The 100 Hottest Local Bands Of Los Angeles In 2017

Written by Alyson Camus | December 28, 2017 22:38 pm | 4 responses

Lauren Ruth Ward

Los Angeles has an amazing local music scene, I get to see many bands, some have already make it big (Cherry Glazerr is headlining the Fonda this week for example), some have had month residencies at the Echo or the Satellite (Nightmare Air, Moon Honey, the Molochs, Superet…), some are going to have residencies in 2018 (Lauren Ruth Ward), and some have already opened for big acts (Warbly Jets have opened for Liam Gallagher, Zipper Club have opened for Banks and Steelz). These are bands who constantly play in my backyard and some of them may blow up soon.

I have seen all these bands this year with a few exceptions (I caught some of them last year), and if I have included them it’s because their names show up many times, these are the more in demand bands right now. I have probably forgotten a few, but here are the 100 local bands of LA in 2017.

Alice Bag: The mighty Alice is still raging and kicking asses.

Alyeska: Melancholic Jonny Mitchell-meets Dinosaur Jr

The Abigails: Satanic drunken country

Avi Buffalo: Poignant blissful pop with a falsetto

Babylon: Loud foggy fuzzy psychedelia from the ‘70s

Band Aparte: Dark new wave and gloomy dance floors

The Birth Defects: Raw power rock which feels like metal

Blackbird Days: Baroque melodic indie rock

Bloodboy: Exuberant retro dancefloor fronted by a Karen O-type

The Bomb: Power trio with 70s female guitar heroes

The Bots: Electrifying punk garage rock

The Buttertones: Beach goth sound from a classy boy band with riot powers

Cat Scan: Happy ride with weird chord progressions and upbeat loudness

C.G. Roxanne and the Nightmares: Tough sweaty rock number with attitude

Cheap Tissues: Muscular guitar wall assaults

Cherry Glazerr: Fierce guitar and emotional vocals

Chicano Batman: Latino superheroes with a casiotone organ

Thee Commons: Psychedelia Kumbia punk

Deap Vally: Girl-power duo, ass-kicking female Black Keys

Death Hymn Number 9: Punk boogie zombie dance

Death Valley Girls: Swagger of Black Sabbath and Sleater Kinney seen through an occult eye.

Draemings: Siouxsie and the Banshees, Ziggy Stardust and Patti Smith in a ménage à trois

Dream Machines: Prince and the Revolution meet LCD Soundsystem on a dance floor

Drinking Flowers:  Dark drone and krautrocky synth between the Velvet Underground and the Brian Jonestown Massacre

The Entire Universe: Second British invasion from a local band

Egrets on Ergot: Deathrock at the edge of the apocalypse

Espresso: Pop going funky

Ex Sage: A rebellious and bombastic sound, with elegant battles in the desert.

Ex Stains: A party between art rock, experimental punk and acrobatics

Facial: Grunge power

Feels: Reveries between psych-fuzz guitars and punk battles of hair flying

Flat Worms: Fuzz galore

Frankie and the Witch Fingers: Devil-possessed psychedelia between 13th Floor Elevators and the Velvet Underground

Froth: Dense melancholic shoegazers

The Garden/Enjoy: Noise rap collages

Girl Pusher: A cheerleader-from-hell with a ‘cyber punk’ sound

Generacion Suicida: Skinny jeans and leather jackets building aggression and waves of frustration

Girlpool: Minimalism and empowering loud harmonies.

Golden Animals: Heartfelt Jim Morrison fronting the Strokes

Gøggs: Caustic guitars, deep fuzz wrapping aggressive yells

Grand Lord High Master:  Hardcore meets metal aggression with a charismatic frontman

The Great Sadness: Badass blues and apocalyptic visions of the desert.

