Kevin Bronson on March 26th, 2020

0

L.A. quintet Small Planets first charted their orbit after attending the 2015 Slowdive concert at the Theatre at Ace Hotel — which, if your thing is post-punk, shoegaze and the constellation of related music, is not a bad place to blast off.

The band — initially guitarist Jeff Love, bassist Josh Spincic and drummer Phil Drazic on drums and later adding singer Jessica Hernandez and guitarist Ryan Silo — released their self-titled album last year. It was made at L.A.’s Cave Studios with engineer Josiah Mazzaschi and mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Andy Walter at Abbey Road.

“Small Planets” mixes propulsive rockers (think Interpol) with dark, dreamier tracks such as “E,” a song that gets a makeover on the new EP that Small Planets will release on Friday. The new version of “E” was recorded and mastered by Slowdive’s Simon Scott, and in its new incarnation the song becomes a fuzz bomb, with Hernandez’s vocals rising like steam from a lava flow of distortion. “In the shadow of life /
lives a light shining bright,” Hernandez sings sanguinely.

Small Planets are using the song to raise money for the L.A. nonprofit The Sidewalk Project — a portion of the proceeds from the song (and the TBA release show) will benefit the organization, which uses art, music and film to create community and wellness for those who live outdoors.

“‘E’ is truly about taking ownership of your next steps and not letting past mistakes define your future,” Love says. “It’s literally all about hope, which I feel ties well into the overall theme of this release — helping and raising awareness to the homeless crisis that Los Angeles is currently facing.”

The video drives home the point.

||| Watch: The video for “E”

||| Also: Stream 2019’s “Small Planets” in its entirety