News

Southern California punks Moonraker have dropped a surprise Halloween single: a fiery, harmony-laced cover of the Smoking Popes classic “Rubella.” Recorded at Black in Bluhm Music in Denver, Colorado with Chris Fogal and Kyle Tilev (with additional tracking by Frank Josephs in Santa Clarita), the cover injects Moonraker’s trademark blend of grit and heart into the 1995 Popes favorite — reimagining its bittersweet melody with punchy guitars, soaring dual vocals, and a raw emotional undercurrent.

“We’ve always really loved this song. It’s for sure my favorite Smoking Popes song,” says drummer/vocalist David Green. “A couple years ago at Fest our buddy Scotty said he was putting together a Smoking Popes tribute comp and asked if we’d want to be on it. I told him we were in as long as we could do ‘Rubella.’ We worked it out, tracked it, and… the comp never ended up happening, haha. All good — we love you, Scotty! So we figured it’d be a fun surprise single for Halloween. Hope you like it as much as we do!”

The new single sets the stage for a busy stretch ahead — including a Los Angeles show at The Escondite on November 7 with Stoke Signals, Bad Fatale, and Empired — and the first hint of what’s to come from the band’s next recording chapter.