The Redlight District, The Blind Spots

The Redlight District is a psychedelic rock and roll quartet from Santa Cruz, California. The band is comprised of Stephan Sams (vocals), Ravi Lamb (lead guitar), Dan Leitner (keyboards), and Keoki Thompson (drums). Their frenetic live performances blend elements of delta blues, jazz melody, and soul, weaving meticulously embellished, percussive guitar lines with dynamically intricate rock-organ. Thompson brings a relentless battery of off-kilter beats to the table, locking-in with Leitner's bass hooks. These provide a backdrop for Sams' baritone croon, which moves from tranquil melody into manic wails.


?The band was formed by singer Stephan Sams in Marina, Ca. After a fateful chance-meeting with the Doors’ guitarist Robby Krieger during which he charged Stephan with starting a band of his own, Sams began a quartet featuring a guitarist, a drummer, and a keyboardist, allowing for his poetry to take flight into motion. Drawing from his roots, many of the first songs were blues-driven vignettes about the poverty and violence he witnessed growing up in Salinas. This lead him to name the band after the infamously dangerous part of town where he spent parts of his youth. Quickly moving to Santa Cruz with close to nothing, he endured seasons of homelessness to become immersed in an artistic community. After several iterations, this eventually afforded the permanent members of the band. Stephan met keyboardist Dan Leitner through fellow musicians upon his arrival from New Jersey. Berklee- graduated guitarist Ravi Lamb joined after meeting the two at a church-turned-co-op. Soon after, fellow Hawaiian transplant to Lamb and determined drummer Keoki Thompson signed on as a hired gun introduced by Leitner, only to remain after the first show together revealed the completion of the band.
The Blind Spots, a five-piece rock band featuring electrifying lead singer and force of nature, Maddy Walsh, released a widely-anticipated debut album, El Camino Dream, in 2010 and their sophomore album, Small Stampede, in 2012. El Camino Dream gained immediate attention and was named in the top ten area albums for the year in the band's hometown, Ithaca, NY, a vibrant musical scene. Walsh was named top female vocalist, and one of the songs, "Star," was picked among the best songs of the year. The album features imagistic, metaphor-rich lyrics and powerhouse lead vocals over bold electric guitar and a library of keyboard sounds. They got that paisley, loose-leaf tobacco, indie-pop feel, spilling out of the dark, ethereal space of homelessness and tumbleweed or crackling through a transistor radio over New York City rooftops and still all the ‘tude and sexiness of straight rock and roll...

The Blind Spots' trademark brand finds influences in John Lennon, Wilco, The Cars, The Clash, The Rolling Stones, Rilo Kiley, The Pretenders, Jack White, Regina Spektor, Elvis Costello, Keith Moon, Otis Redding, Michael Knight, parents and grandparents, dogs, memories, hangovers, sex, hope, and the utterly ridiculous.

Keep an eye out for the Blind Spots this year – they are well on their way to winning the hearts of new devotees.