THE CHANNEL 95
A night of hip hop with performances by:
Steven Joseph
Calvin Black
Avery Harden
Tiffanne Lemay T.Rabb
DJ Prenup
Sunday, Feb. 16th | 7pm | 21+
Pulsar Presents
SEPTICFLESH w/ Vltimas, Ex Deo
SEPTICFLESH return to Las Vegas Monday February 17th at Swan Dive for the Modern Primitive in North America Tour!
with special guests VLTIMAS and EX DEO
Monday, February 17th | 7pm | 21+
Legends Never Die presents
Kool Keith, MC Homeless & More
Friday, February 21st | Patio 7pm | Doors 8pm | 21+
The Rabbit Hole 10th Anniversary
Lineup TBA
Las Vegas, NV
Saturday, February 22
Doors 8pm
21+
Swan Dive presents
THE ALL YOU CAN EAT ORCHESTA
with special guests
Nocryma
The Dead Money
Las Vegas, NV
Thursday, Feb 23
Patio Open 7p | Show 8p
21+
Swan Dive
presents
High Sierra Club
with support from
Alive Alone
The Red Sea
Lies for Attention
Las Vegas, NV
Wednesday, Feb 26
Patio Open 7p | Show 8p
21+
Swan Dive presents
MEGA-SCOPES
support tbd
Friday, February 28
Las Vegas, NV
Patio 7pm | Doors 8pm
FREE with RSVP
21+
About:
Some say they are from the future. Some say they are from another
dimension. Some say they are a mind control plot perpetrated by the
Illuminati. Most believe they were created in Area 51 by a secret
government program in collaboration with entities from another world.
The otherworldly dance music trio are known simply by the MEGA-
SCOPES.
The story begins in 1977 when the research group SETI received an
encoded radio message from a distant galaxy. It took the worlds best
mathematicians a decade to decipher the message using the fastest
supercomputers of the era. When the mystery was finally unlocked it
was discovered to be genetic information encoded in a hyper-advanced
multi-dimensional encryption technique known subsequently as 4D
holographic encoding. Following lengthy negotiations between rival
factions of the secret world government it was decided that the genetic
information was to be used to create super soldiers by mixing the
extraterrestrial DNA with DNA from earth animals. After many years of
research and several failed attempts using large predatory animals such
as lions, bears and great white sharks ultimately it was decided that the
humble owl was the ideal animal to create an extraterrestrial hybrid
because of it’s deadly stealth, night vision and excellent hearing. There
was but one problem, the MEGA-SCOPES refused to be weaponized.
Not only did they refuse to kill but they seemed to be singularly
fascinated by earth’s music.
The MEGA-SCOPES sound is created by fusing the electronic rhythms
of dance music, hip hop and trance with the organic warmth of acoustic
instruments creating an ethereal blend that is both captivating and
irresistible. Their music takes listeners on an interstellar journey
through pulsating basslines, shimmering synths, and infectious
grooves. The MEGA-SCOPES energetic and fun sound has been
compared to contemporary bands such as The Floozies, Glitch Mob,
Beats Antique and Big Gigantic.
