Photo by The Little Ghost/Kelsey Hart
Death Valley Girls’ latest release is saturated in psychedelic nostalgia and brimming with radiant positivity in celebration of the unparalleled wonder of existence, supported by a kaleidoscopic new video that plunges directly into the core of the band’s empowering ethos of unrelenting joy.
Forgoing jagged riffs in favor of textural guitar chords that waver mirage-like over casual percussion and dancing analog keys that wouldn’t be out place on a dusty Doors record mined from the depths of a rural California roadside antique store, “It’s All Really Kind Of Amazing” is possessed by a kind of magic that feels willingly unglued from time. Three and a half minutes of blissed out wonder wrapped tight like a hand-me-down blanket, stretched out in the afternoon sun amidst shimmering motes of dust suspended like galaxies in the temporary infinity of the now, as cresting swells of serotonin evoke an incomparable lightness of being and the purest sensation of happiness.
The wondrously conceived video by Bradley Hale is bedecked in swirling colors and accented with perfectly curated retro imagery, layered with strikingly perfect Letraset atop the visual spectacle for an experience that calls to mind the handcrafted marvel of cinematic title sequences from a bygone era. Lyric videos are rarely this engaging, and Hale has managed to elevate the form into a wholly complete artistic expression that stands as a strong counterpart to the track it is supporting.
“It’s All Really Kind Of Amazing” exists in an orbit adjacent to The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” and The Rolling Stone’s Their Satanic Majesties Request, imbued with similar layered psychedelia and ethereal existentialism. But where The Beatles and The Stones achieved this state of being by relying on chemical experimentation that darkened the corners of those works with the lurking specter of nervous paranoia and nonchalant nihilism, Death Valley Girls ride a different type of high borne from harmonious inner peace and recognition of the transcendent beauty that surrounds us on even the most average of days.
Death Valley Girls’ recent albums have embraced the warm spirituality of empowering self-actualization and pivoted the rough and tumble “girl-gang” aesthetic of their earlier works into a celebration of inclusive community that welcomes all to gather as one in the cosmic church of humanity. Alone, reality can be a harsh place to exist. We are constantly inundated with negative energies that largely exist outside the control of an individual and it is easy to succumb to the endlessly scrolling darkness. “Being in a body, experiencing reality as a human, is endlessly challenging. There’s so much darkness, suffering, sorrow, and division, it’s hard to get past. Sometimes, and often for too long, I just stay in the darkness, forgetting there’s anything else” says Death Valley Girls’ Bonnie Bloomgarden, expressing the impeding stickiness of spending too much time wallowing in the void, “and then sometimes, my guides remind me to look around, sometimes, just look around, at this Earth, at its infinite beauty and intricacy, and simplicity, and sometimes I can feel it, that it’s all really kind of amazing.”
“It’s All Really Kind Of Amazing” is streaming now on Spotify via Suicide Squeeze. Follow Death Valley Girls on Instagram and catch the band on tour this year.
10/29 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
10/30 – Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
12/04 – Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge*
12/05 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge*
12/07 – Reno, NV – Holland Project*
12/08 – San Francisco, CA – The Chapel*
12/09 – Visalia, CA – The Cellar Door*
12/12 – San Diego, CA – Casbah*
12/15 – Las Vegas, NV – Backstage Bar*
12/16 – Phoenix, AZ – Rebel Lounge*
12/17 – Santa Fe, NM – Meow Wolf*
* = w/ Trail of Dead
