"Straight Up" - Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (Paula Abdul Cover) [SoundCloud Audio Stream] | Zumic

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, punk rock supergroup and cover band extraordinaire, are coming out with a new album and this time, the theme is "divas." Are We Not Men? We Are Diva! will be out on Fat Wreck May 13th, but they've shared their version of Paula Abdul's "Straight Up" to tide us over.

The band -- consisting of Spike Slawson (Swingin' Utters), Fat Mike (NOFX), Joey Cape (Lagwagon), Dave Raun (also Lagwagon), and Chris Shiflett (Foo Fighters) -- add their signature goofy punk flair to Abdul's 1988 smash hit. Just like all their tracks, it's a solid, no frills rock and roll tune that gives you permission to rock the hell out to a pop song.

The band spoke with Esquire about the tune:

Fat Mike: "When I think of divas I think of Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, or Beyoncé, but their songs all suck. We picked "Straight Up" by Paula Abdul, not because she's that much of a diva, but because it's a great song."

Chris Shiflett: "If I recall correctly, "Straight Up" was one of the last tunes we worked on for the new Gimmes record. I think it was Spike's idea. He has an app on his phone that transposes songs into whatever key you want, so once we figured out where it was gonna work for his vocal, we banged it out quickly. Just like all our tunes, Spike's vocal is the magic sauce that makes it good."

Spike Slawson: "I just kept imagining Arsenio Hall's prodigious index finger on my sweet spot and the rest took care of itself."

Are We Not Men? We Are Diva! is available for pre-order through Fat Wreck.