Following the ratification of the H.A.F.T.A. treaty (Hyper-dimensional
Association for Fractal Telemetry and Astral projections) between the secret world government and it’s intergalactic trade partners the MEGA-SCOPES gained their freedom in exchange for the schematics for a perpetual motion machine. Now free to explore human culture the
MEGA-SCOPES travel the world and interact with human earthlings in
clubs and music festivals across the globe. While it’s difficult to explain the MEGA-SCOPES music using the constructs of human language those lucky enough to experience it have been quoted as saying:
“It’s like a telepathic dance party in between my ears only louder and
quieter at the same time” - @MusicL0vr627
“It feels like my frontal lobe is fighting with my temporal lobe but in a
sexy way” - NASA Neurophysicist
“The MEGA-SCOPES make me hot and cold at the same time and I feel
like I’m floating underground” -Festie Girl
“I couldn’t stop dancing but it’s not like I wanted to anyway” -Name
redacted for national security reasons
“When I heard the MEGA-SCOPES for the first time I instantly understood the inner workings of the universe, but then I totally forgot” -@Lysergicdude25
“It’s like you hear it and don’t hear it at the same time” -NASA Astronaut
We The Beat presents
Paco Versailles
Support: TBD
Saturday, March 8
at Swan Dive
Las Vegas, NV
Doors 8pm
21+
Artist Bio:
Paco Versailles is a duo consisting of songwriter/producer Ryan Merchant and Vahagni Aryan who is a world-class Spanish-trained flamenco guitarist and producer. Their sound is a mix of flamenco guitar rhythms with disco-leaning electronic production and captivating vocals, a style they call Dancemenco. The name 'Paco Versailles' was conceived while imagining a collaboration between their biggest influences, the legendary Spanish guitarist Paco De Lucia and French electronic artists Daft Punk and Air, both products of the Parisian suburb of Versailles. Paco Versailles released their 3rd studio album, Olé Maca, on September 13, 2024.
Blackpath Presents
Comeback Kid: Walk the Dead 20th Anniversary Tour
Support from Koyo & Desmadre
Tuesday, March 11th | Doors 6pm | Show 7pm | 21+
A night of community, perreo, and pure queer magic. Patio 7p | Party 9p
Mind's Eye
Cathedral Bells
Support from Past Self & Los Emptys
Saturday, March 15th | 7pm | 21+
You want more?
You got it!
Back by popular demand, Tease on the Rocks rocks again on March 26 at the best venue on Main St, Swan Dive!
Presented by international award winning burlesque hall of famer, Michelle L'amour, this show combines the glamour of burlesque with the grit and grunge of rock 'n' roll. Tassel twirling to Twisted Sister? Bump and grind to Led Zeppelin? G-strings and Gene Simmons? The answer is yes...fuck yes!
See the best in burlesque and variety all backed by our resident drummer, Sunni Suede from Arrlo.
We The Beat presents
Daily Bread
Flash Flood Tour
with Maddy O'Neal and Josh Teed
at Swan Dive
Las Vegas, NV
Thursday, March 27
Patio Doors 7pm
Showroom Doors 8pm
21+
Daily Bread Bio:
Repping Atlanta proudly, Daily Bread -- the sonic perception of Rhett Whatley -- is always coming with fresh ideas to give soul-stirring sounds a trenchant edge. The Philos Records resident's penchant for experimenting with instruments and an intense affinity for crate-digging helps Daily Bread rise to new heights, bringing together nostalgically soulful melodies, gritty hip-hop hooks, and bass-driven flare into one cohesive sound. Boasting an accomplished goal of bringing old sounds to new ears, Daily Bread's trajectory has been divinely unpredictable. With merch selling out in mere minutes, vinyl being resold for hundreds of dollars, and a legion of supporters consistently waiting for Daily Bread's next move, Whatley's flame isn't going out just yet. In fact, the heat only continues to rise.
Swan Dive presents
zzzahara
Las Vegas, NV
Sat, Mar 29TH
Doors 7PM
21+
Bio:
Zzzahara’s music wades into the deep waters of love, lust, and self-discovery in a part of the world where artifice and authenticity co-exist. Emerging from the heart of LA’s alternative music scene, their sound is raw in feeling and rebellious by nature. Their 2022 debut album, Liminal Spaces, chronicles a coming-of-age in Highland Park, following painful childhood memories through to late-night, live-fast coping mechanisms, and the changes the neighbourhood has endured over the same period of time. Their 2023 follow-up, Tender, marked a period of slowing down, looking inward, and embracing a softer side of being.
