Mumford & Sons covers The National's 'England' on 'VH1 Unplugged' -- EXCLUSIVE VIDEO

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Published on June 15, 2011 12:00PM EDT

Mumford & Sons doing The National? Yes, please.

The buzzy English folk rockers are the latest to take the plunge on VH1’s recently rebooted Unplugged series, and EW has the exclusive video of their cover of stately Brooklyn-based indie outfit The National‘s song “England.”

It turns out that the Mumford boys have admired The National for a long time. “We’re big fans,” says Mumford & Sons vocalist Marcus Mumford just before performing “England” in the video, embedded below.

“Last summer,” he continues, “we got to see them, like, five or six times, and really loved High Violet as an album and that song [‘England] obviously sticks out for us cause we’re English. Still trying to figure out if it’s offensive towards English people, but yeah, we’re making it non-offensive. We’re making it sort of like a real Britannia song today.”

“When we were asked to play a cover, it just sort of jumped out. As opposed,” he jokes, “to playing Ween’s version of ‘Waving my D— in the Wind,’ which we thought we’d save for another time.” Watch it here:

VH1 Unplugged: Mumford & Sons premieres online Thursday, June 23, at 8 p.m. at Unplugged.VH1.com and will air on VH1 Friday, June 24, at 11 p.m. The online premiere this Thursday will be accompanied by a live viewing party where fans can watch and chat with one another.

In addition to “England,” the band will also perform their own “Sigh No More,” “Roll Away Your Stone,” “White Blank Page,” and “The Cave” from 2009’s Sigh No More.

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