Premiere: 3LH, ‘Memory’

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3LH

The music of Orange County quartet 3LH sounds lifted from the pages of Southern California history, a high-octane mix of surf- and garage rock for fast cars and fast friends … and anybody who feels a tingle in their spine when they hear guitar licks reverberating into the night.

The group started in Garden Grove as a three-piece (3LH is short for “three-legged horse”) and is now the work of singer-guitarist Rafa Heredia, keyboardist-guitarist Johnny Villanueva, drummer Kevin Carranza and bassist Favian Vega. They paid their dues over the past five or so years in the Latino punk/DIY scene, and last fall they joined the roster of the Latinx-focused My Grito, a fledgling label from Rob Castellon and Oscar Toledo of Wiretap Records. (Check out the label’s charity compilation from last October, “Mas Alto!”)

As the quartet builds toward releasing a full-length album this spring, 3LH this week releases the new single “Memory,” a high-RPM rocker recalling the likes of the Growlers and Tijuana Panthers, if a little more beholden to the past.

“‘Memory’ feels like a drag race that slingshots the listener into a wave of recollection of past relationships that linger in the mind and can’t seem to fade away,” Heredia says. “The song to me is a sound of both chaos and peace of mind. The high energy takes a dive at the song’s psychedelic interlude, which for me adds a sense of story arc to the piece. The ambient tones and trading guitar leads all add up to a feeling of reflection before the song explodes into the outro.”

Pay attention to the speed limit …. or don’t.

||| Stream: “Memory”

||| Also: Check out “Here’s Johnny” and “Don’t Wanna Hold Your Hand”