Lol Tolhurst and Budgie enlist James Murphy, The Edge, Bobby Gillespie for new album

Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee | Photo by Louis Rodiger

The musical project that The Cure’s Lol Tolhurst and Budgie of Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Creatures first announced in 2020 is finally seeing the light of day, with a third member, a new name — and a just-issued single featuring LCD Soundystem’s James Murphy.

What originally was going to be called LXB is now Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee, with the project’s producer apparently taking a much more central role alongside the two famed post-punk drummers.

Today, the trio released their debut single, “Los Angeles,” featuring Murphy on vocals — you can hear that below via the John Liwag-directed music video..

Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee will release a 13-track album, also called Los Angeles, on Nov. 3. The project features guest appearances by U2’s The Edge, Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream, musician and visual artist Lonnie Holley, Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock, Arrow de Wilde of Starcrawler, and Idles’ Mark Bowen.

The album can be pre-ordered now on CD and vinyl via the band’s webstore and digitally at Amazon.com.

The trio describes the record as “a hard-hitting and compulsively exploratory 55-minute electronic mindscrew, founded on unrivalled rhythmic expertise, fleshed out with an armoury of synths, guitars (Jacknife’s forte) and supplementary percussion, often overlaid with elite-class strings and brass, then universally twisted, manipulated and quite masterfully sculpted by Lee, with his super-producer’s hat on.”

Budgie and Tolhurst — who met when The Cure opened for the Banshees on the Join Hands tour in 1979 — first discussed the project in an interview on Sirius XM satellite radio in May 2020. “Obviously, it’s two drummers, so it’s very, very rhythmic,” Tolhurst said of their new music.

The project, with producer Lee (U2, R.E.M., The Killers, Bloc Party) on board, initially was conceived as a trio of drummers including Kevin Haskins of Bauhaus, Tones on Tail and Love and Rockets, but then “Kevin had to go and play with Bauhaus,” Tolhurst said. At the time, they thought the LXB record would be out by the end of 2020 — though that obviously did not happen.

Incidentally, Murphy — who appears on two of the album’s tracks — also was the first guest on “Curious Creatures,” the podcast series co-hosted by Tolhurst and Budgie that debuted in 2021.

Below, check out the Los Angeles tracklist — and check out the “Curious Creatures” episodes with Murphy.

Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee, Los Angeles

1. “This Is What It Is (To Be Free)” (with Bobby Gillespie)
2. “Los Angeles” (with James Murphy)
3. “Uh Oh” (with Arrow de Wilde and Mark Bowen)
4. “Ghosted At Home” (with Bobby Gillespie)
5. “Train With No Station” (with The Edge)
6. “Bodies” (with Lonnie Holley and Mary Lattimore)
7. “Everything And Nothing”
8. “Travel Channel” (with Pan Amsterdam)
9. “Country Of The Blind” (with Bobby Gillespie)
10. “The Past (Being Eaten)”
11. “We Got To Move” (with Isaac Brock)
12. “Noche Oscura” (with The Edge)
13. “Skins” (with James Murphy)

PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS

• The Cure’s Lol Tolhurst and Budgie of the Banshees to release album as LXB
• History of goth explored in new books by The Cure’s Lol Tolhurst, The Membranes’ John Robb
• ‘120 Minutes’ Rewind: Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie of The Creatures — 1990
• The Cure’s Lol Tolhurst and Pearl Thompson reunite in the recording studio
• Budgie of Siouxsie & The Banshees joins Efterklang for fall orchestral dates in Europe

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