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Los Angeles-based Allah-Las are set to unveil their much-anticipated album, Zuma 85, on October 13. Now they reveal a new taste of the album via “Sky Club,” an anthemic and electronic boogie. A decidedly 70s art-rock drum beat and lightly flanged guitars open up in the “Sky Club,” which bounces along casually before blasting off into foreign lands on a ship headed for the beginning of creation. Synthesized intergalactic transmissions fly in and out of the track as we hear the story of the night Allah Las met the great grandfather of humanity.
Zuma 85 is being released via the band’s own label, Calico Discos, in partnership with Innovative Leisure, which released earlier defining statements from the band including the eponymously named Allah-Las (2012) and Worship The Sun (2014). The band has previously shared “Right On Time '' which MXDWN labeled “surreal” and The Stuff” and Austin Town Hall noted, “You can’t deny that the band still have the effortless cool locked in here" and Buzzbands LA said, “They’re calling it a reinvention, and one only needs to hear ‘The Stuff,’ to hear their songwriting engine change gears." The tracks have seen support from Under The Radar, Brooklyn Vegan and Ghettoblaster, among others.
This fall, as Allah-Las tours the UK, Europe, and the US, fans can expect to hear new tracks from Zuma 85 alongside their all-time favorites. The US run kicks off on October 23 in Phoenix, AZ and concludes November 18 in San Francisco, CA with more dates to be announced. They will play at Lodge Room in Los Angeles on November 15 (with Mirror Tree and Kolumbo as support) and November 16 (with Tim Hall and Sam Burton as support). All announced shows are listed below and tickets are available here.
On Zuma 85, Allah-Las embrace the influences of late-era Lou Reed and John Cale, the ‘70s mutant pop of Peter Ivers and early Eno and Roxy Music. The pandemic-included downtime opened up space for the band members to focus on their own lives and interests, and the time to re-envision what creative processes could look like. When it came time to reconvene, a sense of looseness proved pivotal. Instead of bringing finished songs to the studio, they entered the picturesque Panoramic House recording in Stinson Beach with sketches, ideas, and riffs. Working with co-producer Jeremy Harris (White Fence, Devendra Banhart, Ty Segall) they shaped and crafted the new songs in real time over three sessions, which were then mixed in Los Angeles by frequent collaborator Jarvis Taveniere (Woods, Avalanches, Purple Mountains).
For the last 15 years, Allah-Las alchemically melded surf rock washes with folk rock jangle and rock, building up their lauded music podcast, Reverberation Radio, and record label, Calico Discos, in the process. A lot has changed since the group first bonded over psych rock vinyl in the back room at Amoeba Records in the late aughts and Zuma 85 finds the quartet facing a new world with a wealth of new sounds.
Allah-Las are Matthew Correia (drums/vocals), Spencer Dunham (bass, guitar, vocals), Miles Michaud (guitar, organ, vocals), and Pedrum Siadatian (guitar, synth, vocals).
“a nice dose of '70s-style folk-pop” - Brooklyn Vegan
“lush folk-rock...a distinctly engaging sound” - Flood
"If you've ever wanted to breeze up the coast highway from Los Angeles to Malibu in a convertible as the sun sets out across the glittering Pacific Ocean, Swinging Stars will take you there" - MOJO
"Mapache couldn’t escape who they are at heart: acolytes of the ’60s Haight-Ashbury scene as filtered through the more recent desert psych sound” - Paste
”worn-in and relaxed with a classic air” - Raven Sings the Blues
Mapache release a new video for album single "Encinal Canyon,"a song about singing to yourself on long windy drives through the canyons. It’s about finding a quiet place where you can gain some insight even when you feel like you’re always on the run.
Mapache's dynamic and ambitious fifth album Swinging Stars arrives August 18 on Innovative Leisure / Calico Discos - an LP of calm, second-nature swagger, cosmic folk filled with distinct styles and their most cohesive album yet.
On October 13, Los Angeles’ Allah-Las will release their new album, Zuma 85.
They have teased the album with lead single “The Stuff” (b/w the "Zuma 85" title track) and now share the official video for the track. Upon release, the single was supported by Line of Best Fit, Under The Radar, Brooklyn Vegan and MXDWN, among others. Austin Town Hall noted, “"You can’t deny that the band still have the effortless cool locked in here" and Buzzbands LA said, “They’re calling it a reinvention, and one only needs to hear ‘The Stuff,’ to hear their songwriting engine change gears." The captivating video was directed by Sam Kristofski who captures the band as they traverse through their native Los Angeles, from a cigarette stand in North Hollywood to the LA river. The video poignantly juxtaposes the nostalgia of the analog era with the pulsating energy of the digital age, reflecting on the evolution of the music industry.
Dates & tickets for Allah-Las upcoming shows are available at this link.