To be released through Lex Records in early 2025, Spiral Your Way Out sees Zzzahara evolve again. Emotionally, its foundations are built on scorched earth. The album finds Zzzahara in the aftermath of a relationship spent trying to fit someone else’s mould, being jerked around by indecision, and then hitting “emotional rock bottom.” Made in a three month burst that let all their pent-up frustrations loose, Spiral Your Way Out is in part a work of self-reclamation, swapping Tender’s meditative state for something fiery and more assertive. “I was going through such a tough time, but I felt like I didn't have anyone to reach out to,” Zzzahara says of the period leading up to the album, which was a chaotic blur spent mostly on tour or in isolation. “When I finally sat down in the studio I just had all this fucking anger – towards that person for treating me badly, but mostly towards myself for not walking away. I think in that situation I just kind of let things be, and I was mad at myself for letting myself isolate for so long and never putting my foot down. In the end, I just took it all out on the record.”
zzzahara
We The Beat presents
Geographer
Animal Shapes Anniversary Tour
Support: Lily Kershaw
at Swan Dive
Las Vegas, NV
Thurs, April 3
Doors 7pm
21+
Geographer Bio
Formed in San Francisco, Geographer is the moniker for the now Los Angeles-based Mike Deni. Part social scientist, part troubadour, if Geographer is an expert at anything, it’s precisely chronicling life’s imperfections. He has headlined many national tours, played Outside Lands, Just Like Heaven, Firefly, Treefort, and other festivals, released four critically acclaimed albums, including 2023’s A Mirror Brightly, and has performed with such musical luminaries as The Flaming Lips, Young The Giant, Tycho, K.Flay, Ratatat, Betty Who, and Tokyo Police Club.
Deni is celebrating the 15 year anniversary of his Seminal EP Animal Shapes with a tour and a special vinyl reissue. He’ll be performing the EP in its entirety, as well as songs from his new album and his ever growing catalog of thoughtful and heartfelt music.
About “A Mirror Brightly,” Deni says, “I focused on my experience moving through the world: feeling like an outcast, being denied love in its many forms, and struggling to find meaning in an existence that looked increasingly like a void the more I peered into the glass,” Deni says. Although A Mirror Brightly (out February 23, 2024, Nettwerk Records) is indeed deeply personal, it’s not simply autobiographical like his previous releases. “This record takes that existential shock but explores it through humanity as a whole, rather than just me as an individual.”
Swan Dive presents
Sonido Gallo Negro
Support: TBD
Friday, April 4
at Swan Dive
Las Vegas, NV
Patio 7p | Doors 8pm
21+
Artist Bio:
Sonido Gallo Negro is a band from Mexico City going back to the roots of
psychedelic tropical music with guitars, eccentric organs, analog
synthesizers, theremin... they mix exotic rarity and esoterism which will alter
your perception and force you to dance until you get exhausted. Add to it
visual hypnotics and live performance by Dr. Alderete.
Since 2010, they have had multiple tours around Europe and America, visited
20 countries and more than 50 cities. Five studio albums later, they became
one of the most recognized bands of Mexico City.
Swan Dive presents
Ducks Ltd.
&
The Bug Club
Las Vegas, NV
Weds, April 9th
Doors 7pm
21+
About Ducks Ltd:
Ducks Ltd. are a Toronto band featuring Australian lead guitarist Evan Lewis and U.K-born, U.S.-raised singer, bassist, and rhythm guitarist Tom McGreevy. As Ducks Ltd., the two thrive on skirting the edges of buoyant jangle pop and driving power pop. Their latest album, Harm’s Way, contains anxious songs that McGreevy explains are “about struggling. About watching people I care for suffer, and trying to figure out how to be there for them. And about the strain of living in the world when it feels like it’s ready to collapse.”
Harm’s Way is an undeniable evolution of Ducks Ltd.’s songwriting process. Where their critically acclaimed 2021 debut Modern Fiction and 2019 EP Get Bleak were self-recorded and self-produced in a Toronto basement, here, they made an LP in Chicago with producer Dave Vettraino and some of their favorite musicians. These collaborators include Finom’s Macie Stewart, Ratboys’ Julia Steiner and Marcus Nuccio, Dehd’s Jason Balla, Moontype’s Margaret McCarthy, Lawn’s Rui De Magalhaes, Dummy’s Nathan O’Dell, and Patio’s Lindsey-Paige McCloy. Ducks Ltd.’s touring drummer Jonathan Pappo also appears on the LP.
