L.A Witch - Play With Fire

The storm that was brewing on L.A. Witch’s self-titled debut album continues on Play with Fire the band’s new album on the Suicide Squeeze label. The 3-piece garage punk band from the deep burning embers of Southern California seek to capture the traditional sound of sunset strip, where the freeway goes on and on, where the beach never sleeps and the bearded Jim Morrison look-alikes are in abundance, the ‘Mr Mojo Risin’ if you forgive the expression. L.A Witch don’t rely on the complex intricacies of composition, they take it back to the bare roots. The traditional guitar, bass, drums. The same core structure as the Riot Grrrl era names: Bikini Kill and Sleater Kinney. This packs the punch of Riot Grrrl with the hazy garage sound the west coast is well noted for (The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Jefferson Airplane, 13th Floor Elevators).   

The fuzzy layers of bassist, Irita Pai are gritty and dirty in places that evoke an aggressive, slightly sexual tension, something that reminds us all of the appeal of the sunset strip. The west is certainly the best for this band. Drummer Ellie English will be lucky to have a drum set left with her rhythmic thuds that rumble like the rough terrain of the desert. No more is this the case than in ‘I Wanna Lose’. The rough and ready style of English’s drumming is the engine of the track, the constant rumble draws nearer and nearer and sets the gears into first.