La Luz - the band led by Shana Cleveland – has dropped a new single today titled “Poppies.” The baroque Sergeant Peppers-esque pop song has an air of dystopian surrealness that colors much of La Luz’s new material. The single comes on the heels of their recently announced new album, News of the Universe, out May 24. The LP marks their first for Sub Pop. Fans can pre-order the album HERE.
La Luz’s Shana Cleveland on “Poppies”
Poppies is about the surreal feeling of going through the horror and isolation of a cancer diagnosis and treatment and then suddenly being out in the bright world again, trying to make sense of it all, feeling like I’m walking through a waking dream, seeing the first wildflowers come out and feeling a similar sense of rebirth.
With a credo adapted from science fiction author Octavia E. Butler, an album title from a collection of metaphysical poetry, and an expansion in consciousness brought on by personal crisis, News of the Universe finds guitarist and songwriter Cleveland embracing a changing world with unconditional love. News of the Universe is also a record born of calamity, a work of dark, beautiful psychedelia reflecting Cleveland’s experience of having her world blown apart by a breast cancer diagnosis just two years after the birth of her son.
La Luz will be touring North America, Europe, and the UK in support of News of the Universe, and the first run of dates will kick off May 23 in Barcelona. The band’s first show stateside is on May 30 at The Crocodile in Seattle, WA for a Record Release Show. Their touring goes into full swing starting on September 26 for a show in Chicago, IL, stopping at Brooklyn’s Elsewhere on October 9, before concluding with a 2-night run at Lodge Room in Los Angeles, CA, on November 8 and 9. All shows are listed below.
Formed by Cleveland in 2012, La Luz is beloved for their ability to balance bedlam and bliss, each new record another fine-tuning of the band’s mix of swaggering riffs with angelic vocals borrowed from doo-wop and folk; a band so reliably great that it makes the huge step forward in confidence and sheer musicality that is News of the Universe all the more formidable. Cleveland, also a writer and painter, has developed into a truly original songwriter with her own canon of haunted psychedelia that, in recent years, has drawn upon the changing landscape around her rural California home for inspiration, notably on last year’s critically acclaimed solo release, Manzanita, a magical realist documentation of her pregnancy and early motherhood that appeared on many year-end lists.
Sonically, the record is all urgency. Songs trip over themselves as if trying to outrun the apocalypse. The powerful sense of openness that permeates News of the Universe is at least partially due to the fact that it is a record made entirely by women—from the performing, writing, and producing all the way through to the recording, engineering, and mastering. “There is something inherently and simultaneously sweet and brutal about womanhood,” says Cleveland. “That is something I hear on this record.”
Working with producer Maryam Qudus (Spacemoth), the all-female environment allowed Cleveland to feel safe tapping into difficult places and expressing hard emotions women are socialized to suppress. Unashamedly vulnerable, unabashedly feminine, and undeniably triumphant, News of the Universe is another knockout record from a band so reliably great that it has perhaps led people to overlook how pioneering La Luz really are: women of color in indie music forging their own path by following their own artistic star into galaxies beyond current musical trends, always led by an earnest belief in the cosmic power of love and a great riff. Never is that more true than on News of the Universe, which might be La Luz’s most brutal record to date but also their most blissful. After everything, how could it not?
