2023 finds Deap Vally reclaiming its legacy anew – even as the band concludes the journey it began just over a decade ago. Not long after a chance meeting in a knitting class, the duo of Julie Edwards (drums and vocals) and Lindsey Troy (guitar and vocals) unleashed Deap Vally’s first release, 2012’s ferocious “Gonna Make My Own Money” single, on the tiny U.K. indie, Ark Recordings. From that auspicious launch, Deap Vally went on to spawn three albums of powerful, idiosyncratic, maximally minimalist rock – SISTRIONIX (2013), Nick Zinner-produced FEMEJISM (2016), and MARRIAGE (2021) – that played by their own rules. That was in addition to the L.A.-based group’s groundbreaking collaborations spanning the likes of Peaches, Jamie KT Tunstall, Jamie Hince and Soko, even an entire joint album recorded with Flaming Lips (DEAP LIPS, 2020) – all while sharing stages on numerous tours, shows, and festivals with Blondie, Garbage, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Queens of the Stone Age, among other notables.

During this vibrant, turbulent era, however – as the music industry dropped new artist-unfriendly disruptions on the regular, all while daily life brought on challenges spanning pandemics to pregnancies – the members of Deap Vally found themselves struggling to fit into a now-obsolete recording and touring cycle. “That model isn’t compatible with our current lives,” Troy notes. ““We found we just can’t function as a traditional band anymore,” Edwards continues. “It was time for both of us to explore motherhood and other aspects of our lives and ambitions properly, rather than fitting it into our careers.”

To commemorate its swan-song moment, Deap Vally will perform a series of final concert appearances, as well as release a dynamic re-recorded version of its debut LP, entitled SISTRIONIX 2.0, on the band’s own Deap Vally Records – allowing its next evolution to happen unburdened by expectation. “We’re just going to go to play as many places as we can and say farewell to everyone,” Edwards says. “Though the band is playing live for the last time, the door is open to us to collaborate. Now we’re all about re-establishing a workflow and connection around our friendship, after all we’ve shared together along the way.”

“I’m so proud of all our records, and Julie and I have an uncanny creative relationship,” Troy adds. “It’s hard to ever picture having that with someone else. After all that, ya never know what could happen! We need to find the balance where we can focus on the fun stuff, but have the freedom to make the music we love. We just felt it would be fitting to go out with a bang, not a whimper. I felt marking this occasion should be a cathartic process: healing deep wounds, reconnecting with old friends and collaborators – and falling in love with Deap Vally all over again.” – Matt Diehl

Discography
SISTRIONIX 2.0 (2024, Deap Vally Records)
‘Supernatural’ Single (2021, Deap Vally Records)
MARRIAGE (2021, Cooking Vinyl)
Digital Dream EP (2021, Cooking Vinyl)
American Cockroach EP (2021, Cooking Vinyl)
Deap Lips (2020, Cooking Vinyl)
‘Bring it On’ + ‘Get Gone’ Singles (2018, HundredUp/ Deap Vally Records) Femejism Unplugged EP (2016, Cooking Vinyl/ Nevado)
FEMEJISM (2016, Cooking Vinyl/ Nevado)
SISTRIONIX (2013, Interscope/ Cherry Tree)
Get Deap EP (2013, Interscope/ Cherry Tree)
‘Gonna Make My Own Money’ Single (2012, Ark Recordings)

Sloppy Jane’s theatrical avant-punk began in explosive fashion on the proto- and post-punk-informed Sure-Tuff EP in 2015. They recorded as a four-piece that included Phoebe Bridgers on bass. By Sloppy Jane’s second full-length, the 2021 concept album Madison, project leader Haley Dahl was setting her volatile relationship songs to a 21-piece blended rock band and chamber orchestra. Following a three-year search for just the right acoustics, Madison was tracked underground at the Lost World Caverns in West Virginia.

New York-born Haley Dahl began performing under the Sloppy Jane moniker as a young teen in Los Angeles, where she spent most of her childhood. After racking up shows with her friends on the Sunset Strip, she decided to forego college to focus on music, and found work as a dancer at a strip club to make ends meet. It was during this time that she developed the performative aspect of Sloppy Jane.

One of the steadier bandmembers in early iterations of the band was drummer Imogen Teasley-Vlautin, who appeared on Sloppy Jane’s debut EP, Sure-Tuff, alongside guitarist/backing vocalist Sara Catherine and bassist/backing vocalist Phoebe Bridgers . The cassette version arrived on Lolipop Records in 2015.

Sloppy Jane’s debut album, the self-released Willow, was recorded by Joel Jerome ( Cherry Glazer , Tashaki Miyaki ) in Los Angeles, with Dahl and Sara Catherine both playing multiple instruments. With guests on strings, it reflected a shift toward more playful, theatrical songs involving instruments like glockenspiel and flexatone, spoken word samples, and crowd noise. Dahl moved back to her native New York before the album’s release in March of 2018. By that time, she had also begun to explore an idea for a concept album based on fantasy relationships that she intended to record in a cave.

With her co-producers Al Nardo, Mika Lungulov-Klotz, and Jack Wetmore, Dahl scouted various caverns across the U.S. that might suit the material she was writing for a 21-piece rock orchestra. (Dahl learned how to notate music during this time.) In the meantime, she continued to perform regularly, including a month-long residency at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn in 2019. The Sloppy Jane team eventually found the perfect spot at Lost World Caverns in West Virginia and spent two weeks recording daily between the late afternoon and early morning hours, with engineer Ryan Howe wired to a mixing board in a car 90 feet above them. The completed Madison was released on Phoebe Bridgers ’ Saddest Factory Records in November 2021. ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi