With their brilliant synthesis of folk and country, baroque and roll, San Francisco’s Beau Brummels made a major and lasting contribution to the lexicon of American popular music in the mid-1960s. ‘Turn Around: The Complete Recordings 1964-1970’ is the exhaustive overview of their legacy has so long deserved; presenting the band’s classic Autumn and Warner Brothers recordings in definitive fashion.
Boasting the stellar songcraft of Ron Elliott and the unique voice of Sal Valentino, the Brummels were amongst the first American units to respond to the British Invasion with innovation rather than imitation. The group remained popular and influential in the US long after their 1965 chart successes with ‘Laugh, Laugh’ and ‘Just A Little’, and once the act had devolved to the duo of Valentino and Elliott in 1967, the Beau Brummels moved to the forefront of Warner Brothers’ late 1960s pop renaissance with the albums ‘Triangle’ and ‘Bradley’s Barn’, the latter a visionary country-rock masterpiece.
Assembled, annotated and mastered by longtime Brummels’ aficionado Alec Palao, this major refurbishment of The Beau Brummels’ catalogue leaves no stone unturned. The original stereo album masters are accompanied by a comprehensive assortment of out- takes, alternate mixes and 45 RPM versions, and are further enhanced by rarities and unreleased demos drawn from the band’s own archives.
All the members of the Brummels also contribute to the instructive and heavily-illustrated history of the recordings, housed in a deluxe, handsomely appointed booklet art directed and designed by Steve Stanley.
“I do like this record. Despite their tremendously loser name, this group from America is pretty good. They have a sound of their own added to by Byrd-like guitar playing and Everly Brothers voices. In a funny way, it’s rather sexy.”
Although Penny Valentine’s verdict on The Beau Brummels’s “Don’t Talk to Strangers” edges towards damning the single with faint praise, it was positive and homed in on an important aspect of the San Francisco band – their Everly Brothers’s resonance. Readers of her Disc Weekly reviews column that mid-November in 1965 will have been well-aware of America’s decisive response to the wave of British bands clogging up their charts. It was an influential reaction: The Byrds impacted on The Beatles.
With their brilliant synthesis of folk and country, baroque and roll, San Francisco’s Beau Brummels made a major and lasting contribution to the lexicon of American popular music in the mid-1960s.
Recorded at Rockfield and Olympic studios in September and October 1972, the legendary album followed on the success of the band’s hit single ‘Silver Machine’ and was their first to feature Lemmy Kilmister on bass and vocals and Simon King on drums. Featuring such classic tracks as ‘Brainstorm’, ‘Space is Deep’, ‘Lord of Light’, ‘Down Through the Night’ and ‘Time We Left This World Today’, the album reached the UK Top 20 upon its release in November 1972.
The 2CD – This new edition set comprises 2CDs featuring a new remaster of the original album, along with superb new stereo mixes by Stephen W Tayler, including three session out-takes and new mixes of the single tracks ‘Urban Guerrilla’ and ‘Brainbox Pollution’. The release also has an illustrated booklet with new essay.
The 2LP and 2LP+set – This new edition has been remastered from the original master tapes, has been cut at Abbey Road Studios and is a facsimile of the original 1972 LP release with inner bag and poster. The release also includes a remastered facsimile bonus seven-inch picture sleeve single of the rare German 1972 single release of ‘Lord of Light’ b/w ‘Born to Go” (live)’.
3CD/2 Bluray – This limited edition deluxe boxed set comprises three CDs featuring a new remaster of the original album, along with superb new stereo mixes by Stephen W Tayler, including three session out-takes and new mixes of the single tracks ‘Urban Guerrilla’ and ‘Brainbox Pollution’. Also included is a stunning new mix of Hawkwind’s performance at the Greasy Truckers Party at the Roundhouse on 13th February 1972.
