The Zephyr Bones Share Radiant Beach Wave Album "Neon Body" (via La Castanya)

Neon Body album art by Bráulio Amado

The beach-wave Barcelona-based band, The Zephyr Bones, have released their second album, "Neon Body," via La Castanya. Their melodies cascade in with waves glimmering synths and shoegaze-inspired vocals, embodying themes of love, self-affirmation, loss, and hope.

The sound gravitates around spangled psych-rock reminiscent of the radiant, sunkissed environments in Barcelona. Basically, if DIIV were to play a disco beach party in the middle of the night, this is what it would sound like.

Press photo by Marc Cusco

The Zephyr Bones formed when Silva, Tkalcic, López and Ramos met in Barcelona after the former two names arrived from their home country of Chile. In 2015 they released their debut EP, Wishes/Fishes via La Castanya. That first release was followed by the seven-inch "Black Lips b/w Surrounded by Sunflowers" released by La Castanya and the New York label Other Music Recording Co.

Listen to "Neon Body" below

The Zephyr Bones

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Malaika Astorga is the Co-Founder & Creative Director of Also Cool. She is a Mexican-Canadian visual artist, writer, and social media strategist currently based in Montreal.

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Sunglaciers Release MGMT-Inspired Indie Pop Track "Draw Me In" (Mothland)

via Mothland

According to our recent Instagram polls and that one guy's TikTok, we've all been missing early 2010s indie-pop in a real way. MGMT, Phoenix, M83, and Passion Pit had held us with a vice grip for a while with their sparkly guitar riffs, upbeat vocals, and slightly dystopian lyrics.

Lucky for us, Sunglaciers (Mothland's latest signing) fill that nostalgic void with their latest single, "Draw Me In." The track is reminiscent of The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" and embodies the band's self-blurring of dazzling indie-rock melodicism and icy post-punk experimentation genres. It's a departure from their earlier shoegaze sound and delves into MGMT-inspired pop.

Sunglaciers came together as a band in 2017 and are based in Calgary. The track was co-produced by Chad VanGaalen and mixed by acclaimed engineer Mark Lawson (Arcade Fire, Yves Jarvis, The Unicorns). It's also accompanied by a video directed by pluri-disciplinary artist Anthony Lucero.

"I went with the direction I did because the sound and spatial structure of the song was very fluid and encompassing. I found that when messing around with machine learning that flowers and daisies really fit the nature and energy of the song better than anything else could." -- Anthony Lucero

Watch "Draw Me In" below

Sunglaciers

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Malaika Astorga is the co-founder of Also Cool. She is a Mexican-Canadian visual artist, writer, and social media strategist currently based in Montreal.

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PREMIERE: Oddysseys Share Grungey New Track "Demeanor"

Our favourite Chicago pals Oddysseys are back with their latest hot and heavy release, "Demeanor." Premiering today on the site, the track will be available on all streaming platforms on July 30th.

"Demeanor"'s gritty Nirvana-esque vocals paired with the shoegaze guitars pick up where their last release, "Moaner," left off. The track perfectly capture how we progress and regress due to the fear that stems from the options available to us as we forge our futures through their layers of cascading sound. Falling deeper into this sonic world, Oddysseys lives up to their name by exploring everything between the mysterious and the euphoric.

As well as being total grungey shoegaze rockstars, they're also very sweet friends and good people. The Odd Haus collective has been sending us their zines regularly, filled with excellent mutual aid resources, topics to reflect upon for social change, and a ton of delicious and easy recipes.

Listen to “Demeanor” below

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Malaika Astorga is the co-founder of Also Cool. She is a Mexican-Canadian visual artist, writer, and social media strategist currently based in Montreal.

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Lucid Express Share Hong Kong's Shoegaze Scene and New Album

Get lost in the never-ending synthy waves of Lucid Express, the 5-piece shoegaze band from Hong Kong. Their airy sound takes the listener on a journey through the band's colour-soaked world, weaving in traces of their personal values and activism.

The group formed as teens in the winter of 2014 in the turbulent weeks just prior to the Umbrella Movement, the latest in a series of tense pro-democracy protests against increasingly brutal state suppression in their home region. Kim explains that "At that time, it felt like we have a need to hold on to something more beautiful than before. Like close friendships, the band, our creation."  

