Death Valley Girls

Formed in Los Angeles in the mid-2010s around Bonnie Bloomgarden, Death Valley Girls began within the lineage of Californian garage rock before expanding into a more melodic psychedelic rock infused with punk, 60s pop, glam and surf accents. Initially driven by raw energy and chant-like hooks on Street Venom (2014) and Glow in the Dark (2016), the band evolved its songwriting with Darkness Rains (2018), where keyboards, backing vocals and a more ceremonial tension take on greater prominence. That direction continued on Under the Spell of Joy (2020) and Islands in the Sky (2023), which develop a broader sound while retaining a direct rock base. Despite several lineup changes, Death Valley Girls remains associated with Bonnie Bloomgarden’s voice and impetus, operating as a collective rooted in Los Angeles’s psych, punk and DIY scenes and later touring more widely across the US and Europe. Their style rests on saturated guitars, straightforward emphatic rhythms, repetitive motifs and psychedelic textures presented in a frontal, unadorned manner.