The set also includes two region-free Blu-Ray discs which feature Stephen W Tayler’s stunning new 5.1 Surround Sound mixes of “Doremi Fasol Latido” and bonus tracks and the complete live Greasy TruckersParty performance. An additional bonus feature is the 1973 promotional film of ‘Urban Guerrilla’
The set is completed with a 68-page illustrated book with new essay and a reproduction poster initially included with the first pressing of album in November 1972 making this boxed set the definitive release of this legendary album.
102-track, 5CD box set retrospective from singer/songwriter Iain Matthews. Features 2024 remasters of the three albums made for Vertigo Records at the start of his solo career in the early 1970s, and a live version of his first Vertigo album. The Box Set Includes 37 previously unreleased tracks, including a newly-compiled CD of live performances, ‘Vertigo Years 1971-2022’.
An original member of the folk rock band Fairport Convention during the band’s early period when they were heavily influenced by American folk rock and sang on their first three albums before from 1967 to 1969 before leaving to form his own band Matthews Southern Comfort and topping the UK charts in 1970 with Joni Mitchell’s ‘Woodstock’,
Iain Matthews can rightly be described as a music legend. In the 1970s, as well as recording solo albums for Vertigo, Elektra and CBS/ Columbia, he was also a founder member of Plainsong whose 6CD box set ‘Following Amelia’ can also be found on Cherry Red Records. Still making albums and playing live to this day, his career in the music business is a classic example of talent married to longevity.
This new box set, ‘Thro’ My Eyes: The Vertigo Years 1970-1974’, features the three original albums from his album deal with Vertigo – ‘If You Saw Thro’ My Eyes’, ‘Tigers Will Survive’, and ‘Journeys From Gospel Oak’ – alongside a wealth of previously unissued material from Iain’s archives, including for the first time on CD material recorded during his 1971 residency at the Bitter End in New York with future Plainsong members Andy Roberts and Bobby Ronga and former Fairport bandmate Richard Thompson. Also included in this comprehensive collection are Vertigo era tracks recorded live in Paris, a live version of his first solo album recorded during an 18-date tour of The Netherlands in 2003, and tracks from the now long out-of-print ‘Notebook Series’.
“Thank you all, let’s levitate together” says an obviously well-chuffed Dave Brock after the end of the scorching opening track “Levitation”, the curtain raiser to this fabulous set of songs at that wonderfully appointed, cavernous, and prestigious venue, The Royal Albert Hall. This celebratory rocket ride through the mighty Hawks’ back pages took place on Friday 29th September 2023 under the banner “An Evening of Sonic Destruction 50 Years On… Celebrating the Rituals and Odysseys of Space”. Where the title perhaps gave the erroneous impression that they would be belting through “Space Ritual”, it certainly was a celebration.
That the RAH is something of a time capsule is not lost on me, as this set does indeed cover a 50-year span, which in rock’n’roll terms is practically an epoch! Following the initial burst of levitated adrenalin rush, there is no let up as the band power through “You Better Believe It” and “Psychedelic Warlords“. Obviously, you can’t see it listening to the record, but you can sure feel octogenarian Dave’s visceral energy and joie-de-vivre coursing through every note. “Arrival In Utopia”, a mere 42 years young, keeps up the pace, and although you can’t hear it, again you can feel the ecstatic audience shouting along. This song also saw the unlikely figure of William Orbit walking on stage to man a second set of keyboards.
We had to have a rest at some point, even Dave did, so the beginning of “Rama – The Prophecy” provides a very brief opportunity to get one’s breath back, before it too gets on the space-boogie horse, and old heads are shaken anew. Apologies if this reads more like another live review than an album review, but I was there and it’s difficult to separate the album from the gig, the only thing that does are the sonics of this CD. This only attests to the quality of the recording in my view!
The standard of musicianship in the current band is as good if not better than any previous line up, and keyboard player Tim Lewis with his Hammond-like fills and electric piano, as well as the essential synthesiser swooshes and squiggles, is on top form. As this relatively long lasting line up all are, of course! Maybe they don’t possess the charisma of the classic line up of yore, but what band that has lasted this long does?
No doubt this recording was straight from the mixing desk, which might give it a sonic advantage over what we heard at that sound engineers’ nightmare of a venue, not that we cared on the night! When Prince Albert launched a Royal Commission to look at building a set of arts and science facilities at the site, following on from the success of the Great Exhibition in nearby Hyde Park in 1851, the thought of impending sonic attack from the good ship Hawkwind and all the other iconic rock acts that have played there over the years would not have been possible for the doomed prince to begin to imagine!
Before we revisit the classics juke box, 1985’s “The Beginning”, after its space-symphonic intro sees Dave pick up his acoustic to kick off the song section with a time-warping interlude of busker-strumming. Sounding vaguely Beatles-like, this song is a genuine respite from the open-throttle disappear in smoke nature of the rest of the set. Back down goes the needle in that juke box, and soon this jury is jumping to, and of course, shouting along to “Sprit Of The Age“. I can remember when that came out back in 1977, and it wasn’t every day you listened to a song that among other things, bemoans the loyalty of a sex-android replica! It still isn’t, come to think of it.
The audience, know every word and shout along with gusto. One of a few recent songs in the set, the short but sweet “Underwater City”, from last year’s “Stories Of Time And Space”, served as another calming interlude before the throttle is opened once more as the song leads into “Assault And Battery/Golden Void”. “Thank you all so much for coming. So lovely to see all your lovely faces” says Dave after the roar that greets the end of this fabulous number. And so we arrive in a stationary orbit above some far off unnamed planet in some godforsaken cold galaxy, and CD1 has come to an end.
At the gig there was no break, they just piled into 1992 single “Right To Decide”, which was new to me, and it fits perfectly into the general vibe, charging along at a pace. It is obvious from listening to this extended aural history that Hawkwind were and remain a huge influence on everything from punk to the rave scene and beyond, and nobody does it quite like them. Some wag…it may have been me…once referred to Hawkwind as “Status Quo with synthesisers”, but that’s damnable faint praise when you firstly consider that they practically invented a genre, and secondly when one considers all the bands that have followed in their wake wouldn’t sound remotely like they did, or do, were it not for the Mothership Hawkwind.
Good old Arthur Brown comes on for the Bob Calvert role, one he carries off with aplomb, and narrates the space poem “10 Seconds Of Forever” (here retitled “10th Second Of Forever“, and then we briefly delve deep into the “Space Ritual”, with “Born To Go”, a headbangin’ classic from 50+ years ago. I love this tune, and in all its brutal simplicity it is irresistible. This latest line up do it solid justice, and it’s as ‘eavy and ‘umble as it ever was. The version on “Greasy Truckers” is even better than the version on “Space Ritual”, if you ask me.
Cleverly inserted into the middle of “Born To Go” is a song written 50 years later, “Star Explorer”, again showing how easily it all fits together. Then… back into the time machine, we emerge in 1972 and the Ritual is continuing. We now find that we are subjected to a “Brainstorm!” it’s getting trippy in here. Some great synth work flies around the speeding riff, and the muscular rhythm section, tight a locknut drive this song through walls, nothing will get in its way.
“SPACE!”, loudly intones Arthur, from somewhere down the “Black Corridor”, before the band engage all rockets to escape the unfeeling impersonal blackness of the void, which does not live and does not die. Hawkwind are the “Masters Of The Universe“, the obvious banger of a set closer before we come in gently (well…sort of!) to land with “Welcome”. This band are so good, and they were definitely in the groove this autumn night in London. The sound on this CD is as good as can be, and it is yet another triumph for Cherry Red, Masters Of The Reissue!
The third CD in this set contains six songs played in rehearsals that were not on the eventual setlist and is a nice bonus. Featuring a couple of songs from the new album “Stories From Time And Space“, along with four other more recent numbers – if you can call 1992 recent?! – the highlight is the near quarter of an hour space-drifting “Practical Ability”, a song that that meanders along effortlessly, as if in a geo-stationary orbit. There’s some great drumming and synth work on it too.
The comprehensive booklet by Rob Goodwin that accompanies this set is up to the usual superlative Cherry Red standard, and whether or not the world needs yet another Hawkwind live album is moot, but I can’t recommend this set highly enough, While Dave Brock has his health the good spaceship Hawkwind will keep on keepin’ on. As Dave sings in “Lost Chances” “Look to the future, forget the past.”
Starting out briefly as The Electric Garden, Middle Earth opened its doors in 1967 and immediately became the most happening club in London. More than just a home for UK bands that were pushing the boundaries of rock music, Middle Earth also attracted some of America’s finest exponents of psychedelic rock such as Captain Beefheart, The Byrds, The Fugs, Jefferson Airplane, and many more.
Fledgling UK acts that would go on to great things such as Soft Machine, Tomorrow (The In-Crowd),David Bowie (The Riot Squad), Yes, The Incredible String Band, Ten Years After, and Free were joined by more established acts like Traffic, Fleetwood Mac, The Who, The Pretty Things and The Yardbirds.
Cult favourites, who would never attain the commercial success of those just mentioned but are revered by those that know, include The Deviants, Dantalion’s Chariot, Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera, Third Ear Band, and Mabel Greer’s Toyshop, among others.
The club only last a few years but it’s timeline coincided neatly with the rapid and ever- developing rise of psychedelic rock in the UK and as such this compilation serves as the perfect guide to how the genre evolved.
Jeff Dexter, the house DJ and main man at Middle Earth, has been interviewed exclusively for this release and deep image research has thrown up many unseen images to round out what is the definitive document on the UK’s ultimate psychedelic rock club.
Their most iconic moment has to be “Just Like Honey”, a song that still captures their mix of noise and melody perfectly. The song came out of Scotland with this noisy yet soft sound that felt new to everyone. Jim and William Reid kept things simple but bold, mixing feedback with sweet melodies. Some controversy came when fans and venues criticised their loud, chaotic shows, including the time they famously played facing the back of the stage. Critics praise them for creating a fresh, raw sound that influenced countless alternative and indie bands that followed.
Newly remastered 13 track compilation of The Jesus And Mary Chain’s single A-sides and non-album B-sides. Includes their 1984 debut single for Creation Records, “Upside Down“, backed with their cover of Syd Barrett’s “Vegetable Man“, as well as singles from their 1985 debut album, “Psychocandy”.
The Jesus and Mary Chain, > 45s > 84 > 85 < (Rhino) (Red/Black Splatter LP; RSD U.K. exclusive)
Scottish brothers Jim and William Reid helped usher in a new movement in alt-rock in the ’80s as the nucleus of The Jesus and Mary Chain. This new collection showcases all 13 single sides issued before and during the release of their breakthrough 1985 debut “Psychocandy”, including “Upside Down,” “Never Understand,” “You Trip Me Up” and “Just Like Honey.”
This edition comes in limited edition splatter vinyl.
Saturday, April 12th, is certainly one of the most packed Record Store Days in recent memory. Since the list was announced, we drilled down on titles from Craft Recordings, Legacy Recordings, Rhino Records, Universal Music Group, Real Gone Music, Omnivore Recordings, BMG, Cooking Vinyl and Demon Music Group, as well as some notable titles that were getting later general releases on CD.
Well, if you thought that was it, you’re wrong! We poured and poured over the list and are here to share with you more than four dozen one-offs, archival treasures, obscurities and things that’ll only be available outside of American Record Store Day participants. From the ’60s to today, covering every kind of genre imaginable, .
The Blasters, “An American Music Story: The Complete Studio Recordings 1979-1985” (Liberation Hall) (5LP; 1000 copies; RSD U.S. exclusive) Following last year’s release of Live at The Venue, London: The Complete Concert, Liberation Hall returns to the catalogue of The Blasters with this 5LP box containing all four of the band’s studio albums – American Music, The Blasters, Non Fiction and Hard Line– plus an LP of rarities. The box also boasts a 24-page book featuring liner notes by Chris Morris and interviews with the band members as well as rare photos. A poster is also included in this set which is strictly limited to 1000 hand-numbered copies.
