Assembly of Mazes

On The Rag Zine (01/2005)

"Thanks to everyone who came out and supported the Rock n Roll Camp for Girls' Benefit show last night at Back to the Grind. It was a very eclectic group of bands. Each was finely tuned to the genre of punk that they played. Castration Anxiety played their attitude-filled street style punk rock. The ScanDells were rocking like early Lookout Records' Donnas. The Hitchhikers rock out hard delivering their pure rock n roll style of punk rock. Holy Hydraulics put full heart into their performance rocking like the Pixies and old PJ Harvey, getting the crowd to wiggle their booties. The Willowz arrived just in time to play and produced the first pit of the night, as well as a lot of comic relief between songs. We (aonhc) played next. We appreciated the enthusiastic pit and had a blast. It was great to see some friends we hadn't seen for quite some time. Finally, Squab blew everyone's mind. The last time I saw this band they were a basic three piece electro-punk outfit. Now they are geared up for full effect and none of it is fluff. They are a four piece now with a trombone playing/gypsy-esque singer. I was left impressed. Tina Bold and Stephanie Sanchez put the benefit on and are to be commended for their effort and commitment to young women getting ready to rock out. To find out more about the Rock n Roll Camp for Girls see www.girlsrockcamp.org. To find out more about Tina Bold's weekly radio show on KUCR see www.submerge411.com. Thanks for reading."

See you in the pit. -Renae


squab :: press

THE VILLAGE VOICE (01/2004)
Los Angeles. Frank Black waited there in the pouring sun. Xzibit saw the city burn. Exene Cervenka found it hard to say goodbye. Now a bunch of kids from the O.C. want to terminate Governatorville and rebuild it into a New Punk Nation, the kind of place where you fuck up your face just skateboarding over the amps. The back-to-Cali basement party Let's Get Rid of L.A. echoes with the last la-las in la-la land: Squab make Slant 6 sound like doo-wop for the do-me set; the Flash Express beat Jack White until he's black and blue; and the Starvations point a trigger finger at the Clash, drop a word on their tongue, and blow it through the back of their skull. The new sound of the City of Angels is a greaser stomp that speaks of the devil. You can hear it in the album booklet, which features interviews with label owners, radio DJs, rock writers, and bands who helped create the scene, all discussing the post-afterbar moments when you drive your stinkin' Lincoln to Dunkin' Donuts and drink your breakfast as the sun goes down. The specter of '77 still haunts Darby Crash's hometown, but the album gives you hope that maybe the Germs were contagious.
-- Melissa Maerz


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Yell Magazine (November, 2003) People: Featured : EXCERPT:....."Y!: What is the vision/goal for the band?
S: hmmm the vision!: well in my opinion... well my goal anyways.. & i do hope the girls feel the same way.. ( i think they do too..) is to be able to reach everyone's hearts... i want our music
( because music means so much to me) to reach in & grab hold of people's hearts.. i want it to move them, whether it be emotionally, politically, or even sexually.... ;) - hey, STS from the haggard did say our music was great music to make out too... hahhaa!!

[Y!]


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Portland Mercury (March 20, 2003) Up & Coming - This Week's Music Picks
THE CIRCUIT SIDE, SQUAB, HALF-SEAS-OVER (Meow Meow) Radio Sloan doesn't need much introduction in Portland. She shredded for The Need and with lots of other NW luminaries long enough to make any PDX appearance a good excuse to throw up the old devil horns in salute. Her latest incarnation, The Circuit Side, is a quartet that boasts an indie metal aesthetic that looks like Karp, sounds like the Fucking Champs, and carries The Need's sci-fi metal vision into a war-torn future rife with double bass, medieval interludes, casiotones, and understated melodic vox. Main support Squab are four ladies from L.A. that use synths and a double drummer attack to make you dance so hard that you won't have time to scratch your head and wonder how an original sound came from such a homogenous environment. Kentucky heroines Half-Seas-Over do the wav-o party thing over beats Devo wore out well before Whip It.

-- Nathan Carson


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- Squabmusic

[Sprawl of Sound] Hommes & Femmes Vitales
By DAVE SEGAL Thursday, Jul 24 2008
Hommes & Femmes Vitales
Assembly of Mazes, DJ Oldboy, the Blank Tapes

FEMMES VITALES
A friend tipped me off about Assembly of Mazes after she had a chance meeting in Long Beach with the LBC/LA trio's vocalist/trombonist/percussionist, Elle M. Thus informed, I made a beeline for AOM's MySpace page and became enchanted with their skewed take on jazz-inflected electronic music—decidedly not what I expect when I encounter an all-female group in 2008 (nor, for that matter, an all-male band).

AOM currently have three tracks up at www.myspace.com/assemblyofmazes, and they've sparked my desire to see them live. "Distraction" features what sounds like a pitch-shifted Tuvan throat singer's busted-synthesizer voice and a woozy trombone line wavering over drummer LaDawn Best's skewed disco beats. "Stitched" casts a mesmerizing spell with its unobvious machine-funk beats; noir-jazz trombone sighs; Elle's foreboding, drama-queen crooning; and Tracy Jupiter's spine-chilling keyboards. "Mazes" combines loping funk with an ominous lurch, buttressed with a trombone repetitively moaning counterpoint to Elle's impassioned Siouxsie Sioux-like warble. It's hypnotic and compelling in that archetypal early-'80s post-punk way of many New York and British groups.
There can't be many bands around here doing what AOM are doing, and for that sort of maverick spirit, I salute them.


- OC Weekly