Earlier this year, Seattle band La Luz made a solid cassette EP that came out via Burger Records (which included the great track “Sure as Spring”). It was full of surf-tinged garage pop, which is what they offer once again with “Brainwash” (their forthcoming single out July 17 via Suicide Squeeze). The track achieves a more mellow vibe, but that’s not to say the track is devoid of power. Though they apply a soft touch with their “oooh” vocals and paced, minimal intro, they also scream and play their instruments really loud in a few concentrated, raucous bursts. But at the core here is a sweet jangling melody– the perfect thing to support the simple organ solo that comes in just before the outro. Yes, right at the point where most bands pegged with the word “garage” would opt for a blaring guitar solo, La Luz go for something softer and more tonally appropriate.
La Luz is a band in Seattle, WA, started in the summer of 2012 by Shana Cleveland (guitar), Marian Li Pino (drums), Alice Sandahl (keyboard) and Lena Simon (bass). Everyone sings. Songs by Shana and La Luz.
Naked Giants third single is “Sluff” the title track from their forthcoming album due March 30th.
Everyone is asking Naked Giants what “Sluff,” the title track of the Seattle trio’s debut album means ,The short answer is “everything and nothing,” and it largely came out of nowhere.
“I just needed a word for the chorus of that song,” bassist Gianni Aiello says “I knew I wanted to shout something, but I didn’t know what. I was hanging out with my girlfriend and I said, ‘Hey, what’s a good grunge-sounding word?’ She thought for a minute and then said ‘Sluff!’ I said, ‘That’s perfect!’ It sounds like something Soundgarden might do. It’s just a nonsense word.” Sluff has taken on a life of its own since then,
“People started scribing different meanings to it,” Aiello notes. “Grant (Mullen, Naked Guns’ guitarist) thought of it as when a snake sheds his skin. Steve Fisk, who produced us, said in truly grunge sense it’s the black gunk on the back of your Doc Martens in a Seattle winter, sluffing through the snow.
But once the Sluff album is released on March 30th, Mullen, Aiello and drummer Henry LaVallee hope people are talking as much about the band as the title.
The three got together during 2014, with childhood friends Mullen and LaVallee playing music together since they were teenagers. They were a two-piece until meeting Aiello at a battle of the bands, and as a trio they fashioned the propulsive grunge/power pop blend — with a bit of kinetic indie rock and R&B thrown in — that’s heard on Sluff’s 12 tracks. “It’s just what feels natural to us,” Mullen says. “Its birth was just a spirit of jamming with no purpose and just making songs that go from one dynamic to another. It’s felt like a natural progression; The more years we played and the more shows we played we’ve adjusted our sound to excite people. The goal was just wanting to have fun playing music, and this is how it’s ended up.”
Along the way Naked Giants became part of Car Seat Headrest’s expanded concert lineup after befriending frontman Will Toledo several years ago. “Is has been weird to know how to deal with that,” Mullen says of the duality of the two bands. “I think it’s been pretty fun, though, kind of like a big boost. We get to play way bigger shows than we would by ourselves. We open for them, too, so it’s a lot of hard work. We’re playing two and a half hours a night, but it’s worth it. It’s what we signed up for.”
Naked Giants will showcase at South By Southwest and then continue with Car Seat Headrest for shows in the U.S. and Europe. And the group is looking forward to getting its own due as Sluff finds its audience.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Mullen says. “We’ve had a lot of these songs for a long time. We’ve wanted them to be released on a big platform. It took a long time to find a label. We finally did (New West) and it’s really satisfying. We’re excited to see what it does, what people think of it. I don’t know what it’s gonna do, but I think it will do something.”From the album ‘SLUFF,’ available March 30th:
Los Angeles has often been described as a “dream factory” both a mecca where dreamers converge to pursue long-held aspirations, and a topography of hallucinogenic contradictions: enchanting tangerine sunsets diffused by smog, crystal-clutching spiritualists mingling with deep-pocketed narcissists, rows of scenic palms competing with garish billboards for commuters’ attention.
It was against this backdrop that the four members of La Luz–singer/guitarist Shana Cleveland, drummer Marian Li Pino, keyboardist Alice Sandahl, and bassist Lena Simon–conceived of Floating Features, the band’s third studio album. For this, their most ambitious release yet, La Luz consulted landscapes both physical and psychological.