Boomtown Rats, “Dawn of the Rats: Demos, B-Sides & Live 1975-1979” (Mercury/UMR) (Green LP; RSD U.K. exclusive) Here’s a collection of early, raw live demos from Bob Geldof and The Boomtown Rats, including the four songs which earned the Rats a recording contract. The live tracks are supplemented by the band’s B-sides, some of which have never appeared on CD or LP.
Alex Chilton, “Set” (Bar/None) (“Sunburst Splash” LP; 950 copies; RSD Regional release) Recorded in New York City in 1999 after a bar gig (and released on CD the following year), “Set” finds the Big Star frontman and his backing trio (bassist Ron Easley and drummer Richard Dworkin) working through a marathon studio session comprised mostly of R&B covers. It’s being released here on vinyl for the first time.
The Colourfield, “Virgins & Philistines (40th Anniversary Edition)” (Chrysalis) (Yellow 2LP; RSD exclusive) The U.K. band fronted by Terry Hall (The Specials, Fun Boy Three) offers a newly-remastered double vinyl edition of their 1985 debut album, “Virgins & Philistines”. The second disc features non-LP singles and B-sides.
The Jesus and Mary Chain, “> 45s > 84 > 85 <” (Rhino) (Red/Black Splatter LP; RSD U.K. exclusive) Scottish brothers Jim and William Reid helped usher in a new movement in alt-rock in the ’80s as the nucleus of The Jesus and Mary Chain. This new collection showcases all 13 single sides issued before and during the release of their breakthrough 1985 debut “Psychocandy”, including “Upside Down,” “Never Understand,” “You Trip Me Up” and “Just Like Honey.”
Graham Parker & The Figgs, “The Last Rock ‘N’ Roll Tour” (Iconoclassic) (Pink 2LP; 700 copies; RSD Regional release) Starting in the ’90s, Graham Parker began touring (and eventually recording) with The Figgs, a New York-based rock band briefly signed to Capitol whose energy evoked that of Parker’s most renowned sidemen in The Rumour. This 1996 live club show, released on vinyl for the first time, draws from those early Rumour albums to great effect; it’s been freshly remastered with a slightly rearranged and expanded track order, plus liner notes from Parker and Gent of The Figgs.
Wall of Voodoo, “The Lost Tapes” (Label 51) (2LP; RSD U.K. exclusive) The L.A. rock band – underground favorites who hit it big when 1982’s “Mexican Radio” was picked up by then-fledgling MTV – collects a double album’s worth of rarities.
Emmylou Harris, “Spyboy” (New West) (2LP; 1500 copies; RSD First release) Emmylou’s 1998 live album comes to vinyl for the first time, as a limited edition which adds five previously unreleased bonus tracks to the running order. “Spyboy” captures Harris and her band – Buddy Miller on guitar, Daryl Johnson on bass, and Brady Blade on drums, whose backing band name gave the album its title – performing selections from her 1995 album “Wrecking Ball” and other favourites in concert. The gatefold packaging includes an 11.5″ x 11.5″ insert featuring new reminiscences from Harris and Miller.
Van Morrison, “Be Just and Fear Not” (Orangefield) (10″; RSD U.K. exclusive) “Be Just and Fear Not” is compiled from “three songs that Van initially wanted to keep off his most recent release, “Live at Orangefield”. Van always felt these three tracks worked on their own and not as part of the overall album.” Here they are, as Morrison originally intended.
Tom Waits, Get Behind the Mule (Spiritual) / Get Behind the Mule (Anti-) (7″ Single; 3000 copies; RSD First release) This single features a previously unreleased alternate take of Waits’ “Mule Variations” track “Get Behind the Mule” with the singer accompanied by a Wurlitzer organ. Could an expanded edition of the singer-songwriter’s seminal 1999 album be on the way?
Clarence White, “Melodies from a Byrd in Flyte: 1963-1973” (Liberation Hall) (LP; 1200 copies; RSD First release) This release has 14 tracks (one side acoustic and the other electric) from The Byrds’ ClarenceWhite. Spanning much of White’s too-short career – he died in 1973 at the age of 29 after being killed by a drunk driver – these tracks feature the ground breaking country-rock guitarist supported by a host of guests including Roger McGuinn, The Everly Brothers, Gene Parsons, Skip Battin, Eric Weissberg, and Byron Berline.
