Sativa Luvbox - Beloved Satellite

L.A.'s Sativa Luvbox is very much an "image" band: a black leather-clad power trio shrouded in heavy psych/drug/mystic-meets-technology packaging. Group leader Patrick Mata's girlfriend - the "Sativa" of the title - hovers over the proceedings like a spell-wielding sorceress. Despite all these hokey distractions, the group turns in a set of edgy but controlled trash-rock that approximates at its best a more dignified, wailing Stooges phased through Man Who Sold The World-era Bowie.