A Look Back at Our Favorite Music Outta Long Beach in 2019

The music landscape in Long Beach took a big step back this year with the announcement that the Music Tastes Good Festival was put on hiatus, but thankfully the creative energy did not let up. Native Vince Staples had a song featured in the movie “Queen and Slim” and BLCKNOISE came on top at this year’s Buskerfest (not to mention their cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” was featured on Sofar Sound’s Best of 2019 playlist). Oh yeah, and hometown heroes WACKO tore up a Denny’s banquet hall in Santa Ana. 

That said, we present to you another year-end edition of our favorite Long Beach releases, whether they be singles, EP’s, full-length albums, or music videos. We’d also love to hear about the local musicians you dug this year in the comments!

FLAME GIBSON, HOLY PYROMANCER
GG039
Album
Released Oct. 25

When I read that Dirty Merlin and Basico collaborated as GG039 to make “FLAME GIBSON, HOLY PYROMANCER” in just a week, I was astonished. Dirty Merlin made it onto this list last year, and I’m doing it again because magical stuff comes from this guy’s artistry. From an audience member’s perspective, the music and performances produced by the folks of GRN + GLD, a Long Beach digital music collective and label who was founded in part by Dirty Merlin, is relatively underground. Live, the artists exist behind blocks of equipment, where you can mostly just see their foreheads and forearms, moving constantly with every beat, synth note, and who-knows-what sample-ridden dip and turn of the music that ultimately comes out of the speakers. This is the kind of wild electro-alchemy I imagine went into making “FLAME GIBSON, HOLY PYROMANCER.”

In the end, you’re left with a sort of mysterious, magical experience of not really knowing how all of that music was just delivered to you, but ultimately thoroughly enjoying it. That mystery and magic is heard very plainly during the title track and the rhythmic noir of “The Clique.” Whatever you’re doing GG039, please don’t stop.

—Madison D’Ornellas

DOWN 4 YOU
By KINKY N THE NYMPH
Single
Released: Dec. 22

“DOWN 4 YOU” feels like a sordid Tinder hook up on DMT. An awkward encounter that starts in a local noodle shop, lurks into unknown mystical places, and ends with a disoriented morning after.  

Not that the writer knows anything about that sort of thing. But with tracks like this, who needs psychotropic-ly induced sexcapades? Kinky’s got you. 

I’m still not entirely sure who “Kinky” or “the Nymph” are. This passion project from Long Beach’s Omar REDACTED is, like a zen koan, more obscure under closer scrutiny. I asked Omar for clarification: 

“Kinky is fluid, like a liquid … (they’re) an essence.”

Apparently, Kinky comes to Omar while he’s on hallucinogenic drugs. Once this happens, Omar metamorphizes into the Nymph. The music is a psychosexual ritual between himself and the essence that is Kinky. 

The track’s lazy guitar noodlings and teasing riffs definitely create the iterative groove that makes Souncloud tags like “sex pop” seem appropriate (I might call it “smut rock”). His baritone vocals present confidence with some deep-seated yearnings. The murky delay, warm tones (achieved with an analog 4-track tape machine), and lo-fi production create an intimate soundscape. And the single’s cover art is a heavily degraded image of him with a can of sugar cookies above his genitals.

“It’s an expression of love and cheekiness and playfulness,” says Omar.

Doesn’t that sound like exactly what we need in the coming year?

—Joe Brizzolara

Wish You Were
by Highlands
Released: Nov. 1
Album

I kept thinking of the Portugese word saudade every time I listened to this record. Much like the elusive sentiments contained in “Wish You Were,” it’s hard to translate into English, but roughly means a deep nostalgic mood born from residual love for another.

For whom, or perhaps even what, is the question Highlands elicits in the listener throughout this shoegaze-y album. Is the statement “wish you were” a metaphysical desire, an existential concession, or an incomplete sentence? The vocals, much of the time buried under layers of reverb and fuzz, bemoan lost love in “Flew Away,” question the very concept of the self in “Dr. Ron,” and in the closer “Cosmic Sigh,” well, you get the idea.