La Luz Tour Dates
05/23 Barcelona, ES @ Sala Upload
05/24 Madrid, ES @ Tomavistas Festival
05/25 London, UK @ Wide Awake Festival
05/30 Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile (Record Release Show)
07/27 Portland, OR @ Project Pabst
08/30 Brighton, UK @ Brighton Psych Fest
08/31 Manchester, UK @ Manchester Psych Fest
09/01 Edinburgh, UK @ Edinburgh Psych Fest
09/03 Bristol, UK @ Strange Brew
09/05 Paris, FR @ Point Ephemere
09/06 Sart-Messire-Guillaume, BE @ SMG Music Fest
09/07 Asten-Heusden, NL @ Misty Fields Festival
09/08 Amsterdam, NL @ Indiestadt x Sugar Mountain @ Paradiso
09/10 Cologne, DE @ Bumann & SOHN
09/11 Hamburg, DE @ Prinzenbar
09/12 Berlin, DE @ Badehaus
09/13 Schorndorf, DE @ Manufaktur
09/14 Zürich, DE @ Bogen
09/26 Chicago, IL @ Subterranean
09/27 Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
09/28 St. Paul, MM @ Turf Club
09/30 St. Louis, MO @ Blueberry Hill
10/01 Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar
10/02 Nashville, TN @ The End
10/03 Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade - Purgatory
10/04 Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
10/05 Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall
10/06 Washington, DC @ The Atlantis
10/08 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
10/09 Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere - Hall
10/10 Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
10/11 Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz
10/12 Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
10/13 Ferndale, MI @ The Loving Touch
10/28 Denver, CO @ Marquis
10/30 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
10/31 Boise, ID @ The Olympic
11/03 Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl
11/06 Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s
11/07 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
11/08 Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
11/09 Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
News of the Universe is available to preorder now on CD/LP/DSPs from Sub Pop. The album can be pre-ordered in North America from megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers, and the band’s website, and in Europe and the UK from independent retail stores, and Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart), with vinyl available on limited variants. All colored vinyl versions are available while stock lasts.
La Luz - the band led by Shana Cleveland – has announced the May 24 release of their new album, News of the Universe. The LP marks their first for Sub Pop. With a credo adapted from science fiction author Octavia E. Butler, an album title from a collection of metaphysical poetry, and an expansion in consciousness brought on by personal crisis, the album finds guitarist and songwriter Cleveland embracing a changing world with unconditional love. News of the Universe is also a record born of calamity, a work of dark, beautiful psychedelia reflecting Cleveland’s experience of having her world blown apart by a breast cancer diagnosis just two years after the birth of her son.
Today, La Luz shares “Strange World,” the first single off of News of the Universe. “It’s been a strange and difficult few years, and at moments, I have found myself rushing to move forward in time, to leave the present and escape to whatever is next,” says Cleveland. “The best advice a friend gave me during a time when I was feeling particularly overwhelmed and battling consecutive panic attacks was to go outside, take my shoes off, and sit with my feet on the earth. This seemed to slow the universe down in a way that made it feel easier to handle. So this chorus is something of a mantra to myself ‘we’ll be fine, just take your time.’” The video was shot by Vanessa Pla and features Cleveland on a bike delivering the La Luz Observer newspaper whose headline reads “News of the Universe.” Listen/share “Strange World” here and watch the video below.
La Luz will be touring North America, Europe, and the UK in support of News of the Universe, and the first run of dates will kick off May 23 in Barcelona. The band’s first show stateside is on May 30 at The Crocodile in Seattle, WA for a Record Release Show They return for the full run on September 26 for a show in Chicago, IL, stopping at Brooklyn’s Elsewhere on October 9 before concluding with a 2-night run at Lodge Room in Los Angeles, CA, on November 8 and 9. All shows are listed below.
News of the Universe marks the first appearance for drummer Audrey Johnson and the final ones from longtime La Luz members bassist Lena Simon and keyboardist Alice Sandahl, whose contributions add a bittersweet edge to a record that is both elegy for an old world and cosmic road map to a strange new one.
Formed by Cleveland in 2012, La Luz is beloved for their ability to balance bedlam and bliss, each new record another fine-tuning of the band’s mix of swaggering riffs with angelic vocals borrowed from doo-wop and folk; a band so reliably great that it makes the huge step forward in confidence and sheer musicality that is News of the Universe all the more formidable. Cleveland, also a writer and painter, has developed into a truly original songwriter with her own canon of haunted psychedelia that, in recent years, has drawn upon the changing landscape around her rural California home for inspiration, notably on last year’s critically acclaimed solo release, Manzanita, a magical realist documentation of her pregnancy and early motherhood that appeared on many year-end lists.
Yet if Cleveland has spent years writing songs about ghosts, what lurks in the shadows of News of the Universe is nothing less than death itself. “There are moments on this album that sound to me like the last frantic confession before an asteroid destroys the earth,” says Cleveland.
