If you frequently peruse the magazine racks at your local Barnes and Noble or the soon-to-be-late, lamented Borders, chances are you’re familiar with Mojo.  The U.K.-published music magazine leads the vanguard of music publications across the pond along with publications like Uncut, Q, Classic Rock and Word, as high-end, glossy publications tailored for the music-centric crowd.  One monthly feature of Mojo and Uncut is the inclusion of a cover-mounted CD designed to tie in with that month’s content, sometimes drawing on archival material and other times on newly-recorded music.  So, some eighteen years after Mojo’s founding in 1993, it doesn’t come as a total surprise that the magazine is launching its own record label, and drawing on its own vaults for the first two releases/reissues.

The new Mojo label is a partnership with the Cherry Red Group (home of other favorite labels like Now Sounds, Big Break, Cherry Pop and RPM) and they’ve brought out the heavy hitters as inspirations for their first two releases.  Both are tributes to classic rock concept albums, and both are due August 22.  Sgt. Pepper: With a Little Help From His Friends is a reinterpretation of The Beatles’ 1967 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band as an “alternative rock opus” by artists like Simple Kid, Circulus, Stephanie Dosen and Fionn Regan.  It arrives alongside The Wall Re-Built!, a similar new look at Pink Floyd’s 1979 album.  Alessi’s Ark, Engineers, Peter Broderick, Soundcarriers, Simon Bookish, Sweet Billy Pilgrim, The Amazing, The Ralfe Band, and Snowbird (featuring Dosen and ex-Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde) have all participated in this reimagining of Roger Waters’ compositions into “eerie and even stranger territory.”

For more information on both titles, including full track listings, hit the jump!

Sgt. Pepper, with a Little Help from His Friends dates back to the March 2007 issue of the magazine.  Both this album and The Wall Re-Visited have been reinterpreted in their original running order by a young generation of musicians influenced by the Beatles and Pink Floyd, respectively.  British pop/rock ensemble Captain takes on the album coda “A Day in the Life” and the lo-fi band Simple Kid handles both the title song and its reprise.  The Wall Re-Built! was recorded for Mojo’s December 2009 and January 2010 issues.  Sweet Billy Pilgrim was just one of the bands selected with connections to the original LP, tackling “In the Flesh?” for the tribute.  The band’s singer/guitarist Tim Eisenberg said The Wall was a direct influence on his own music: “Well for starters I made a concept album! Their fearlessness is what’s inspiring. To come out, in 1979 when everyone was already pretty miserable with the most miserable record ever: that’s brave. But it wouldn’t have worked if the music hadn’t been beautiful.”  The magazine trumpeted other highlights such as Astra’s “stoner freak-out” on “Empty Spaces” and Snowbird (Stephanie Dosen, returning from Sgt. Pepper, and ex-Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde) reinventing “Goodbye Blue Sky” in their own style.  The Ralfe Band takes on “Comfortably Numb.”

Both titles arrive from Cherry Red’s new Mojo imprint on August 22, and befitting releases from a music magazine’s label, both titles offer 16-page booklets with copious sleeve notes and introductions from Mojo’s editor-in-chief Phil Alexander.

Various Artists, Sgt. Pepper: With a Little Help From His Friends (Mojo MOJOCDD 1001, 2011)

1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – Simple Kid
2. With a Little Help From My Friends – Puerto Muerto
3. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds – Circulus
4. Getting Better – Fionn Regan
5. Fixing a Hole – 747’s
6. She’s Leaving Home – Unkle Bob
7. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite – Bikeride
8. Within You Without You – Stephanie Dosen
9. When I’m Sixty-Four – Chin Up Chin Up
10. Lovely Rita – Dave Cloud And The Gospel Of Power
11. Good Morning Good Morning – The M’s
12. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) – Simple Kid
13. A Day in the Life – Captain

Various Artists, The Wall Re-Visited! (Mojo/Cherry Red MOJOCDD 1002, 2011)

1. In the Flesh? – Sweet Billy Pilgrim
2. The Thin Ice – Papercuts
3. Another Brick in the Wall (Part 1) – Ulver
4. The Happiest Days of Our Lives – Rafter
5. Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) – Slaraffenland
6. Mother – Woodpigeon
7. Goodbye Blue Sky – Snowbird
8. Empty Spaces – Astra
9. Young Lust – The Amazing
10. One of My Turns – The Gentle Good
11. Don’t Leave Me Now – Three Trapped Tigers
12. Another Brick in the Wall (Part 3) – The Young Republic
13. Goodbye Cruel World (Adios Mundo Maldito) – Helado Negro
14. Hey You – Engineers
15. Is There Anybody Out There – Peter Broderick
16. Nobody Home – The Mummers
17. Vera – North Sea Radio Orchestra
18. Bring the Boys Back Home – North Sea Radio Orchestra
19. Comfortably Numb – The Ralfe Band
20. The Show Must Go On – Alessi’s Ark
21. In the Flesh – Fol Chen
22. Run Like Hell – Crippled Black Phoenix
23. Waiting for the Worms – Twinkranes
24. Stop – Diagonal
25. The Trial – Simon Bookish
26. Outside the Wall – The Soundcarriers