Anyone with even a casual eye on the Miami music scene for the past half-decade has been patiently waiting for Awesome New Republic to rightfully blow up on a national level. Well, we never quite imagined that happening with the help of Leighton Meester, aka the actress who plays Blair Waldorf, the impeccably dressed Queen B (for bitch), on The CW's guilty pleasure soap teen-soap Gossip Girl, but here it is. Yes, we just had to whip the blood and brain matter from our laptops after our heads exploded. 
There's no details on how exactly this came about, but Meester collaborated with ANR on a cover of "Birthday," the single from their upcoming ep Rational Geographic vol 1. RCRD LBL posted the scene-shattering news with streams of both the original and Waldorf'd up versions earlier today. We can't decide which we like better --ok the original-- but our apologies to Grizzly Bear's "Two Weeks" but we just found a new song to play on repeat for hours and hours on end. Thanks to Sweat for giving us the heads up.
Update: Was just listening to the WVUM locals show hosted by Matt Gajewski of Pure Imagination fame, and MJ was on. The song was a joint effort by a cavalcade of local guys at Honor Roll Music. They were shopping it around and had Meester come in to do a rough demo version (what you hear below) before deciding to release it as an ANR song. Still, whatever exposure this brings to the band is a good thing, and this song is pure fire regardless.
Stream "Birthday" ft. Leighton Meester:
Stream Awesome New Republic's original:
