death valley girls Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Death Valley Girls “Islands in the Sky”

sfilzen — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 17:06:25 +0000

Death Valley Girls “Islands in the Sky” 2023. Suicide Squeeze Records on limited edition “Venus in Gemini” colored vinyl. Witchy garage psych drenched in spacey California stoner sunshine. Islands in the Sky is DVG’s fifth (I think) studio LP. We’ve been fans of the band since catching them at a hyper-intimate show back in August 2019 at Romanus Fest in Indianapolis (held inside a tiny record store, Square Cat Vinyl). Guitar and organ-forward with thick melodies and singer/frontwoman Bonnie Bloomgarden’s soaring vocals define all of DVG’s releases and Islands in the Sky is no exception, though this record feels a bit more anthemic and less garage-pop influenced – like the opener “California Mountain Shake,” “Sunday” and the jangly “All That is Not of Me.” That vibe is explained by Bloomgarden’s writing inspiration for the album while bedridden with illness for several months: “When I was sick, I started to wonder if it would be possible to write a record with messages of love to my future self. This was really the first time that I consciously thought about my own suffering and what future me might need to hear to heal. I struggled so much in my life with mental health, abuse, PTSD, and feeling like I didn’t belong anywhere. And I don’t want anyone—including my future self—to suffer ever again. I realized that if we are all part of one cosmic consciousness, as we [Death Valley Girls] believe, then Islands in the Sky could serve not only as a message of love and acceptance to myself, but also from every self to every self, because we are all one!”

There are exceptions to the down-to-midtempo vibes on Islands with some real banging ass-shakers like “Magic Powers” and “What are the Odds,” two of my favorite songs on the record. Also great: “Journey to Dog Star” is an exotic trance-dance and the previously released “When I’m Free” (a split single with Le Butcherettes), as I wrote in 2023 when the single was released, highlights all the best DVG have to offer: swagger, swirling keyboards and killer rhythm.

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Le Butcherettes / Death Valley Girls

sfilzen — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 17:58:25 +0000

Le Butcherettes + Death Valley Girls split single, limited edition iridescent blue Inner Ascension variant. 2022. Suicide Squeeze Records. This past Friday was DVG’s front woman Bonnie Bloomgarden’s birthday (August 25th, I have no idea how old she is, my guess is in her 40’s?). Side A is Le Butcherettes’ (garage punk band from Mexico who formed in the 00’s) “The Universe,” a haunting, almost a cappella rendition of the Death Valley Girls original from their 2020 LP Under the Spell of Joy. Side B is the Death Valley Girls excellent psych-rocker track “When I’m Free” which highlights all the best DVG have to offer: swagger, swirling keyboards and killer rhythm. There’s a digital-only dance remix of the “When I’m Free” done by none other than Peaches. From their Bandcamp: “Under Peaches’ meticulous care, “When I’m Free” transforms from a scrappy rock song to a throbbing, minimalist club banger. The musical key switches from major to minor, taking the song from celebratory mode into a leaner and meaner message of empowerment. Bloomgarden’s impassioned vocals remain in place along with a few organ glissandos, though the rest of the original is excised in favor of stark four-on-the-floor beats and pulsing synth bass. The sound may prompt a different type of gyration than the original, but the spirit of freedom and revelry remains and takes on a whole new angle under Peaches’ masterful manipulations.”

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Death Valley Girls “Street Venom”

sfilzen — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 18:47:27 +0000

Death Valley Girls “Street Venom” 2014/2021. Limited edition (200 copies) “Eye of the Beholder” colored vinyl. DVG’s debut album, originally released on cassette (Burger Records). Fuzzy garage punk with grungy riot grrrl and psycho-surf energy (Hole’s drummer Patty Schemel was in the band and performs on the record), Street Venom is as fantastic as DVG’s subsequent releases. “Sanitarium Blues,” one of my favorite tracks, is about singer/keyboardist Bonnie Bloomgarden’s stint in an actual sanitarium. From her Instagram: “When I was a kid, I ended up in a mental institution! I eventually found out that I am bipolar and extremely empathetic. Life just got too intense/scary to know how to deal with alone! I didn’t know how to get help or that help would work.” Other top tracks include the buzzy garage ass-shakers “Shadow” and “Girlfriend.” This reissue/deluxe version includes two songs not on the original 2014 cassette release but were a limited edition 7″ single in 2015: “Electric High” and “Gettin’ Hard” and both are an excellent addition to the LP.