Sonically, the record is all urgency. Songs trip over themselves as if trying to outrun the apocalypse: the breathless pitter-pattering of toms on “Strange World,” the title track’s finger-tangling opening riff drenched in murky distortion. An atmosphere of doom hovers hazily over the Sgt. Pepper-esque baroque pop song “Poppies,” on which Cleveland sings of a wavering orange idyll about to be set ablaze by the late summer sun. On the similarly kaleidoscopic “Dandelions,” she figures the yellow flowers for unsuspecting “little suns” soon to be “turning into moons” as the season marches on. The synthesized sounds used on the band’s last record, 2021’s La Luz, to mimic the languid buzz and crackle of a summer’s day in the countryside have been cut adrift in space—now they are silvery comet tails, dapplings of space dust, showers of stars.
These earthy observations are inspired by Cleveland’s walks around her home in the shell-shocked days post-diagnosis when she found she had to be very intentional about what she consumed. “Seeing the cycle of life, seeing things grow out of decay, the decay of other living things—was super comforting to me. I had to get to a place where I felt more comfortable with the idea of death,” she says.
But for every moment of fear, there is one of pure ecstasy. Shimmery chamber pop song “Blue Moth Cloud Shadow” puddles into a twinkly organ-driven reverie; “I’ll Go With You” starts out with the record’s sludgiest riff before turning into its prettiest song. “Always in Love” is a real power-of-love ballad that serves as the record’s centerpiece and is capped off by a fiery and jubilant guitar solo, Cleveland’s own “November Rain” moment.
The powerful sense of openness that permeates News of the Universe is at least partially due to the fact that it is a record made entirely by women—from the performing, writing, and producing all the way through to the recording, engineering, and mastering. “There is something inherently and simultaneously sweet and brutal about womanhood,” says Cleveland. “That is something I hear on this record.”
Working with producer Maryam Qudos (Spacemoth), the all-female environment allowed Cleveland to feel safe tapping into difficult places and expressing hard emotions women are socialized to suppress. “Having that kind of connection and that comfort straightaway let us push it further,” she says. “We didn’t spend the first half of the session being careful not to offend someone’s ego.”
Qudos also helped shape the songs, bringing ideas to the table “that to me felt like choices that I would not normally make, but I was really stoked about,” says Cleveland, pointing out that the dubbed-out effects on “Moon in Reverse” were all Qudos. “Sometimes she would have ideas about the structure of the songs, which a producer often doesn’t really mess with. But as a songwriter herself, I think she felt really comfortable with us.” Their working relationship was so organic that Qudos has since joined La Luz full-time on keyboards to replace the departing Sandahl.
Unashamedly vulnerable, unabashedly feminine, and undeniably triumphant, News of the Universe is another knockout record from a band so reliably great that it has perhaps led people to overlook how pioneering La Luz really are: women of color in indie music forging their own path by following their own artistic star into galaxies beyond current musical trends, always led by an earnest belief in the cosmic power of love and a great riff. Never is that more true than on News of the Universe, which might be La Luz’s most brutal record to date but also their most blissful. After everything, how could it not?
La Luz Tour Dates
05/23 Barcelona, ES @ Sala Upload
05/24 Madrid, ES @ Tomavistas Festival
05/25 London, UK @ Wide Awake Festival
05/30 Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile (Record Release Show)
07/27 Portland, OR @ Project Pabst
08/30 Brighton, UK @ Brighton Psych Fest
08/31 Manchester, UK @ Manchester Psych Fest
09/01 Edinburgh, UK @ Edinburgh Psych Fest
09/03 Bristol, UK @ Strange Brew
09/05 Paris, FR @ Point Ephemere
09/06 Sart-Messire-Guillaume, BE @ SMG Music Fest
09/07 Asten-Heusden, NL @ Misty Fields Festival
09/08 Amsterdam, NL @ Indiestadt x Suger Mountain @ Paradiso
09/10 Cologne, DE @ Bumann & SOHN
09/11 Hamburg, DE @ Prinzenbar
09/12 Berlin, DE @ Badehaus
09/13 Schorndorf, DE @ Manufaktur
09/14 Zürich, DE @ Bogen
09/26 Chicago, IL @ Subterranean
09/27 Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
09/28 St. Paul, MM @ Turf Club
09/30 St. Louis, MO @ Blueberry Hill
10/01 Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar
10/02 Nashville, TN @ The End
10/03 Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade - Purgatory
10/04 Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
10/05 Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall
10/06 Washington, DC @ The Atlantis
10/08 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
10/09 Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere - Hall
10/10 Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
10/11 Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz
10/12 Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
10/13 Ferndale, MI @ The Loving Touch
10/28 Denver, CO @ Marquis Theater
10/30 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
10/31 Boise, ID @ The Olympic
11/03 Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl
11/06 Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s
11/07 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
11/08 Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
11/09 Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
News of the Universe is available to preorder now on CD/LP/DSPs from Sub Pop. LP preorders in North America from megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers and in Europe and the UK from independent retail stores, and Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) will receive the “Luzer” Edition on Translucent Orange Crush. All colored vinyl versions are available while stock lasts.