The band first showed this collaborative streak on a 2023 covers EP, which featured guests like Mo Troper, Ratboys, Illuminati Hotties, and Jane Inc. that boasted renditions of songs by The Cure, The Feelies, and The Jesus and Mary Chain. Where those songs started as ideas on days off from tour, Harm’s Way is also a product of writing on the road while supporting acts like Nation of Language and Archers of Loaf. “When we got signed, we had played maybe five or six shows ever,” says McGreevy. “After last year, it’s well in the hundreds. Those things change your perception of your own music and songwriting.”
This well-earned and road-tested confidence made the making of this LP their most intuitive and organic yet. “Our relationship is built on trust and we don’t let our egos come into the creative process in any way,” says Lewis. “We have this really great thing where every decision with the band is filtered through both of us. Here especially, we really figured out how to make something that truly sounds like us.”
Website / Instagram / Bandcamp
About The Bug Club:
The way you’re saying it, “prolific” isn’t the right word for The Bug Club. You’ve got to say it with the trademark Welsh lilt and pay due homage to this inimitable band’s origins in the renowned hit factory of Caldicot, South Wales. Do that, and you’re about right with how to summarize a group who’ve released ten singles, two albums, two EPs, three things nobody knew how to describe, and an album under a different band’s name, all since 2021, and while playing 200+ gigs a year.
The Bug Club is Tilly Harris (Bass, Vocals) and Sam Willmett (Vocals, Guitar). Their first offering for the label is “Quality Pints,” a track that deals with the pressing concerns of any conscientious touring outfit, taking to heart the rule of the three R’s as penned by renowned fellow pints fan Mark E Smith of The Fall: repetition, repetition, repetition. If it’s that important, which it is, it’s worth saying again.
Initially comprising the songwriting core of Willmett and Harris with Dan Matthew on drums, The Bug Club started plying their trade in 2016. They were signed by UK label Bingo Records in Autumn of 2020, and their first single, “We Don’t Need Room For Lovin’,” was released in February 2021. It quickly established The Bug Club as the tongue-in-cheek and live-focused antidote to the previous year’s penned-in pandemic drudgery. BBC 6 Music’s Marc Riley was an early champion, hammering the single, booking the band in for a session as soon as it was allowed, and rightfully praising songwriters capable of singing the whole alphabet in a two-minute song and making it work.
EP Launching Moondream One came next, complete with 7”, comic book, and free jingles (radio stabs are something of a forte for the band), followed by Pure Particles, whose vinyl release included a board game brimming with cult references. Fed up with the conventional approach, they then released “Intelectuals”: a standalone track that was actually a five-track ‘song suite’ like some kind of streaming-model-snubbing, Telecaster-bashing answer to Bach. Highbrow musos took a lyrical beating for the ages. Second standalone release, “Two Beauties,” marked release number two for 2022 and built up to the appearance of debut album Green Dream in F# by October. Lead single “‘It’s Art” encapsulated The Bug Club’s ethos good and proper: they’re only in this for fun, “you’re not supposed to feel it.” But they’re self-effacing because everybody does feel it. And it feels great.
The following January, they decided to pull their fingers out, get some disguises, and support themselves on tour as Mr Anyway’s Holey Spirits. A live album documented this, then they got abstract with titles and put out picture disc Picture This!. By the autumn of 2023, it was time for forty-seven-track, poetry-infused double album Rare Birds: Hour of Song. Their most ambitious realization of The Bug Club’s creative world so far, typically smart and surreal wordplay (as well as their standard enthusiastic obscenity), met with everything from raucous punk to gentle anti-folk. Ivor Cutler seemed to have left his surreal stamp somewhere — the fully illustrated picture book included with the record helped suggest that — but they’d never heard him until somebody else made the comparison. Happy accidents abound.
