Dead Sara

Remember this name:  Emily Armstrong.  She is the front woman for new L.A. rock band, Dead Sara, touring now with Chevelle, opening for The Used beginning next week, and later joining the Vans Warped Tour.  That's two stops in Orlando over the next three months.  May have to pull some strings and try to catch their set.  I want to hear Armstrong's voice in a live setting but I'm too old to want to deal with young headbangers/slamdancers (I promise, HOB, I'll just stand meekly off to the side and then slip quietly away when they're finished). 

I was alerted to the band by fellow CSMS employee, Kim S., as she was turned on to it by one of her young-buck friends.  It was a live video of this song...



Should be on every radio station that professes to be "rock."  Tell me you don't hear Melissa Etheridge in the vocal and I'll call you a liar.  Musically, the album favors other L.A. and CA bands like Rage Against The Machine, Janes Addiction, Guns N' Roses, and hints of Dredg.  I kept thinking to myself that Jack White would like Armstrong since she shares the looks, ferocity and range of Alison Mosshart from his side project, Dead Weather.  Other documented fans of Dead Sara are Courtney Love and Grace Slick.  The band has been known to cover a Nirvana song or three. 

To highlight the diversity of this group, I offer another of the best tracks...



Surprised you, didn't it?  I'm telling you, the girl is a STAR!  Whether it's with this band or later down the line, Ms. Armstrong will be around for a while.  The rest of the band is quite adequate in their own right.  The female guitarist is Siouxsie Medley (methinks stage name) and she powers through with the best of them, but that really doesn't say much as I believe the era of great rock and roll is long gone. 

It takes quite a lot to impress the jaded, old MAD ROCKER enough to keep a new rock band these days, so the whole album won't make the collection, but these two tracks and two others will.  But I have found a star that I expect to shine brightly for years to come...