Love And Rockets

Love and Rockets were one of the rare spinoff bands to achieve equal success on its own. Singer/guitarist Daniel Ash, singer/bassist David J and drummer Kevin Haskins were originally three-quarters of Bauhaus, who did as much as anyone to create the Goth movement. Looking to get away from Bauhaus singer Peter Murphy, Ash and J formed Tones on Tail as a more pop-oriented side band in 1982. After Bauhaus disbanded the following year, Haskins joined up and the new band was christened Love and Rockets after a favorite underground comic book series. Largely avoiding Bauhaus' doomier tendencies, Love and Rockets initially looked to '60s psychedelia for inspiration; their first successful single was a cover of the Temptations' "Ball of Confusion." The second album Express included two singles-"Kundalini Express" and "Yin and Yang (The Flowerpot Man)"-that crossed psychedelic imagery with modern dance rhythms, with a bit of glitter-era T. Rex added for good measure. Further MTV success came with "No New Tale to Tell," whose flute solo was widely taken as a good-natured Jethro Tull parody. For their self-titled fourth album, the band had become enamored with the Cramps, and took on a more primal, punkish sound driven by fuzz guitars. The single, "So Alive" hit Number Three on the Billboard Hot 100, topping anything done by Bauhaus (to say nothing of the Cramps). The tour behind that album included an odd interlude wherein the band, dressed in bee costumes, danced to a pre-recorded song in their alter-ego as the Bubblemen. Rather than following up their hit album, Love and Rockets pleaded exhaustion and took a four-year break. The comeback album, Hot Trip to Heaven was another change in direction, taking in house music and early EDM, with tracks running as long as 14 minutes. Fans were largely unimpressed and the band changed once again, embracing the grunge era on Sweet F.A.. Bauhaus reunited sporadically between 1998-2008, which largely meant the end of Love and Rockets. They did play one song at a Joe Strummer memorial in Los Angeles in 2007-in fact they played that song, "Should I Stay or Should I Go" twice-then Love and Rockets was laid to rest after Coachella and Lollapalooza appearances in 2008.