Hot Laundry—Spookhouse Hullaballoo: Detroit meets New Orleans
Photography by John Greenwood
The Bay Area's hardest-working garage band Is going to make you wanna get up & Get on your dancing shoes.
HOT Laundry at Spats, Berkeley—Photography by John Greenwood
One afternoon, while Janette Lopez and guitarist Grady Hord were deep in a writing session, still figuring out who their players would be, Kink, Janette’s feline best friend, walked into the room and meowed to let everyone know that the laundry was done. This clever kitty’s love of laying on the fresh, Hot Laundry gave the band the perfect name to crown their sound.
The cat logo on their merch, the warmth that radiates off their stage show, the loyalty they inspire in fans who show up night after night, all traces back to that same source. Hot Laundry is performing just for you, with love, intention, and coordinated style that harkens back to Tina Turner and the Motown queens we all know & love.
Hot Laundry at Spats, Berkeley—Photography by John Greenwood
The San Francisco sextet has spent the last few years building something uncommon on the Bay Area garage scene: a band with genuine visual power and enough soul to drag a room full of strangers into something that feels ethereal. Fronted by Lopez with rotating backup singer-dancers Ileath Bridges, Kate Juliana, Maria Chaos, and Gena Serey flanking her in coordinated, fringed-out fits, the live show is a full production: tambourines, shakers, synthesizers, tandem choreography. "We are a gang of good times," Lopez says simply.
The sonic blueprint is deceptively sprawling. Hi-octane garage rock threaded through with Motown harmonies, delta boogie, and guitars revved up in the vein of MC5. That's a lot of ground to cover without losing the thread, but Lopez credits the chemistry between herself and Hord as the glue. "It starts with the beats. We have quite an eclectic group. The sound comes from Grady, he's a Southern boy, I grew up in Detroit." Two regional musical DNA strands, braided. "The Ramones and Debbie Harry already existed," she adds.
The visual identity came from the same instinct. "It was a vision," Lopez says of the choreography and costuming. "I love a dress that can anticipate my moves and moves with me." She cites Tina Turner as the north star. "It's so fun to lock-in the look, create that eye candy and perform together and be synchronized." This isn't aesthetic for its own sake, it's function. The dancing, the looks, the three-deep vocal stack: all of it exists to make the music land and then take you with it.
Before Hot Laundry, Lopez spent years doing artist liaison work and running backstage at Mosswood Park. She watched carefully. "Motown was a big influence on me," she says, "and watching and being hands-on with artists gave me a great work ethic and a great understanding of what's possible." She's quick to clarify that the education started long before any particular venue or gig. "There's freedom in finding inspiration from people doing what they want.” It shows you that you can show up authentically and people will feel that.
The list of women who shaped her is a glamorous row of American soul: Etta James, Sharon Jones ("I have drank whiskey and had weed with that woman and THAT was good times!"), Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Diana Ross, Donna Summer. You hear all of them somewhere in a Hot Laundry set, the command, the hurt, the joy, the refusal to be small.
John Waters once introduced them as a "paranormal shindig" and a "spookhouse of hullaballoo." Lopez didn't skip a beat when asked if anything strange had ever happened at a show. "Everybody levitated! I made them levitate. If you don't believe me, come to a show and I'll make it happen to you too! There's a devil on my shoulder."
Truly, there's something electric about how their crowds respond. in Japan, where Hot Laundry has now toured twice. Lopez describes a Tokyo audience who watched one night and came back the next already doing the exact dance moves. "Japan has soul and grit coming out every night. Their support of music and art. The level of participation was epic." They played Halloween Ball two years running, hit Kyoto and Osaka, performed at the Top Beat Club alongside NeatBeats and Mr. Pan. Scandinavia is next.
Their recorded output tells a compressed history of a band finding itself fast. The EP Shake, Slide, Twist was cut with The Complex SF's George Rosenthal; Pawn Shop Gold, their full-length, came shortly after with a different collaborator and "a lot of experimenting to get it where we wanted." The album is packed with fuzzed-out groovers and kinetic punch. It captured something real. But Lopez is clear-eyed about what comes next: they won't be pressing more vinyl copies. "You'll have to get it digitally."
The new four-song 45, House Rocking, was a pragmatic choice with practical poetry behind it. "It fits in my purse," Lopez laughs. "We had four songs we wanted to put out." They took the 45 to Japan. They'll take it to Scandinavia. A two-song EP is already in the pipeline, featuring "Little Miss TNT" and "It's a Shame," both written by Hord. Lopez's advice to anyone watching: "Keep creating. Inspiration doesn't come with a time card."
Janette Lopez, Hot Laundry at Spats, Berkeley—Photography by John Greenwood
The working-class ethos runs deeper than a lyrical aesthetic. Hot Laundry sings about not having a dollar but having a good time because that's an experience. "The struggle has been real every decade," Lopez says.
"If it wasn't real every decade, we wouldn't be where we are. I'm not singing about my yacht or something unrelatable." The point of the music, the show, the whole enterprise is relief, not escape, but reprieve. "We are DIY and what fuels us is that authenticity. Come to a show and get down and get with it."
When asked what she hopes a stranger feels after finding Hot Laundry in a record crate, Lopez's answer comes fast: "Uplifted. I want you to not feel so alone. Feel inspired, happy, and encouraged to move your body and live in your moment and take no shit. You're important. Feel loved, feel seen, feel heard."
