American band L.A. WITCH will perform at LAV-Lisboa Ao Vivo on September 10th.
Tickets will be available from this Friday, May 9th, at ticketline.pt, houseoffun.pt and the usual outlets.
L.A. Witch has always had a laid-back aura, whether it manifested itself in the form of the laconic, Americana-noir rock n’ roll of their self-titled debut album, or the form of the austere, caustic adventurism of their second album Play With Fire. The band—comprised of Sade Sanchez (guitar/vocals), Irita Pai (bass), and Ellie English (drums)—started as a bit of a loose cannon, but the sensual, reverb-infused, haunting songs they created captivated audiences and took the project beyond the band’s insular Southern California home base and into the world.
On their latest album, DOGGOD, the trio pushes the boundaries of their previous creative and geographic boundaries, choosing to create their material in Paris, recording the tracks at Motorbass Studio on Rue de Martyrs. DOGGOD explores wider sonic terrain, utilises a wider array of tones, and addresses broader existential and cosmic themes, all while maintaining the band’s signature penchant for the forbidden, the forsaken, and the foreboding.
DOGGOD is a way of approaching the universal enigma entangled in the spiritual nature of love and devotion. “I feel like I’m kind of a servant or slave to love,” says Sanchez. “There’s a willingness to die for the love of its service, in the suffering associated with it, or in the pursuit of it… Just as a devoted and loyal dog would.” The album’s title is a palindrome that combines the words DOG and GOD—an exaltation of the submissive and a subversion of the divine. It’s a nod to the purity of dogs and an acknowledgement of their unconditional love and protective nature that is at odds with the many pejorative terms associated with the species. “There’s a symbolic connection between women and dogs that expresses the subordinate position of women in society,” Sanchez explains. “And anything that embodies these divine characteristics has never deserved to be a word used as an insult.”
These conflicting explorations of love and subservience manifest themselves in L.A. Witch’s fusion of their trademark smooth, smoky garage-rock alchemy with a new use of disciplined restraint and raw post-punk instrumentation. The album’s opener, “Icicle,” captures the band’s journey from the proto-punk, psychedelia, and raspy riffs of the ’70s to the guitar-driven hooks and bleak minimalism of Joy Division and early The Cure. A parallel is drawn between romantic suicide and martyrdom that continues into the second song, “Kiss Me Deep.” Here, Sanchez describes a love so pure that it transcends time and spans multiple lifetimes. It’s a song about passion with the worldly, wounded stoicism of early goth pioneers. From there, the band builds to lead single “777,” a song about devotion to the point of death. A driving beat, a distorted riff, and Sanchez’s ethereal voice combine to create a song that is at once terrifying in its fatalism and sensual in its faithful passion.
Throughout DOGGOD, L.A. Witch never stray far from their muse. On “I Hunt You Pray,” Pai plays a hypnotic bassline, while English uses a cyclical krautrock rhythm, and Sanchez describes a scenario of a dog abandoned on the side of the road, alone in the night, playing the role of both hunter and prey. On “Eyes of Love,” the band taps into the meditative midtempo repetition, deconstructed chords, and esoteric ruminations on love, death, and spirituality that have made Lungfish so beloved. It reinforces the parallel between the unwavering love seen in a dog’s eyes and the selflessness of a saviour.
On “The Lines,” the band takes the driving rhythm of post-punk and adds a dose of chorus to the mix. “The chorus is a modern effect that comes from the idea of replicating the slight discrepancies in tone of a chorus. There’s a shimmering quality to it that brings back that spiritual, divine feeling,” Sanchez explains. Along with the addition of organ and the use of a minor-key melody, the song simultaneously evokes the sacred and the sacrilegious. “DOGGOD,” the album’s title track, bears perhaps the greatest resemblance to the material on their previous album, “Play With Fire,” using raw guitars against a fragmented rhythm section and dreamy vocal delivery. But while the previous album was a rallying cry about forging your path, “DOGGOD” follows the album’s “til death do us part” theme, going so far as to describe a level of submission that goes to dangerous and unhealthy places, with Sanchez singing “hang me on a leash / ‘til I wait for my release.”
Ultimately, DOGGOD is the perfect encapsulation of L.A. Witch’s approach. It’s at once romantic and menacing, reverent and profane, celebratory and lamenting. It finds its thread between past and present, taking familiar sounds and revamping them, bringing them into the modern era. But it also heralds a new era for the band, looking beyond Kodak memories of mid-century America and further exploring the medieval and gothic energies of Paris and beyond, all while taking a deep look inside a tarnished heart.
L.A. WITCH live at LAV-Lisboa Ao Vivo on September 10th, unmissable!
Always confirm with the concert hall or promoter the conditions of access, confirmation of the date or time, ticket place of sale, price, and availability.
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