Hailing from Los Angeles, California, rock ‘n’ roll mystics Death Valley Girls return across the pond once again this spring to play at The Cluny in support of latest album, ‘Islands in the Sky’, released last year.
Death Valley Girls are no strangers to these shores, making regular appearances here since the pandemic. In fact, bassist Sarah Linton was here only last month performing around the country with The Schizophonics.
The band, comprised of vocalist Bonnie Bloomgarden, guitarist Larry Schemel, bassist Sarah Linton and drummer Rikki Styxx, were formed a little over a decade ago. Born from Bloomgarden’s desire to get clean, and figuring that playing music would be a positive distraction, she put feelers out for potential bandmates and was eventually introduced to Hole drummer (and founding DVG member) Patty Schemel and her brother, Larry.
Not wanting to land shows purely off the credentials of their drummer, the band chose to make a record before ever playing a show, releasing debut album, ‘Street Venom’, back in 2014. Since then, the band have released four more albums, with 2017’s ‘Glow in the Dark’ and follow-up ‘Darkness Rains’ being rowdy mash-ups of early American punk, psych-rock, and proto-metal fire-and-brimstone guitar worship with an undercurrent of some kind of strange, celebratory communal ritual. In 2020’s ‘Under the Spell of Joy’, the band dove even deeper into that magical cosmic energy.
Most recent album, ‘Islands in the Sky’, is described by Bloomgarden as: “A guidebook to spiritual healing”. After realising that her songs had been outwardly focused on others to deal with their suffering, she shifted her focus inward, saying: “I started to wonder if it would be possible to write a record with messages of love to my future self. This was the first time that I consciously thought about my own suffering and what future me might need to hear and heal”.
If you’re a fan of the likes of L.A WITCH or Frankie and the Witch Fingers, this could be one for you to check out. If you need more convincing, then I suggest you have a listen to ‘Disco’ from ‘Glow in the Dark’ and ‘Disaster (Is What We’re After)’ from ‘Darkness Rains’.
Death Valley Girls perform at The Cluny, Newcastle on Monday 18th March. Tickets, priced at £16.50 in advance, are available from thecluny.com.
