Photo by Mara Breene
On July 30th L.A. band Death Valley Girls will reissue their 2014 debut LP Street Venom on vinyl. The re-release will land as a deluxe edition via Suicide Squeeze.
Along with the announcement of the reissue, Death Valley Girls have also shared a new video for their track ‘Sanitarium Blues’. Directed by Wiktor Lekston, the visuals are a collage of trippy, psychedelic visuals that represent a form of astral projection.
Regarding the track, Death Valley Girls’ Bonnie
“When I was a kid, I ended up in a mental institution after trying to finish my life! I eventually found out that I am bipolar and extremely empathetic. Life just got too intense/scary to know how to deal with alone! I didn’t know how to get help or that help would work.
(P.S. There are lots of places to get help. It just seems hard to find sometimes. I’m so glad I found it and stuck with it:)
I haven’t ever talked about this because I felt really guilty for hurting my family and friends. I’ve tried to make up for that by trying to make people feel good and steering people’s attention to things that will help them and away from sadness or scary things! But now I realize talking about my experience is just as helpful as perpetuating joy! Life is hard, but you are not meant to suffer. You are here to be the most and fullest you possible.
Realizing that you are not meant to suffer (no one is!) and seeking help is so huge. Do it ‘cause you deserve it! A healthy you can change the world! And the world deserves your healthiest you, too 🙂
This song is about my stay at the institution!
The combination of stuff I do that is currently keeping me alive/balanced is taking antidepressants, walking a lot, meditating, therapy, plant medicine, space from humans, and my dog.”
Touching on the video, Wiktor Lekston said:
“The idea for the music video from the girls was the astral project. I did not want to convey it directly. I focused on being a prisoner in my own maze called the body. In the video, you can see surreal and psychedelic inspirations. Thanks to the feedback signals, the video was made in analog and is a bit like POST-MTV’s clips from the 80s, but that’s my style.”