Los Angeles-based Family Band The Rebel Light Unleash The Beach Boys & Shins-leaning "Strangers" (Bandcamp, self-released)
"'Strangers" was definitely inspired by our time living in California. We wanted it to sound like how California feels to us... portray that image of quintessential California, which sometimes can simply be that girl in a sundress with that pretty California smile," LA-based Indie Pop trio The Rebel Light previously told The Line of Best Fit. Brothers Alan & Jarrett Stell and their cousin Brandon Cooke have already been compared to the likes of The Shins, Grizzly Bear, The Beach Boys, Todd Rundgren, Ariel Pink, The Doors, and The 5th Dimension during their brief tenure. The Rebel Light's latest self-released single, "Strangers" "was recorded at home, with the vocals being laid down in the bathroom and the drum parts recorded in a wood shed," according to UK-based Clash magazine. It would appear as though The Rebel Light have managed to garner a considerable following across the pond, ironically, wherein many of the sun-drenched 1960-70's Psych-Rock/Pop bands that initially inspired them in fact, hailed from.
"Strangers'" recently-released companion music video was directed by one-time director assistant Spencer Hord, whom compiled and re-edited footage from five assorted video/short films under a Creative Commons Attribution license: "from LA to LA," "Canon EOS 1D C Cinema EOS Camera Test Footage Lens: EF 16-35mm 1:2.8 L II USM," "Luca Vasta - Black Tears White Lies," "an ODE to LOVE," and last but not least, "Underwater." Hord was able to freely sample and effectively assemble a unique video treatment for "Strangers," which resembles a dusty old worn out cut-and-pasted home video-reminiscent family VHS tape. While there are currently no signs of a proper full-length album, prior to "Strangers," The Rebel Light unleashed similar-minded Monkees-evocative "Jukebox Dream" and slightly more Indie Rock-sounding 5-track The Rebel Light EP, which featured their radio-friendly 2014 single, "Wake Up Your Mind."