L.A. Witch Leans on Musical Family for Tour, New Releases

Los Angeles-born rock band L.A. Witch began from a dire situation. “This is kind of fucked up,” says the group’s frontwoman and co-founder, Sade Sanchez. After the preface, she continues with the story of a bad relationship. Her then-boyfriend was physically and mentally abusive, she says, to the point that, when Sanchez decided she wanted to start a band, he forbid her from including male members. So, not yet ready to part ways with him, which Sanchez later did, she sought women players for her new group. “That was really hard at the time,” she says.

Now, though, some years later, Sanchez’s group is going strong and so is a burgeoning community of like-minded rockers, including groups like the Coathangers across the country in Atlanta. On November 19, L.A. Witch and the Coathangers will release their new split 7” album on vinyl, which features covers of Blondie’s “One Way Or Another” and The Gun Club’s “Ghost on the Highway.”