Alternative/indie band Death Valley Girls have embraced the band’s anthemic revelries in their upcoming album Islands in the Sky, set for a February 24, 2023 release via Suicide Squeeze Records. In this album, Death Valley Girls’ songwriting mastermind Bonnie Bloomgarden cultivates a “guidebook to spiritual healing and a roadmap for future incarnations of the self” as she steers the band’s music away from the proto-punk riffs that characterized the majority of their previous discography to create the band’s most infectious and heartwarming songs yet.
The idea for Islands in the Sky first grew while Bloomgarden was bed-ridden with a mysterious illness from November 2020 to March 2021, an illness that forced Bloomgarden focus on firstly healing her inner self and looking inwardly for inspiration rather than primarily focusing on writing songs that would help others deal with their suffering.
Bloomgarden stated that “When I was sick I had to sleep most of the day. I kept waking up every few hours with an intense message to take care of the island, feed the island…I have no idea why, but making music for the island kept coming up…I started to wonder if it would be possible to write a record with messages of love to my future self. This was really the first time that I consciously thought about my own suffering and what future me might need to hear to heal. I struggled so much in my life with mental health, abuse, PTSD, and feeling like I didn’t belong anywhere. And I don’t want anyone—including my future self—to suffer ever again. I realized that if we are all part of one cosmic consciousness, as we [Death Valley Girls] believe, then Islands in the Sky could serve not only as a message of love and acceptance to myself, but also from every self to every self, because we are all one!”
Death Valley Girls’ announcement of their 2023 album Islands in the Sky is accompanied by a preview of the band’s leading single off the album “What are the Odds.” The band’s newly released track brags an addictive chorus and lyrics that explicitly detail the monotony and feeling of uncontrollability that underlines the fear of living within a simulated reality: “Just one spin of “What Are the Odds” and you’ll be singing along with the chorus of “we are living in a simulated world, and we are simulated girls.”
As the bulk of this album was written, composed, and put into existence when Bloomgarden and drummer Rikki Styxx exiled themselves to a cabin retreat in the California woods on New Years Day 2022, this commentary of regaining that control and finding peace with oneself before once again rejoining society is further emphasized in its importance.
Check out the video below.
Tracklist:
1. California Mountain Shake
2. Magic Powers
3. Islands In The Sky
4. Sunday
5. What Are The Odds
6. Journey to Dog Star
7. Say It Too
8. Watch The Sky
9. When I’m Free
10. All That Is Not of Me
11. It’s All Really Kind Of Amazing
Death Valley Girls and Le Butcherettes also announced new split EP, featuring two songs respectively called “When I’m Free” and “The Universe,” out February 11 earlier this year.
Death Valley Girls have also released the ending track “It’s All Really Kind of Amazing” to the aforementioned solo album Islands in the Sky in late 2021, of which Bloomgarden remarks ““was fully 100% channeled from my guides to remind me even when everything seems shitty in the world, and it doesn’t seem fair to be happy about anything, the earth and the universe are still really amazing.”
Photo Credit: Mauricio Alvarado
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