Like the cities’ subway trains, New York rock band Laveda, a well-oiled machine, continues to progress forward, with an intense momentum. Together, Laveda shapes a symphony of sounds that skew from scraping metal and breaking glass, to the gentle kinetic sounds of water running softly through subterranean pipes and train engines humming as they move with focus though the dark underworld. Since Laveda moved from Albany to Queens in 2023, the band has grown in multitudes stylistically, building a new, deeper, and more compelling vision with their third studio album Love, Darla released on Bar None Records in 2025. 

Ali Genevich and Jacob Brooks spent the winter of 2018 into 2019 writing and self-recording singles for their new project Laveda. The two continued the search for their sound, capturing what became their first full-length album What Happens After in 2020 in the midst of a global pandemic lockdown. Feeding off the bottled anxiety from their inertia of a closed off world, the two focused their energies writing what would be their second full length release. That’s when Genevich and Brooks strengthened the connection with their dialed in rhythm section: drummer Joe Taurone and bass player Dan Carr. Together the full band finished A Place You Grew Up In- an apt name as Genevich and Brooks would soon move on from their hometown of Albany to the largest city on the East Coast. Now based in NYC, the two songwriters would shed the lush, warm sounds previously inspired by the sprawling beauty of upstate New York, and instead embrace the gritty and complex aesthetics of their new home. Despite the distance between the band members, their connection as musical collaborators only grew tighter, eventually resulting in the creation of their third and most ambitious record Love, Darla. 

With Love, Darla, Laveda creates visceral sounds that mirror the harsh noise and static of the sprawling cityscape. Genevich’s lyrics reflect chaotic nights stumbling through the city in a drunken fog, confronting the anxieties of a conflicted and incongruent world, and the struggle to find and hold onto things worth loving and living for. The record begins with a minute of guitar feedback building into the driving No Wave-esque song, “Care”, which sounds like a lost track from Sonic Youth’s Sister. Songs like “Cellphone” and “I Wish” are motorik, muscling forward with spoken, prosaic lyrics that read like abstract poems. “Dig Me Out”, on the other hand, is a more heartbroken effort with a soft gravity that pulls you into its calm undertow- a likely favorite for fans of bands like Blonde Redhead. Wholly, the record is familiar yet fresh, harnessing the power and aesthetic of 80’s punk and 90’s grunge- filtering them through a fresh and original contemporary lens. Love, Darla is a masterful exercise in fusing memorable ear worms and frantic, eruptive energy- an active volcano. 

Now with the support of Bar None Records and their dense and legendary catalogue of artists behind them, Laveda continue their prolific journey. With Love, Darla, Laveda’s listeners will ride through the dark undercurrents with them- feeling the packed heat of the cluttered subway car and hearing the steel and concrete grinding together as sparks ignite in flashes of light. They will also ride the line as it emerges into the light of day, moving across open water- the world opening up to see the clouds busting in the sky like dying stars exploding in an unimaginably beautiful, exciting, and endless universe. description