It would be easy to look at the cover to the Death Valley Girls’ latest album and get a mistaken impression. A Sgt. Pepper style multi-coloured collage featuring the band centred around a cast of animals, anthropomorphic mountains, two birds holding up a sign saying “Welcome To”, flowers forming the word “Earth” and tombstones in the foreground. Place this alongside a band name suggestive of 1960s trash cinema and you would not expect to hear a record with an almost new-age spiritual message about connection. ‘Welcome To Earth’ was borne from the ashes of California’s Eaton Fire in which Death Valley Girls vocalist Bonnie Bloomgarden lost both her Altadena home and shortly afterwards her beloved dog, Tommy. Understandably, these events prompted some soul-searching and questioning about what remains after loss and how to go about rebuilding life. However, what emerges musically is far from introspective or self-pitying. While pinned as a space rock band, the nine tracks that make up the album are short, energetic and colourful. At various times, they feature punk energy, 60s girl group vocals, a children’s choir, regular bursts of saxophone from Sarah Safaie and swirling keyboards courtesy of Gregg Freeman who, to add a further layer of tragedy to the album, has subsequently passed away.
The guiding philosophy is apparent from the title track which opens ‘Welcome to Earth’, its chorus explaining “rest assured we’ve come to Earth / to be of help and nothing else / we have always been connected / from the seas / down to the heavens.” The idea that the heavens may be down below is intriguing and counter to conventional ideas while the song effectively pairs wah-wah guitar with emotive saxophone and Bloomgarden’s vocals sound like Kathleen Hanna auditioning for The Shangri-Las.
Freeman’s Wurlitzer makes ‘Basic Witch’ instantly compelling. Combined with Bailey Chapman’s drum patterns and Safaie’s boisterous saxophone, it creates a highly danceable pop song full of vocal hooks as Bloomgarden confesses to past mistakes, takes the positives from being dumped and revels in new-found freedom (“being wrong used to be my thing / I guess I loved suffering… thank you for leaving me / I’m so glad you set me free.”) It is matched latter by the buoyant and loose but structured rock ‘n’ roll of ‘I Love You’ which champions a connection across dimensions.
A choir consisting of children as well as established performers including Laele Neale, Shannon Lay and jazz vocalist Gretchen Parlato is prominent on ‘Plant Magic’. The fact that they are singing about growth and not being defined by the past feels especially poignant. The song’s mix of Laena Myers’ abrasive guitar with sax is reminiscent of how Lora Logic’s contributions elevated X-Ray Spex beyond most groups emerging out of the original punk movement. The combination of voices gives the track that deals most directly with the conflagration, ‘Fire and Brimstone’, the drama of a Broadway musical number. ‘Life So Far’ sees the choir set against the jauntiest of beats while Bloomgarden’s vocals are ordained with the feel of 60s tearjerkers as she analyses her struggles thus far.
With its jazzy rhythms, ‘Sing For Yourself’ takes a different approach, although it temporarily builds to a more straight-forward rock’n’roll blow out while the communal vocals hammer home the message, “live our lives so our soul can grow / try to remember who we are before we go.” The pulsing keyboards and beats give ‘Message from the Venus Flower’ a hypnotic quality to set aside its aspirational message about living your dreams.
Despite having an unwieldy title, the concluding track ‘How Losing Everything in the Fire Taught Me to Love Myself’ is an apt summation of the album’s themes. It is a triumph against adversity narrative that in the hands of Saturday night television could be turned into a nauseous, saccharine story. Fortunately, Death Valley Girls create something more inspiring. The sax and multiple voices conjure that sense of a phoenix rising from the ashes.
Overall, ‘Welcome to Earth’ has an unusually consistent and well-realised theme, exploring how healing begins not when grief disappears and when we recognise our deep interconnection. With its combination of psych punk vibrancy, mixture of girl-group vocals and choirs, emotive sax and organs, it makes sharing the journey a pleasure.
Death Valley Girls: Welcome to Earth – Out 9 October 2026 (Suicide Squeeze Records)
Valley Girls – Basic Witch (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO) – YouTube
I was editor of the long-running fanzine, Plane Truth, and have subsequently written for a number of publications. While the zine was known for championing the most angular independent sounds, performing in recent years with a community samba percussion band helped to broaden my tastes so that in 2021 I am far more likely to be celebrating an eclectic mix of sounds and enthusing about Made Kuti, Anthony Joseph, Little Simz and the Soul Jazz Cuban compilations as well as Pom Poko and Richard Dawson.
