Photo by Robin Laananen

 

L.A. Witch’s catalog is back in stock, just in time for their West Coast tour which starts today in Los Angeles at The Lodge Room! You can find tour dates, ticket links, vinyl pressing details and links to order below.

 

L.A. Witch – L.A. Witch
(New pressing limited to 1000 copies worldwide on 180g electric blue vinyl)
The name is a partial misnomer. Though the band hails from Los Angeles, they do not partake in any sort of witchcraft. Yet their ability to conjure a specific time and place through their sound does suggest a kind of magic. On their eponymous debut album, L.A. Witch’s reverb-drenched guitar jangle and sultry vocals conjure the analog sound of a collector’s prized 45 from some short-lived footnote cult band. The melodies forgo the bubblegum pop for a druggy haze that straddles the line between seedy glory and ominous balladry; the production can’t afford Phil Spector’s wall-of-sound, but the instruments’ simple beauty provides an economic grace that renders studio trickery unnecessary; the lyrics seem more descendent of Johnny Cash’s first-person morality tales than the vacuous empty gestures of pre-fab pop bands. This isn’t music for the masses; it’s music for miscreants, burnouts, down-and-out dreamers, and obsessive historians.

Album opener “Kill My Baby Tonight” is the perfect introduction to the band’s marriage of ‘60s girls-in-the-garage charm and David Lynch’s surreal exposés of Southern California’s underbelly. Sade Sanchez’s black velvet vocals disguise the malicious intent of this murder ballad, with the thumping pulse of bassist Irita Pai, the slow-burn build of drummer Ellie English, and Sanchez’s desert guitar twang helping beguile the listener into becoming a willing accomplice to the narrator’s crimes. “Brian” follows the opening track with a similarly graceful, if not somewhat ominous, slow-mo take on a well-worn jukebox 7”. It’s a vibe that permeates the entire album, from the early psychedelic hue of 13th Floor Elevators on tracks like “You Love Nothing,” through the motorik beat and fuzzed-out licks of “Drive Your Car,” to the grittier permutation of Mazzy Star’s sleepy beauty on “Baby In Blue Jeans.”

Suicide Squeeze Records is proud to release L.A. Witch on LP and CD. The fifth pressing of the album is available on 180g electric blue vinyl and contains a download code. CD is housed in a digipak.

Order the new L.A. Witch repress

 

 

 
L.A. Witch – Octubre
(New pressing limited to 500 copies worldwide on Halloween orange with black splatter vinyl)

L.A. Witch’s eponymous debut album tapped into the allure of warm nights on the West Coast while hinting at the loneliness and lawlessness of living on the periphery of a country founded on a dark past. The three-piece composed of Sade Sanchez, Irita Pai, and Ellie English culled sounds from the outlaws of warmer climes, whether it was 13th Floor Elevators’ lysergic rock n’ roll or the cool hand fatalism by The Doors on songs like “The End”.  It’s an album transmitting subdued revelry while also smirking at the inevitable consequences of the night.

There is no better season for these kinds of songs than the autumn when the promises of summer have abated and the nights of reckoning grow longer. L.A. Witch seized the moment by revisiting some of their early tracks and reshaping them into Octubre, a five-song EP that delves deeper into their darker side. “Because these are old songs—we don’t play them live anymore but still wanted them to be heard—this was the perfect opportunity to get experimental with sounds and textures,” Sanchez says of the EP. Despite this new studio adventurism, the songs on Octubre stay true to L.A. Witch’s vintage starkness.

Order the new Octubre repress
 

 

L.A. Witch – Play With Fire
(New pressing on 180g black vinyl)
Where L.A. Witch’s self-titled album oozed with vibe and atmosphere, with the whole mix draped in reverb, sonically placing the band in some distant realm, broadcast across some unknown chasm of time, Play With Fire comes crashing out of the gate with a bold, brash, in-your-face rocker “Fire Starter.” The authoritative opener is a deliberate mission statement. “Play With Fire is a suggestion to make things happen,” says Sanchez. “Don’t fear mistakes or the future. Take a chance. Say and do what you really feel, even if nobody agrees with your ideas. These are feelings that have stopped me in the past. I want to inspire others to be freethinkers even if it causes a little burn.” And by that line of reasoning, “Fire Starter” becomes a call to action, an anthem against apathy. From there, the album segues into the similarly bodacious rocker “Motorcycle Boy”—a feisty love song inspired by classic cinema outlaws like Mickey Rourke, Marlon Brando, and Steve McQueen. At track three, we hear L.A. Witch expand into new territories as “Dark Horse” unfurls a mixture of dustbowl folk, psychedelic breakdowns, and fire-and-brimstone organ lines. And from there, the band only gets more adventurous. Play With Fire is a bold new journey that retains L.A. Witch’s siren-song mystique, nostalgic spirit, and contemporary cool. Despite the stylistic breadth of the record, there is a unifying timbre across the album’s nine tracks, as if the trio of young musicians is bound together as a collective of old souls tapping into the sounds of their previous youth.

Order the new Play With Fire repress

 

“Los Angeles has always been a home for misplaced souls, and L.A. Witch has the sound to go with it, dripping with nostalgia, heavy reverb, and glamour.” – NYLON

“Sanchez sounds like she genuinely might steal your car and your soul, and then drive them both through the darkness to Hell.”  – VICE 

“As one might expect of a band called L.A. Witch, this West Coast trio plays pitch-black pop-rock wrapped in blankets of reverb.” – Consequence of Sound

“…they preserved that same vibe and lush, dark aesthetics while going deeper musically.” – NPR

“Black-heartened transmissions from Los Angeles’ dark underbelly.” 4* – Q Magazine

“…sounds like it was recorded right in their neighbor’s empty garage or hashed out in a local cave.” – SPIN

“Hypnotic guitars pulse behind Sade Sanchez’s deadpan vocal as Dark Horse and Maybe The Weather push the LA trio into Meat Puppets’ psych dustbowl territory” 4* – MOJO

“The new L.A. Witch LP is terrific. It throbs with talent.” – American Songwriter

“…a gorgeous, intense yet dreamy, psych-rock beast.”  – LA Weekly

“Their intriguing, austere rock has a distinct edge while coming off downright narcotic, as if you’re trapped in a dream directed by David Lynch.” – Alt Press

“The LP sees L.A. Witch solidifying their status as the cursed love children of Black Sabbath and The Shangri-Las.” – Beats Per Minute