notes and lines of ‘New Perspective’ again, feel very pop-punk coded and for some reason, Neck Deep came to mind first. Maybe it’s because it feels like a sort of thematic parallel to ‘Can’t Kick Up The Roots,’ but we can see them singing this in a slowed-down, pop-punk ballad-style cover. It would probably be amazing too. Neck Deep would probably do a lot of the thematic elements of Noah Kahan’s music justice too and ‘New Perspective’ feels like the perfect example of that.

‘Cynic’ — Daisy Grenade

Maybe we have a Sad Summer Fest lineup agenda with these choices you’ll never know. The bassline and production of this song feel very much up Daisy Grenade‘s alley and we think they’d put such a fun spin on it. We’d love to see their take on ‘Cynic.’ Don’t ask us why, but we feel like it would be something in the realm of ‘Liquor and Kerosene’s’ sound. That feels right but we’ll leave it up to Daisy Grenade to bring the idea to life.

Whew, there you have it! Thank you for bearing with us through this dive into Noah Kahan’s discography to figure out the perfect “Punk Goes Noah Kahan” tracklist. And thank you to Knuckle Puck for the ‘Stick Season’ cover that sparked this whole thing, couldn’t have done it without you!

This is by no means a comprehensive list and we’re sure some of you have your own feelings/ideas about this. Drop your “Punk Goes Noah Kahan” suggestions in the comments below or drop us a line on our socials. You can reach us on Facebook, Instagram, or by tweeting us @thehoneypop!

If this sort of read is your thing, be sure to check out more of our content about Noah Kahan and pop-punk.

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