Last Wednesday we headed into Hollywood for the New Tales To Tell album release party at Space 15 Twenty. New Tales To Tell is a grand tribute to Love & Rockets, featuring Puscifer, Blaqk Audio, The Dandy Warhols, Sweethead, The Flaming Lips, and about twenty other bands.
Shepard Fairey (who did the tribute’s cover art) was on the turntables (and Macbook), spinning a mix of classic rock and 80s pop & early goth rock as the sun slowly set over the open courtyard. The crowd was a particularly eclectic mix of locals of all ages- from toddlers to seniors- all in high spirits. The bar was open, but the scene was well managed. An almost impossibly perfect situation.
Astra Heights, The Invisible Humans, and Vex performed. We haven’t been following any of these bands, but we immediately recognized two members of Vex; Paul Ill from Juliette Lewis’ band The Licks, and Kelli Scott, of Failure and Campfire Girls. Vex premiered the video for their cover of It Could Be Sunshine, and employed a rotating cast of special guest vocalists filling in for the absent Natalia Jovovich, including Troy Van Leeuwen of Sweethead & Queens Of The Stone Age for a cover of Nick Cave’s City Of Refuge.
Opening band Astra Heights delivered one of the most surprisingly good performances I’ve personally witnessed in this town for quite some time. Unfortunately, none of the studio recordings or live videos I can find online do Wednesday night’s performance justice, but the Texan five-piece was super tight, with two guitarists and a bass player backing up the lead vocals with well-trained harmonies. We’ll be keeping an eye on them.
We ran into many old friends there, some that we haven’t seen in years. Afterwards, we had a sort of Antiquiet beer summit, setting our video camera in the middle of some spirited (pun intended) rambling and goofing off with Sweethead and Astra Heights.
While we were talking to Sweethead, Shepard Fairey was interviewing Daniel Ash of Love & Rockets in front of The Rock N’ Roll Super Show’s cameras. Check out their coverage here.
We also did a “proper” interview with Troy, Serrina and Eddie of Sweethead, which we’ll have online for you very soon. Stay tuned.
And oh by the way, New Tales To Tell is actually a pretty solid compilation. It may be even cooler than Purplish Rain. You can buy it on iTunes now, or pre-order the hard copy from Amazon or Best Buy, due out on August 18th.
New Tales To Tell: Tribute To Love & Rockets
August 18th, 2009
Justice Records
01. Black Francis, All In My Mind
02. Puscifer, Holiday On The Moon
03. War Tapes, Love ME
04. Blaqk Audio, No New Tale To Tell
05. Dubfire, I Feel Speed
06. The Dandy Warhols, Inside The Outside
07. Sweethead, Life In Laralay
08. Film School, An American Dream
09. A Place To Bury Strangers, The Light
10. Monster Magnet Vs. Adrian Young, Mirror People
11. The Stone Foxes, Fever
12. Frankenstein 3000, No Big Deal
13. Vex, It Could Be Sunshine
14. Better Than Ezra, So Alive
15. James Hall, Haunted When The Minutes Drag
16. Chantal Claret Vs. Adrian Young, Lazy
17. Ian Moore & Lossy Coils, Sweet F.A.
18. Snowden, No Words No More
19. Charlie & The Valentine Killers, Sweet Lover Hangover
20. Halloween Jack, Yin And Yang & The Flowerpot Man
21. The Manichean, Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven
22. Johnny Dowd & Billy Cote, Bound For Hell
23. Halls Of The Machine, Saudade
24. The Flaming Lips, Kundalini Express (Bonus Track)
25. The Invisible Humans, Mirror People (Bonus Track)
26. Astra Heights, No New Tale To Tell (Bonus Track)
More photos from the event can be found on Antiquiet’s Facebook Page.
About Skwerl
Kevin "Skwerl" Cogill was taught his first computer programming language by his Mother's marijuana dealer at age ten. His first job involved hustling TicketMaster lines on behalf of a New Jersey concert ticket broker at age fourteen, followed by a job in graphic design shortly after graduating high school and trade school simultaneously in 1998. He built his first website in 1996 or so, and continues to do things the way they should be done, rather than the way everyone else does. He's a bit of an asshole, but he's fiercely loyal to fellow fans of good music.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Skwerl now resides in Los Angeles.
August 5th, 2009 at 4:01 PM
no really, video interview with sweethead inside.
August 6th, 2009 at 5:46 PM
what are the bonus tracks for? the cd or itunes release?
August 6th, 2009 at 6:32 PM
that’s the itunes tracklist above… haven’t seen a definitive physical release tracklist.
August 15th, 2009 at 11:43 AM
Why does every shit head musician have to be a liberal?
August 15th, 2009 at 11:50 AM
http://www.antiquiet.com/interviews/2008/11/all-puns-intended-with-jesse-hughes/
August 17th, 2009 at 12:00 AM
[...] may have caught Sweethead’s cameo in our coverage of the Love & Rockets tribute album release party last month; It featured just a minute or two [...]