La Luz - It's Alive Label.........................: Hardly Art Genre.........................: Indie StoreDate.....................: Oct-15-2013 Source........................: CDDA Grabber.......................: Exact Audio Copy (Secure Mode) Encoding Scheme...............: Lame 3.98.4 V0 VBR Joint-Stereo Size..........................: 55.82 MB Total Playing Time............: 33:40 Release Notes: SeattleÆs La Luz recorded their debut EP, Damp Face, in a small trailer on a hot August day. But barring the inevitable ôno-AC-in-the-vanö summer tour calamity, La Luz runs cool. Their brand of coolness isnÆt about distance or affect; itÆs a mood, andùsue me, but IÆm about to totally rip off Zelda Fitzgerald: Something about this music vibrates to the dusky, dreamy smell of dying moons and shadows. So yeah, that kind of cool. Still, La LuzÆs live shows, more than most these days, are about connection. ItÆs evident that the four ridiculously talented ladies on stage are not only playing music with each other, but for each other. And they engage their audience as well. Like a proper punk bandùwhich they are notù they give you shit for not dancing. They convey a gritty self-possession, a sense that theyÆve been there and back again. And, like the expert, but seemingly effortless, surf licks and meandering bass lines that rise and fall throughout their songs, their mocking is playful and dreamy and disarming enough to get most of the crowd (and sometimes the keyboard player) dancing down the center line of a soul train. But as any half-assed Freudian will tell you, there can be no meaningful connection without first weathering some dark and lonely times. Here comes the chilly part: What makes La Luz stand outùand stand out fastùthe band has only been playing together for a year and people took notice almost immediatelyùis that this is a band that embodies that most elusive slant on the human condition: longing, and the fleeting relief that tags alongside deep desire. In Spanish, La Luz means ôlightö and thatÆs the perfect thing to evoke when your songs give the illusion of veering in the opposite direction. But lift out most any lyricùwhich is a good excuse to give a closer listen to the delicate, four-part harmonies that are fast becoming the bandÆs signatureùand youÆll find that the aches and pains of love and loss, of living in a world where no foothold is ever a promiseùall this is delivered with a nuanced dose of perfectly timed exhilaration, like the whole thing might just be worth it in the end. Last spring, La Luz returned to that steamy trailer park to record ItÆs Alive û the much-anticipated follow up to Damp Face û with their friend and engineer Johnny Goss. From the first get-psyched drum roll and eerie chords of ôSure As Springö, the dinged-up pop gem that opens the album, the rest moves like a slow drive on a dangerous road, slinking and bending as the terrain shifts. On ôWhat Good Am I?ö, the lead vocals, and the swirl of harmonies that surround it, recall the Spartan haze of Mazzy StarÆs misty-eyed super hit. Smack in the middle is the title track. ôItÆs Aliveö is a jangly rocker with a spooky refrain, oodles of ooohs, and a marauding narrative that nails down the misty logic of the rest of the album. Two instrumentals, ôSunstrokeö and ôPhantom Feelingsö, showcase the bandÆs beach jam surf chops, and fall perfectly between the chilled out heartache that surrounds them. In October, SeattleÆs Hardly Art will release the sum of these tracks: ItÆs Alive Tracklisting 01. Sure As Spring 2:23 02. All The Time 2:48 03. Morning High 4:05 04. What Good Am I? 3:51 05. Sunstroke 1:32 06. It's Alive 3:37 07. Big Big Blood 3:09 08. Call Me In The Day 3:19 09. Pink Slime 2:23 10. Phantom Feelings 2:20 11. You Can Never Know 4:13 Support The Artists, Buy Their Music....