I saw the all-female band, La Luz, at the beginning of last year, and I truly enjoyed their set. La Luz, a band from Seattle which started just a few years ago, had an impressive presence, looking totally relaxed and at ease on stage, while their sound was warped up by a dreamy reverb. At the time I described their songs as ‘doo-woppy surf guitar numbers, bringing an unique and retro sound inspired by the coolness of the 60s-surf bands and the girl group harmonies’. And this is what I hear again in their new song, ‘You Disappear’, inspired by Richard Brautigan’s “A Boat” poem…. Wow, these girls have some literary references in store.
The quartet will release its sophomore album, ‘Weirdo Shrine’ on August 7th via Hardly Art, and this time it is produced by the super-busy whiz kid Ty Segall, Does this guy ever sleep?
‘[Segall] wanted to put fuzz in every song,’ frontwoman Shana Cleveland told SPIN. ‘I’d never used fuzz before. I’ve always used pretty minimal effects on the guitar. Sometimes I use a tiny bit of delay, but mostly I use tons of reverb and leave it at that. But he just kept going, ‘Yeah, that was great, but let’s try it with the fuzz pedal on.’
The song is a retro wild ride with lots surf guitars, long instrumental parts and dreamy girls harmonies, and it sounds like coming from another time zone, it’s sweet and not too fuzzy though, feeling like a punk band in slow-motion.
These cool girls had a brush with death, they were involved in a near-fatal accident almost two years ago when they were on tour, so it can explain the tone of this new record, described as ‘fun’ but ‘obsessed with death’
‘It definitely shows up all over the album,’ said Cleveland while talking about their car accident. ‘The opening track — which starts off really slow and minimal and then builds — is inspired by the idea of taking advantage of the time we have, which sounds so cheesy. Any time you talk about lessons you learned from near death, it just sounds ridiculous and cliché, but it’s also a powerful emotion.’
Feeling happy to be alive is never a cliché! Listen to ‘You Disappear’ below.
