Death Valley Girls – ‘More Dead’

Hypnotic witch-like garage rock via Death Valley Girls new single, ’More Dead’.

For fans of The White Stripes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Death Valley Girls sound like they should have been around during the garage rock revival of the late 90s/early 00s. Their new single, ‘More Dead’, prove this, opening with a jungle like rhythm on the drums, followed by the simplest, yet most hypnotic guitar riff in years. The band know this as they don’t bother with any other riff in the song. They don’t need to.

Vocally, it sounds like an exorcism. A staccato melody at first, each line ends with a high pitched shrill shriek that is doom laden. It’s exciting and makes you feel as though you are being put through a demonic rock n’ roll witch ritual when you listen to the song. The guitar solo is a wailing mess courtesy of a wah pedal – and it’s awesome. It’s very Ron Asheton. ‘More Dead’ could have easily found a place on The Stooges or Fun House. In fact, the vocals are Iggy Pop-esque – I can imagine him dancing manically to this track as if it were his own.

Despite the obvious classic rock n’ roll influences in the song, the subject matter is very modern. It’s about looking out for one another against the risk of suicide and other damaging human issues that troubles our society severely today. The band comment: ‘We wanted to write a song about how important and necessary each person is’. Therefore, ‘More Dead’ could be a sister track to IDLES ‘Samaritans’.

Their new album Darkness Rains is out 5th October, and if the rest of the tracks are as good as ‘More Dead’, we’re all in for a treat. This is real rock n’ roll. It’s simple, raw and in-yer-face. It’s everything that rock music should be about.

Words by Matthew Brocklehurst