Death Valley Girls “Breakthrough” b/w “Rock ‘N’ Roll/EGA” 2020. Suicide Squeeze Records, limited edition black and purple split vinyl. The latest release from the “California doom boogie” garage rock band who blew us away last summer when we saw them at Romanus Fest in Indianapolis. Death Valley Girls are a group of hard-rocking women (and one dude) with punk/grudge cred (founder/drummer Patty Schemel was in Hole; the dude is her brother Larry on guitar) that play with 60′s pop, proto-punk, metal and gothy horror vibes to make some killer music (their 2018 LP Darkness Rains was one of my favorite albums of the year). “Breakthrough” is a funky track with a 70′s hard rock vibe; it is a cover of Atomic Rooster (1971), though the band discovered the track through a rendition by Nigerian outfit The Funkees (info via Suicide Squeeze). “Rock ‘N’ Roll/EGA” is another cover (by Daniel Johnston, 1994, who Death Valley Girls briefly backed) that brings the grungy loud-quiet-loud structure to a whole other level: 60′s harmony stark n’ sweet punctuated by crashing guitar and drum metal density.

Here’s a photo from the show we saw at Square Cat Vinyl in August ‘19: vocalist/organist Bonnie Bloomgarden, bassist Rachel Orosco and drummer Patty Schemel.