Attitude? Admittedly it’s usually not a great attribute in a work office environment (trust me) but in music, attitude is a most welcome trait. Luckily Los Angeles based (there’s a clue in the name) punk band L.A. Witch have attitude to spare. Dirty, moody, heavy, surfy and confident can be mined in thick chunky seams throughout the LA Witch debut album released towards the end of last year (the album is also called L.A. Witch).
A song I fully look forward to hearing on the album is their rockabilly tinged Untitled, which seems to encapsulate the L.A. Witch style; the vocals and guitar of Sade Sanchez are fuzzy, dirty and sassy, which together with the confident reverb soaked sound of Ellie English’s drumming and Irita Pai’s bass are rolling ever on like the West Coast ocean waves; the music feels unstoppable and simultaneously pretty but brutal.
On tracks like You Love Nothing and Feel Alright, it almost feels like L.A. Witch have transported themselves back 45 years to imagine themselves as the female counterparts to the likes of Iggy and the Stooges. It’s kind of looking in a freaky mirror to find the exact opposite to those 1960’s manufactured and controlled girl groups.
I can imagine seeing L.A. Witch in some seedy LA cellar where the concept of a fire escape is a futuristic dream, while the likes of sinister Charles Manson is tapping his feet to the beat while surrounded by a few drugged out groupies. On opening track Kill My Baby Tonight, the sinister opening lines are: “I’m going to hurt my baby tonight… if he don’t come home on time”. It probably puts any thought of a sneaky pint with the lads after work into touch as there’s something of a female Spaghetti Western era Clint Eastwood determination in the mumbled shoegaze matter of fact delivery of the vocals. L.A. Witch could produce a best seller and they would still feel indie, edgy and sitting firmly on the dark side of life.
Fortunately for the people of Britain, L.A. Witch are about to treat us to a master class of what the past three years of heavy gigging has taught them with five live shows dotted up and down the country at the end of March 2018. Catch L.A. Witch in Yorkshire in front of one of the UK’s most freaky 1980’s inspired stage backdrops at Leeds Headrow House on March 31st. They are also at Newcastle’s fabled The Cluny on March 29th and the Chameleon Arts Cafe in Nottingham on March 27th (and a little further afield in Glasgow on the 28th and London on the 30th).
Grab a taster of L.A Witch with their Official You Tube video for Drive Your Car.
Catch L.A Witch band news updates on Facebook.
Halfway 2 Nowhere 