I caught up with the band via email to talk about their music scene, creative influences, and more. 

Malaika Astorga for Also Cool: Hi! It's very nice to e-meet you all. I want to start with how you all met and how the band came together?

Samuel (bass) for Lucid Express: Wai and I are brothers, and we first met Andy on the Internet. Andy then met Kim and Sky in their vocational training school. 

Also Cool: You've spoken a bit about the music scene in HK and have mentioned that it was only in Taiwan where you started to find shoegaze, dream pop, and new wave music. What kind of music do bands typically play in HK? What are the venues like there?

Sky (guitar): There are actually quite a lot of different genres of bands in Hong Kong! The more you explore the scene, the more you will discover. From classic rock' n roll, core, metal, hip hop and alternative, to blues, jazz, post-punk, math, electronic, noise and experimental, and more. There are venues like cozy bars, independent live venues, cool hidden venues and standard large live spaces. Some of them aren't functional anymore, but some new venues are starting up as well.

AC: You've spoken about the difficulties of making it as a band in HK due to rent prices, the cost of putting on shows, and the land issues. How have these challenges affected you as a band? What are the benefits of being in HK versus elsewhere?

Kim (vocals/synth): For me, I think being in a band is always challenging regardless of where you are in the world. Hong Kong is a very capitalist city, which makes it harder to do. Everything is tied to money… and we don't have a garage to be our practice place.

AC: You've toured quite a bit as a band now. I'm interested to hear what the music scenes are like in Vietnam, Thailand, and Japan. Do you have a favourite show that you've played?

Andy (guitar): Every live audience was always very enthusiastic, and the performance scene was always very professional. One of our most memorable performances was an outdoor music festival in Thailand. It was pouring rain before the performance, so we had to move to the garage, which was a strange but memorable atmospheric experience.

AC: Aside from the shoegaze and new wave classics, who are some of your musical inspirations right now? Any local bands or friends you want to shout out?

Andy: Yo La Tengo because they're always experimenting with new sounds. I also like the band Fantastic Day in Hong Kong. 

Sky: Beach House, they always make simple and beautiful melodies.

AC: What can we expect from your upcoming album?

Wai (drums): It's been seven years since we released our first EP, which is a long time! Some songs from this new album were created in early 2015. It's sort of like a journey of us as a band, documenting how we evolved.

AC: What are you looking forward to in 2021? Will we be able to see you live any time soon? We'd love to have you play in Montreal!

Wai: YES!! We hope to see all of you guys after the pandemic is over. Miss the live gigs, the people, see you soon! 

AC: Finally, are there any local causes going on in Hong Kong that you would like to highlight right now? 

Kim: We would like the world to see more on what's going on in Hong Kong politically. Many of us out here are being silenced, and freedom is slowly slipping away. We think that the oppressed around the world should stand together. We need solidarity. 

Lucid Express

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Malaika Astorga is the co-founder of Also Cool. She is a Mexican-Canadian visual artist, writer, and social media strategist currently based in Montreal.

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Good Grim's "Roommates" is the Perfect Dreamy Shoegaze Track for Your Summer

Good Grim by alcauter.photo styled by Ty Davis

There's something about hazy summer weather that makes me want to listen to slow-burning dream pop. Maybe it's the feeling on the evenings stretching on forever (goodbye Quebec curfew) or the way that the sunset seems to last for hours... But either way, I've found myself wanting more and more synthy shoegaze-y dream pop, and Good Grim's “Roommates” is the perfect antidote.

Good Grim is the art-rock solo project led by Utah-based musician Trevor Free. Known for his previous project, Sister Adolescent, Free has crafted a style rooted in hazy synths combined with post-rock crescendos. While still rooted in reverberated and lush instrumentals, Good Grim finds a darker atmosphere drawing influences from art-rock acts while still maintaining that dreamlike quality to his sound.

