Death Valley Girls have released "Basic Witch", the second song to surface from their album Welcome to Earth. The Los Angeles psychedelic rock band follow it with the full record on 9 October through Suicide Squeeze Records, and the single is listed on the release calendar.
The album was written in the aftermath of the Altadena fires, which destroyed singer Bonnie Bloomgarden's home. She also lost her dog, Tommy. Both losses shaped the songs, and Stereogum described the new one as a bright synth-garage track about realising you are glad someone is gone.
Bloomgarden framed the song around dropping the habit of sorting people into safe and dangerous. "Eventually I realized that assigning blame wasn't empowering me; it was keeping me in a loop," she told The Line of Best Fit.
She went on to describe the pattern as something she had carried since childhood, constantly working out who was good and who was bad, and called the process exhausting. The song, she said, is about setting boundaries and taking responsibility for your own choices without needing a victim or a villain.
The video for "Basic Witch" features Exene Cervenka of the Los Angeles punk band X. It follows lead single "Message From the Venus Flower", the first preview of the rock record.
Fires have shaped more than one indie release this year. Something Specials built their debut album around a wildfire loss, and wildfire smoke pushed back Luke Bryan's Washington shows.
The facts
- "Basic Witch" is the second single from Welcome to Earth.
- The album arrives 9 October via Suicide Squeeze Records.
- Bonnie Bloomgarden lost her Altadena home in the fires.
- She also lost her dog, Tommy.
- Exene Cervenka of X appears in the video.
- "Message From the Venus Flower" was the lead single.
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