La Luz

For most, a brush with death would be cause for retreat, reflection, and reluctance, but Seattle band La Luz found something different in it: resilience. Having survived a high-speed highway collision shortly after releasing their 2013 debut LP It’s Alive, La Luz, despite lasting trauma, returned to touring with a frequency and tirelessness that put their peers to shame. Over the past year-and-a-half of performing, the band arrived at a greater awareness of their music’s ability to whip eager crowds into a frenzy. In response, frontwoman Shana Cleveland’s guitar solos took on a more unhinged quality. The basslines (from newly-installed member Lena Simon) became more lithe and elastic. Stage-dives and crowd-surfing grew to be as indelible a part of the La Luz live experience as their onstage doo-wop-indebted dance moves. read more…

For most, a brush with death would be cause for retreat, reflection, and reluctance, but Seattle band La Luz found something different in it: resilience. Having survived a high-speed highway collision shortly after releasing their 2013 debut LP It’s Alive, La Luz, despite lasting trauma, returned to touring with a frequency and tirelessness that put their peers to shame. Over the past year-and-a-half of performing, the band arrived at a greater awareness of their music’s ability to whip eager crowds into a frenzy. In response, frontwoman Shana Cleveland’s guitar solos took on a more unhinged quality. The basslines (from newly-installed member Lena Simon) became more lithe and elastic. Stage-dives and crowd-surfing grew to be as indelible a part of the La Luz live experience as their onstage doo-wop-indebted dance moves.

When it came time to record Weirdo Shrine, their second album—due out August 7th—the goal was to capture the band’s restless live energy and commit it to tape. In early 2015, Cleveland and Co. adjourned to a surf shop in San Dimas, California where, with the help of producer/engineer Ty Segall, they realized this vision. Tracking most of the album live in shared quarters, La Luz chose to leave in any happy accidents and spur-of-the-moment flourishes that occurred while recording. Cleveland’s newly fuzzed-up guitar solos—which now incorporated the influence of Japanese Eleki players in addition to the twang of American surf and country—were juxtaposed against the group’s most angelic four-part harmonies to date. The organs of Alice Sandahl and the drumming of Marian Li Pino were granted extra heft and dimension. Thematically, Cleveland channeled Washingtonian poet Richard Brautigan on “You Disappear” and “Oranges,” and sought inspiration from Charles Burns’ Seattle-set graphic novel Black Hole.

The resulting album is a natural evolution of the band’s self-styled “surf noir” sound—a rawer, turbo-charged sequel that charts themes of loneliness, infatuation, obsession and death across eleven tracks, from the opening credits siren song of “Sleep Till They Die” to the widescreen, receding-skyline send-off of “Oranges” and its bittersweet epilogue, “True Love Knows.”

In describing Weirdo Shrine, Segall remarked that it gave him a vision of a “world…burning with colors [he’d] never seen, like mauve that is living.” In “Oranges,” the Brautigan poem which inspired the aforementioned track of the same name, the poet writes of a surreal “orange wind / that glows from your footsteps.” These hue-based allusions are apt: the sound of La Luz is (appropriately) vibrant, and alive with a kaleidoscopic passion. Weirdo Shrine finds them at their most saturated and cinematic.

