Death Valley Girls - Islands In The Sky

Iggy Pop ist Fan der Death Valley Girls, die seit 10 Jahren und über fünf Alben hinweg so einiges in einen Topf werfen: Garage Rock, Psychedelic Pop, Punk-Rock und Surf-Pop werden zusammen mit kryptisch-spirituellen Texten und zuckersüßen Melodien verquirlt und zum 11 Song starken „Islands In The Sky“ verkocht. Dabei bedienen sich die Death Valley Girls aus den gleichen Kochbüchern wie Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls und - um keine aktuelle „Girls“-Band zu nennen - The B-52’s. 

Das Quartett aus Los Angeles besteht in seiner aktuellen Bestzung aus Bonnie Bloomgarden (Gesang, Orgel), Rikki Styxx (Schlagzeug, Gesang), Sammy Westervelt (Bass, Gesang) und Larry Schemel (Gitarre) und bietet „Islands In The Sky“ in folgenden LP-Varianten an: blue translucent with purple translucent blob Vinyl,  red with green splatter Vinyl und black & silver Vinyl.

 

That album rules. It’s seriously so good. Death Valley Girls don’t fit into any easy subgenre categories. Sometimes, they sound like spaced-out psychedelic rock wizards. Sometimes, they make tough and direct and extremely catchy garage rock. Most of the time, they do some combination of those two things, with lots of other stuff also thrown in. They’ve always been great, but Islands In The Sky might be their best work yet.

(Stereogum)

  

The LA band have been hard at work in the studio, perfectly another brew of psych-pop, garage punk, and bubblegum.

‘Islands In the Sky’ is out on February 24th, and it’s led by new single ‘What Are The Odds’. Driven forwards by a surf pop guitar line reminiscent of the B-52s, its dazzling pop appeal owes a debt to Madonna’s evergreen single ‘Material Girl’.

Out now, it finds Death Valley Girls returning to their core values – a scuzzy pop song with an acerbic wit, ‘What Are The Odds’ is devilishly imaginative.

(Clash Music)

 

Islands in the Sky is no dystopian misery fest, though. Far from it. Instead, upbeat bubblegum psychedelic pop tunes rub shoulders with woozy and spaced-out vibes in a heady brew of dayglow grooviness that is aimed straight at the hips. In fact, as with 2020’s Under the Spell of Joy album, Islands in the Sky sees the Death Valley Girls edging away from the more hard-edged garage punk of their previous disc, Darkness Rains, and towards the middle of the dance floor, hand-in-hand with the B-52s and the Dandy Warhols – with wide eyes and big smiles on their faces.

(The Arts Desk)