BE SURE TO WEAR FLOWERS IN YOUR HAIR
Story by Laura Cappe
“I remember hangin outside Tower Records on Monday nights waiting for em to reopen so I could buy some new release.” The California based band Allah-Las Tweeted last week. “Sad that don’t happen anymore.” Allah-Las – Miles, Pedrum, Spencer, and Matt – share an incredible sense of nostalgia through both their social media platforms and in their music. Reflecting on a time only to have been experienced by the boys through records, books, movies, and old photographs, Allah-Las bring their romanticized version of the 60s to Generations Y and Z.
It began at Los Angeles record store Amoeba Records, where the band worked and listened to music. After years of shared musical discovery, the four moved from the record store to one of their parent’s garages – appropriately filled with surfboards – and brought Allah-Las to life.
Their first full-length record (self-titled) oozes with lo-fi California surf-sound that plays heavy on fuzzed out guitar and vocal harmonies. In the studio, the band has affirmed to have used retro techniques to create their album; including using vintage microphones from 1953 and pressing their EP onto a 45 RPM – a refreshing departure from the superfluous production that is so prominent in music today. Their music video for “Tell Me What’s On Your Mind” also recalls a much simpler time, focusing on the band just hanging out and playing music – looking kind of like The Beatles did on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.
Fit for the flower children and “summer lovers” of the day, Allah-Las encourage their listeners to listen to music the way our parents did – taking a record and playing it in full from beginning to end, scraping the digital and going straight to vinyl. Without the discipline of listening, their instrumental interludes like “Ela Navega” and “Sacred Sands” could easily become lost. Listened to properly and you will recognize how perfectly these tracks glue the piece together. With their breezy 60s vibe floating consistently throughout the album, Allah-Last take their listeners back to a time when lining up at the record store was a celebrated weekly event and dub-step had yet to even be imagined.
