love and rockets - Austin Town Hall

Last Week’s Jams (6.19 – 6.23)

June 26, 2023 nathan.lankford Leave a comment

It was a pretty busy week around these parts, though on a personal level, the next two weeks are going to be a bit of a shit show. So, it was good to settle into that ride with some great new jams. New music from Colored Lights and Lola Tried got me super excited, so we’re kicking off last week’s jams right there. B. Gray shot some great photos of Love and Rockets, which you can scroll back into and find, thus their inclusion. RayRay ran a review of the latest from Elder Jack Ward, so you can get your soul fix in. I probably played it safe and close to home with new songs from Snooper, Swansea Sound and Film School, among a bunch of others. Unfortunately, the new Lewsberg tunes are streaming yet, so those aren’t here, but go back and listen, please!

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Show Pics – Love and Rockets @ ACL Live (6/16)

June 22, 2023 brian.gray Leave a comment

There are plenty of nostalgia acts rolling through Austin this summer. Ive already seen The Cure and Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears and Peter Gabriel are still inbound. BUT, when announced, I knew I had to see Love and Rockets. It is a shorter reunion tour, the first in over twenty years. While they did have one set in 2008, things were fairly bleak that I would get to ever see the band live. Pretty rad.

David J, Daniel Ash and Kevin Haskins proved that their song catalog is every bit as fresh and relevant to a not quite sold out ACL Live. Opening was artist Vinsanto delivering an introspective collection of poems as songs.

Click through for a few thoughts and plenty of pics

Show Review: Poptone @ The Mohawk (12/7)

December 11, 2017 brian.gray Leave a comment

Bauhaus was a genre defining band. BUT, it was Love and Rockets, Bauhaus minus one Peter Murphy, that I really fanned out about. And then, Tone On Tail, Love and Rockets minus one David J., that created and whole new thing to one-up friends. The curious case where a group minus a member could improve or be a complete thing unto itself was on full display last Thursday night at The Mohawk when Poptone, Daniel Ash and Kevin Haskins with Haskins’s daughter Diva Dompe, brought songs to life that I never thought I would get to see live. The fuzzed out basslines, the distant nearly monotone vocal, the ringing twelve-string or echoed out saxophone – this was as important a show to me as Belle and Sebastian would be to Nathan.

Click through for the rest of my thoughts and so many pics of not just Poptone, but the opener Geneva Jacuzzi and her girl in the bubble performance. …and holy crap it was cold.

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Show Preview: Poptone @ Mohawk Tonight

December 7, 2017 brian.gray Leave a comment

Let this sink in:
“Singer-guitarist Daniel Ash and drummer Kevin Haskins, who spent large swaths of the 80s and 90s performing in the seminal acts Bauhaus, Tones on Tail and Love and Rockets have reunited to form a new band called Poptone with Haskins daughter Diva from BlackBlack.”

Look, I never had the stars align to let me see Love and Rockets, let alone Tones on Tail. Of the half band revival tours going, this may be the best. I peaked at the setlist from previous shows and it makes me so happy, covers the bands covered back then, the best of Ash led songs from Love and Rockets and a Tones on Tail best-of.

If you weren’t affected by the Bauhaus, Love and Rockets or Tones on Tail, pretty sure one of the bands you love was.

Tickets here.

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New Song From Snowden (Finally)

July 18, 2012 brian.gray Leave a comment

Snowden‘s 2006 album ANTI-ANTI is a favorite of mine. Shoe-gazed post punk, several songs from that album, especially “Black Eyes” still find their way into playlists. They released a couple tracks over the years with the Slow Soft Syrup EP in 2010 including a track released on a Love and Rockets tribute.

The band is back and announcing a full length on Serpents&Snakes due in the Fall. To get you interested they have the track “The Beat Comes” up on Soundcloud and a shiny new website with info on an East Coast mini-tour. They killed during a day party set I saw in ’07. See ’em if you can.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/53058183″ params=”show_comments=false&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ iframe=”false” /]

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