New Tales To Tell, A Tribute To Love and Rockets

Artist Various Artists
Album New Tales To Tell, A Tribute To Love and Rockets
Released 2009
Label Justice Records

It’s been nearly a quarter of a century since one of the most celebrated, and influential bands of our generation, Love And Rockets formed. In 1985 Daniel Ash, David J and Kevin Haskins departed from being the Gothic Rock icons of Bauhaus and merged into the New Wave-fused-with-Punk-Folk-proto-Rave-Psychedelia band, Love and Rockets. So it’s about time that similar minded multi-faceted artists including legends such as Frank Black, Flaming Lips, Stephen Perkins (Janes Addiction), Dandy Warhols, and newer buzzworthy acts A Place to Bury Strangers, Snowden, War Tapes, and Blaqk Audio pay their respect to a band who has influenced their style.

In 1985, during one of the major off periods for the on-again-off-again legendary goth rockers of Bauhaus, members of the band reformed without Peter Murphy and called themselves Love and Rockets. (A nod to the Los Bros alternative comic book series launched in the early 1980s, the L&R name was a step forward from their previous post-Bauhaus moniker: Tones on Tail). As the new band veered from the gothic melancholia of Bauhaus, they embarked with a sound that clinched the tone of the eponymous comic and anticipated the sound that would later resonate in the post-grunge 1990s.

The brilliance of the group’s contribution to twentieth-century music is celebrated in a tribute collection being released on Justice Records. Better than your average tribute album, New Tales to Tell: A Tribute to Love and Rockets gathers many of the artists who L&R has influenced directly, including The Pixies’ Black Francis, The Dandy Warhols, The Flaming Lips, and Snowden. While the L&R favorite “So Alive” (covered on this collection by 90s hit-makers Better Than Ezra) still rides the airwaves in enduring memoriam, most who listen to the tribute will recognize a number of the other hits they produced during their first 15 years together.

To honor the recently (if temporarily) re-grouped Daniel Ash, Kevin Haskins, and David J, Justice Records execs brought together the creative elite. For the look, Shepard Fairey (creator of the now-ubiquitous ObamaArt lining most urban landscapes) has fashioned clever cover art inspired by L&R’s iconic imagery. For the sound, producers Christopher the Minister and Phil Jaurigui pretty expertly weave together individual album tracks from otherwise disparate bands.

The inherent risk of tribute albums is in the quality – superior songs sung by mediocre musicians. New Tales to Tell distinguishes itself by drawing from an impressive catalogue, solid musicians, and innovative instrumentation. The sometimes Pixies frontman layers the echoing opener “All In My Mind” with the kind of affective tone that evokes the song’s impact when it first débuted in 1987. Puscifer’s “Holiday on the Moon” distills the epic original with a simplified electronic sound that stays remarkably true to the original. The quasi-titular “No New Tale to Tell” is given to Blaqk Audio, whose de-emphasized background electronic loop maintains the celebrated sparse structure of the song, giving the chorus its still-standout quality. The rocking Monster Magnet vs Adrian Young rendition of “Mirror People” helps anchor the album’s middle, with its lyrical nod to The Righteous Brothers. Snowden’s breathy interpretation of “No Words No More” rides out the album with an introspective, ethereal underlay of distortion.

The album will not only make you want to spin it again, but you’ll want to go back to the originals and bask in their original genius.

Pre-order New Tales to Tell on Amazon before its end-of-summer arrival, or pick it up when it drops in stores on August 18.

Track Listing:
All In My Mind – Black Francis
Holiday On The Moon – Puscifer (MJ Keenan)
Love Me – War Tapes
No New Tale To Tell – Blaqk Audio
I Feel Speed – Dubfire
Inside The Outside – The Dandy Warhols
Kundalini Express – The Flaming Lips
Life In Laralay – Sweethead
An American Dream – Film School
The Light – A Place To Bury Strangers
Mirror People – Monster Magnet vs Adrian Young
Fever – The Stone Foxes
No Big Deal – Frankenstein 3000
It Could Be Sunshine – VEX
So Alive – Better Than Ezra
Lazy – Chantal Claret vs Adrian Young
Sweet F.A. – Ian Moore
No Words No More – Snowden

- By AARON POMPEY

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Tags: love and rockets