Kevin Bronson on May 15th, 2014

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As long as there is California, songwriters will be penning paeans to the West Coast dream. And so it goes with the Canyon Rays, named as an homage to Laurel Canyon and sounding every bit as sunny as a beach. The band is the work of songwriter Luke Hamel, who debuted last December with a Christmas EP. One of EP’s four songs, “Like a Sunburn,” will appear in the forthcoming short film “Mandroid,” directed by Victoria Rose and executive produced by James Franco. Hamel, meanwhile, is at work on the Canyon Rays’ full-length, “West Coast Babes.” The synth-propelled first single “Teenage Bliss” would have been right at home in the early New Wave, and the song gets a trippy video treatment from director Yoshi Sodeoka. Top down, sunglasses on, radio up.

||| Stream: “Teenage Bliss”