Things went pair-shaped with Sam and Tilly in 2024 after Dan swapped his sticks for his gardening tools and a quiet life in the countryside. During a trip to America, they caught the eye of Sub Pop. And guess what: new music is hurtling towards their ever-growing loyal fanbase, who can look forward to a year for The Bug Club with stuff going on constantly. Who’d have thunk it?
Swan Dive presents
Ultra Sunn
with SOFT VEIN
at Swan Dive
Las Vegas, NV
Thursday, April 10th
Doors 7pm
21+
Artist Bio:
ULTRA SUNN, the Brussels duo making waves across the USA and Europe. Frontman Sam Huge and keyboardist Gaelle Souflet, now joined on stage by Alexis Andrigo, blend modern EBM/New Beat with killer collaborations (Front Line Assembly, Kontravoid,…), and nods to legends like Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb. Their chart-topping hit "Keep Your Eyes Peeled" put them on the map, and they’ve been unstoppable ever since, performing everywhere from Los Angeles to Sao Paulo to Berlin. Expect a high-energy live show with deep and powerful vocals on hard-hitting beats where everybody is celebrated, seen and loved. Between their Sound Of Belgium heritage and bold modernity, ULTRA SUNN is not to be missed.
Swan Dive presents
NAPALM DEATH
and
MELVINS
support:
Weedeater
Dark Sky Burial
Las Vegas, NV | Sat, April 12th | 8pm 21+
About Napalm Death:
Although the name Napalm Death has existed since 1981, as the band’s first line-up plundered the post- and anarcho-punk scenes for inspiration, it was 1987’s seminal Scum album that would ensure their place in the grand pantheon of heaviness. A visceral dismantling of conventions, it effectively kick-started the entire Grindcore scene, gaining Napalm Death something approaching household name status for their insane speeds, animalistic screams and uncompromising political stance. From that moment, the band became synonymous with both proudly-held ethical principles and the relentless pursuit of new ways to terrorise people with riffs and noise.
By the early ‘90s, Napalm Death had coalesced around a steady line-up of vocalist Barney Greenway, bassist Shane Embury, drummer Danny Herrera and guitarists Mitch Harris and Jesse Pintado. Renowned for both unrelenting tour schedules and a steady stream of consistently well-received albums, they have powered forward ever since, weathering transient trends, media indifference and industry skulduggery along the way. Despite the sad passing of Pintado in 2006, the 21st century has seen Napalm Death continue to refine and redefine their still epoch-wrecking sound, with instant classic albums like Smear Campaign (2006) and Utilitarian (2012) adding further flesh to the bones of this ongoing legend.
While many veteran bands are content to repeat themselves or to wallow in nostalgia, these noise-hungry stalwarts seem to have gained fresh impetus and momentum in recent times, as showcased on 2015’s Apex Predator – Easy Meat, and its universally acclaimed and truly mind-bending Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism (2020). The creation of the latter masterpiece clearly ranks as one of the most fertile periods in Napalm Death history, as the band are now to unleash a brand new 30-minute mini-album, Resentment is Always Seismic - a final throw of Throes. Boasting some of the band’s most experimental material yet, alongside the expected bursts of bone-shattering extremity, the new release continues Napalm Death’s devotion to a defiantly underground punk rock ethos.
