Frankie Rose Joins The Psychedelic Furs and The Jesus And Mary Chain: “It’s gonna be epic!” (9/29 at Franklin Music Hall)

“I thought I would be sort of done with this touring cycle by now, but then I got offered this insane tour with The Jesus And Mary Chain and...

“I thought I would be sort of done with this touring cycle by now, but then I got offered this insane tour with The Jesus And Mary Chain and The Psychedelic Furs…  This is probably about to be the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life,” says Brooklyn-based, post-punk-raised electropop singer/songwriter Frankie Rose during an August phone chat.  Frankie Rose is an original member of Dum Dum Girls, Beverly, Crystal Stilts, and Vivian Girls, but has been releasing music as a solo artist (mostly via Slumberland) since 2010…  Although I found out during a post-show chat at Union Transfer in 2021 she’s still quite uncomfortable with fans being able to read her name on official T-shirts (leading to shirts boasting an entirely illegible “metal” font, which she told me were her favorites.)

That 2021 show was amidst a tour supporting local shoegaze legends Nothing.  And during a pre-show chat, Frankie Rose admitted to me that she had actually recently completed a full-length, whose songs would be previewed on that jaunt, but that it would likely be a little bit of time before it saw the light of day: “My new solo record LOVE AS PROJECTION is in the can.  However because pressing plants are so thoroughly backed up it won’t be out until late next year…”  Love As Projection wound up dropping in March of 2023 (quite a bit longer than its initial prediction).  So, Frankie Rose has now officially been touring the music of Love As Projection for about a year-and-a-half, while unofficially touring much of it for about three years, which included 2022 dates at Underground Arts (supporting We Were Promised Jetpacks) and Johnny Brenda’s for Born Losers Records’ Losers Fest.

“I’m a little bit over it, I’m done with it, I’m done,” Frankie Rose tells me (half-jokingly… I think) about her latest LP.  But when I ask what songs we should expect to hear when she opens this mega-bill, she admits that the unexpected offer didn’t really give her much of a chance to prepare: “I’m kind of doing a similar set.  I haven’t had time to come up with a new set…”  She tells me that there will likely be two songs from Love As Projection, along with a number off of her 2012 sophomore LP, Interstellar, which was recently rereleased as an “Extended” edition, which also includes demos of four album tracks.  However, when I ask her what she thinks about the recent trend of extended, expanded, and deluxe editions of albums, notably those that come within a year (or a week…) of the original release, she confesses that she was completely unaware of the trend.

“I thought it might actually be too soon to rerelease it [laughs].  I’m so living like it’s 15 years ago… I still feel like I’m 25…  I can’t believe I forgot my age this year, but my mom had to correct me… I thought I was one year younger.  I think the older you get, years go faster [laughs].”

Frankie tells me that the reason behind the recent release of Interstellar – Extended is actually more in-line with classic expanded reissues: “It became mine again, like the rights to the record became mine.  It had been out of print for a while.”  And the current edition of the album actually has some pretty strong ties to the 215: “It’s on a record label based in Philly, Born Losers [owned and operated by Suburban Living’s Michael Cammarata and Chris Radwanski, longtime friends of Frankie’s]: one of them used to play in my band and one of them I took out on tour.  I wanted to work with great people, because, for me, music is all about community.”

In addition to the songs off of Interstellar and Love As Projection, fans can likely expect to hear “Minor Times” off of 2013’s Herein Wild [which I played on the September edition of Philthy Radio on Y-Not Radio, which you can stream in full here], a setlist staple from an album whose lack of success Frankie blames on a certain, previously esteemed, music publication: “My favorite song is off of a record that kind of got panned by a dum-dum at Pitchfork, the now-defunct loser Pitchfork…  You can print that, I’d love to start a beef [laughs].  I mean, it’s now defunct, but in 2013 they could literally make or break you with a review.”

While Frankie Rose’s set this Sunday at Franklin Music Hall, and the rest of this tour, will likely be a bit abbreviated, she tells me that she’s totally fine with that, also admitting that she doesn’t know if audiences will even know her: “I don’t like playing for more than 30 minutes, even when I’m headlining.”  She says she’s really just thrilled to be part of this tour: “I don’t know what I did right on this planet to get this opportunity to tour with two of my all-time favorite bands.”  “I was born in 1979, so The Psychedelic Furs were just kind of the soundtrack to when I was a kid, like with the John Hughes movies, that was just the music of my childhood,” she tells me, before going on to say that The Jesus And Mary Chain have put out some of her all-time favorite albums: “It’s gonna be epic!”

Prior to being asked to join The Jesus And Mary Chain and The Psychedelic Furs on the road, Frankie apparently had a couple albums in the works, that she tells me are presently in very different stages: “To be honest with you, with the new Frankie stuff, I was just about to start working on it, so I only had two or three songs, but there is another Fine Place [Frankie Rose’s project with her partner, Matthew Hord] record that’s almost done.”  And when I ask what she has planned for after these dates wrap, she tells me she’s going to get right back on those albums: “Honestly, I’ll probably just jump back in…  I’m not gonna do any more touring.  Unless Robert Smith knocks on my door, I’m done with this record!”

*Get your tickets here.

Categories
Band InterviewsLive EventsMusic

During the day Izzy Cihak teaches transgression, subversion, and revolution at Temple University. At night he haunts Philthy's best venues to cover worthwhile acts for Philthy Mag. Morrissey is everything to him and, in their own heads, all of his friends see themselves as Zooey Deschanel.

RELATED BY