The Cure drummer Lol Tolhurst, Siouxsie & the Banshees drummer Budgie, and veteran producer Garret “Jacknife” Lee have teamed for Los Angeles, their debut album under their own names. Due Nov. 3 from Play It Again Sam, the 13-track effort sports guest appearances from U2’s the Edge, Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock, Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, and IDLES’ Mark Bowen, among many others.
The first single and title track is enlivened with vocals from LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and is out today, in tandem with a video directed by John Liwag.
Longtime friends from their days in the legendary U.K. post-punk and goth scene and the co-hosts of the Curious Creatures podcast, Tolhurst and Budgie hatched the idea to make music together after a December 2018 meeting in Los Angeles. After two sessions a few months later, including one at the house of Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee, they sought out assistance from Lee, who advised them to start all over. “Lol is very leveling,” Budgie says. “He calls himself a pragmatist, whereas I’m very impetuous, and it was like Garret was bridging the two, in his consultation room.”
What began taking shape as an instrumental record navigated another new twist at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, when Tolhurst reached out to Murphy about potentially adding some vocals. He then put out feelers to other singing friends, resulting in eventual contributions from Gillespie, Brock, and Lonnie Holley, among others.
The trio is hoping to perform live in some fashion in the future, and Tolhurst is also releasing his second book, GOTH: A History, on Sept. 26. The volume is said to explore “creative giants like the Cure, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Bauhaus, Joy Division, and many more great bands that offered a place of refuge for the misfits of the 80s and ever since.”
Here is the track list for Los Angeles:
This Is What It Is (To Be Free) [with Bobby Gillespie]
Los Angeles [with James Murphy]
Uh Oh [with Arrow de Wilde and Mark Bowen]
Ghosted at Home [with Bobby Gillespie]
Train With No Station [with The Edge]
Bodies [with Lonnie Holley and Mary Lattimore]
Everything and Nothing
Travel Channel [with Pam Amsterdam]
Country of the Blind [with Bobby Gillespie]
The Past (Being Eaten)
We Got To Move [with Isaac Brock]
Noche Oscura [with the Edge]
Skins [with James Murphy]