About The Melvins:
The Melvins are one of modern music’s most influential bands. Having formed in 1983 Montesano, Washington, the group - founded by vocalist/guitarist Buzz Osborne, with drummer Dale Crover joining a year later - has been credited with merging the worlds of punk rock and heavy music, forming a new subgenre all their own. Over their 40-plus-year career, they’ve released more than 30 original albums, numerous live records, and far too many to count singles and rarities. Recent releases include 2024’s Tarantula Heart, a really good collection of what the Melvins do, what they can do and what they want to do, and Five Legged Dog (2021), an ambitious 36-track acoustic collection that reimagines their heaviest songs alongside covers of their favorite artists. Throughout their discography, the Melvins have collaborated with Jello Biafra, Mudhoney, and Fantômas for individual releases and toured the world many times over. Remarkably, they had the misfortune to be in both Christchurch and Tokyo for their 2011 earthquakes. In 2012, the Melvins completed the “51 States in 51 Days” (50 states +DC) tour, which was chronicled in the film “Across The USA in 51 Days.” The current incarnation of the band is Osborne, Crover, and Steven McDonald (Redd Kross). Previous line-ups included a pairing of Osborne and Crover with Jared Warren and Coady Willis of Big Business, a four-piece featuring the current trio plus Butthole Surfers’ Jeff Pinkus, as well as Melvins Lite, which partners Osborne and Crover with Mr. Bungle’s Trevor Dunn. Sometimes, if you’re extra lucky, one version of the Melvins will open for the Melvins.
Swan Dive presents
HE IS LEGEND 'I Am Hollyweird Tour'
With Support from:
Cancer Bats
Strawberry Girls
The Requiem
Swan Dive - Las Vegas, NV
Sunday, May 4
Doors 6pm | Show 7pm |21+
Pulsar Presents
THE FALL OF TROY
with support from
CLOSURE IN MOSCOW
A LOT LIKE BIRDS
Friday, May 9th | 7pm | 21+
Swan Dive presents
BabyJake
Las Vegas, NV
Sun, May 11
Patio 7pm | Showroom 8pm
21+
Swan Dive presents
ACTORS
Support TBD
Las Vegas, NV
Thursday, May 15
Doors 8pm
21+
ACTORS Bio
“ Vancouver post-punk outfit ACTORS have released a new song. 'In Real Life' is available wherever you get your music now via Toronto's Artoffact Records.
Unsurprisingly for a band whose music has been featured on several Netflix tv series, the new song has a cinematic presence from beginning to end. With otherworldly production (courtesy of bandleader Jason Corbett) 'In Real Life' subtly introduces a myriad of different elements throughout its three minutes and 15 seconds run time. Intertwining ominous beats, ethereal synth sounds, and perfectly placed electric guitars, while leaving ample room for hard hitting bass lines and highly-relatable lyrics, the track comes ready made for TV. Picture an episode of your favourite TV show, when the main character is walking down the street in reflection, knowing they were meant for so much more and ready to take on the world...
On the song, Jason comments:
"Writing and recording music is a kind of creative dance. You don’t always know who’s leading. You just do your best to listen and not get in the way.
'In Real Life' is the beginning of another chapter of the ACTORS journey."
ACTORS began by releasing a string of popular singles, starting with “Post Traumatic Love” in 2012 and building a dedicated fanbase while eschewing a debut album release for the band’s first six years of existence. In 2018, the Jason Corbett-led foursome signed with Toronto-based Artoffact Recordsand released its long-awaited debut, It Will Come to You, quickly becoming one of the marquee acts on the label and following with their sophomore release 'Acts of Worship' in 2021. In Late 2020, ACTORS announced a new single, “Love U More,” with Juno-Award winning director Peter Ricqcontributing his talents to the accompanying video.
Songs like “L’appel du Vide,” “Slaves,” “Face Meets Glass,” and “Bury Me” are bangers that glisten via Corbett’s production job: infectious beats propelled by the warm layers of synth, bass, and drums contributed by the rest of the band. Corbett writes, produces, mixes, and masters all ACTORS music at his own Vancouver studio, Jacknife Sound and names David Bowie as a fundamental influence – Bowie’s sense of confidence and creativity are in full effect on It Will Come to You. Much more than a retro act, this is music that stands all on its own, full of life and complete with unforgettable hooks. Perhaps best described as a “post-post-punk” band, ACTORS belongs in the mix alongside bands like The Soft Moon and Cold Cave.
