Comprised of Bonnie Bloomgarden (lead vocals), Rocky (bass), Laura Kelsey (drums) and Larry Schemel (guitar), the Los Angeles, CA-based quartet of Death Valley Girls have deliberately shrouded themselves in mystery; in fact, what little that is known of them is that for quite some time they’ve been influenced by old school biker, B movies – they’ve been known to appear at their gigs riding beaten-upchoppers, wearing leather jackets and would arrange their parked bikes in old school biker club formations. 

Now if you’ve been following JOVM for a while, you might remember coming off “Gettin’ Hard,” a single which owed a great debt sonically to The Stooges, The Troggs, The Ramones and contemporary acts including Lantern, in the sense that their sound is a no-bullshit, no-filler rock that possessed a forceful immediacy and danger. Interestingly, their latest single “Summertime,”  is a decided change of sonic direction as the band takes up a shimmering reverb-filled garage psych rock that sounds as though it were recorded in the 1960s – and in a similar fashion bears a dim resemblance to Raccoon Fighter. Interestingly, as the band’s frontperson Bonnie Bloomgarden mentioned in press notes, “Death Valley Girls are in love. Deeply, and always. “Summertime” is knowing  so long as you are of pure heart and open mind, the universe will bring you together, somewhere, and maybe in the summertime, or not.” If that doesn’t remind you of Grease’s Betty Rizzo – the tough girl with a soft heart –what will?