"Gleefully discordant properties of early Scritti Politti" – Uncut
"Willfully obtuse, yet intrinsically irresistible. Extraordinary" 9/10 – Classic Rock
"Hypnotic post-punk pulse exists in a continuum with bands like Wire and Omni— tight bass groove, melting guitar leads, and all" – Stereogum
"Slashing and contemplative" – Brooklyn Vegan
"Sprawling slacker jam" – FLOOD
"Spindly, propulsive post-punk that doesn't shy away from a bit of brawny catharsis" – Post-Trash
Chicago-based five-piece, Dendrons have today released their much-anticipated second album, 5-3-8. The band has found widespread acclaim for this new album from Uncut, Classic Rock, Stereogum, FLOOD, Brooklyn Vegan, Post Trash, CBC Radio, Under the Radar, KCRW and more.
The release of the new album arrives in tandem with a video for "High In The Circle K", a standout track to be lifted from the new album. The song features bombastic grooves, and wiry, spindly guitar lines delivered over a bed of often monotone vocal delivery, segueing into a cathartic, 2-minute climax of hypnotic guitar work. Speaking about the track, Dane Jarvie of the band says: "The album's namesake comes from one of the repeated lines/mantras in this song: “Fifths, thirds, octaves only” — almost as an appeal for a sort of utopian ideal. A dumb simplification. A desirable reduction."
5-3-8 – titled as a reference to the lyrical refrain that appears at a few points of the album of “fifths, thirds, octaves only” – was recorded at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas and Highland Recording Studio in Phoenix, Arizona; it was produced by Tony Brant and Sonny Di Perri (Protomartyr, DIIV, Nine Inch Nails, Animal Collective, Emma Ruth Rundle, Dirty Projectors) before being mastered at Elysian Sound by Dave Cooley.
Dendrons hit the road before they even knew exactly where they were headed. On New Year’s Day 2018, Dane Jarvie and Zak Sprenger first convened in Chicago to start a new project, recording a demo at home by the seat of their pants, and almost immediately after, began to play shows. “I would just email as many people as possible,” says Jarvie. “I’m like, ‘Can we open this?’ It didn’t matter if it was in Dallas or New Orleans or Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It was like, let’s go.”
With a band name chosen by flipping through books in the library (“Dendron” is Greek for “tree”) and a sound and lineup in healthy evolution as they bounced around North America, Dendrons were finding who they were in front of a live audience. Over the course of 2018 and 2019, they were developing a propulsive, acerbic rock style both reminiscent of midwestern peers like Deeper and Dehd and reaching beyond to develop an unmistakable aura all their own. They put out their debut, 2020’s Dendrons, and were packing their bags for a full European tour before it had to be abruptly canceled when borders closed and venues shut down around the world. Suddenly, a band that cut their teeth on the road had to get comfortable staying at home.
“It was out of necessity,” says Jarvie, who started brainstorming ideas for a new album back at his family’s home in Phoenix, Arizona, just after the pandemic took hold. When he returned to Chicago a few months later, the full band of Jarvie (vocals/guitar/synth), Sprenger (synth/guitar), Matt Kase (bass/synth/vocals), John MacEachen (guitar/samples), Nick Togliatti (drums), and Stef Roti (drums) formed a bubble to get together and work out what would prove to be their highly ambitious and meticulously crafted second album, 5-3-8. “It was just like, well, we can’t tour, we can’t do anything,” Jarvie remembers. “So we might as well just stick together and really create something.”
Meeting three or four times a week, and ultimately rehearsing almost 40 song ideas, Dendrons began to methodically whittle down the batch to a set of songs that weaved through one another intricately, with lyrical and musical motifs dancing around a swirling rock arrangement. Taken on their own, tracks like “Vain Repeating” and “Octaves Only” tap into the manic energy and wit of bands like Wire and Stereolab—but in the context of the album’s full vision, they come together to paint an album informed by the post-truth spectacle, and a desire for optimism in the face of isolation.
The lyrics paint those emotions with subtlety, having been put together partially through a cut-up method, grabbing words and phrases from places such as CNN and CSPAN. “That was a real intention with this record was to try different techniques in terms of how words are coming together—stringing together sentences through collage,” Jarvie explains. On “New Outlook 1,” he sings in his direct, almost Stephen Malkmus-like style: “Soon we’ll be stooped over laughing / Watching ourselves high on a vision.”
“You’re always gonna leave a record feeling like there is something more to be said,” Jarvie says. “I don’t believe in a magnum opus. Art is contextual and exists for the specific time and circumstance it was created in. Every record is a conversation with the last.”
Purchase/stream Dendrons "5-3-8" here.
Chicago-based five-piece, Dendrons are today sharing "Vain Repeating", the final advance preview of their forthcoming second album, 5-3-8 which is out on August 26. The band, which has just wrapped up a Mexican tour with A Place to Bury Strangers, has found tips for this new album from Stereogum, FLOOD, Brooklyn Vegan, Post Trash, CBC Radio, Under the Radar, KCRW and more.
"Vain Repeating" changes tact from the jungle-inflected world of "New Outlook II" finding the band tapping into a punkier sound, switching flows and dynamics in a similar fashion to Magazine, Wire, etc. Speaking about the track, Dane Jarvie of the band says: "The song was created as a word pastiche of inconsequential data, spit out in aura of self-importance. The song deals with a loose promise of either cathartic piety, or vanity, through repetition, depending on who you’re talking to."