Only La Luz could conjure up Floating Features’ Leone-on-LSD vibes, and the album finds the L.A. band at the height of their powers–golden rebels in a golden dream.
“California Finally” is the second single from La Luz’s Floating Features, out May 11th, 2018 on LP,
Band Members
Shana Cleveland – guitar
Marian Li Pino – drums
Alice Sandahl – keyboard
Lena Simon – bass
A Love SleepsDeep’s bones rattle with all the seismic changes of the last five years since the release of The Moondoggies’ Adios I’m a Ghost. While the Washington band got lumped in early on with the woodsy folk-rock/Americana movement that sprung up in the Pacific North- west in the 2000s, the core Moondoggies sound has always been rock in the more classical sense–more groove-based than Woody Guthrie. A Love Sleeps Deep crystalizes that. Perhaps more importantly, A Love Sleeps Deep finds singer/guitarist Kevin Murphy at his most pointed as a songwriter. There’s no lyrical pussyfooting this time around. Lacking the need to prove himself, he opens up and lays bare his feelings.
“Generally, I feel frustrated because there’s a lot of this escapist stuff going on in rock and roll,” says Murphy. “I just didn’t want to not talk about my frustrations with what I was seeing around me. I have two little girls now, and I’m just thinking about where things are going. Love in my life has changed everything.”
While the album on a whole is about love, there’s an unmistakable anger boiling under the surface. Murphy captures the life-altering glory of finding real love on “Sick in Bed” and “Easy Coming,” and speaks to that special unbridled brand of parental love on “Mother.” But the highs exasperate his counterbalancing frustrations. He sings with poetic pointedness about the casual racism his girlfriend has faced on “Cinder” and how we’re all ruining the planet his daughters will inherit on “Underground (A Love Sleeps Deep).” He further lets his political feelings be heard on the distorted (literal) barnburner, “Soviet Barn Fire.”
Cascadian rockers The Moondoggies have offered up another preview of their forthcoming full-length album A Love Sleeps Deep. “Sick in Bed,” it is a pastoral, harmony-rich love song that blossoms into a kaleidoscopic jam-out in the its back half.
“Easy Coming” is the first single from A Love Sleeps Deep, the new album from ,
Recorded in Seattle in the spring of 2017 with production wizard Erik Blood (Shabazz Places, Tacocat, THEE Satisfaciton), A Love Sleeps Deep is also an album of collaboration. The band seemingly threw each tune up in the air to see how it bounced around the room, making sure everyone got their hands on it. From around 30 initial demos, Blood helped select the most jam-heavy numbers. “They had that vibe that made me love the band in the first place, but with a weathered distinction and confidence that moved me,” says Blood.
What has The Moondoggies found inside of themselves in the years they’ve been gone that makes A Love Sleeps Deep stand out? What’s come to the forefront?
“Rawness,” says Blood. “Like a monster singing lullabies.”
With the passage of time, the band feels more comfortable in its own skin. Carl Dahlen’s drums sonically lead the way, crafting a stellar template for everyone else. Dahlen’s rhythm section cohort, bassist Robert Terreberry, further helps lock in the grooves over Caleb Quick’s keys. In addition to lead guitar work, Jon Pontrello taught himself pedal steel since the last record, and it’s intentionally not employed (as a matter of band philosophy) on the more country-leaning tunes, instead adding a more cosmic feel to the heaviest tracks.
A Love Sleeps Deep, the new album from The Moondoggies, out April 13th, 2018
Band Members
Kevin Murphy, Caleb Quick, Bobby Terreberry, Carl Dahlen, Jon Pontrello
last year we were reintroduced to the world of Les Autres, an excellent French indie rock band from the ’90s, via a compilation entitled “Backwards”. Now, we’re happy to present the debut album (after a couple self-released digital-only EPs) from Megrim, which is the new project of that older band’s guitarist/vocalist, Olivier Doreille. Like Les Autres, comparisons can be drawn to early ’90s contemporaries such as Lorelei and Hood, but Megrim’s sound is a bit more fleshed out, at times reminding me a lot of early Death Cab For Cutie and Nada Surf. Their songs are sometimes driving, other times melancholic, but always interesting, making for a well-rounded and rewarding album to listen to.
