10 Great L.A. Bands You’ve Never Heard of, According to Bart Davenport of Reunited Cali Natives The Loved Ones

Adoring fans of ’90s blues bands – whether their fingertips are calloused from rifling through LPs in bins at record store shops or not – are likely familiar with The Loved Ones. Spawned in Oakland and led by Bart Davenport, the band isn’t to be confused with at least two other bands with the same name (one from Australia, the other from Philadelphia). This crew made a name for itself by opening for Junior Wells and John Lee Hooker.

The Loved Ones disbanded due to Davenport’s desire to record mellower music and play chiller concerts, but they reconvened intermittently in the ensuing years. Now the band is back again, this time with a new collection carrying the exclamatory title LATEST HITS! that came out late last month via SofaBurn/Lovemonk. The Loved Ones’ ambitions don’t end there; the band is also planning to tour, leapfrogging from the West Coast to the Netherlands to Spain.

Busy as The Loved Ones are at the moment, Davenport graciously granted us time to participate in The Bad Penny Passport, in which we touch base with musicians across the world to get their recommendations of bands in the area where they live, the genres they enjoy and so on. Below are Davenport’s picks of his go-to groups in Los Angeles, preceded by a taste of The Loved Ones’ new material.

Bart Davenport’s Top 10 Favorite L.A. Bands

Other Delights

Writer, producer and in-demand session drummer, Robin MacMillan has done something extraordinary assembling this A-Team of players. While Aaron M. Olson and Adron could easily make this top ten list for their solo projects, their contributions to Other Delights are no less crucial. Adron’s otherworldly non-lyrical soprano and spaghetti flavored guitar interweave with Aaron’s wrecking crew level bass and occasional midnight cowboy harmonica. Andrew Dorsett could be the Brian Auger of his generation with his cheeky Wander-licks on organ riding on a magic carpet of jazzy Wurlitzer chords. Meanwhile Robin sets the pace with a type of persuasive drumming not heard since your favorite Morricone soundtracks were recorded. Other Delights got their name from Herb Alpert and their sound is appropriately an ambitious mix of exotica, bossa nova, pop instrumental and plastic jazz. Get the album. Go to their show. I guarantee you’ll be grinning for hours afterwards.

Street Fruit

Philipp Minnig and Hans Dobratz go way back. They’ve been summoning the spirits together onstage since the late 90s. Their new group, Street Fruit is easily their best yet. Phil’s heavy wah-wah riffs and Hans’ existential frontman vibes find a perfect match with dynamic drummer Tiffanie Lanmon and stylishly pointed bassist Cyrus Gengras. I can tell these people love playing together and their chemistry is infectious. Each member does something uniquely their own and the four fit together like a jigsaw.

Death Valley Girls

I’m admittedly late to the party with this incredible band and don’t know a whole lot about them. They’ve been through a few iterations over the years with at least one constant member, lead singer and keyboardist Bonnie Bloomgarden. A real deal front woman, these days she’s accompanied by a veritable supergroup including among others Laena Meyers on guitar and Sarah Safaie on saxophone – two of my fave local musicians. I saw their record release show at Scribble on York Blvd and was blown away by the energy, the gang vocals swimming in reverb and the ripping fuzz riffs over wicked rock n roll drums. They go for a sort of cathartic dance party and I love it.

Wyld Gooms

In my teens, way back in the 1980s I was primarily a mod revivalist but also just 60s obsessed in general. I spent a brief period rocking what we called the “charmkin” look, Beatle boots, “Prince Valiant” or cereal bowl haircut, dark wrap-around shades with quintessential garage rock instruments like the Vox Phantom guitar. 80s charmkin bands like The Tell Tale Hearts and Chesterfield Kings were my idols and pointed the way towards a never ending treasure trove of obscure 60s rock n roll. It’s heartwarming to see a whole new generation pick up the torch for the classic “hairshaker” look and sound and no group does it better than Wyld Gooms.

Wayne Faler

West coast musicians who’ve been lucky enough to come across this gentleman are unanimous in their love for him. He plays guitar with quite a few artists including myself and most recently, Beck. Wayne Faler (aka Wayne Dang Doodle) is a preeminent jangler and his favorite band is The Church. He also loves African highlife and the Bakersfield sound. His second solo album drops November 17 and from what I’ve already heard it manages to establish a new sub-genre you might call country shoegaze. By all means, get to know Wayne.