The 13th Floor Elevators, “Houston Music Theater, Live 1967” (LMLR) (Blue/Black Marbled LP; 4000 copies; RSD exclusive) This 1967 live set from Texas’ psychedelic pioneers – intended as their sophomore album decades ago – makes its debut appearance in a restored mono mix. Tracks include “Reverberation” and “You’re Gonna Miss Me.”
Heavyweight vinyl is always that much more satisfying to hold, so hats off to Au Pairs and their team for issuing their classic first album in this sought-after format. Opening with the tongue-in-cheek “We’re So Cool,” the Au Pairs’ debut record is a stunner, from Lesley Woods’ scratchy guitar and declamatory vocals to lead guitarist Paul Foad’s brittle soloing. This is an uncompromising, defiant record: gender roles are turned upside down, as are theories about sex and sexuality, and hetero- and homosexual relationships are put under a microscope. Similarly, the tense political situation in Northern Ireland is harrowingly addressed in “Armagh,” which details Tory-sanctioned torture and sexual abuse of wrongly imprisoned Irish women. An unflinching look at the world, “Playing with a Different Sex” is one of the great, and perhaps forgotten, post-punk records.
Musically, Au Pairs were at their most overtly post-punk here, with funky rhythms and scratchy Gang Of Four-esque guitar stylings. ‘We’re So Cool’ sounds like the best that moments of Hanover underground group 39 Clocks; ‘Repetition’ sounds like it could have influenced Goat Girl’s first moves as a band signed to Rough Trade; while ‘Come Again’ is up there with anything by The Slits, and ‘Love Song’ is reminiscent of Entertainment!-era Gang Of Four.
The most striking cut here, however, is ‘Headache For Michelle’, which sits beautifully in the middle of the album and offers a bit of respite from the generally high-octane rhythms. It’s a dreamy cut, seemingly about drugs and government overreach. The following stinging, bitter lines, delivered with so much heart, bring this epic number from a cracking album to a beautiful close: “They are closing down – communications / They’re taking control – of our situations.”
After gaining over 1 million followers on social media and earning the praise of songwriting greats with his witty and well-crafted folk songs, Jesse Welles made his late-night television debut with an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Welles has created a serious buzz churning out timely and topical songs by the dozens. His talent for writing about what he sees going on in the world in a clever and poignant way has garnered the Arkansas-based musician a large following on TikTok, Instagram, and other platforms. Dave Matthews introduced him as “one of the best songwriters I’ve ever heard in my life” before a performance at Farm Aid in 2024, and the New York Times ran a profile calling him “a folk musician that sings the news.”
Jesse Welles performs the song “Horses” on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
He recently released a 63-song album, ‘Under The Powerlines” (April 24 – September 24),’ which features selections from his ongoing stream of social media posts, as well as another, full-band album, ‘Middle,’ that sees him break away from the hyper-specific style of song writing he’s become known for in favour of a broader, more timeless perspective. It was the latter project that Welles drew from for his appearance on Kimmel.
Proud to finally release our 3rd album ‘DOGGOD’ into the world on Friday 4th April 2025. We recorded it far from the sunshine of LA, instead choosing to hole up at the legendary Motobass Studio in Paris, the gothic heart of Europe. L.A. Witch have always exuded an aura of effortless cool, whether it manifested as the Americana noir and laconic back-to-basics rock n’ roll of their self-titled debut or the blistering austere adventurism of their sophomore album “Play With Fire”. The band—comprised of Sade Sanchez (guitar/vocals), Irita Pai (bass), and Ellie English (drums)—began as an informal affair, but the sultry and beguiling reverb-draped songs they created caught on with the public, moving the project beyond the insular space of the band’s friends and peers in Southern California into the broader world.
