April Showers 4/18/25: La Luz Surfs into the Southern.

L.A.’s La Luz was such a trippy, swirly, gorgeous show and the morning after Old Hank is itchin’ to get his hands on the computer machine to write this one up.

But.  Let’s start by talking about what we’re not going to talk about: the triumvirate of cliches music writers lean on in their descriptions of this band and its charismatic leader Shana Cleveland are as follows, and they all rely on an “ITY”:

A: Overcoming adversITY: The band was hit by a semi. Everyone was injured and they lost all their gear. Cleveland is a cancer survivor (thank you, Lord, for sparing her). The band broke up and recently reformed.

2: Celebrating diversITY: These are women of color who brilliantly and courageously reach into a male dominated style (surf guitar) and (until a few years ago) industry.

C: Exploring different styles of rock star feminITY: The temptation to contrast Cleveland with, say, St. Vincent (whom we saw last week and reviewed on these internets) might be tempting, but Old Hank’s female friends have taught him 2 things: don’t talk about a woman’s appearance and don’t mansplain. Well 3 things but very few of you will know the 3rd.

Nope.

The essential truth of the La Luz show can be summed up in one word:

Stratocaster.

So Old Hank is gonna Guitarsplain.

Shana Cleveland is a guitar player who, for whatever reason, in her formative years on the instrument in Seattle, found a Strat and found surf guitar.

Just in case you’re not sure what surf guitar is, here is how most of the world knows it: The immortal Dick Dale’s “Miserlou” in Pulp Fiction. If you need to review, stop, go to this link and watch, Old Hank will fire up a bowl while he’s waiting. Even if you don’t need the review, go watch it. It’s so good. Click on it.

Oh hey, welcome back. Can you imagine that movie without surf guitar? Or California? Or the 60’s and 70’s? Or ocean water sports? Or Tarantino himself? Or America?

OK. We’re going to have to put up another barrier to cliches here because when music writers talk about surf guitar, they use the same tired phrases. I will list them here for you and avoid them the rest of the read:

“Tremolo picking” “alternate picking” “chiming tone” “clean tone” “drenched in reverb” “soaked in reverb” “spring vs processed reverb” “whammy bar” “single coil pickups vs humbuckers” “wet” “splash” “drip” or “twang”.

The important thing to know is that a Fender Stratocaster played a certain way through a Fender tube amplifier is how you get the “surf” sound.

Dick Dale invented it.

Shana Cleveland learned its secrets, tamed it, gave it vocals and evolved it into a poppy, modern, gender cross-overing way to make lucious songs that move into your ear rent-free.

She made it her own.

Shana’s Strat is special the way a Strat is always special to its owner.

(Old Hank’s 90’s Tobacco Sunburst Custom Shop Strat sleeps with him every night and his ’66 Fender Deluxe Reverb waits at the foot of the bed for him and his Strat to wake every morning.)

Strat players name their guitars. For example, Clapton called his “Blackie”. Dick Dale’s was known as “The Beast”.

Shana named her Vintage Sunburst Strat “Donald Duck” presumably because Strats are described by their owners as having a “quacking” tone when played with the pickups blended. She didn’t change guitars on stage the way players do during a set. She didn’t have other guitars on stage. She did not put it down last night and I’m guessing she never does. Her touch is very light so she probably doesn’t break a lot of strings.

She never flipped it off the back pickup like a blues player would. She played it (surprisingly) through a tweed era Fender tube amp as opposed to the black or silver later models generally used by surf players. I could not politely get a look at her pedal board (the electronic things you foot operate on stage to sculpt your sound) but I will tell you she makes great use of her wah-wah pedal and her distortion/fuzz pedals.

That’s really where any comparison between surf players of old and Shana Cleveland ends. And my love for this band begins. Guys, the new make-up of this band is perfect.

The person who, in “the Dude’s” parlance, is “the rug that brings the room together” is the new keyboard player and producer of the new album, Maryam Qudus aka Spacemoth. The addition of lush electronic scapes from her keys really sets the new album “News of the World” apart from the band’s former work. She gives awesome sideglance, too—she could give Susanna Hoffs a run for her money.

Speaking of which, in terms of production, listen to the new album and you may hear some classic girl band overtones. I hear Bangles. I hear Go Go’s. I really hear some Laurel Canyon sounds in their vocal harmonies (think Cass’ and Philips’ voices weaving angelically).

Lee Johnson is the new bass player who contributes tasty vocal harmonies and locks up with new drummer Audrey Johnson. Johnson’s percussion was just impossibly crisp. For some synapse reason, all the descriptors I have of her work last night begin with a “P”. Precise. Pro. Polished. Powerful. Primordial. PurpleKush (JK).

They played a nice mix of older work while leaning into the new album. They played crowd favorites like “Poppies”, “Always in love”, the trance-like La La La’s of “Close your Eyes”, of course the new single “Strange World” (where you really get a taste of just how good Johnson’s drums are) and more. They encored with “Loose Teeth”. Old Hank was absolutely slayed by “Call me in the day”. The whole thing, vocals, vibeyness, Moth’s synth, and damn girl, that guitar solo! Destroyed me!

They raised the performance bar with fun stuff like crowd surfing inflatable aliens, a big silly sun, and a “dance the worm” audience participation moment.

Bazz and Old Hank have been discussing, for lack of a better word, what Pink called “Rock Moves” and we will call them that from now on—basically how does a rock star move, strut, dance, thrash about, etc., on stage?

Cleveland’s “Rock Moves” can only be described as ethereal. She doesn’t dance so much as she glides and swirls about the stage, levitating a foot and a half off the ground. 250 years ago it would have got her burned as a witch to move like that because it really doesn’t seem humanly possible.

The effect is so feminine (careful Old Hank) and gorgeous, trancelike and flat out mesmerizing that it could soften the hardest of hearts. And her Rock Moves perfectly match her voice, which you could use the same words to describe.

She’s just so damn unique and talented and obviously strong and just really her own thing. Which is the way to do it, students.

Jesus look at the time. Gotta go get on my strat.

Come to Papa, you beautiful Tobacco Sunburst Goddess of Twang (oops).

Love,

Old Hank