Josh Da Costa

Its been said you can put great musicians into two camps. On one side there’s difficult, prickly people who don’t get along with others but are so consistently brilliant their work gets supported anyway (Lou Reed). On the other, there’s super outgoing, positive types who are such a great hang that people wanna work with them regardless of the quality of their output (Jerry Garcia). Josh da Costa defies these categories because he’s both a well loved sweetheart, friend to all AND a bonafide shredder. He’s paid his dues too, spent years backing up others, especially on drums. Increasingly he’s upfront, playing his own stuff and it’s a joy to behold.

The Lentils

One of the many things I like about The Lentils, especially as a live band is their use of non rock n roll instruments like cellos, flutes and triangles. On recordings, the lo-fi esthetic serves the music quite well at times but in many cases it’s neither here nor there. And that’s because the songwriting and arranging of bandleader Luke Csehak is transcendent. He writes the sort of songs other bands should be covering.

Lael Neale

Peerless. I just don’t hear other local acts with such solid, compelling lyrics and that’s partly because Lael’s delivery is so clean and clear without over-enunciating. Like an American Trish Keenan, it’s Lael’s lack of affectation that makes her sound so distinctive. She’s usually accompanied by vintage drum machine beats and various sonic textures and solos by partner Guy Blakeslee (an accomplished artist himself). The two trade off on guitar and synth. While Lael is as I said, peerless among current L.A. musicians, I can’t help but draw comparisons to such all time greats as Connie Converse, Suicide, Nico and The Space Lady. She’s like all those things and more.

Coffin Prick

Ryan Weinstein is the closest thing to avant-garde here on the list. He welcomes dissonance and absurdity but knows a good beat when he hears it. He knows his way around a guitar neck as well. He came to LA from Chicago where the musicians have a reputation for seriousness and eclecticism. Ryan fits that to a tee but he also acts in silly tv commercials and has a little dog he takes for walks every day. His recorded work is formidable and maybe at it’s most accessible, reminiscent of early Eno. He also chooses great musicians for his live sets which are strikingly good.

Escape-Ism

Escape-Ism

Of the ten acts on this list, three of them have all lived in the same cluster of bungalows on a hill in Echo Park. The view from the driveway is a Michael Mann film location still waiting to happen. Ian S and Sandi D are longterm residents. They’re the kind of people who get their heads together in the city, experiment, plot and collaborate on an array of music, dance, tv, film, literary, fashion and art projects. Prolific, “Iconoclastic”, these words all feel trivial. I’m just thinking of the many times they’ve made me laugh, made me wanna dance or write a song, made me look at the world through a different lens. I’m a great admirer of Ian’s work going back to The Make-Up and think of Escape-Ism as his most defining project.

Honorable mentions: Uni Boys, Pillow Fight, Gun Outfit, Modotti, Joel Jerome, Dent May, Pearl & The Oysters, Healing Gems, Pachyman, Elaine Carey, Imaad Wasif & Lowercase, Cole Berliner, Exploding Flowers, Billy Tibbals Band, Violet Mindfield, Stacey, Sylvie, Sam Burton, Always You, Shannon Lay, Inara George, Kacey Johansing, Hand Habits, Johnny Kosmo, Mirrorball, Emily Rose & The Rounders, Mia Doi Todd, Bloody Death Skull, Color TV, Color Green, White Fence, Holy Shit, Jean-Luc Eldenwood, Trevor Beld-Jimenez, Big Search, Eyedress, Farmer Dave & The Wizards, Zacy’s, The Musical Tracing Ensemble, Geneva Jacuzzi, Nic Hessler, Winter, Nick Waterhouse,and Elisa Randazzo.

—

For more authoritative lists of the best bands from non-U.S. countries, as picked by bands that hail from those places, check out:

This entry was posted on 11/10/2026 at 1:16 pm and is filed under Interviews, Lists, Videos with tags Bart Davenport, Death Valley Girls, Josh da Costa, Lael Neale, Other Delights, Street Fruit, The Lentils, The Loved Ones, Wayne Faler, Wyld Gooms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The Bad Penny (beta)