ACTORS have spent the last several years touring the USA, Canada, and Europe, while hitting many of the best-loved festivals, including Amphifest, Wave-Gotik-Treffen, Cold Waves, Substance, Death Disco, Verboden and many more.”
We The Beat presents
Tennis
Support: Husbands
at Swan Dive
Las Vegas, NV
Friday, May 16
Patio 7pm | Show 8pm
21+
Tennis Bio
The duo met in the University of Colorado’s philosophy department in 2008, when Patrick Riley recognized Moore as the waitress from a diner he frequented. (This moment was later immortalized in their song Hotel Valet.) After graduating, they spent eight months living aboard a small sailboat, voyaging along the eastern seaboard–a practice that would become integral to their creative process. Their debut album Cape Dory (2011, Fat Possum) documents that experience. Tennis booked their first tour through the help of a robust DIY scene. While on the road, their lead single "Marathon" went viral, gaining them sudden notoriety. Cape Dory debuted at #1 on Billboard's Heatseeker chart and transitioned Tennis from house shows to main stages in the course of a year.
Tennis recorded their sophomore effort Young & Old (2012) with Patrick Carney of the Black Keys, marking their first collaboration with an outside producer and their television debuts on The Tonight Show, The Late Show, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
In 2013, Tennis spent sixteen days recording with Richard Swift in his home studio in Cottage Grove, Oregon. Moore and Riley were heavily influenced by Swift's distinctive approach to engineering. This prompted the duo to build their own studio and take over production and engineering roles on future releases.
Moore and Riley solidified their creative autonomy by forming the label Mutually Detrimental in 2016. Yours Conditionally, their first self-release, became their most commercially successful album, charting on Billboard’s top 50 vinyl sales and proving their DIY roots as a cornerstone to their sound and narrative.
Swimmer (2020, Mutually Detrimental) marked a sonic evolution. Moore and Riley expanded their palette with unique time signatures and arrangements, stepping fully into their roles as songwriters and producer-engineers. But with nearly every show sold out, Swimmer's momentum was cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic. The duo spent the time at home exploring their role as producers by making records for other artists.
Tennis has continued to thrive by operating on the fringes of the music industry. They’ve survived the flash-in-the-pan fate of so many bands from the early ‘00’s blog-era. Their sixth album, Pollen, saw them grow into the biggest tour of their career, with sold out shows at historic venues like The Beacon Theatre and The Palladium.
Face Down In The Garden is Tennis' most fully realized work. Crafted entirely by their own hands and guided by their fierce independence, it stands as testament to a band unwavering from their original vision. Tennis embarks on the first leg of their North American Tour in May.
Swan Dive presents
L.A. Witch
Support: Chokecherry
at Swan Dive
Las Vegas, NV
Friday, June 20
Patio 7pm | Show 8pm
21+
L.A. Witch Bio
Biography
L.A. Witch’s self-titled debut album unfurled like hazy memories of late night revelries in the city center creeping back in on a hungover Sunday morning. Guitarist/vocalist Sade Sanchez purred and crooned over jangling guitar chords, painting pictures of urban exploits, old American haunts, and private escapades with a master’s austerity. Bassist Irita Pai and drummer Ellie English polished the patina of the band’s vintage sound, adding a full-bodied thump and intoxicating swing to the album’s dusty ballads, ominous invitations, and sultry rock songs. The album had an air of effortlessness, like these songs were written into the fabric of the Western landscape by some past generation and conjured into our modern world by three powerful conduits. The band readily admits that L.A. Witch was a casual affair and that the songs came together over the course of several years. That natural flow hit a snag when the band’s popularity grew and they began touring regularly, so a new strategy became necessary for their sophomore album, the swaggering and beguiling Play With Fire.
