35 Of The Best Local Bands I Saw In 2019

Weyes Blood

As usual, I saw many bands this year and among them, many local bands, since Los Angeles has really a lot to offer. To compose this playlist, I picked a song of the 35 best local bands I saw this year, in no specific order,… This reflects Los Angeles’ music scene in 2019, or at least what I saw of the local scene, because, honestly, who can keep up with all these bands?

Some of them really need no introduction, like the magical Weyes Blood, whose fantastic album ‘Titanic Raising‘ is already on many best-of-the-year lists, other ones already have a famous name (Rain Phoenix), or are icons of the ’80s (Josie Cotton), or have a famous member (Blitz Vega has ex-Smiths’ Bassist Andy Rourke), or even a famous parent like Automatic‘s Lola Dompé, who is the daughter of Kevin Haskins of Bauhaus.

I have followed some of these bands for several years and it has been a fun ride to attend many of their shows, I am talking about Spirit in the Room, Plague Vendor, Death Valley Girls, or Holy Wars who had a very good year with several mentions in big places.

it has been a good year for punk rock bands fronted by fierce women, such as Well Hung Heart and their wild bluesy side, Turbulent Hearts and their fearless front girl Suzi Moon, Frankie and the Studs and their glam rock meets Green Day, Kate Clover and a new explosive punk band, or the young Kills Birds stealing the show at Desert Daze. But punk rock also belonged to ferocious Liily and distortion master Lamps.

Because we are in LA, cultures collide all the time, and I really enjoyed rockabilly meets the Ramones with Greg Antista and the Lonely Streets, Richie Valens meets the Strokes with The Tracks and especially Tropa Magica and their superb way to blend Cumbia and Latin rhythms with psych-rock. Of course, I should not forget local sensation Cuco and his dreamy keyboard.

Grandiosity and charisma were certainly not dead in 2019 thanks to the mad solo guitars of the Shrine, the theatrics of Irontom, the abrasive blues-rock of badass duo Deap Vally

And then there were the unclassifiable ones, although many of the bands already cited could fit in this category… Beers for Fears and their epic metal songs, the desperate and romantic passion of Jail Weddings, the dark aching loneliness of Bone Acre (who should do a western duo with Orville Peck), the intense doomness of Iress, the impressive falsetto of Ivo Dimchev.

Finally, indie rock, in all its variations, was all covered with Dancing Tongues, Salt Licks, Warbly Jets, Cass McCombs, Doctrin and the beloved Sadgirl

Enjoy this playlist of songs of 35 of the best local bands in 2019: