S.Lo on October 27th, 2018

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Earth Is a Death Star (EiaDS) began as an experimental electronic project about four years ago by lead vocalist/guitarist Danny Louangxay after his former bands Tinylittle and Brannigans Law came to an abrupt end. Along the way, the multi-instrumentalist performed drumming duties for Ramonda Hammer. Though he occasionally still plays in a few friends’ bands, he’s lately focused his energies back on EiaDS with Brannigans Law’s William Ascencio on drums, Sean Okaguchi on bass and Luis Alarcon also on guitar. After about a year of polishing their sound at various small venues around town, the group was asked by Mellowdrone to open for them at the Teragram Ballroom. 

Opportunity breeds even more focus and the band have recorded and produced their first EP, “TDH,” as a full band using secondhand recording gear in one of their bedrooms. What resulted is a mix of the indie sensitivities of Sebadoh, dream-pop imbued with the fatalistic hopefulness of millennials and a healthy dash of punk rock. The collection begins quietly with the song, “Clean (I’m Not Perfect)” wherein Louangxay sings with naked honesty about confronting situations unburdened and getting used to walking his own path, “I’ll go as far as I can go till life comes crashing down / I’ll go as far as I can go till I come crashing down.” The band then builds steam on “Tall, Dark, & Handsome,” a shoegaze rocker about watching superficial people live out their dreams (epidemic around Los Angeles, we hear). “I’m Not Coming Back” is a defiant punk song, recorded roughly with a challenging meter and solid wall of guitars. In closing, “Lost Record” blows out our eardrums in full power chord assault with melodic abandon akin to X.

||| Stream: “TDH”

||| Live: Earth Is a Death Star open for Mellowdrone tonight with Avid Dancer. The show is all ages. Tickets