Musically, the album is very much in the vein of Slowdive, Ride, and My Bloody Valentine. Standout track “Staring Away,” which builds and explodes into a gorgeous chorus outlined by a gliding guitar and back-of-your-head vox, will sweep you into a melancholic dream.

This is the third full-length from the band, made up of Scott Holmes, Beau Balek, Justin Ivey, JP Bendzinski.

—Kevin Flores

Next Time
by Deva.
Single
Released: April 18

Dreamy, healing, soul music that makes you want to dance. When Deva. (aka Jasmine Canales) croons, “Am I enough for you, am I enough for me?” She had me singing along, asking myself those same questions. Composed and mixed by Kelsey Miguel Gonzalez (bassist and backing vocalist for the Free Nationals, Anderson .Paak’s Grammy award-winning backing band who recently released their own celebrity-filled album) with drums by Tom Kendall Hughes (founding member of local band Soular System) and guitar by Gonzalez’s brother Casey, Canales’ vulnerable lyrics are the words of someone who is putting two and two together regarding their lover’s dishonest behavior. 

With her, we remember that we truly need to be more worried about the second half of that question rather than the first; we need to be enough for ourselves. Both Kelsey and Jasmine are long-time members of the band Via Leaves (the original house band at Que Sera’s monthly “Fight Club”) and you can feel how comfortable and connected they are working together… I get so comfortable in their groove that I find myself just drifting away into another dimension on the dance floor. More, please! 

—Erin Foley

QUIET FIGHT
by Abbyss
EP
Released: April 11

Tomisin Oluwole
Ode to Pink II, 2020
Acrylic and marker on paper
14 x 22 inches

Click here to check out our interview with Tomisin Oluwole, a a literary and visual artist based in Long Beach.

Instead of gunking up our site with ads, we use this space to display and promote the work of local artists.

Quiet Fight opens with a note that almost shimmers and is sustained throughout the duration of “0utside” as it gently but relentlessly works to push your thoughts inward. Other subtle sounds filter in that almost mimic swampy nature sounds — the rhythmic hum of crickets, toads croaking, howling wind —  as the track grows into an all-encompassing, bassy ambiance. 

My favorite track off this release, “D3tails,” follows and implements synth-y choir sample pads to create a sort of transitional mood that leads you into an industrial beat that knocks you off any treadmill-like thought patterns you might be stuck in.

I was lucky enough to see “Quiet Fight” performed live at Qué Sera at its release show in April, but I’ll have to be honest and say I left remembering less about the particulars of each song—or even where one broke and another began—and more the overwhelming feeling of envelopment I experienced during the show. The same holds true each time I play the EP at home.

The project is meant to be a kind of musical incantation to ward off “external stimuli that disrupts” our “internal understanding of the current world that we exist in,” according to creator Shaine Barnett. This sparse instrumental EP is under 18 minutes but that doesn’t matter much as it is best left playing on a loop a few times on days when you need to shut out the rest of the world and recalibrate.

—Kevin Flores

Get Me High

by Cameo Adele feat. Joules
Single/Music Video
Premiered: Sept. 16

“You’re as useless, useless, useless

As my cigarette

I’ll still crave it, crave it, crave it

And then I regret, 

Ya never gonna get me high”

Since my first listen to Cameo Adele’s new anti-fuckboy, pro-self love anthem “Get Me High” (a collaboration with the equally talented and vivacious Joules) I had it on repeat, and then, when it’s gorgeous accompanying video dropped last fall, I was obsessed. Calling it like they see it, compassionately yet bluntly letting an undesirable lover know what’s up without apology—I am here for this poetry and this groove. With 40,000 plays on Spotify and 12,000+ views on YouTube, I can see I am not the only one who needed this medicine. Both are brilliant artists in their own right, but Cameo and Joules combining forces creates next-level sisterhood vibrance. And lest it get twisted, despite the title, this song cannot be reduced to some kind of stoner homage. There are layers to this brilliance!  If you have not yet treated yourself to the listening / viewing pleasure, please pause here to go do so… Victor Ujadughele of the Blcknoise is also listed as a co-writer along with Julia Franco. He is the one who introduced me to Cameo’s music a few years ago with his work on her album “To You From Venus.”  

