Electric Flower: Local Band We Love

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The band Electric Flower formed in an elevator. Seriously.

Okay, let me back up a bit… In 2006, Imaad Wasif and Josh Garza were in London’s BBC studio for a Top Of The Pops performance where they got stuck in an elevator. A chance meeting, but one that was easy to remember. Three years later they met up in LA and began jamming for real. Electric Flower was born.

Electric Flower has a massive sound for a duo. Imaad Wasif has performed with many bands over the past 15 years including lowercase, Folk Implosion and alaska!, as well as a touring member of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and co-writer with Karen O for the “Where The Wild Things Are” soundtrack. Josh Garza is the muscular drummer that propels the driving sounds of the band Secret Machines. From their past projects, the two seem perfectly suited to each other to create the heaviness that is Electric Flower.

Stream “4:16”

Back in November 2011, their first EP was released on Narnack Records. It features a myriad of styles molded into one creating a killer unique sound that is all their own. I hear a lot of different influences in their music, but they don’t really sound like any one else.

They’re also one of those duos that sound like they’re a five piece. Huge drums and massive guitars tear through the two minutes and thirty five seconds that is the first track on the EP, “4:16”. They back off the intensity slightly for the second track “Faces”, and “Circles” combines the two for a track that reminds me a bit of the second lowercase album “Kill The Lights” from the mid 90s.

I always tend to make room for great rock records on my shelf (seems like there are fewer and fewer good ones every year) and I’m creating a little gap between Electric Eels and Electric Light Orchestra for the Electric Flower full length due out some time in 2012.

Get the EP and more when Electric Flower plays at the Echoplex this Friday, January 6 with Black Flamingo, Crooked Cowboy, Batwings Catwings and another of my favorite new LA bands that I stumbled upon last year, NO.

See you Friday.

Chuck P.