Love and Rockets were another one of my gateway bands in high school that opened up a whole new world of music to me. The band’s fluke Top 40 hit, “So Alive”, represents very little in terms of the breadth of its myriad musical styles. Despite being 3/4’s of the legendary art-punk pioneers, Bauhaus, Love and Rockets successfully threw off that heavy gothic shadow to explore a slightly more optimistic worldview. Introducing bizarre humor by way of its alter-ego, The Bubblemen, Love and Rockets certainly elevated its strange, albeit, mysterious appeal. Over the course of its first four records, Love and Rockets traversed disparate terrain from psychedelia to fuzz to garage to folk to pop and back again. After 1989’s eponymous self-titled smash, which saw the band playing stadiums opening for The Cure, the trio retreated into various solo and side projects. It would be five years before Love and Rockets would return, unrecognizably, in 1994 with a heavy dance and electronic bent. With a few exceptions, it’s the music on these first four albums that comprise the forthcoming tribute record New Tales To Tell. The contributors vary wildly. Some makes sense (Black Francis), while others do not (Better Than Ezra). But the diverse list of artists and interpretations is a testament to the band’s impact on the underground and that which bubbled over. New Tales To Tell is out digitally on July 28th, while the physical release is not until August 18th via Arsenal RocknRoll/Justice Records. The artwork was designed by Shepard Fairey of Obama poster fame.

Tracklist:

1. All In My Mind – Black Francis
2. Holiday On The Moon – Puscifer (MJ Keenan) (Tool & A Perfect Circle)
3. Love Me – War Tapes
4. No New Tale To Tell – Blaqk Audio (Davey & Jade of AFI)
5. I Feel Speed – Dubfire
6. Inside The Outside – The Dandy Warhols
7. Life In Laralay – Sweethead
8. An American Dream – Film School
9. The Light – A Place To Bury Strangers
10. Mirror People – Monster Magnet vs Adrian Young (No Doubt)
11. Fever – The Stone Foxes
12. No Big Deal – Frankenstein 3000
13. It Could Be Sunshine – VEX
14. So Alive – Better Than Ezra
15. Haunted When The Minutes Drag – James Hall
16. Lazy – Chantal Claret (Morningwood) vs Adrian Young (No Doubt)
17. Sweet F.A. – Lossy Coils with Ian Moore
18. No Words No More – Snowden
19. Sweet Lover Hangover – Charlie & The Valentine Killers
20. Yin And Yang & The Flowerpot Man – Halloween Jack (Stephen Perkins & Gilby Clarke)
21. Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven – The Manichean
22. Bound For Hell – Johnny Dowd & Billy Cote
23. Saudade – Halls Of The Machine

Bonus
24. Kundalini Express – The Flaming Lips
25. Mirror People – The Invisible Humans
26. No New Tale To Tell – Astra Heights

Black Francis – All in My Mind.mp3

A smattering of DJ sets will celebrate the release and serve as listening parties in Los Angles, Austin, and NYC:

July 29th – Los Angeles, CA – Space 15 Twenty
DJ Shepard Fairey
Performances by Astra Heights | Vex | The Invisible Humans

Aug. 4th – Austin, TX – Malverde
DJ Daniel Ash
Performances by Lossy Coils with Ian Moore | The Manichean

Aug. 18th – New York, NY – Ben Sherman in-store
DJ StabWalt (Sirius XM Alt Nation / Stabbing Westward )
Performances by Frankenstein 3000 & more!