Lomita

Artist: Lomita
Album: Stress Echo
Lomita's nine-song debut plays out like a deep-fried dark night of the soul. The Austin quintet's gritty concoction of tripped-out twang, whiskey-bent trash rock, and Idiot-era Iggy Pop emerges almost fully fanged. The Pavement-flavored "I Got a Feeling" starts Stress Echo out on a jagged pop precipice that could go either way before the dilated warble of "Venom Flash" heralds the crossover into a David Lynch-directed universe of confounding high loneliness.
- The Austin Chronicle; Writer: Greg Beets

Few bands arrive on the scene fully-formed, self-assured and ready for loads of inevitable praise....Lomita is one of these rare bands.
A band with more ideas than time to execute them, Lomita is a seemingly endless pool of talent and creativity that knows no boundaries. They do whatever style of music they feel like doing and pull it off with every song, forming an unlikely cohesive whole. “More Than A Name” is a Black Heart Procession-style dirge while “History Of Leaving” is Summerteeth-era Wilco pop rave-up, complete with soulful vocal harmonies and gloriously sloppy horns. Their crowd-favourite “Mr. Execution” hits hard with thumping bass and dance beats while layered guitar melodies and silky vocals recall Interpol or the Pretty In Black-style Raveonettes. They pull off every style and every song with unerring grace - it shouldn’t make sense,
but somehow it does. They are the lucky (i.e. incredibly talented) band who can perform on nearly any type of bill and fit in, at least for a few songs.
The band, a scant 6 months old, astutely describes their recently self-released record Stress Echo as “a good blend of Big Star’s Third Sisters Lovers mixed with Loveless guitar textures”. Given the right amount of luck and publicity, the record could escalate the band into very deserved next-big-thing status, despite the fact that they are not a one-trick-pony like so many other flavors of the month.
Currently, the band is solidifying West Coast tour dates for May and working on releasing a limited edition 7” vinyl (May 2006, Indierect Records) to bridge the gap to a follow-up full-length CD to be released later in the year. Count yourself lucky to catch them at this point in the band’s career.
– Chris Martin - The Austin Independent

A lot of Austin bands aim to blend country and rock, but none go about it quite the way Lomita does – that is to say with washed out guitars and layers and layers of shoegazer synthesizers and feedback, all echoing a decidedly vintage ambience.
The band constructs songs in a way that ignores, and sometimes breaks, traditional genre. Hints of indie rock like
Slowdive and Sonic Youth, the 1970s style pop rock of Big Star, and the country-rock of yesteryear flood listeners’ eardrums all at once, making Lomita a most intriguing listen. Though the band has only been together for a year, their unique approach to genre and sound has turned heads and garnered attention from local publications, industry, and fans alike.
“Jonas gave me Big Star’s Third/Sister Lovers, and I gave him Gram Parsons and The Byrds,” is guitarist/vocalist Ricky Sowan’s explanation of the record swap that lead to the band’s founding. “We don’t sound like any other band in town,” Sowan continues, “and I can say that with confidence.” And of course, he could not be more correct. (What bands do you know that boast Gram Parsons and PJ Harvey as influences?). Boothill Graveyard, and the seminal Texas band, Lift To Experience. Borrowing their name from a sign in Jonas’s backyard for “The Lomita Opry House,” the band started playing out last year and was immediately embraced by a strong community of fellow local acts such as Brothers And Sisters, The Arm, and Ghostland Observatory.
“All the bands we know and hang out with all are completely different yet we help each other out in every way we can.”
This young band already has one record under their belt – 2005’s Stress Echo – and another the shift. But while the new record is still in production, a 7” vinyl record is expected to be released by late May on Austin’s
Indierect records to provide a bridge between the two CDs.
For now, experiencing the band’s live show is the only immediate consolation for eager fans. When asked what people should expect when seeing Lomita in concert, the band answers confidently: “Good songs, good players, and enormous sound.
– Franklin Morris - Study Breaks

Although bands inevitably will continue to try, it seems nearly impossible to really blend rock and country sounds without being an imposter but Austin’s Lomita have not only reconciled those two genres but have expanded their sound to incorporate sub-genres thereof, creating a wholly unique sound worthy of every non-partisan music fan’s palette.
Stress Echo, the band’s debut release, showcases their diverse tastes as the record flows from the catchy roadhouse pop anthems of “I Got a Feeling” and “History of Leaving” to the 100 mile-speed train rock of “Green Eyes” to the Billy Idol-esque dance floor disaster freak-out of “Mr. Execution,” finally winding down into the depraved depths of “Panic” which starts off with creepy meloncholly wails and dead ends into a cacophonous explosion of buildups and teardowns that will make you feel like you’re in a ragtop Cadillac screaming through the desert with a loaded gun sitting on the front seat next to your bottle of Jameson.
The band consists of five expert musicians who have a well of ideas, a massive library of influences, and know what to do with their instruments and recording equipment. As icing on the cake, Lomita can pull off their layered compositions live as well as they have on their record so catch a show in the near future and grab a copy of Stress Echo which is sure to wear your CD player out.
– Anatol Ziege - Austin Music Magazine

Ray Jackson (Richard Sowan) and his compatriots from Lomita started off with the straightforward intentions of being a country band. Like greedy kids in a candy store, Lomita’s hunger for multiple genre num-nums caused them to branch out and create music that combines ambient tones with pseudo-psychedelia and pedal- and lap steel-aided riffs, which give the band a twanged-out indie rock flavor. Think of the band as a darker version of Pavement.

Lomita’s aptly titled debut album, Stress Echo, features nine perpetually pensive tracks, including the dissonant but beautiful “More Than a Name” and the tremolo-fueled, punkabilly-meets-LSD “History of Leaving.” The best track, however, is probably the hard-charging “Green Eyes,” which sounds like background music for a desperate fool running from a huge mistake that he knows will catch up with him sooner or later. (Think Adam Sandler’s character sprinting from thugs in Punch Drunk Love. )

These Austinites have won praise from their hometown paper (the Austin Chronicle) and have headed out on a tour of the western part of the country that finds them playing Burt’s Tiki Lounge this Saturday. Local indie rockers The MindySet will join Lomita at the Lounge. - Albuquerque Alibi, Simon McCormack