Death Valley Girls

Under The Spell Of Joy SUICIDE SQUEEZE

LA psych band let loose a barrage of weird good times.

While LA’s Death Valley Girls have so far buttered their bread with a creepy-cool cocktail of gothpunk buzz and wobbly, acidgobbling garage rock crunch, on this album they shed some of their signature darkness for upbeat tempos and sunny-side lyrics. At least sometimes. Opener Hypnagogia is a headswirling, ghost-chasing odyssey that floats from the lounge-y space doom of Planet Caravan to the crackling skronk of LA Blues, but is mostly an anomaly. The bulk of the album is devoted to throaty singalong choruses and thick, rattling mid-60s fuzz like Hold My Hand and the frenetic 10 Day Miracle Challenge. If Charles Manson had never graduated to murder, and spent another summer lazing around Beach Boy Dennis Wilson’s pool, he would have eventually produced this album.

While the hazy creep of bleeding skull candles still waft through DVG’s music, this is essentially a white magick album, pulsating with light and sunshine and bursts of ragapunk exuberance. ■■■■■■■■■■ Sleazegrinder