Anxious are a young band from Connecticut. They share a couple of members with the Wilkes-Barre melodic hardcore band One Step Closer, and they mostly play hardcore shows, but they don't really sound like hardcore. Instead, their sound is a lush, melodic, emotive version of punk rock. It reminds me a whole lot of Title Fight, and this is a good thing.

Today, Anxious dropped a new track that isn't actually new. Instead, it's their version of "Bled White," the ornately devastated classic from Elliott Smith's near-perfect 1998 album XO. Elliott Smith songs are not easy to cover, and his ornate and harmony-rich late-period songs are especially not easy to cover. But Anxious have transformed "Bled White" into jittery, propulsive pop-punk without losing the song's bittersweet power. Check out their version and the Elliott Smith original below.

Also of note: Anxious and One Step Closer have both announced that they've got their full-length debuts coming out later this year. And earlier in January, Anxious released a three-song EP called New Shapes. Check it out below.

The New Shapes EP is out now on Triple B Records. That "Bled White" cover comes from a forthcoming compilation called Now That's What I Call Brain Dead. It'll feature current acts covering songs from the '90s: Drugdealer and Mac DeMarco doing Next's "Too Close," Mika Folick doing Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn," Homeshake doing Deftones' "Change (In The House Of Flies)," Portugal. The Man doing "Steal My Sunshine" and "Santeria" and "Novocaine For The Soul." That compilation is out 1/26.