"My influences are mostly ambient and jazz," says Free. "I listen to a lot of the modal John Coltrane and find a lot of enjoyment in just about everything Harold Budd (particularly, The Serpent [In Quicksilver]) has done. I also find some inspiration in post-rock artists like Godspeed! You Black Emperor and hip-hop and jazz artists like Freddie Gibbs and BADBADNOTGOOD."

"Roommates" is Good Grim's second single release in preparation for their first upcoming LP 'Enchantment,' with the slow-burning ballad, "Fear of God," being the first to release in March.

Listen to "Roommates" below

Good Grim

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Malaika Astorga is the co-founder of Also Cool. She is a Mexican-Canadian visual artist, writer, and communications specialist currently based in Montreal.

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Choux’s "Super Moon" Takes You to an Ethereal 80s Dream World

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If the title were any indication, Choux’s new EP took me places. Choux (US-CAN) is an indie dream pop duo led by lead vocalist Lizzie Carolan based in Montreal, and multi-instrumentalist Jordan Gatesmith based in Minneapolis, who just released their EP Super Moon on November 20. The EP had been an idea for years now, and Lizzie and Jordan were given the push they needed to finish it up over lockdown. The entire project was done from a distance, with Lizzie in Montreal and Jordan in Minneapolis, in true pandemic fashion. 

For many songs, especially “Super Moon,” “Red,” and Fallen,” I felt like I was walking through a credit scene of The Breakfast Club, but a little more witchy; all of the effortlessness and unstoppable cool, with none of the awkward, gangly teen moments. These tracks help create a moment of escape to another time and space, a brief experience of movement that I have been yearning for since I’ve been stuck at home on lockdown.

The angst of a coming-of-age movie definitely comes out to play in tracks “Thirteen” and “On a Sunday,” which offer more of an indie-rock vibe. “Thirteen” really feels like howling at the moon and a total release of emotion, while “On a Sunday” elicits feelings of young love and yearning.

Final track “Underwater Dreams,” which truly feels like floating on water, beautifully concludes the project and brought me out of the movie in my mind, and back down to Earth, enveloping me in a sea of calm.  

Lizzie’s lyrics are influenced by Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a true ode to the late 80s/early 90s, which brings the sound together and accounts for the consistency in the vibe of the whole EP. Lizzie’s vocals were eerie and operatic, telling a story and setting the tone, even while the lyrics were delivered in classic shoegaze fashion and sometimes a little more difficult to discern. The energy of each song was clearly communicated through the musicality of the instruments and vocals, as well as the masterful production, executed by Ian Nygaard (Howler) and Phillip Shaw Bova, an award winning engineer behind recent albums by Bahamas, Andy Shauf, Land of Talk and Devendra Banhart. 

Overall, this EP is a beautiful blend of elements: instrumental and vocal, airy and grounded, water and earth, planetary and human. By track titles alone, it is clear that there is powerful intention driving the project. This mystic intention definitely hits the mark, and offers us a project perfect for daydreaming and for manifesting. 

Choux

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Simone is a Montreal-based dancer, educator, and writer. 

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Premiere: Alicia Clara Debuts Ethereal Video for "Five"

Montreal’s new favourite dream pop queen Alicia Clara debuts her video for “Five” today via Hot Tramp Records. This single follows up Alicia’s first-ever release ‘Closing Time at the Gates’ in February 2020, and is off her forthcoming EP Outsider/Unusual. For fans of Helena Deland, Weyes Blood, and TOPS, Alicia Cara might just be your new shoegaze fave.

Shimmering in a halo of light, and surrounded by lush greenery, Alicia sings to the human condition and to failed relationships. As Alicia describes, ‘it is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy about having finally forgiven past hurt, all the while still being unable to let myself feel anything out of fear of getting hurt again.’

On the topic of the stunning video by Aaliyeh Afshar, Alicia says, “I wrote Five after waking up from a strange dream during the first lockdown, and the song was written based on my state of mind at that time rather than on a narrative anecdote. To match the nature of the track, I was envisioning something simple but oneiric for the video, shot in nature. Aaliyeh then translated this into her own vision. In maybe a little bit of a sad way, I find that the solitary vibe of the video matches the current mood around the world too!”

Watch Alicia Clara’s “Five” below

Alicia Cara

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