Sometimes you find a band/song that just takes over you. This year, the person who did that for me was The Long Wives; I play her music every day. It becomes like a ritual. I have to hear Judas Hex a few times a day, for no reason other than it being one of the best songs ever written.

Most probably regard bands from the West Coast of America as being some kind of lo-fi/surfer-pop thing. Making you feel as if you’re going to go to the beach and just stay there for the rest of time. There’s a darker side. A side that doesn’t get as much love and recognition as it deserves. It is a side that is dark and haunting. A side that for some reason, is more uplifting that some jaunty lo-fi band. Not that I don’t enjoy that, but I have a place reserved mainly for the darker side of music. The Long Wives stirred all this up for me earlier this year, and now a band from Los Angeles called L.A. Witch have gone and done the same.

L.A.Witch are brilliant. I know duos own my heart, but this three-piece band are just out of this world. If a band can make you feel this way by only having one song out, then you know you have found something truly remarkable and sacred. I love them for many reasons. One being that they remind me of a darker version of Warpaint. It doesn’t take a genius to realise how much I love Warpaint (I have a tattoo, pretty sure that explains it..for no.) Warpaint make you feel as if you are drifting in and out of sleep. L.A.Witch are that feeling right before you fall asleep. A few times you feel your head drop as you nod off, then you just go. You go so far down; nothing and no one can disturb you. L.A. Witch take you on a journey that you don’t ever want to come back from. Why would you want to?! The places a song can create for you in your mind are much better than the world you see outside with your own eyes. Live in your head, because no one can bother you that way.

I know when you find new bands you automatically try to find a way to label them as something or just throw them into some disastrous sub-genre that appeals to the pretentious kind. I despise that. Music is music. Some you may like, some you may enjoy; regardless of what it is. Whatever you want to listen to, go with it. When you seek out bands that are from one genre, you miss out on so much. But when you cannot sleep at 3am, you find a lot. That’s how I find most of the music I listen to. That and putting off what I should be doing in order to find new music instead. Music is much more appealing.

Sorrow fills you as you hear the last-minute of Your Ways. As the guitar spirals down, you fall with it. They remind me of a slowed-down version of The Kills. They have the same road-trip vibe going on like The Kills do. You get some real Blues influence coming through also. I have no idea if they are influenced by the Blues or not (but aren’t we all to an extent.) This is the kind of band Jack White would love to get his hands on and make the world pay attention. Not that they can’t do it on their own, that’s not what I mean. What I mean is, you listen to them and you think that this is a band you know he would love. Everyone should love them because they sound different and honest.

Not all music lacks passion and heart. You’ve got to keep searching, but when you find it; do you stop? No, you don’t. You can’t. You can never stop. Neither will bands such as L.A. Witch because we truly need them.

You can listen to L.A.Witch here : http://lawitches.bandcamp.com/ and just fall freely into another world.