Psych-surf band La Luz comes to San Francisco's Great American Music Hall
Acclaimed psychedelic surf band La Luz brings songs from their latest album 'News of the Universe' to the Great American Music Hall Thursday night.
Founded Seattle in 2012 by guitarist/lead singer and sole constant Shana Cleveland, the band was initially a collaboration with drummer Marian Li Pino -- her former bandmate in noirish indie-Americana outfit The Curious Mystery -- keyboard player Alice Sandahl and bassist Abbey Blackwell. La Luz got its start exploring a mix of '60s influences that focused on instrumental surf and the girl-group sounds of The Shirelles. Their self-released EP Damp Face garnered the attention of Seattle-based Sub Pop affiliate Hardly Art, which released La Luz's debut album It's Alive in 2013.
The quartet's dreamy, evocative songs and sweet vocal harmonies quickly earned them a solid local following and wider notoriety. Late that year while on tour opening for indie rockers of Montreal, the band faced a major setback when their van was in a serious accident that left members with injuries and destroyed their instruments and band merch. Blackwell would depart the band prior to the recording of their next album, with bassist Lena Simon stepping in.
Surviving the crash would color the band's sophomore effort in 2015, the darker, louder, more fuzz-drenched Weirdo Shrine that was recorded in Los Angeles and produced by noted garage-psych artist Ty Segall. The album succeeded in capturing the more raucous side of the quartet's live performances and earned them another round of glowing reviews.
Though it would take a few years before La Luz would release their follow-up third album Floating Features, it would prove to be well worth the wait for fans. Moving away from the stripped-down, lo-fi sound of earlier releases, the recording saw the band working with another high-profile producer -- Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys -- and shifting its sound to a richer, more nuanced (if still surf-tinged) style of psychedelia.
The band has since graduated to recording for Sub Pop, putting out a pair of records including this year's transporting effort entitled News of the Universe. Marking the first appearance by new drummer Audrey Johnson and the farewell recording from Simon and Sandahl, the recording finds Cleveland ruminating on light and dark, having been diagnosed with breast cancer two years after the birth of her son.
Drawing more heavily on the mind-altering sounds of latter-era Beatles and Brazilian psych icons Os Mutantes as well as the hypnotic pulse of '90s synth-drone heroes Stereolab, the album has earned La Luz some of the best reviews of the band's career. The new line-up of the quartet featuring bassist Lee Johnson and keyboardist Maryam Qudus (aka solo artist Spacemoth) plays songs from the News of the Universe when La Luz headlines the Great American Music Hall Thursday night. Texas indie-pop duo Tele Novella opens this show co-presented by (((folkYEAH!))).
La Luz with Tele Novella
Thursday, Nov. 7, 7 p.m. $27.50
Great American Music Hall