La Luz
News of The Universe
1. Reaching Up to the Sun
2. Strange World
3. Dandelions
4. Poppies
5. Good Luck With Your Secret
6. Always in Love
7. Close Your Eyes
8. I’ll Go With You
9. Blue Moth Cloud Shadow
10. News of the Universe
11. Moon in Reverse
12. Blue Jay
In lieu of a proper showcase this year, Sub Pop and Hardly Art artists Bully, Kyle Craft, La Luz, METZ, Moaning and Dick Stusso will be performing in Austin, Texas next week. Below you will find a detailed schedule of our artists shows, as well as sampling of their music. See ya down there!
Bully: youtu.be/Q4uRzdzZOS0
Kyle Craft: youtu.be/VgJReL_Z8mQ
La Luz: youtu.be/vVaZuX5FRDA
METZ: youtu.be/kANA9UD4vKI
Moaning: youtu.be/v7id_Wxsr2I
Dick Stusso: youtu.be/tJBqGe88-9A
Monday, March 12, 2018
Band: Bully (Sub Pop)
Show: The Onion/AV Club
Location: Mohawk Outdoor ( 912 Red River Rd)
Time: 8:30 PM
Band: Wye Oak (Sub Pop Publishing)
Show: AV Club
Location: Mohawk Outdoor (912 Red River Rd)
Time: 9:40 PM
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
Band: Dick Stusso (Hardly Art)
Location: Spiderhouse (2908 Fruth St)
Time: 1:00 PM
Band: Bully (Sub Pop)
Location: Mohawk Outdoor (912 Red River Rd)
Time: TBD
Band: Kyle Craft (Sub Pop)
Show: KCMP
Location: Blackheart (86 Rainey St)
Time: 3:00 PM
Band: La Luz (Hardly Art)
Show: She Shreds Showcase
Location: Kinda Tropical (3501 E 7th Street)
Time: 6:40 PM
Band: Low, Organ Show (Sub Pop)
Location: St. David’s Episcopal Church (301 E 8th Street)
Time: 11:00 PM
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Band: Bully (Sub Pop)
Show: KUTX
Location: Four Seasons Hotel (8 San Jacinto Blvd)
Time: 9:00 AM
Band: La Luz (Hardly Art)
Show: Panache Bruise Cruise
Time: 3:30 PM
Band: La Luz (Hardly Art)
Location: Electric Church (018 E Cesar Chavez St)
Time: 6:30 PM
Band: Moaning (Sub Pop)
Show: Desert Daze
Location: Hotel Vegas (1502 E 6th St, Austin)
Time: 5:45 PM
Band: Moaning (Sub Pop)
Show: Ground Control Touring Showcase
Location: Barracuda
Time: 10: 25 PM
Band: Wye Oak (Sub Pop Publishing)
Show: KCRW
Location: Convention Centre (500 E Cesar Chavez St)
Time: 3:00 PM
Band: Wye Oak (Sub Pop Publishing)
Show: Twix + Collide
Location: Lustre Pearl (94 Rainey Street)
Time: 9:00 PM
Band: Bully (Sub Pop)
Show: Doc Martens presents Collide
Location: Container Bar (90 Rainey St)
Time: 5:00 PM
Band: Kyle Craft (Sub Pop)
Show: Portland Showcase
Location: Valhalla (710 Red River St)
Time: 4:20 PM
Band: Kyle Craft (Sub Pop)
Show: Portland Showcase - Official SXSW Showcase
Location: St. David’s Church
Time: 8:00 PM
Band: Low (Sub Pop)
Show: NPR
Location: Stubb’s (801 E Red River)
