Weirdo Shrine

by 
AlbumAug 07 / 201511 songs, 31m 27s
Surf Rock Indie Rock
Popular

In early 2015, La Luz adjourned to a surf shop in San Dimas, California where, with the help of producer-engineer Ty Segall, they realized the vision of capturing the band’s restless live energy and commiting it to tape. Weirdo Shrine finds them at their most saturated and cinematic -- the sound of La Luz is (appropriately) vibrant, and alive with a kaleidoscopic passion.

7.1 / 10

La Luz's second LP was inspired by Charles Burns' graphic novel Black Hole, in which the teenagers of 1970s Seattle spread a bizarre sexually transmitted disease with varying symptoms. Produced by Ty Segall, the album brings surf-rock riffs and girl-group harmonies to songs that are darker than they seem.

B

Everything that was once considered cool or cutting edge almost always comes back around again. It happened with leg warmers, it happened with acid-wash jeans, and now La Luz is helping to bring back early ’60s surf rock. It’s odd to think that a group based out of Seattle—Puget Sound is not a place particularly…

7 / 10

The Seattle quartet soundtracks our summer of nerves on their second LP.

8.3 / 10

We’re 50 years past the time when surf rock first made the scene, and there are still plenty of young bands mining that…

La Luz are clearly not afraid to mix things up, taking the reverb-soaked guitars of vintage surf rock, the harmonies of '60s girl group pop, and the simple, revved-up melodies of first-generation garage rock and twisting them together into a sound that miraculously stays true to its influences without sounding like the musicians are struggling to live in the past.

8 / 10

La Luz's latest, Weirdo Shrine, is a dark spin on classic surf rock, made even more haunting by the beautiful, ghostly vocals of frontwoman...

6 / 10