Roaming Herds of Buffalo, Alien Canyons (out now, self-released, roamingherdsofbuffalo.com) With their second record, Roaming Herds of Buffalo has delivered a fresh indie-pop statement that’s equal parts thought-provoking and sonically rewarding. On the whole, the music will inevitably draw comparisons to the school of indie rock (the Shins, the Fruit Bats, Ben Gibbard’s various vehicles), but the album itself actually sounds like it could be two different bands. The record’s first half is marked mostly by vast swathes of sparseness, which allow both the music and the listener breathing room to think and reflect. The large amount of reverb laid across the vocals, especially on the album opener “Wild Oats,” goes a long way to enhance this effect. Canyons’ second half is marked by more bombast—balls-out guitar solos and cacophonous background vocals; the shift is quite dramatic, but also a welcome change. “Neutrinos” is a guitar wah-inflected, overdriven, doo-wop mindbender, while “GlitterMastodon” is catchy, galloping pop perfection with a grunge-era guitar solo that’s more fuzzed-out noise than an executed flurry of notes. Nothing is direct about Canyons; it’s all about the sonic imagery—and the journey, perhaps. Overstuffed with lyrics like “Fill a crater with expensive scotch/Tie on an extinction buzz” and “Explosions reach under chassis and tickle out trucks,” Canyons wants you to see with your ears, and the lyrics go a long way toward helping you visualize that strange landscape.
The band is William Cremin, Jared Fiechtner, Neal Flaherty, Scott Roots and Joe Shultz.
Roaming Herds of Buffalo is the project started by Seattle’s Scott Roots, also of Skeletons with Flesh on Them, who enlisted other Skeleton Neal Flaherty along with William Cremin of the Torn ACLs and JaredFiechtner of Stencil to help realize his vision. But where Skeletons can tend toward frenetic noise rock, Roaming Herds of Buffalo, as you’ll hear from today’s featured song, favors a lighter, catchier, janglier pop. “All of Them” opens with buzzing guitar and earnest vocals, which soon concede to the song’s bright, melodic piano riff. From there on out, the band adds driving snare drums, soaring gang vocals and rhythmic hand-claps one by one to create a fully-formed, beautiful song. However, taking a prompt from the time-tested formula of lyrical and musical dichotomy, the music belies the dark lyrical content, filled with clever laments like “We swim in pools of leaking batteries/New world shaped by old diaries” and “Closer now, to the drowning sun/Than we ever were to the hotter one.” It’s a classic page from the indie-rock playbook that never fails, and combined with Roaming Herds of Buffalo’s encompassing arrangements,”All of Them” is a terrific introduction to a fresh local face.
Roots-rock five-piece The Moondoggies are poised to release their new album “A Love Sleeps Deep” on Friday, April 13th on LP, CD, digital, and cassette. Epic lead-off single “Easy Coming” is available now for your listening pleasure . Produced by Erik Blood (Shabazz Palaces, Tacocat), the album sees the Northwest band mining psychedelic, groove-based territory that was only hinted at on previous recordings. The Moondoggies are also returning to touring, and will hit the road in support of A Love Sleeps Deep in mid-April.
A Love Sleeps Deep’s bones rattle with all the seismic changes of the last five years since the release of The Moondoggies’ Adios I’m a Ghost. While the Washington band got lumped in early on with the woodsy folk-rock/Americana movement that sprung up in the Pacific North- west in the 2000s, the core Moondoggies sound has always been rock in the more classical sense–more groove-based than Woody Guthrie. A Love Sleeps Deep crystalizes that.
The E Street Band. The Revolution. The Band. The list of legendary backing groups could go on and on, and while Naked Giants aren’t on that list yet, they do currently have the gig backing up one of music’s most exciting rising songwriters, Car Seat Headrest. But, like many backing bands, Naked Giants are also their own band, and they have been making music in their native Seattle since 2015. On March 30th, they’ll offer up their debut full-length, SLUFF, via New West Records, as they prepare for a tour with Naked Giants where they’ll serve as both openers and as part of the headlining act.
To announce the record, Naked Giants offer up the Sean Downey-directed video for “TV,” full of retro swagger and guitar-swinging irreverence that taps into the still-beating heart of the genre. In the band’s bio, drummer Henry LaVallee notes, “I just want to make as much noise and have as much fun and get as sweaty as I can, and if that resonates with people, that’s who I want in my life.” And that philosophy is on full display in the clip, as the song swells to a full-on psychedelic freakout before its close.
