THE PARANOYDS

Los Angeles punk quartet The Paranoyds come to The Shacklewell Arms on 2nd May 2020 for a free show. Their revelry and revulsion has been channeled into their debut album Carnage Bargain—a raucous blend of garage rock grit, new wave swagger, classic horror film soundtrack campiness, and a myriad of other left-of-center influences.

It’s ironic that the band’s moniker winds up being an apt summary of the band’s general outlook on technology and modern culture given that The Paranoyds’ humble beginnings can be traced back to a friendship forged between Staz Lindes (bass/vocals) and Laila Hashemi (keys/vocals) over Myspace in their early teens. Bonded by a shared interest in local underground music, the pair eventually moved their online friendship into the real world. Laila’s childhood friend Lexi was brought into the fold and the first vestiges of The Paranoyds began to take shape. “We would all go to our friends’ shows and it hit us that we could start a band and play shows too,” Funston says. With the addition of drummer David Ruiz in 2015, the band found the perfect personnel for their sonic balance of jubilant energy and foreboding undercurrents. Carnage Bargain captures this chemistry perfectly—channeling the genre-mashing weirdness of guitar-and-keyboard provocateurs like The Intelligence on tracks like “Laundry,” the fever-dream kitsch of early B-52s on “Ratboy,” krautrock’s motorik groove on “Hungry Sam”, and the beguiling pop of Blondie on the sweet-and-salty highlight “Courtney.”

Presented by Bad Vibrations

This is an 18+ event. (Photo ID Required)