Valley Queen comes from the Neil Young school of great music. The LA outfit has been around for fewer than five years, though listening to their music, you might think your vinyl-junkie friend picked one of their records out of a pile next to Fleetwood Mac and Hendrix. They have a classic Southern grit that makes you crave a sweet tea. They have defined their sound with a bluesy twang on guitar, driving thump on bass, and a soulful Southern vocal in their singer. The latest tease of the band’s long awaited debut album portends the Los Angeles quartet finally realizing their full potential. They’ve never sounded better than they do on “In My Place” — especially vocalist Natalie Carol, has a real powerful voice, and the band’s folk pop has gained comparisons to Fleetwood Mac .She wrestles with the wreckage of her faith and self-perception while anxiously considering her own youth “floating on great expectations” and “choking on grand illusions.”
Alyeska the L.A. indie trio fronted by Montana native Alaska Reid, have been cultivating their cherub rock for a couple of years, taking a big step in 2016 to travel east to record with producer John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., the Whigs, Kurt Vile, Sonic Youth, the Thermals, among others). And while a couple of Alyeska’s previous singles possess some arresting, beyond-her-years moments, the latest, “Tilt-A-Whirl,” is a straightforward, sweetly innocent tune drawn from her small-town upbringing and favorite carnival ride. The song will appear on Aleska’s EP “Crush,” due March 3rd, Reid said where the song premiered, that it is “an ode to the small county fair in my town. My friends and I would look forward to going every year, we’d see boys we had crushes on, and scream about the creepy carnies or the way your feet turned black with dirt in your yellow flip flops. … The dirt in the midway was pocked with pools of vomit and discarded glow sticks and the carnies would spray you with giant squirt guns, trying to lure you into playing their game. … It was sort of a running joke, that it was your ‘coming of age’ if you got squirted in the chest by the carnies. I just wanted to convey the sparkle and the excitement of when I was young against the neon glow of the county fair as well as the grit and the darkness lurking around the edges.”
The Fat Angel Sings 