La Luz is an American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band from

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, founded in 2012 by Shana Cleveland, Marian Li Pino, Alice Sandahl, and Abbey Blackwell. La Luz has received critical acclaim following the release of four studio albums on

Hardly Art Hardly Art is an American independent record label based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in early 2007 by Sub Pop Records, Hardly Art is run by three full-time employees and is distributed by the Alternative Distribution Alliance (ADA) and Sub Pop ...

: ''It's Alive'', ''Weirdo Shrine'', ''Floating Features'', and the self-titled ''La Luz''. La Luz is known for their "surf noir" style, with layered vocal harmonies. Their energetic live shows often include ''

Soul Train ''Soul Train'' is an American musical variety television show. It aired in syndication from October 2, 1971, to March 25, 2006. Across its 35-year history the show primarily featured performances by R&B, soul, and hip hop artists. The series w ...

''-inspired dance contests and

crowd surfing Crowd surfing is the process in which a person is passed overhead from person to person (often during a concert), transferring the person from one part of the venue to another. The "crowd surfer" is passed above everyone's heads, with everyone's ...

History

Shana Cleveland and Marian Li Pino (former members of Seattle band The Curious Mystery) formed La Luz in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, with Alice Sandahl and bassist Abbey Blackwell after being inspired by surf and rock and roll acts like

Link Wray Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr. (May 2, 1929 – November 5, 2005) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist who became popular in the late 1950s. ''Rolling Stone'' placed Wray at No. 45 of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. In 2013 ...

The Ventures The Ventures are an American instrumental rock band formed in Tacoma, Washington, in 1958, by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle. The band, which was a quartet for most of its existence, helped to popularize the electric guitar across the world during the ...

, and

Dick Dale Richard Anthony Monsour (May 4, 1937 – March 16, 2019), known professionally as Dick Dale, was an American rock guitarist. He was a pioneer of surf music, drawing on Middle Eastern music scale (music), scales and experimenting with reverb eff ...

, as well as girl groups like

The Shirelles The Shirelles were an American girl group formed in Passaic, New Jersey in 1957. They consisted of schoolmates Shirley Owens (later Shirley Alston Reeves), Doris Coley (later Doris Kenner-Jackson), Addie "Micki" Harris (later Addie Harris McFadd ...

. Cleveland has cited Japanese guitar player

Takeshi Terauchi , also known as Terry, was a Japanese instrumental rock guitarist. His preferred guitar was a black Mosrite with a white pickguard. His guitar sound was characterized by frenetic picking, heavy use of tremolo picking and frequent use of his gu ...

as her biggest guitar influence. After releasing an EP titled ''Damp Face'' in 2012, La Luz signed with

. They released their first full-length album, ''It's Alive'', on Hardly Art in October 2013. On tour supporting of Montreal, La Luz was involved in a serious automobile accident on November 5, 2013, while traveling from Boise, Idaho, to Seattle, when their tour van slipped on black ice. After crashing into a highway divider, the van was then hit by a

semi-trailer truck A semi-trailer truck, also known as a semitruck, (or semi, eighteen-wheeler, big rig, tractor-trailer or, by synecdoche, a semitrailer) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer ...

. Band members sustained injuries, and all of the instruments and merchandise were destroyed with the tour van and trailer, forcing them to cancel the remainder of the tour. In February 2014, bassist Abbey Blackwell left the group, and was replaced by Lena Simon. In August 2015, La Luz released their second album, '' Weirdo Shrine'', again through Hardly Art. Produced by

Ty Segall Ty (stylized as ty) is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. It was founded by Ty Warner in 1986. It designs, develops and sells products, most notably Beanie Babies, exclusively to speci ...

, the album was a more live-sounding recording than previous efforts, and featured heavy fuzz guitar. ''Weirdo Shrine'' received positive reviews in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'', and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', and the group embarked on an international tour to support its release. They went on to move from Seattle to

later that year.Gospe, Andrew (December 31, 2015
"Your New Year’s Eve in Seattle music: Shabazz Palaces, La Luz and more,"
''The Seattle Times''. Retrieved on May 21, 2016.

Band members

;Current members * Shana Cleveland - guitar, lead vocals (2012–present) *Alice Sandahl - keyboard, backing vocals (2012–present) *Audrey Johnson - drums (2021–present) ;Former members *Lena Simon - bass, backing vocals (2014–2022) *Marian Li Pino - drums, backing vocals (2012–2019) *Abbey Blackwell - bass, backing vocals (2012–2014)

Discography

Albums

*'' It's Alive'' (

, 2013) *'' Weirdo Shrine'' (

, 2015) *'' Floating Features'' (

, 2018) *''Live from the Black Hole'' (live album; self-released, 2021) *''La Luz'' (

, 2021)

Singles and EPs

*''Damp Face'' EP (

, 2012) *"Call Me in the Day" b/w "Easy Baby" (Water Wing Records, 2013) *"Brainwash" b/w "TV Dream" (

Suicide Squeeze Suicide Squeeze Records is a Seattle, Washington-based independent record label that releases rock, pop, and metal music. Suicide Squeeze releases content on vinyl, CD, cassette, and digital. The label has also released comedy and performance a ...

, 2013) *"I'll Be True" (La Luz) b/w "Misunderstood" ( Habibi) (split single;

Volcom Entertainment Volcom Entertainment, officially founded in 1995, in Big Bear, California, and currently based in Costa Mesa, California, Costa Mesa, CA is the brainchild of Volcom founder Richard Woolcott and theLINE's singer/guitarist Ryan Immegart. Ryan being ...

Vinyl Club, 2015) *"Believe My Eyes" (La Luz) b/w "Don't Want That" (Scully) (split single; from the ''Less Artists More Condos'' 7" series, Famous Class, 2015) *"Clear Night Sky" (La Luz) b/w "Take a Short Breath" (Old Lacy Bed) (split single; 2670records, 2015) *''Live! At Sonic Boom Records 10/15/13'' 7" ("Pink Slime" b/w "Damp Face") (Analog Ghost Recordings, 2016) *"Loose Teeth"

CD-R CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital optical disc storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can be written once and read arbitrarily many times. CD-R discs (CD-Rs) are readable by most CD readers manufactured prior to the in ...

single promo (Hardly Art, 2018) *"Cicada" CD-R single promo (Hardly Art, 2018)

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Musical groups from Los Angeles Musical groups established in 2012 Surf music groups Hardly Art artists All-female bands