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.
4 Comments
You are missing #TheChimpz on this list! They should be on this list! http://www.thechimpz.com
Do yourself a favor and catch Bad Cop/Bad Cop. You’re welcome.
Derek Day is someone to look into , wicked guitar player and amazing vocalist
Rumblepak is like a modern day Joy dividion
No..Vista Kicks..these 4 lads Rock and should be on your list..??