RAYS (3)

When they formed, Oakland, California's Rays mixed the scrappy D.I.Y. sound of '70s punk and early-'80s post-punk with the impassioned, unpolished melancholy of early Flying Nun bands to come up with their art-damaged songs. Their self-titled debut was recorded as a quintet, but soon afterward they added keyboards and shifted from lo-fi punk to more measured D.I.Y. sounds reminiscent of mid-'80s U.K. bands like Cleaners from Venus and the Pastels, as evidenced by their second release, 2018's You Can Get There from Here. The band was formed in late 2014 by bassist/vocalist Eva Hannan, guitarist/vocalist/violinist Stanley Martinez and drummer Alexa Pantalone. They were later joined by Troy Hewitt, member of Bay Area punk band, Life Stinks, which later included Pantalone. Hewitt soon switched from keyboards to guitar and the band played the Bay Area constantly while honing their sound and recording demos. In 2016, they hooked up with local hero Kelley Stoltz to record their first album. The band made more space for the incorporation of noisy, experimental synthesizers and blasts of dissonant violin into the rough-edged punk songs. The resulting self-titled album was mixed and mastered by Total Control's Mikey Young and released by Trouble in Mind early in 2017. (At the same time, Pantalone and Martinez were both playing in the post-punk group the World as well as in the noise punk band Violent Change. When Rays hit the road after the album's release they did it with a new member in tow, keyboardist Britta Leijonflycht. She was on board when they recorded their second album, again with the team of Stoltz and Young, and the addition of her vintage sounds mixed with a more precise mix helped open up the band's sound. The much more melodic and indie pop-adjacent You Can Get There from Here was released by Trouble in Mind in late 2018.