If any subject has inspired more art than love, we’d like to know what it is … next time. For now, we’re running with Cupid’s prolific starring role — in the Vegas music scene specifically. Eric Duran-Valle, musician and regular Desert Companion contributor, and Gaby Davila Ortiz, founder of local zine Astr0Mag, share the local love songs they’re loving lately.
High Sierra Club
Choice Track: “Write You a Letter”
This pop-punk band delivers a high-energy, head-banging track infused with the unmistakable DNA of blue album-era Weezer. In the age of instant messaging, read receipts, and ghosting, is there anything more romantic than someone willing to send you snail mail? Anyone who knows me well can probably figure out where I stand. I also don’t think I’ve heard any song use a “SpongeBob SquarePants” quote as a segue into a guitar solo, and I hate how well it works here. – Eric Duran-Valle
Rhaina Yasmin
Choice Track: “Into Dust “
“Into Dust” goes a different direction when it comes to the traditional love song. Like other Rhaina Yasmin songs, this one is nostalgic. With a tenderness to her voice, she reflects on a life she once knew while facing the uncertainty of the future. This rock ballad is a love song to the self, to who we are, to who we’re becoming, and to all the other elements that shape us. – Gaby Davila Ortiz
Past Self
Choice Track: “불꽃으로” (“Bulkkoch Eulo”)
K-goth, post-punk band Past Self tells a tale of love amid the chaos of political strife with “Bulkkoch Eulo.” It’s hypnotic and danceable, with the synth masking the reality of this romantic tragedy. Its lyrics describe laying down your life for the one you love because, rest assured, soulmates find each other in every lifetime. What’s more romantic than that? – GDO
TheRedSea
Choice Track: “Gate of Tears”
With the reunion of My Bloody Valentine in 2007 and Slowdive in 2014, the shoegaze subgenre of indie rock had a significant renaissance in the late 2010s and early 2020s. “Gate Of Tears” carries on the genre’s angsty tradition with wobbly yet relaxing guitar solos, while also injecting a slight dance flavor with a spacey synth. This ballad about lost love has no antagonist, but rather two wayward souls navigating a wide gulf. – EDV
Sabriel
Choice Track: “figgypom”
In our modern day of situationships and heartbreak, Sabriel writes a prayer for love. Inspired by Prince’s “The Beautiful Ones,” Sabriel uses double entendres to beg for a love so pure it almost seems like a fantasy. Her spoken word vocals over distorted instruments lure you in as she yearns to be seen “from the inside” by a future lover. – GDO
Baby Moon
Choice Track: “Twin Flames”
When people grow out of using the term, “soulmate,” but still want a title for a helplessly romantic connection, they go with twin flame. The lyrics of singer-songwriter Nataly Correa’s (aka Baby Moon’s) “Twin Flames” dance between lovestruck, erotic, and desperate. The voice in this track seems self-aware of her sentimental gushing over a lover, but the sultry hook of the song makes clear that she’s in too much ecstasy to care. – EDV