Check out the video above, and look for Naked Giants debut record SLUFF on March 30th.
Smokey Brights make music that taps into history and stretches out a kind of visionary rock that rolls relentlessly forwardwhile recombining iconic sounds – from funk to Fleetwood Mac, Bowie to Blur, disco to Dire Straits, and splashes of Floyd psychedelia – crafting something urgent, fun, and utterly surprising.
it was back in 2010 than Smokey Brights first formed; Ryan Devlin and Kim West, a new couple with not much money to spare, set about singing Christmas songs to give out as gifts, seven years later they’re stilling singing. They may have been making music for a number of years, however with the release of their upcoming EP, Come To Terms, 2018 looks like being the year when a lot more people notice them doing it.
The recently released title track, Come To Terms, is a fine introduction to the band’s sound, built around reverberating guitars and bombastic drum beats, it finds Ryan’s gravelly, Cold War Kids meets Two Gallants, vocal to the fore, while Kim’s soulful Beth Ditto like backing adds some wonderful depth to the track. Come To Terms is a record of social division, soundtracking the growth of political chasms between alternating view points, and asking how we can go about rising above and starting to heal the wounds; as Devlin sings on the closing track, “This is not the time to turn your back on what you see. Find the strength in you, and I will find the good in me”. There’s plenty of good to be found here, a big bold and important record, Smokey Brights are a band who seven years in have never sounded more important.
Any time musicians from existing bands get together to form a new musical entity, it’s not an uncommon occurrence especially in indie rock circles for the term “super group” to incorrectly be used interchangeably with the less glamorous (yet oftentimes more accurate) term “side project.” However, in the case of Lo Tom, the acclaimed distinction is unquestionably in order.
The band is comprised of indie veterans David Bazan (Pedro the Lion, Headphones) on vocals and bass, Jason Martin (Starflyer 59, Bon Voyage) on guitar, TW Walsh (The Soft Drugs, Pedro the Lion) on guitar and background vocals and Trey Many (Velour 100, Starflyer 59) on drums. Their eight-song self-titled debut captures the sound of four friends (and frequent bandmates) using the collective skills of their shared trade as the ruse to hang out and have a little fun over two weekends of recording sessions. While the “let’s just get together, press record and see what happens” Lo Tom proves that in the right hands, it can produce pure musical magic.
With a melodic pedigree that’s rooted in guitar-heavy, alt-rock-fueled ‘90s and also shaped by the glossed-up, genre-shifting ‘00s, Lo Tom encompasses a surprisingly modern sound that simultaneously flirts with and fights against its own nostalgia. The fuzzed-out Martin/Walsh guitar riffs on songs like “Covered Wagon” and “Overboard” wouldn’t be out of place on any of the band members’ previous albums, but Bazan’s pop-infused sing-along choruses and Many’s crisp-yet-understated drumming keep either song from veering into clichéd throwback territory.
In the same vein, the stabbing rhythms, reverb-ed vocals, and politically-shaded opening lyrics of “Another Mistake” recall some of the more aggressive elements inherent in the musical unrest of the early ‘00s, but the inventive guitar chord voicings over the chorus bring the song fully forward into new sonic territories. Bazan’s unintentionally tongue-in-cheek closing vocal flub provides a clever meta moment to the song as well.
Overflowing with a confidently relaxed cool and an absolute lack of pretense , Lo Tom’s debut somehow feels both enthusiastically self-assured and deceptively effortless . That comfortable ease with which the band unfolds their slinky guitar-and-drum interplay on “Find the Shrine” the perfect splash of drunken swagger to “Bubblegum” is a testament not only to each member’s multi-decade commitment to their own craft.
Perhaps the best distillation of Lo Tom’s hard-earned ethos can be found in the lyrics of album closer “Lower Down” when Bazan’s gravelly croons espouses, “Man, you don’t need to chase the sound if it comes from lower down.” Potentially off-putting from the mouth of a greener musician, the line is charming, believable and wholly fitting in the context of this seasoned band of artistically adventurous brothers.
Lo Tom is:
D Bazan – Bass, vox
T Many – Drums
J Martin – Guitar
TW Walsh – Guitar, BGV
The Fat Angel Sings 