Music News

Photo credit: Michael Haight

After recently announcing that their new album ‘Darkness Rains’ is set for release on Oct 5th via Suicide Squeeze Records, Los Angeles doom boogie/dystopian punk/occult glam rockers Death Valley Girls have shared a new single & video entitled “More Dead“.

Speaking about the new track, the band commented: “After having experiences with people we love struggling to stay alive, we believe the harder the battle, the less one is able to ask for help. We wanted to write a song about how important and necessary each person is, especially these days. We need numbers now more than ever to fight the good fight.” 

The video director Dylan Mars Greenberg went on to add “I wanted to create a video that dealt with a serious issue that affected both Bonnie and I but in an abstract way. I used animation to generate the concept of rebirth and the juxtaposition of aerial videography with dark environments to tell the story of the overworld and underworld fighting over a soul. 

I should also mention we filmed with an iguana indoors but then he escaped into Bronson canyon. We all believe he is now very strong and happy in his new world.” 

Rock n’ roll has always served as a means to elevate the fringe of society, though it’s accentuated the plights of the outcasts and misfits in different ways throughout the years. In its infancy, rock was a playful rebuttal against segregation and Puritanism. In the ‘60s, it became a vehicle for an elevated consciousness. In the years following the Summer of Love and the clampdown on Flower Power, that countercultural spirit adopted the aggravated and occasionally nihilistic edge of bands like The Stooges, Black Sabbath, MC5, and The New York Dolls. And then as the ‘80s approached, popular rock n’ roll turned into a relatively benign celebration of hedonism and decadence, but that contingent of dark mystics from the ‘70s who lifted the veil and used music as a means of rallying people to altered planes had left their mark. It was an undercurrent in rock that would never die, but would percolate in corners of the underground. Today we can see it manifest in LA’s Death Valley Girls.

Death Valley Girls feels less like a band and more like a travelling caravan. At their core, vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Bonnie Bloomgarden and guitarist Larry Schemel channel Death Valley Girls’ modern spin on Fun House’s sonic exorcisms, early ZZ Top’s desert-blasted riffage, and Sabbath’s occult menace. Their relentless touring schedule means that the remainder of the group is rounded out by whichever like-minded compatriots can get in the van. On their third album Darkness Rains, bassist Alana Amram, drummer Laura Harris, and a rotating cast of guests like Shannon Lay, The Kid (Laura Kelsey), and members of The Make Up, The Shivas, and Moaning help elevate the band from their rogue beginnings to a communal ritualistic musical force. On the surface level, Death Valley Girls churn out the hypercharged, in the red, scuzzy rock every generation yearns for, but there is a more subversive force percolating beneath the surface that imbues the band with an exhilarating cosmic energy.

Death Valley Girls’ second album ‘Glow In The Dark’ was based on the concept that many of us are trying to become more enlightened, and you can tell by the way they ‘glow in the dark.’ Darkness Rains goes a step further, attempting to shift the consciousness of those that have not yet considered how we are all connected and how that relates to the way we view life beyond death. Those that ‘glow’ can use the songs on Darkness Rains as new chants—or they can be used for pure entertainment. “Songs come from beyond and other worlds, you just have to tune into the right radio wave signal to dial them in. Our signal happens to be in a 1970 Dodge Charger Spaceship,” says Schemel.

Album opener “More Dead” is a rousing wake up call, with a hypnotic pentatonic guitar riff and an intoxicating blown-out fuzz-wah solo underscoring Bloomgarden’s consciousness-rattling proclamation that you’re “more dead than alive.” The pace builds with “(One Less Thing) Before I Die”, a minute-and-a-half distillate of Detroit’s classic proto-punk sound. But at track three, Death Valley Girls hit their stride with “Disaster (Is What We’re After)”, a gritty, swaggering rager that takes the most boisterous moments off Exile On Main Street and beefs it up with Zeppelin’s devil’s-note blues. Darkness Rains retains its intoxicating convocations across ten tracks, climaxing on an astral plane with the hypnotic guitar drones and cult-like chants of  “TV In Jail On Mars.”

“Learn from the stars and beyond! Be happy and thankful we got to live together on Earth at the same time! And death is just a shift—stay alive and awake,”Bloomgarden and Schemel respond when asked for a final thought on Death Valley Girls. “Embrace the darkness and don’t fear the Reaper.” Suicide Squeeze Records is proud to further the cause by releasing ‘Darkness Rains’ on October 5th, 2018 on LP/CD/CS/ and digital formats. The first vinyl pressing is limited to 1,500 copies. Both the cassette and vinyl include digital downloads.

PRE-ORDER ‘DARKNESS RAINS’ HERE: http://smarturl.it/DeathValleyGirls

Death Valley Girls Tour Dates:
09-13 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriets *
10-03 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom **
10-04 – Tustin, CA @ Marty’s on Newport **
10-05 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah **
10-14 – Desert Daze Festival – Lake Perris, CA w/ My Bloody Valentine, Death Grips, Shellac etc.
10-18 – Riverside, CA @ Aurea Vista
10-19 – Las Vegas, NV @ Bunkhouse Saloon
10-20 – Phoenix, AZ @ Yucca Tap Room
10-21 – Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
10-23 – Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas
10-24 – Dallas, TX @ Regal Room
10-25 – Norman, OK @ Opolis
10-26 – Memphis, TN @ The Hi Tone
10-29 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery #
10-30 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie #
11-01 – New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge #
11-02 – Cleveland, OH @ The Winchester #
11-03 – Detroit, MI @ Deluxx Fluxx #
11-04 – Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen #
11-05 – Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club #
11-07 – Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge #
11-08 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge #
11-09 – Boise, ID @ The Olympic #
11-11 – Chico, CA @ Duffy’s #
11-13 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios #
11-14 – Vancouver, BC @ Fox Cabaret #
11-15 – Bellingham, WA @ The Shakedown #
11-16 – Seattle, WA @ Freakout Festival
11-17 – Eugene, OR @ Old Nicks #
11-20 – San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop #
* w/ L.A. Witch
** w/ Roky Erickson
# w/ Gymshorts

‘Darkness Rains’ track list:
1. More Dead (Official Video)
2. (One Less Thing) Before I Die
3. Disaster (Is What We’re After) (Official Video)
4. Unzip Your Forehead
5. Wear Black
6. Abre Camino
7. Born Again and Again
8. Street Justice
9. Occupation: Ghost Writer
10. TV in Jail on Mars

Links:
Death Valley Girls Facebook
Death Valley Girls Twitter
Death Valley Girls Instagram
Death Valley Girls Spotify
Death Valley Girls Apple Music
Death Valley Girls Bandcamp
Death Valley Girls Suicide Squeeze page