Death Valley Girls / cumgirl8 / The Abyssmals

Death Valley Girls – https://deathvalleygirls.bandcamp.com

Rock n’ roll has always served as a means to elevate the fringe of society, though it’s accentuated the plights of the outcasts and misfits in different ways throughout the years. In its infancy, rock was a playful rebuttal against segregation and Puritanism. In the ‘60s, it became a vehicle for an elevated consciousness. In the years following the Summer of Love and the clampdown on Flower Power, that countercultural spirit adopted the aggravated and occasionally nihilistic edge of bands like The Stooges, Black Sabbath, MC5, and The New York Dolls. And then as the ‘80s approached, popular rock n’ roll turned into a relatively benign celebration of hedonism and decadence, but that contingent of dark mystics from the ‘70s who lifted the veil and used music as a means of rallying people to altered planes had left their mark. It was an undercurrent in rock that would never die, but would percolate in corners of the underground. Today we can see it manifest in LA’s Death Valley Girls.

The group feels less like a band and more like a travelling caravan. At their core, vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Bonnie Bloomgarden and guitarist Larry Schemel channel Death Valley Girls’ modern spin on Fun House’s sonic exorcisms, early ZZ Top’s desert-blasted riffage, and Sabbath’s occult menace. Their relentless touring schedule means that the remainder of the group is rounded out by whichever like-minded compatriots can get in the van. On their third album Darkness Rains, bassist Alana Amram, drummer Laura Harris, and a rotating cast of guests like Shannon Lay, The Kid (Laura Kelsey) and members of The Make Up, The Shivas, and Moaning help elevate the band from their rogue beginnings to a communal ritualistic musical force. On the surface level, Death Valley Girls churn out the hypercharged, in the red, scuzzy rock every generation yearns for, but there is a more subversive force percolating beneath the surface that imbues the band with an exhilarating cosmic energy.

cumgirl8 – https://cumgirl8band.bandcamp.com

In a perfect world, we’d all be comfortable with our bodies. And we’d all be respectful of how other people choose to present and share their bodies with others. For a moment, it seemed the internet could help usher in this perfect world by providing a platform of interaction where physical appearances were a matter of our own invention. But of course, the assholes ruin everything. As soon as cumgirl8 began exploring the artistic possibilities of fusing the URL world with in-the-flesh performances, the assholes had to come in and ban them from social media platforms because of their name. Puritans, TERFS, and homophobes always find a way to impose their bullshit on the gender outlaws and sexual provocateurs of our times. Well, cumgirl8 has had enough of the archaic mores and narrow-minded values.

On their latest single ‘dumb bitch,’ the Brooklyn quartet takes the punk attitude of The Slits and the scrappy after-hours throb of early electroclash and meld it into a dance-floor anthem of defiance and non-conformity. ‘Gender and sexual politics are the overarching points of the song,’ says bassist Lida Fox, ‘but it also gets into how these dynamics play out in a society ruled by capitalism… how the roles we’re expected to play can become toxic and hypocritical to how we truly feel and so often we find ourselves stuck in patterns that hurt ourselves and those we love. It’s exploring the space between romance, masochism, pleasure, narcissism, and the balance of how much we give and take in our relationships.’ So while you feel the four-on-the-floor kick drum, bask in the distorted bass riffage, and relish the squelching synths, you can also flex your head with cumgirl8’s radical call for personal liberation.

The Abyssmals – https://theabyssmals.bandcamp.com

Upstate NY neo-psychedelic ghouls, The Abyssmals, started as a project by founding member, Jarpon Reyes, the band formed shortly after a self-titled collection of demos was released in September of 2016. The Abyssmals quickly expanded to include members Bob Forget (guitar), Boris Cahrenger (bass), Ben Wessels (drums), and Muffy Reyes (percussion, organ, synthesizer). Upon assembling and performing out as a raucous and electrifying five-piece, The Abyssmals have grown an international audience and have had music featured on the several TV shows on network TV and streaming platforms. Their debut full-band album, ‘Gospels, Hymns and Other Trash!’ was released in April 2019.