Oakland’s Rogue Wave are an early-aughts indie rock outfit now halfway through the second decade of their career. Last year, they released their sixth studio album Delusions Of Grand Fur, and today, we’re premiering the band’s upcoming ’80s covers album Cover Me, which features nine reinterpretations of decade classics, including “In Between Days” by the Cure and “That’s All” by Genesis. The LP is the expanded edition of their most recent Record Store Day Black Friday exclusive, and only 300 copies were made for this issue. The vinyl LP comes with a bonus 7″ featuring two additional covers of the Psychedelic Furs’ “Love My Way” and Big Country’s “In A Big Country,” and the digital edition features a rendition of Cyndi Lauper’s “Money Changes Everything.” Here’s lead vocalist Zach Rogue with more background on the release:

This album started as a means to an end. Before we started tracking Delusions Of Grand Fur, we were wondering if we could make the record without a producer and in our own studio. So we decided to track a cover song and see what happened. We tried to reimagine “Talking In Your Sleep” by the Romantics, effectively turning the song upside down. Some of the bounciest pop songs can have the most sinister subtext. After doing that song, we were reduced to little kids again, wondering what song to cover next, and wouldn’t it be fun to constrain it just to songs from the 80’s, and man oh man how amazing do old casio synths sound. We recorded about a double album’s worth of music, so that’s why there are these bonus tracks as well. I’m pretty fond of the psychedelic furs song. What a fucking great band they were. What an amazing era. Who knows, maybe we’ll try the 70’s next.

Let’s hope so. But for now, stream Cover Me and check out the band’s upcoming tour dates below.

Tour Dates:
02/24 San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
02/25 West Hollywood, CA @ Troubadour
03/02 Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
03/03 Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile

Cover Me is out 2/17 via Easy Sound Recording Company. Pre-order it here.