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Death Valley Girls “Glow In the Dark”

sfilzen — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 18:22:14 +0000

Death Valley Girls “Glow In the Dark” 2016. Burger Records. It’s International Women’s Day today so I’m spinning the second album from one of my favorite current female bands (well, there’s one dude but if the show we saw a couple of years ago is any indication, he mainly hangs in the background). Death Valley Girls are a proto-punk’d style swampy psychedelic “space-gospel” group that are seriously bad-ass. Shredding guitars, hard-driving beats, relentless ass-shaking grooves. The album begins with the ripping title track “Glow in Dark,” goes madcap 60′s garage-psych on “Disco” speed-metal shreds the boogie on “Death Valley Boogie” and continuous the onslaught for “Seis Seis Seis.” Side 1 only slows down for the last track, the lovely, spacey harmonizing on the slow-burner “Pink Radiation.” On Side 2 Death Valley Girls put women front-and-center with the infectiously surfy “I’m a Man Too” (spoiler: they are not men and fucking proud of it), cast their witchy vibe on the darkly rocking “Love Spell,” go even darker on “Horror Movie,” make summer feel scary (in a good way!) on “Summertime” and wail out their garage rock blues on the final track “Wait For You.” There isn’t even a mediocre song on this record – Death Valley Girls are one of the best bands out there now, period.

Death Valley Girls at Romanus Fest, August 2019. One of the last music festivals we attended.

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Death Valley Girls “Under the Spell of Joy”

sfilzen — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 18:34:21 +0000

Death Valley Girls “Under the Spell of Joy” released today, October 2nd 2020, on Suicide Squeeze Records, limited edition (300 copies) on silver vinyl. If you aren’t listening to Death Valley Girls – why the hell not?!!? Their new release is the best record I’ve heard this year (granted, I’m not getting out that much, but still, it’s AMAZING). Self-described as “space-gospel,” the Death Valley Girls are dark Bansheesque post-punk mixed with heavy psychedelic garage rock (complete with 60′s style organ), mixed with a Wall of Sound 60′s girl group flavor (see “Bliss Out”) whose songs are at times hypnotic and ethereal while also seriously ass-shaking. Basically everything I love in a band!!! I just got this in the mail two days ago (I pre-ordered it so scored it early) and it pretty much hasn’t left the turntable since. I could listen to several of the tracks on their new LP over and over and over: My top tracks: “Hold My Hand” (super-catchy!), the title track “Under the Spell of Joy” (stomping garage rock meets saxophone solo!), “It All Washes Away” (Jagger-level maracas, organ AND saxophone! a heavy heavy stomper), “10 Day Miracle Challenge” (hard driving garage punk) and the final track “Dream Cleaver” (super-psychedelic and highly danceable; it flows into an endless runout groove unintelligible chant which forces you out of your trance to get up and pick up the needle, only to set it right back down again at the start of the record): check out its witchy video here:

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Death Valley Girls “Breakthrough”

sfilzen — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 19:49:21 +0000

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.

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Death Valley Girls “Darkness Rains”

sfilzen — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 19:18:45 +0000

Death Valley Girls “Darkness Rains” 2018. Limited edition yellow with red splatter, Suicide Squeeze Records. We picked up what I believe is DVG’s third LP this past weekend at Romanus Records Fest in Indianapolis where they headlined the jam-packed (15 bands!) evening lineup. Hard driving, punkish garage rock with nods to the darkness of goth and touches of neo-psychedelia via organ and lead guitarist Larry Schemel (who on stage was kinda relegated to the background, allowing the Girls to shine up front, mostly with huge smiles on their faces during the entire set).

We were able to grab the set-list, excellently illustrated:

DVG played several tracks from Darkness Rains, many of them my favorite on the album. They led off with “Abre Camino,” an intensely dark and throbbing scorcher that is the first track on Side B. From Darkness Rains also is the high octane rocker “Street Justice,” the hypnotic “More Dead,” “Disaster (Is What We’re After)” which features Iggy Pop eating a hamburger while jamming out to the song’s beat in its video (spoiler: he clearly loves ketchup), and my top track, “Wear Black” upon which lead singer, guitarist and keyboardist Bonnie Bloomgarden pulls out some amazing psychedelic organ.

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