Rocket From The Tombs

Rocket From The Tombs (RFTT) was a pre-punk band from Cleveland, Ohio fronted by Pere Ubu's David Thomas (then known as Crocus Behemoth). Principal influences were the likes of New York Dolls, Velvet Underground, The Stooges, Kinks, Pink Floyd and Alice Cooper.
The group played its first show June 16 1974. Peter Laughner joined in the summer and personnel changes continued through November during which time the band supported British heavy metal group UFO and Iron Butterfly. A kid from the Near West Side projects, who went by the name of Cheetah Chrome, and, then, Craig Bell from crosstown rivals, The Mirrors, completed the line up.
The 'classic' version of the band debuted December 22 1974. Between then and August 1975, when it finally crashed and burned, the band played a handful of shows, went through three drummers and wrote a set of songs now considered classics, such as 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, Final Solution, Ain't It Fun, Amphetamine, Sonic Reducer, Down In Flames, So Cold, Muckraker, What Love Is and Never Gonna Kill Myself Again. Pere Ubu, Saucers and The Dead Boys formed from the debris field.
Over the next three decades, the band's reputation spread through third party bootlegs, the cream of which were eventually officially released as The Day The Earth Met The Rocket From The Tombs (2002). In 1989, a San Diego band, Rocket From The Crypt, coopted the name and went on to record several commercially successful albums. Pearl Jam and Guns n Roses released cover versions of RFTT songs.
The band reformed in 2003 with Television's Richard Lloyd on second guitar and Pere Ubu's drummer, Steve Mehlman, and recorded two albums, toured a few times but broke up more times. The current version came together in January 2012 after Cheetah Chrome retired from the road, and after the band and Richard Lloyd parted ways. Later that year, three songs were recorded as a start to a new album.
This Moment In Black History (TMIBH) is a Cleveland band favored by Pere Ubu and RFTT.
"We've had a mutual admiration society going for years. I wanted them involved in the recording," singer David Thomas said. "For awhile the album was going to be titled This Moment In Blackness."
TMIBH was kept in touch with the album's progress through demo tapes and works-inprogress downloads.
"I wanted to feel a rival group's eyes on us as we worked," Thomas said. "As Pere Ubu became increasingly globalized, I worked with different methods of keeping it grounded in a specific geography. Originally, I intended to incorporate TMIBH into a Pere Ubu record but Carnival Of Souls went off in its direction and RFTT inherited the idea."
Members of TMIBH contributed vocals, tambourine and other bits to the album. TMIBH guitarist Buddy Akita is a member of RFTT.