Where L.A. Witch oozed with vibe and atmosphere, with the whole mix draped in reverb, sonically placing the band in some distant realm, broadcast across some unknown chasm of time, Play With Fire comes crashing out of the gate with a bold, brash, in-your-face rocker “Fire Starter.” The authoritative opener is a deliberate mission statement. “Play With Fire is a suggestion to make things happen,” says Sanchez. “Don’t fear mistakes or the future. Take a chance. Say and do what you really feel, even if nobody agrees with your ideas. These are feelings that have stopped me in the past. I want to inspire others to be freethinkers even if it causes a little burn.” And by that line of reasoning, “Fire Starter” becomes a call to action, an anthem against apathy. From there the album segues into the similarly bodacious rocker “Motorcycle Boy”—a feisty love song inspired by classic cinema outlaws like Mickey Rourke, Marlon Brando, and Steve McQueen. At track three we hear L.A. Witch expand into new territories as “Dark Horse” unfurls a mixture of dustbowl folk, psychedelic breakdowns, and fire-and-brimstone organ lines. And from there the band only gets more adventurous.
Between their touring schedule, studio availability, and the timeline for releasing records, L.A. Witch found themselves with only two months to do the bulk of writing for Play With Fire. They holed up for January and February, essentially self-quarantining for the writing process before March’s mandatory COVID shutdown. “As far the creative process goes, this record is a result of sheer willingness to write,” says Sanchez. “When you sit down and make things happen, they will happen, rather than waiting to be inspired.” The time constraints and focused writing sessions ultimately forced the band into new territories. “I’ve definitely learned that having restrictions forces you to think outside the box,” says Pai. “That structure really brings about creativity in an unexpected and abundant way.” While L.A. Witch isn’t looking for a total transformation, they’ve stridden boldly forward with the amped up riffs and slashing fuzz lines of “I Wanna Lose.” Even the song’s message, a celebration of defeat as a starting point for rebirth and redemption, wields a kind of gravity that feels new for the band. “Gen-Z” carries a heavy weight as well, as Sanchez ponders the rise suicide rate in a generation raised with social media between lashings of air-raid siren guitar leads. “Sexorexia” wields a fiery garage rock energy unmatched by any other moment in their catalog; “Maybe the Weather” is a minor-key country tune given the cosmic treatment of hard-tremolo keys, woozy backward slide guitar, and heady production techniques; and “True Believers” offers up a filthy noise-inflected punk scorcher. The album wraps up the “Starred,” a druggy exploration of exploratory guitar squall built on Pai’s grimy fuzz bass and English’s propulsive groove. Over the course of Play With Fire, it feels like we’ve traversed the history of American rock n’ roll from it’s rugged cross pollination of blues and country music, through the psychedelia of the ‘60s, into the early punk scene of the ‘70s, and landing at the damaged art rock of early ‘80s New York City.
Play With Fire is a bold new journey that retains L.A. Witch’s siren-song mystique, nostalgic spirit, and contemporary cool. Despite the stylistic breadth of the record, there is a unifying timbre across the album’s nine tracks, as if the trio of young musicians is bound together as a collective of old souls tapping into the sounds of their previous youth. Suicide Squeeze is proud to offer Play With Fire to the world on August 21, 2020 on CD/LP/CS/DIG formats. The first LP pressing is limited to 1,500 copies worldwide—1k on translucent yellow vinyl and 500 label exclusive copies on clear with red and black splatter. Both cassette and vinyl come with a DL coupon.
Chokecherry Bio
SF based band chokecherry is dark, black widow energy wrapped in the foil of our
generation. Self-produced with a head rush of garage band sonics overlaid with a siren
ensemble of layered vocal poise, “Glass Jaw” puts an original fingerprint on a histor
scene. This being just their debut single, the song amassed over 1 millions streams on
Spotify without a single editorial playlist. With their second single, “Around Around
Around,” the duo continued to show they are paving their own way with a fusion of
influences including shoegaze, classic rock, and grunge. The duo is set to perform at
number of festivals in the U.S. this year, while working on new singles and a debut
album.