On their latest album, “DOGGOD”, the trio push their craft beyond their previous creative and geographical confines, “DOGGOD” explores broader swaths of sonic terrain, employs a greater arsenal of tones, and probes larger existential and cosmic themes, all while retaining the band’s signature sense of the forbidden, the forsaken, and the foreboding.
“DOGGOD” is a way of tackling the universal riddle tangled in the spiritual nature of love and devotion. “I feel like I’m some sort of servant or slave to love,” says Sanchez. “There’s a willingness to die for love in the process of serving it or suffering for it or in search of it… just in the way a loyal, devoted servant dog would.” The album title is a palindrome fusing together DOG and GOD—an exaltation of the submissive and a subversion of the divine. It’s a nod to the purity of dogs and an acknowledgement of their unconditional love and protective nature that’s at odds with the various pejoratives associated with the species. “There is this symbolic connection between women and dogs that expresses women’s subordinate position in society,” Sanchez explains. “And anything that embodies such divine characteristics never deserved to be a word used as an insult.”
These conflicted explorations of love and subservience manifest themselves in L.A. Witch’s fusion of their trademark smooth and smoky garage alchemy with a newfound utilization of post-punk’s disciplined reserve and icy instrumentation. Album opener “Icicle” captures the band journeying out of the proto-punk, psychedelia, and gritty riffage of the ‘70s into the chorus-drenched guitars and forlorn minimalism of Joy Division and early The Cure. A parallel is drawn between romantic suicide and martyrdom that carries over into the second song, “Kiss Me Deep.” Here Sanchez describes a love so pure that it transcends time and carries over into multiple lifetimes. It’s a song about passion delivered in the worldly and wounded stoicism of early goth pioneers. From there, the band segues into the lead single “777,” a song about devotion to the point of death. A propulsive beat, a driving distorted riff, and Sanchez’s ethereal vocals come together to create a song that’s both dire in its fatalism and sensual in its faithful passion.
Across the entirety of “DOGGOD”, L.A. Witch never strays from their muse. On “I Hunt You Pray,” Pai lays down a hypnotic bass throb while English employs a cyclical krautrock groove and Sanchez paints a picture of an abandoned dog on the roadside, alone in the night, living as both the hunter and the hunted. On “Eyes of Love,” the band harnesses the meditative mid-tempo repetition, deconstructed chords, and esoteric ruminations on love, death, and spirituality that made Lungfish such a beloved entity. It reinforces the parallel between the unwavering love seen in the eyes of a dog and the self-sacrifice of a savior. On “The Lines,” the band takes the propulsive pulse of post-punk and adds an extra dose of chorus to the mix. “Chorus is a modern effect that comes from the idea of replicating the slight pitch discrepancies of a choir. There is a shimmering quality which ties us back into this spiritual godly feel,” Sanchez explains. Coupled with the addition of organ and applied to a brooding minor-key melody, the song simultaneously conjures both the holy and the sacrilegious. The title track “DOGGOD” bears perhaps the strongest resemblance to the material found on the previous album “Play With Fire”, pitting lean and mean guitars against a scrappy rhythm section and dreamy vocals. But whereas their previous album was a rallying cry to carving one’s own path, “DOGGOD” adheres to the album’s “til death do us part” theme, going so far as to describe a level of submission that crosses over into dangerous and unhealthy places, with Sanchez singing “hang me on a leash / ‘til I wait for my release.”
Ultimately, “DOGGOD” is a perfect encapsulation of L.A. Witch’s approach. It’s simultaneously romantic and menacing, reverent and profane, a celebration and a lament. It finds the thread between the past and present, taking familiar sounds and revamping them for the modern age. But it also heralds a new era for the band, looking beyond the Kodachrome memories of midcentury America and digging deeper into the medieval and gothic energies of Paris and beyond, all while probing inward at a sullied heart. Suicide Squeeze is proud to release “DOGGOD” to the world on April 4th, 2025.
Sade Sanchez – Vocals/Guitar/Synth Irita Pai – Bass Ellie English – Drums
The Fat Angel Sings 