Californian punk trio L.A. Witch release their new album DOGGOD via Suicide Squeeze Records.
DOGGOD fuses their trademark smoky garage sound with an exploration of the disciplined reserve and icy instrumentation of the post-punk pioneers. Ethereal vocals blend with wiry guitars. Menacing Peter Hook-esque bass lines combine with primal krautrock drumming. These elements are mixed using modern studio techniques to update a familiar sound. What you get is akin to Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval fronting Joy Division.
The three singles promoting this release are exceptional. Over the last few months, they have made me desperate to hear the rest of the album. It hasn’t disappointed.
The album title is a palindrome. It fuses together DOG and GOD. This is an exaltation of the submissive and a subversion of the divine. It nods to the purity of dogs. The title also acknowledges their unconditional love and protective nature. This is at odds with the various pejoratives associated with the species. Lead singer Sade Sanchez explains:
“There is this symbolic connection between women and dogs that expresses women’s subordinate position in society, and anything that embodies such divine characteristics never deserved to be a word used as an insult.”
The opening track ‘Icicle’ captures the band journeying from their dusty desert psych-punk. They move to the forlorn minimalism of Joy Division and early The Cure. The song’s theme parallels romantic suicide and martyrdom.
“Icicle’ is our coldest song on this record, written during a very dark period in my life. The lyrics explore themes of purification through self-sacrifice. The icicle in this song is symbolic of a knife or dagger and also a bit crystal like, symbolic of spiritual journey. The monotone vocal tone was my attempt to sing like a mix of Frank Sinatra and Ian Curtis.” – Sade Sanchez
Lead single ‘777’ is a song about devotion to the point of death. A propulsive beat, a driving distorted riff, and Sanchez’s ethereal vocals create a song that’s dire in its fatalism. It’s sensual in its faithful passion. It’s an awesome track that sounds like ‘Seventeen Seconds’ era The Cure.
“A part of the energy in our new album is a result to being able to record in a different city that we all love, which is so different from home. Recorded at Motorbass studios in Paris, 777 is considered to be an “angel” number. It’s a song about the willingness to die for love in the process of serving it or suffering for it. It’s about loyalty to the very end. Filled with chorus and guitar dive, it was one of our favourite songs to record and we can’t wait to play it live.” – Sade Sanchez
The previous LOUD WOMEN single of the week, ‘The Lines’ starts with a goose-bump-inducing bass line. It builds into one of the best post-punk tracks I’ve heard in a long time.
“’The Lines’ for me is a key song in terms of production on this album and the shift in our sound. We used a lot of effects we hadn’t utilized as much before like Chorus, Flanger, and string machines including the Solina and Roland VP330. This is the link between our surfy, California garage influences and our faster, colder influences…You could even say our more European influences.” – Sade Sanchez
L.A. Witch is touring North America this Spring. Tickets here .
Although DOGGOD covers familiar territory it does it with such confidence and style. It’s L.A. Witch’s best album to date and maybe one of the best of the year.
19/4 – Sacramento, CA @ The Starlet Room*
21/4 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios*
22/4 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl*
23/4 – Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern*
25/4 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge*
27/4 – Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive*
29/4 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club*
30/4 – Milwaukee, WI @ Shank Hall*
1/5 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall*
2/5 – Detroit, MI @ Lager House*
3/5 – Toronto, ON @ Longboat Hall*
4/5 – Montreal, QC @ Bar “Le Ritz” PDB*
6/5 – Troy, NY @ No Fun*
7/5 – Cambridge, MA @ Sonia*
9/5 – Brooklyn, NY @ TV Eye*
10/5 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s*
12/5 – Washington, D.C. @ DC9*
13/5 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle*
14/5 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl*
16/5 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall*
17/5 – Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas*
18/5 – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger*
20/5 – Albuquerque, NM @ Juno Brewery*
21/5 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar*
23/5 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room*
13/6 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Moe’s Alley^
14/6 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel^
20/6 – Las Vegas, NV @ Swan Dive^
21/6 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy & Harriet’s^
27/6 – San Diego, CA @ The Casbah^
28/6 – San Diego, CA @ The Casbah
*with DAIISTAR
^with Chokecherry
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