Time: 9:20 PM
Band: Dick Stusso (Hardly Art)
Show: Desert Daze
Location: Volstead
Time: 11:30 PM
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Band: Kyle Craft (Sub Pop)
Show: Fader Fort
Location: 1501 E. 7th St. (between Onion & Comal)
Time: 11:20 AM
Band: Dick Stusso (Hardly Art)
Show: Noise Pop Showcase
Location: Sidewinder (715 Red River St)
Time: 12:00 PM
Band: Moaning (Sub Pop)
Show: Fredericksburg AA
Location: Side Bar (602 E 7th St)
Time: 1:45 PM
Band: La Luz (Hardly Art)
Show: SXSJ Showcase
Location: Hotel San Jose (1316 S Congress Ave)
Time: 4:00 PM
Band: Kyle Craft (Sub Pop)
Show: Austin City Limits Showcase, KCSN Showcase
Location: Convention Center (500 E Cesar Chavez St)
Time: 4:00 PM
Band: Wye Oak (Sub Pop Publishing)
Show: Pledge Music/ Noise Trade
Location: The Blackheart (86 Rainey St)
Time: 4.30 PM
Band: Moaning (Sub Pop)
Show: Voodoo Doughnut
Location: Grey Estates
Time: 4:40 PM CST
Band: La Luz (Hardly Art)
Show: Levitation Showcase
Location: Hotel Vegas (1502 E 6th St)
Time: 6:30 PM
Band: Moaning (Sub Pop)
Show: Levitation
Location: Hotel Vegas (1502 E 6th St)
Time:
Band: Bully (Sub Pop)
Show: Brooklyn Vegan
Location: Scoot Inn (1308 E 4th St)
Time: 9:00 PM
Band: Wye Oak (Sub Pop Publishing)
Show: Brooklyn Bowl Family Reunion
Location: Scoot Inn (1308 E 4th St)
Time: 12:00 AM
Friday, March 16, 2018
Band: Moaning (Sub Pop)
Show: Floodfest
Location: Cedar Street Courtyard (208 W 4th St)
Time: 12:00 PM
Band: Wye Oak (Sub Pop Publishing)
Show: KUTX Pop up session
Time: 2.30 PM
Band: La Luz (Hardly Art)
Show: Volcom Showcase
Location: Volcom Garden ( 1209 E 6th S)
Time: 5:20 PM
Band: La Luz (Hardly Art)
Show: Panache Booking Official Showcase
Location: Hotel Vegas (1502 E 6th St)
Time: 12:20 PM
Band: METZ (Sub Pop)
Show: Fluffer Pit Parties / Shout It Out Loud Music
Location: Barracuda (611 E 7th Street)
Time: 1:00 AM
Saturday, March 17, 2018
Band: La Luz (Hardly Art)
Show: Brooklyn Vegan + Margin Walker Lost Weekend 2
Location: Cheer Up Charlies (900 Red River St)
Time: 12:45 PM
Band: Moaning (Sub Pop)
Show: Converse / Thrasher
Location: Scoot Inn (1308 E 4th St)
Time: 2:00 PM
Band: La Luz (Hardly Art)
Show: Burgermania VII
Location: Hotel Vegas (1502 E 6th St)
Time: 4:15 PM
Band: Moaning (Sub Pop)
Show: Burger Mania
Location: Hotel Vegas (1502 E 6th St)
Time: 4:30 PM
Band: METZ (Sub Pop)
Show: Thrasher Deathmatch
Location: The Weather Up (1808 E. Cesar Chavez Street)
Time: 6:00 PM
Sunday, March 18, 2018
Band: METZ (Sub Pop)
Show: Earthquaker Devices Party
Location: Empire Control Room (606 E 7th Street)
Time: 7:30 PM
