Sub Pop's La Luz UK/EU tour starts this week | Playing The Moth Club in London this Wednesday
LA LUZ UK/EU TOUR STARTS THIS WEEK
NEWS OF THE UNIVERSE OUT NOW VIA SUB POP
“With it’s captivating melodies and sci-fi charm, News of the Universe is as poignant as it is hopeful. By acknowledging the fragility of life, this personal agenda-setting album makes a bold statement.” - MOJO
La Luz - the band led by Shana Cleveland – released their incredible new album News of The Universe in May via Sub Pop. Unashamedly vulnerable, unabashedly feminine, and undeniably triumphant, News of the Universe is another knockout record from a band so reliably great that it has perhaps led people to overlook how pioneering La Luz really are: women of colour in indie music forging their own path by following their own artistic star into galaxies beyond current musical trends, always led by an earnest belief in the cosmic power of love and a great riff. The album was mentioned as an album of note out this week by Stereogum.
Watch the music video for “Always in Love” below.
With a credo adapted from science fiction author Octavia E. Butler, an album title from a collection of metaphysical poetry, and an expansion in consciousness brought on by personal crisis, News of the Universe finds guitarist and songwriter Cleveland embracing a changing world with unconditional love. News of the Universe is also a record born of calamity, a work of dark, beautiful psychedelia reflecting Cleveland’s experience of having her world blown apart by a breast cancer diagnosis just two years after the birth of her son.
La Luz will be touring North America, Europe, and the UK in support of News of the Universe, and the first run of dates will kick off May 23 in Barcelona. The band’s first show stateside is Record Release Party on May 30 at The Crocodile in Seattle, WA. Their touring goes into full swing starting on September 26 with a show in Chicago, IL, stopping at Brooklyn’s Elsewhere on October 9, before concluding with a 2-night run at Lodge Room in Los Angeles, CA, on November 8th and 9th. All shows are listed below.
Formed by Cleveland in 2012, La Luz is beloved for their ability to balance bedlam and bliss, each new record another fine-tuning of the band’s mix of swaggering riffs with angelic vocals borrowed from doo-wop and folk; a band so reliably great that it makes the huge step forward in confidence and sheer musicality that is News of the Universe all the more formidable. Cleveland, also a writer and painter, has developed into a truly original songwriter with her own canon of haunted psychedelia that, in recent years, has drawn upon the changing landscape around her rural California home for inspiration, notably on last year’s critically acclaimed solo release, Manzanita, a magical realist documentation of her pregnancy and early motherhood that appeared on many year-end lists.
Sonically, the record is all urgency. Songs trip over themselves as if trying to outrun the apocalypse. The powerful sense of openness that permeates News of the Universe is at least partially due to the fact that it is a record made entirely by women—from the performing, writing, and producing all the way through to the recording, engineering, and mastering. “There is something inherently and simultaneously sweet and brutal about womanhood,” says Cleveland. “That is something I hear on this record.”
Working with producer Maryam Qudus (Spacemoth), the all-female environment allowed Cleveland to feel safe tapping into difficult places and expressing hard emotions women are socialised to suppress. Unashamedly vulnerable, unabashedly feminine, and undeniably triumphant, News of the Universe is another knockout record from a band so reliably great that it has perhaps led people to overlook how pioneering La Luz really are: women of colour in indie music forging their own path by following their own artistic star into galaxies beyond current musical trends, always led by an earnest belief in the cosmic power of love and a great riff. Never is that more true than on News of the Universe, which might be La Luz’s most brutal record to date but also their most blissful. After everything, how could it not?
Praise for News Of The Universe
“it’s clear the band has more bankability than ever and increased creative freedom. The result is a darkly sweet record, inspired by some heavy themes – cancer, death, motherhood – but delivered with a newfound confidence.” - CLASH
"It may have gone under the radar that Shana Cleveland has casually became one of the most consistent, prolific, and imaginative songwriters of the 21st century." - FLOOD
“Lyrically and sonically, La Luz’s most ambitious effort to date without losing the band’s trademark fuzz and grit.” - Vulture
“Black Sabbath meets Broadcast in a galaxy far away on the latest heater from La Luz, one of the finest rock bands currently working.” - Bandcamp
“La Luz have attained a peak—a rare turn of events for a rock group a dozen years into their existence.” - The Stranger
"News of The Universe, has assembled a captivating release which shares space in the otherworldly hallucinogenic pop lane and straddles that heart-filled melancholy department... News of the Universe is a bold and moving symphonic rock moment sure to require multiple plays here or someplace in the outer galaxies." - 48 Hills
La Luz Tour Dates
03/09 Bristol, UK @ Strange Brew
04/09 London, UK @ The Moth Club
05/09 Paris, FR @ Point Ephemere
06/09 Sart-Messire-Guillaume, BE @ SMG Music Fest
07/09 Asten-Heusden, NL @ Misty Fields Festival
08/09 Amsterdam, NL @ Indiestadt x Sugar Mountain @ Paradiso
10/09 Cologne, DE @ Bumann & SOHN
11/09 Hamburg, DE @ Prinzenbar
12/09 Berlin, DE @ Badehaus
13/09 Schorndorf, DE @ Manufaktur
14/09 Zürich, DE @ Bogen
26/09 Chicago, IL @ Subterranean
27/09 Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
28/09 St. Paul, MM @ Turf Club
30/09 St. Louis, MO @ Blueberry Hill
01/10 Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar
02/10 Nashville, TN @ The End
03/10 Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade - Purgatory
04/10 Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
05/10 Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall
06/10 Washington, DC @ The Atlantis
08/10 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's
09/10 Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere - Hall
10/10 Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
11/10 Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz
12/10 Toronto, ON @ Adelaide Hall
13/10 Ferndale, MI @ The Loving Touch
28/10 Denver, CO @ Marquis
30/10 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
31/10 Boise, ID @ The Olympic
03/11 Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl
06/11 Sacramento, CA @ Harlow's
07/11 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
08/11 Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
09/11 Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
News of the Universe is available to buy now on CD/LP/DSPs from Sub Pop. The album can be bought in North America from megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers, and the band’s website, and in Europe and the UK from independent retail stores, and Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart), with vinyl available on limited variants. All coloured vinyl versions are available while stock lasts.
News of The Universe tracklisting:
1. Reaching Up to the Sun
2. Strange World
3. Dandelions
4. Poppies
5. Good Luck With Your Secret
6. Always in Love
7. Close Your Eyes
8. I’ll Go With You
9. Blue Moth Cloud Shadow
10. News of the Universe
11. Moon in Reverse
12. Blue Jay
Find La Luz here:
https://laluzband.com
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