I Am a Tribute

Guided By Voices Homage on the Way


As the Guided By Voices Hallway of Shatterproof Glass reunion tour continues to successfully chug along through various US dates, news of a special tribute recording for Dayton’s finest has emerged. Along with a cover from the Flaming Lips, artists lined up to contribute their takes on Guided by Voices tracks for the homage LP include: Cymbals Eat Guitars, La Sera (aka Kickball Katy from Vivian Girls), Blitzen Trapper, the Clean's David Kilgour, the Breeders' Kelley Deal with Buffalo Killers, Elf Power, Of Montreal's James Husband, Drive-By Truckers' Jason Isbell, and Thurston Moore, whose previously released version of "Stabbing a Star" will be included.

The news comes courtesy of Pitchfork, which adds that the album and a bonus digital EP with GBV covers from smaller bands is due out on No More Fake Labels early next year. There are still a few artists yet to be announced but so far things are looking quite stellar.

Guided By Voices Tribute LP:
The Flaming Lips - Smothered in Hugs
Western Civ - Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory and My Valuable Hunting Knife
Cymbals Eat Guitars - Gleemer
Sorry About Dresden - Echos Myron
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Everywhere With Helicopter
Crooked Fingers - Tractor Rape Chain
Elf Power - Man Called Aerodynamics
I Was Totally Destroying It - I Am Produced
The Pneurotics - I Am a Tree
La Sera - Watch Me Jumpstart
Kelley Deal with Buffalo Killers - Scalding Creek
Blitzen Trapper - Hot Freaks
Superdrag - A Salty Salute
David Kilgour (The Clean) - How Loft Am I
Thurston Moore - Stabbing a Star
James Husband (Of Montreal) - Buzzards and Dreadful Crows
Twin Tigers - TBA

Digital EP:

Marie Stella - Little Lines
Free Electric State - Weedking
Mass Solo Revolt - Gold Star for Robot Boy
Gregg Yeti - Quality of Armor

New Tales to Tell - Love and Rockets Tribute Due

I’m always surprised by the huge vacuum of obscurity some fantastic bands seem to fall into after productive years and creative notoriety. One of these bands was Bauhaus offshoot, Love and Rockets. Their blend of psychedelia and glam rock proved enormously popular in the late eighties and early nineties only to disappear into that rock n’ roll ether we so often see. Thankfully, Love and Rockets do offer a revered and sizeable musical legacy that continues to influence many of our favourite indie artists to this day.

No surprise then that a tribute album will emerge paying homage to the once mighty purveyors of cool. The Flaming Lips, Frank Black, Maynard James Keenan's Puscifer project, A Place To Bury Strangers and The Dandy Warhols are among those who will appear on New Tales To Tell: A Tribute To Love And Rockets when it's released this summer.

The tribute album will be digitally available through Justice Records on July 28th and will hit stores on Aug. 18th. It will be available with special bonus tracks and on limited edition blue and red vinyl. New Tales To Tell: A Tribute To Love and Rockets was produced by Christopher The Minister and Phil Jaurigui (Concrete Blonde, Audioslave), and its album artwork was done by Shepherd Fairey. (Indeed that is the fellow that created the ubiquitous Obama Hope poster.)

Love And Rockets took their name from a comic book series by Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez when they formed in England in 1985. Daniel Ash (guitar, saxophone, vocals), David J (bass, vocals) and Kevin Haskins (drums, synthesizers) had been in Bauhaus with Peter Murphy until that band splintered in 1983.

Love And Rockets' sound was more pop-based and upbeat than Bauhaus' goth rock, and the band's Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven was released the year they formed. It was followed by six more albums before the band split in 1999. Love And Rockets reformed in 2007 and performed at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival and Lollapalooza last year.

Here are the artists and songs on New Tales To Tell: A Tribute To Love And Rockets:

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

http://www.myspace.com/loveandrocketstribute

“Artists Are Just Children who Refuse to Put Down Their Crayons.”

I have to admit, I am a bit of a sucker for tribute albums. For some they represent an opportunistic attempt to resurrect careers of much loved artists and usually feature rote remakes of better known hits and crowd pleasers. Imagination free, artistically safe, and ultimately destined for the cut-out bin- Those I generally try to avoid. Conversely, other compilations pay homage to the greatness of a particular musician’s craft and allow artists to reinterpret a particular canon on their own terms and styles. Ratcheting it up a notch, said compilation will also feature new and current artists tackling influential musicians that many people have barely heard of. Then you can definitely count me in! It’s all about the discovery folks.

Sooo, next up for rediscovery is Judee Sill. Judee was a California singer-songwriter who released two amazing records chock full of religious overtones, alcoholic reveries, and Graham Nash collaborations before dying of a drug overdose in 1979. In 2005, Asylum Records lovingly reissued both of her albums. And on September 22nd, the American Dust label will release Crayon Angel: A Tribute to the Music of Judee Sill. Final Fantasy, Marissa Nadler, and Grizzly Bear/ Department of Eagles mainman Daniel Rossen all contribute Sill covers. (I am a little disappointed Andy Partridge of XTC fame did not participate. It was his interview a few years back that pointed me in the direction of Ms. Sills’ most wonderful art. ed)

Curiously, the album also features versions of two unheard Sill songs. Sill wrote the music for both tracks, but no recordings of either one have yet been discovered. Beth Orton takes on one song, "Reach for the Sky", and Bill Callahan ((the (SMOG) genius)) handles the other, "Like a Rainbow".

Tracklisting:.

Crayon Angel: A Tribute to the Music of Judee Sill:


01 Ron Sexsmith: "Crayon Angel"
02 Beth Orton: "Reach for the Sky"
03 Daniel Rossen: "Waterfall"
04 Frida Hyvönen: "Jesus Was a Cross Maker"
05 Shalants: "Lopin' Along Thru the Cosmos"
06 Final Fantasy: "The Donor"
07 Nicolai Dunger: "Soldier of the Heart"
08 Trembling Blue Stars: "Lady-O"
09 Colossal Yes: "The Phoenix"
10 Marissa Nadler & Black Hole Infinity: "The Kiss"
11 Princeton: "Down Where the Valleys Are Low"
12 The Bye Bye Blackbirds: "There's a Rugged Road"
13 Meg Baird: "When the Bridegroom Comes"
14 Bill Callahan: "For a Rainbow"
15 P.G. Six: "Til Dreams Come True"