Kevin Bronson on July 29th, 2009

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My only quibble with “New Tales to Tell: A Tribute to Love and Rockets” is the “tribute” part, which seems a bit presumptive. Call me stuffy, but only the truly seminal bands should get tributes; the good ones can be saluted, and the others, well, covered. In a decade-plus of tailoring the Bauhaus aesthetic to make it safe for radio, Love and Rockets proved themselves a very good band (especially live, given the set I witnessed at Coachella 2008). They were are a band whose influences were influential, as opposed to today’s hitmakers, whose influences’ influences’ influences’ were influential.

That said, “New Tales to Tell,” which features Shepard Fairey’s cover artwork, is an excellent salute. Black Francis (“All in My Mind”), Maynard James Kennan’s Puscifer (“Holiday on the Moon”), the Flaming Lips (a trippy “Kundalini Express”) and Better Than Ezra (“So Alive”) deliver solid performances. L.A.’s War Tapes, with “Love Me,” and Film School, “An American Dream,” turn in nice surprises. Sweethead turns “Life In Laralay” into a Garbage song, and A Place to Bury Strangers brings darkness to “The Light.” Does “New Tales” reveal Love and Rockets to be something greater than we remember? No. But two-thirds of the songs here would be a breath of fresh air on today’s alternative radio.

||| Live: The release of the compilation (it’s out digitally now, physically on Aug. 18) will be celebrated tonight at Space 15 Twenty in Hollywood. Richard Blade hosts, Fairey DJs and Astra Heights, Vex and the Invisible Humans perform. It’s free and kicks off at 6:30 p.m.

||| Listen: WOXY.com’s preview of the album is podcasted here.