Holy Wars: Born again dark orphan rock warrior

Hooveriii: Enthusiastic head banging rock ‘n’ roll engulfing everything

Ho99o9: Bad Brains rappers, hardcore mutants announcing an apocalyptic future

Iress: Chelsea Wolf’s icy daughters

James Supercave: Euphoric pop dance floors with real hooks

Jesus Sons: Western rock with pedal steel and Cash-like whipped tempos

Jurassic Shark: Bouncy pop crowd surfer

J.D. King: Eclectic retro groovy looker

Kolars: Synchronicity and foot-tapping catchy music

La Luz: Pretty soulful surf rock

Lauren Ruth Ward: Emotive and passionate siren

Litronix: Reverb cathedral electronica

Los Angeles Police Department: As innocent and wide-eyed as a Wes Anderson movie.

The Mad Walls: Free spirited chord progressions and retro surf

The Manx: Trash metal slaughter party

Meatbodies: Head-banging massive riffs and a dark psychedelia.

Melted: They put the speed in pop punk

Mind Meld: Explosive upbeat psych rock

Moaning: Powerful sweeping rock songs with a tough confidence

The Molochs: 60’s garage rock in its upbeat glory, with a touch of the Byrds or Syd Barrett

Moon Honey: Operatic psychedelic weirdness, or a colorful dream by Bjork

Nightmare Air: Girl-boy harmonies against a wall of fuzz

Thee Oh Sees: Psych-punk gods and acid-trip dances

No Parents: The wild punk card of the night

The Paranoyds: A bit like the Cramps with more freak outs

Pedal Strike: Garage-punk-rock with a few incredible acrobatics

Phoebe Bridgers: Heartbreak with a real darkness filtering through slow ballads

Pinky Pinky: Retro soulful grooves and powerhouse howls.

Plague Vendor: Sweat and blood with a fearless punk chaos

Pom Poms: 60s seductress between Roy Orbison and thunderous rock

POW!: UFO submarine keyboard, chainsaw guitar assaults and laser beam experimentation

Prettiest Eyes: Throbbing noise charging from every corner

Psychic Love: Dream grunge

Qui: Eccentric oddity

Ramonda Hammer: Abrupt queen of grunge

The Regrettes: Wild punk spirit and outspoken lyrics

SadGirl: Punk energy injected into a mix of surf-fuzz-doo-wop

The Schizophonics: The essence of rock ‘n’ roll

Sextile: Dark wave and industrial 70s punk

Shark Toys: Mountains of distortion with funny toy noises

The Shelters: Between classic rock, garage rock, and indie rock

The Shrine: They put the theatrics in the Black Flag meets Black Sabbath

The Side Eyes: Punch, attitude and some real riot grrrl intonations

The Sloths: Born again rockers of the ‘60s Sunset strip

Slugs: Nonchalant bedroom pop rock.

The Soft White Sixties: Soul with an avalanche of rock icon images

Spencer Robinson and the Wolf Spiders: Dark and dramatic western with a touch of Tom Waits and Nick Cave

Spirit in the Room: Abrasion, wallpaper-scratching distortion and screams above a chaotic industrial throb

Starcrawler: Teenagers channeling Black Sabbath and the Stooges with fury and debauchery

Surf Curse: Chaotic surf pop

Superet: Romantic wide-screen rock show

Swimm: Prince meets Tame Impala

The Tissues: Merciless avant-garde and a ferocious frontwoman with murder-envy

The Tracks: Assurance and defiance, blurring the genres and the many cultures of LA

Twin Temple: Goth Doo-wop, or ‘Amy Winehouse visits the house of Lucifer’

WAND: Wandering from melodies to heavy monster riffs and a guitar dance straight from the Segall school

Warbly Jets: Aggressive and stylish rock arena sound with a rock star look and a touch of UK import

White Fang: A sloppy and sweaty punk act in all its glory

Wild Wing: Rock ‘n’ roll fun for a crazy backyard party

Yip Yops: Retro new wave and energetic pop

Zipper Club: Spacey synth, fuzzy guitars and weirdly dreamy hooky choruses.