News

• The Line Of Best Fit premieres new La Luz song and video "The Creature" Apr 11, 2018
• La Luz announce new album, premiere video for "Cicada" on NPR Feb 12, 2018
• Opbmusic names La Luz performance 'The Perfect Pickathon Beach Party' Aug 11, 2016
• The Stranger interviews La Luz about what they miss about Seattle and what they don't Aug 4, 2016
• SF Weekly interviews Shana Cleveland of La Luz about moving to LA and more Jul 24, 2016
• The Portland Mercury reviews La Luz's show at Mississippi Studios performance Jun 7, 2016
• East Oregonian interviews La Luz about connection to northeastern Oregon Jun 2, 2016
• Forbes names La Luz one of the three bands to watch at Sasquatch! Music Festival May 26, 2016
• MXDWN reviews La Luz's 'Weirdo Shrine' Aug 25, 2015
• Pop Matters reviews La Luz's 'Weirdo Shrine' Aug 19, 2015
• The AV Club reviews La Luz's 'Weirdo Shrine' Aug 7, 2015
• Stereogum Premieres La Luz's "Black Hole, Weirdo Shrine" Aug 7, 2015
• The New York Times reviews La Luz's 'Weirdo Shrine' Aug 7, 2015
• Pitchfork reviews La Luz's 'Wierdo Shrine' Aug 4, 2015
• The Four Oh Five Reviews La Luz's 'Wierdo Shrine' Aug 4, 2015
• Paste Magazine Reviews La Luz's 'Weirdo Shrine' Aug 4, 2015
• NPR Streams La Luz's 'Weirdo Shrine' Jul 29, 2015
• La Luz announces new Ty Segall-produced album, shares “You Disappear” on Consequence of Sound May 14, 2015
• Stereogum premieres "You Disappear" off new Ty-Segall-produced album from La Luz May 14, 2015
• Brooklyn Vegan announces La Luz releasing new Ty-Segall-produced album 'Weirdo Shrine' in August, share "You Disappear" May 14, 2015
• Spin announces La Luz's new LP Mar 26, 2015
• KQED Arts profiles La Luz Mar 26, 2015
• Vortex Magazine announces La Luz at Burgerama Mar 15, 2015
• Gizmodo calls La Luz's album "It's Alive" the perfect comfort during the dreariest days of winter Nov 2, 2014
• Salt Lake City Weekly talks about their upcoming La Luz show Sep 24, 2014

Tour Dates

Date	Venue	Location	With	Tickets
Sat 4/28/2018	Levitation Fest	Austin, Texas	The Garden, Omni
Fri 5/11/2018	Rickshaw Stop	San Francisco, California	Ancient Forest
Sat 5/12/2018	Rickshaw Stop	San Francisco, California	Ancient Forest
Sun 5/13/2018	The Miniplex	Arcata, California
Mon 5/14/2018	Wow Hall	Eugene, Oregon
Wed 5/16/2018	Biltmore Cabaret	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Thu 5/17/2018	Crocodile Cafe	Seattle, Washington	Savila, Ancient Forest
Fri 5/18/2018	Vera Project	Seattle, Washington	Savila, Ancient Forest
Sat 5/19/2018	Aladdin Theatre	Portland, Oregon	Savila
Tue 5/22/2018	The Olympic	Boise, Idaho	Savila
Wed 5/23/2018	Kilby Court	Salt Lake City, Utah	Savila
Thu 5/24/2018	Hodi's Half Note	Fort Collins, Colorado	Savila
Fri 5/25/2018	Larimer Lounge	Denver, Colorado	Savila
Mon 5/28/2018	O'Leavers	Omaha, Nebraska
Wed 5/30/2018	The Reader Room	St. Louis, Missouri
Thu 5/31/2018	Subterranean	Chicago, Illinois	Gymshorts
Sat 6/2/2018	The Pyramid Scheme	Grand Rapids, Michigan	Gymshorts
Sun 6/3/2018	Horseshoe Tavern	Toronto, Ontario	Gymshorts
Mon 6/4/2018	L'ESCO	Montreal, Quebec	Gymshorts
Tue 6/5/2018	Space Gallery	Portland, Maine	Gymshorts
Wed 6/6/2018	Once Lounge and Ballroom	Somerville, Massachusetts
Fri 6/8/2018	Public Arts	New York, New York	Gymshorts
Sat 6/9/2018	Northside Festival	Brooklyn, New York
Sun 6/10/2018	Underground Arts Black Box	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Timothy Eerie
Mon 6/11/2018	Songbyrd DC	Washington, DC	Timothy Eerie
Tue 6/12/2018	The Pinhook	Durham, North Carolina	Timothy Eerie
Wed 6/13/2018	The Earl	Atlanta, Georgia	Timothy Eerie
Thu 6/14/2018	The Root	Jacksonville, Florida
Fri 6/15/2018	Santos	New Orleans, Louisiana
Tue 6/19/2018	Paper Tiger	San Antonio, Texas
Wed 6/20/2018	Monarch	El Paso, Texas
Thu 6/21/2018	Club Congress	Tucson, Arizona	Summer Twins
Fri 6/22/2018	Teragram Ballroom	Los Angeles, California