La Luz

KALX-FM PRESENTS
ALL AGES

La Luz

Featuring Shana Cleveland (guitar), Marian Li Pino (drums), Abbey Blackwell (bass), and Alice Sandahl (keyboards); the group brings a relaxed beach-babe vibe to their take on the sweet, thick harmonies of 60’s girl-group, garage, and doo-wop bands.

Born in the Summer of 2012, La Luz is driven by thumping, energetic bass lines, danceable surf beats, trembling organ, reverb-soaked guitar, and a wild love of rock ‘n’ roll.

Last spring, La Luz returned to that steamy trailer park to record It's Alive – the much-anticipated follow up to Damp Face – with their friend and engineer Johnny Goss. From the first get-psyched drum roll and eerie chords of "Sure As Spring", the dinged-up pop gem that opens the album, the rest moves like a slow drive on a dangerous road, slinking and bending as the terrain shifts. On "What Good Am I?", the lead vocals, and the swirl of harmonies that surround it, recall the Spartan haze of Mazzy Star's misty-eyed super hit. Smack in the middle is the title track. "It's Alive" is a jangly rocker with a spooky refrain, oodles of ooohs, and a marauding narrative that nails down the misty logic of the rest of the album. Two instrumentals, "Sunstroke" and "Phantom Feelings", showcase the band's beach jam surf chops, and fall perfectly between the chilled out heartache that surrounds them.

Will Sprott

With the Mumlers, Will Sprott's penchant for conjuring the specters of haunting '60s folk butts heads with Big Easy brass and bright organs. He wears his influences on his sleeve, borrowing from heyday rock 'n' roll just enough to leave room for his own embellishments, of which his soulful voice stands as a distinct highlight. Sprott's solo work is stripped of some of the Mumlers' pizzazz, but you'll find that even more exposed, his talents are given wiggle-room to burst and bloom.

Magic Trick

Magic Trick is a band, but it wasn’t always that way. In the beginning it was just Tim Cohen alone in his San Francisco bedroom studio, swatting songs out of the ether during the spare hours between tours with his other project, weirdo-pop juggernauts, The Fresh & Onlys. When the tapes filled up, he’d cull a few favorite tunes to press a solo record. To list a few of these: The Two Sides of Tim Cohen, Laugh Tracks, and Magic Trick.

When it came time to play shows, Cohen recruited a handful of friends -- including James Kim (Kelley Stoltz’s band), Alicia Vanden Heuvel (Aislers Set), and Noelle Cahill – to help him flesh out his pet tunes in concert. But Cohen was never totally sold on the solo-artist shtick. There’s strength and power in a collective endeavor and, really, unless you’re talking about David Bowie or Captain Beefheart, most people just like a band better. Long story short: Tim Cohen’s Magic Trick ultimately morphed into Magic Trick.

The creative process hasn’t changed all that much, though. Magic Trick still supplies the essential Tim Cohen experience, untarnished by re-writes, re-mixes, or too many second thoughts. The songs on Ruler of the Night, the group's second proper effort and first for Hardly Art, were birthed on a nylon string guitar during stoop-side noodle sessions, augmented by whichever band mates were within hollering distance, and put to tape before the inspiration had a chance to fade. They’re quiet, introspective and prone to unexpected musical tangents. Nashville hooks and cheapo synthesizer leads make peace with one another. At least one chorus gets hooted, rather than sung.