The whole aesthetic of two strong, beautiful women with boldly colored fashion and retro landscapes is stunning and I honestly cannot stop relating to the lyrics. I’m taking notes!

“You’re no good for me, I think you water me down, I refuse to compromise myself and give up my crown.” 

“Cuz you the type to shame other girls for their body hair, but you’re looking like a werewolf, ain’t nobody fucking care.” [New anthem for not giving AF about body hair insecurities! Check the video still with Cameo all unapologetically flashing her armpit hair. I love her!]

“If you could love yourself, you could free yourself, you could be yourself.”

Last note to self: you can tell people they need to love themselves, but don’t waste away on a “plateau” waiting for them to get you high. It’s “time to detoxify.” Keep bumping this jam and sing those fuckboys right on outcha life. 

—Erin Foley

Stepper

by bobby blunders
Single
Released Oct. 21

Have you ever met someone on a dance floor and felt the chemistry between you become so undeniable that you let yourself get swept away in a haze of pheromones? Okay, I may just have watched Dirty Dancing one too many times in my formative years, but Stepper reminds me that body language on the dance floor often tells us much more than words could ever begin to describe. With each listen, whether seeing bobby blunders perform live or when at home listening to their recording, I oblige the catchy hook before I am even conscious that I am moving, “Sometimes you must use your words but right now, use your body, just use your body.”

According to bandleader Jesse Carzello (who also wrote the lyrics and the music), the song is “a respectful dance floor overture to a prospective partner based on a desire for a shared experience.” When Carzello’s lyrics are in the hands of lead vocalist “Pastor” AJ Freeman, the respect he intends is still evident but the sexiness becomes palpable and persuasive especially on the chorus and when Freeman notes their brilliance and how their gaze holds him “just as firmly as [their] arms and legs.” Everything is to be consensual, a shared dance will tell you if there is something there, but stay present, take a chance, don’t think too far ahead, “it doesn’t matter what happens when the night ends.”

The band has gone through a series of evolutions throughout the past decade but seems to just get better and better with age. Refining themselves from a much larger band to a trio through the years has helped them become even more innovative while remaining true to their core of self-described “cosmic comfort music.” The dynamic cohesion of Carzello, Freeman, and multi-instrumentalist Michael J. Salter will have you stepping buoyantly into 2020 and beyond with this gem as well as their more recent single, “Fascination’s Fleeting,” which was released right before Christmas. Each of these songs also had finishing touches put on by a few other talented Long Beachians; both were mixed by Chris Schlarb of Big Ego Studios, mastered by Brian Frederick, and featured artwork by Michael Wysong. “Stepper” also includes drums by Carzello’s longtime friend Ryan Reiff of local band Asi Fui.

—Erin Foley

Home School

DateNite
Released: Dec. 20
EP

I grew up at Das Bunker, an industrial music club in Los Angeles, and as much as I lean more towards the Industrial side of synthpop and darkwave, DateNite’s recent release “Homeschool” has every element I adore about electronic music yet its not industrial. It is full of ethereal vocals, deep synths and manufactured beats, and a rolling, symphonic sound structure. The EP is futuristic and dance-y while still sounding 2019 (perhaps this is the future?), with tracks like “Lychee Beat/Blue” and my personal favorite “In My Heart.” DateNite’s mastermind Jessica Fennelly is not only talented and innovative, she is deeply connected to her craft and daily shares almost every element of her process, mostly on her Instagram @iamdatenite.

—Madison D’Ornellas

Demos
Gunk
Released Dec. 20

Every element of the song “Split Pea Soup” by the new group Gunk encompasses 2019 for me: some parts gruesome and several parts hopeful. Gunk is Izzy Gallishaw, Tyler Spracher, and Jacob Wilson. Their new project snuck up on me (like everyone else?), but their 10-song EP simply titled “Demos” is impressive. No, it’s not just “raw” and “low-fi.” This band is on to something. Their simple electric guitar parts and memorable lyrics are highly emotive, reminding you of all of that good alternative music you heard in early 2000s indie rom-coms. But “Demos” is better, while still proving that sincerity and simplicity can—and will always-—work. I can’t wait to see these folks live.

—Madison D’Ornellas