Allah-Las

The Allah-Las emerged from the shared enthusiasm of several Los Angeles record-store staffers drawn to relaxed 1960s recordings that bordered on dreamlike psychedelic textures. The quartet captured the atmosphere of idle, sun-drenched West Coast afternoons devoted to strumming and soft vocal blends. Their opening pair of LPs leaned heavily on surf aesthetics, yet the 2016 release Calico Review substituted a measure of that reverb for a swagger reminiscent of the Rolling Stones. On their fourth album, Lahs, the group moved further beyond their Southern California garage roots by weaving in global influences while retaining an overall air of unhurried repose. With the 2023 album Zuma 85 they expanded their methods still more, revising their songwriting habits and drawing on 1970s art-pop and Krautrock currents.

The band formed around lead vocalist and guitarist Miles Michaud, lead guitarist and vocalist Pedrum Siadatian, bassist and vocalist Spencer Dunham, and drummer and vocalist Matthew Correia. In 2008 three of the four members were employed at the Los Angeles branch of the historic Amoeba store, where they immersed themselves in garage and psychedelic material from the 1960s. Their style fuses British Invasion harmonies and hooks, the atmospheric haze of West Coast psychedelic acts, and the unvarnished drive of American garage bands. A 2011 debut single, “Catamaran” backed with “Long Journey,” appeared on the Pres label under the production of Nick Waterhouse, a friend and advocate of vintage soul sounds. The partnership persisted in 2012 when Innovative Leisure, Waterhouse’s new imprint, issued two further singles: a split release that included the Allah-Las track “(Tell Me) What’s on Your Mind” and a follow-up pairing that song with “Sacred Sands.”

The self-titled debut album, again produced by Waterhouse, arrived in September of that year and gathered the earlier singles alongside nine additional tracks. After extensive touring the group returned to the studio with Waterhouse for a second collection of languid garage-psych atmospheres; Worship the Sun was released in September 2014, once more on Innovative Leisure. For the next project the band worked at the reopened Valentine Recording Studios, a facility once used by the Beach Boys and Stan Kenton that had closed in the late 1970s. As one of the first acts to employ the refurbished gear, they issued Calico Review in September 2016 on Mexican Summer. The following year they launched Covers, Vol. 1, the initial installment in a series of EPs devoted to their wide-ranging influences.

Extensive international touring during this period exposed the musicians to fresh sounds and perspectives. Their next recorded appearance came on the soundtrack to the 2019 surf documentary Self-Discovery for Social Survival. Later that year their fourth album, Lahs, emerged; working with producer Jarvis Taveniere, the group incorporated impressions gathered on the road, introducing elements of soul, Brazilian psych, and extended Dead-style jamming into their psychedelic framework. After the album’s release the band paused activities, partly owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and partly to allow for creative recalibration. When they reconvened they adopted a more open-ended songwriting process built on loose sketches rather than finished arrangements. This collective approach proved stimulating and led them into unexplored territory. The 2023 album Zuma 85 reflected the shift through songs that incorporated touches of avant-pop figures such as Roxy Music and John Cale alongside understated references to Japanese city pop, loner folk, and 1970s Krautrock.