Back in the Garage – Los Angeles Fire Relief Compilation assembles performances by Izaak Opatz, Gilbert Louie Ray, All Things Blue, and many more, each recorded in an L.A. garage
Jonny Fritz, Darlin Brando, Harrison Whitford, Mason Stoops, and Cooper Kenward are all artists currently displaced by the Los Angeles wildfires. They also each appear on a new benefit album aiming to raise money for those affected by the tragedy. Back in the Garage — Los Angeles Fire Relief Compilation, out today, collects live performances by 57 artists, each recorded between 2021 and 2025 in the L.A. garage rented by brothers Luke Pelletier and Tristan Pelletier.
One hundred percent of the proceeds from the album will be split evenly between two charities: MusiCares and the Pasadena Humane Society.
“We’re completely gutted over here in L.A. It’s been so hard watching our friends lose so much and watch parts of our city washed away in flames,” Luke Pelletier says in an email to Rolling Stone. “We’ve always looked at Back in the Garage as a resource for the community. We try our best to make good honest recordings of our friends and songwriters we admire. These recordings have become an archive of what was happening in a small garage in L.A. from 2021 – 2025. And in these times, with so much loss, this document of art that happened in Los Angeles feels extra valuable.”
The highlights are many: Fritz, a resident of fire-ravaged Altadena, eccentrically croons his way through “I Love Leaving”; Nashville’s Dillon Warnek looks forward to all the things he’ll accomplish “As Soon As They Let Me Out of Jail”; and Arkansas’s Dylan Earl tells the bad-luck saga of “Johnny Alabama.” Other artists on the collection, released by Pelletier’s Soggy Anvil Records, include Rod Gator, the Doohickeys, Gilbert Louie Ray, Esther Rose, and AJJ.
Luke Pelletier, recording artists in the garage he rented in L.A. A series of live performances make up the new Los Angeles fire benefit album ‘Back in the Garage.’ Photo: Courtesy of Luke Pelletier
The Pelletier brothers audio-engineered the project, with what they call invaluable mixing and mastering help from Tommy Burns. Luke Pelletier, himself a musician as well as visual artist, also appears on the album.
Back in the Garage will be available for digital download for $10 via on Bandcamp, while a four-LP vinyl set goes for $80. According to Pelletier, he’ll donate the revenue from the Bandcamp sales as they come in, while any streaming revenue will be distributed quarterly and then annually.
