MTL's Prism Shores Releases Youthful Dream Pop Track "Tennis Shoes"

Prism Shores. Photo courtesy of Paul Atwood

Days away from the release of their debut album Inside My Diving Bell, Montreal-via-Charlottetown indie-poppers Prism Shores have released their latest single “Tennis Shoes”. Staying true to the band’s sonic influences of dream pop and shoegaze, the track sketches ponderances of malaise and angst that glide us perfectly into the fall’s chill.

Speaking to the track’s deeper construction, vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist Jack Mackenzie shared:

“It’s one of the oldest songs on the record, [and] we’ve been playing it live since about 2019. It’s one of the more mid-tempo moments on the album; our attempt at making a more sensitive track, inspired by both the angstier side of 80s UK indie on labels like Sarah Records and the 90s dream pop of bands like Luna, Pale Saints, Cocteau Twins, and Slowdive. It’s built around a rhythm section of bass, drums, and guitar tracked live to tape. Atop that are some 12-string guitar overdubs and two interweaving, droning lead parts by our guitarist Nathan [Cann] that really cement the atmospheric qualities of this track. The lyrics, like most songs on the record [Inside My Diving Bell, out September 23], take a reflexive, maybe navel-gazing approach. This record is like a coming-of-age document; the lyrics on this song find me wrestling with the more uncomfortable emotions and headspaces I found myself in heading towards my early twenties, feeling a sense of inertia or listlessness and wanting a change.”

The brooding uncertainty of “Tennis Shoes” offers a further taste of what is to come with Inside My Diving Bell, complementing the youthful insecurity of its previous singles “Acrobat” and “Diving Bell”. The rest of the record promises to deliver higher recording fidelity and new musical avenues for Prism Shores, all while balancing with its beloved sense of shambolic character through the natural energy of its live-off-the-floor bed tracks.

Recorded throughout the pandemic at Halifax’s Ocean Floor Recording, Prism Shores teases Inside My Diving Bell as a “scrappy, yet carefully considered proof of concept” — as the band contends with late-adolescent directionality and experiments with sonic depth, their debut full-length LP pledges to chart a promising course that is bound to resonate.

Stream “Tennis Shoes” below!

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Rebecca Judd is the features editor of Also Cool Mag.

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Take A Sip of Calm Lake's Sparkling Anti-Jingle "Le Seltzer"

Single art by Jess

With yet another series of doom-and-gloom announcements under our belts, it’s easy to get caught up in the one-two punch otherwise known as the past couple of years. Now more than ever is the time to practice gratitude and reflect on the little things that bring us joy: aimless strolls, loved ones, and — of course — a crisp can of seltzer. Montreal’s Calm Lake has freshly released “Le Seltzer”, a gleaming bedroom-pop track that does just that.

Calm Lake is a project by Filipino-Canadian songwriter Nikki Celis (known as one-half of shoegaze duo cmfrtble.), who is currently based in Montreal. Calm Lake is a collaborative effort featuring friends from around Canada, including Andrew Joshua, Shane Spencer, Alex Lavoie and Jessica Segura. The project finds their inspiration from 90s emo and dream-pop, citing influences like Pedro the Lion, The Radio Dept., and Bilinda May.

Nikki Celis of Calm Lake. Photo courtesy of Nikki Celis

“Le Seltzer” marks the project’s second single, following the angsty “Toothache” released in August of this year. “Le Seltzer” was written as an earnest tribute to the locally-owned seltzer water brand that started during the pandemic. The track is described as an “anti-jingle”, inspired by the fluorescent catchiness of ‘90s product commercials. On the story of “Le Seltzer”, Celis remarks:

"In Montreal, people have been finding ways to express their creativity, whether that's making new musical projects like Calm Lake, making their 'quarantine songs' or even starting new businesses. This is my take on a quarantine song."

From start to finish, “Le Seltzer” paints a sanguine picture with dream-pop production that’s as effervescent as the beverage itself. This track leaves you with no choice but to smile, evoking memories of sunset-tinted park hangs and breezy balconies through its jangly fog. As major fans of this delicious drink, we here at Also Cool are pleased to report that Calm Lake’s latest single is just as satisfying. Kick back with a can of yuzu blossom and pomelo and don’t lose sight of the escapades that await you.

Stream “Le Seltzer” below!

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Rebecca Judd is the features editor of Also Cool Mag.

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Dayton Swim Club’s Debut "Hangman" Invites You to Rage With Them (Perpetual Doom)

Nick Flessa and Dominique Matelson of Dayton Swim Club. Photo courtesy of Mario Luna

A rager takes place in some unspecified, sprawling Southwestern desert. Visualize Wim Wender’s Paris, Texas’ opening scene, except noir. Dayton Swim Club are playing for the party-goers when a mob of zombies overwhelm the space. These zombies look familiar; they are not corporeal revenants, but instead a tyrannized social cult. 

Fresh from American indie label Perpetual Doom, Dayton Swim Club’s debut Hangman offers a soundscape for pensive days. Its seven hypnotic tracks will rouse thoughts about sinister social norms as the sequel of a tormented history. Nick Flessa’s droned lead vocals are reminiscent of a late-70s shoegaze mood; together with Dominique Matelson’s ethereal voice and Mario Luna’s fuzzy, reverb-soaked guitar riffs, Dayton Swim Club’s concoction of space and distorted atmosphere(s) are magnified.

Melodic, lo-fi guitar riffs hint towards 60s psychedelia, setting the stage in “Pillow Talk.” As these riffs darken into an ambient sparseness, a collection of Me Too realities and other familiar authoritative perversions are confronted. Flessa and Matelson spiral between direct address, first, second and third person POV, alluding to the twisted yet very real nature of the track’s themes. “Night Breed” is a “Pillow Talk” season 2 of sorts: here, the sun sets and the mood dampens. Backing vocals evocative of female screams haunt an arid town where street lamps flicker. A rhythmically dark guitar persists, reminding us that here, days are as sunless as the nights.  

An eerie mélange of strings pierces the hovering gloomy clouds in "Landers”. The remote, Californian desert community that the track was named after renders a multifarious conceit for issues related to individualism and destruction. The track’s motif “Be your own man / Be your own hang / Be your own hang, man”  is chanted by Flessa and, paralleled with Matelson’s operatic vocals, induces an artful abstraction of social terrors. Dayton Swim Club have wrapped resentments of the ruinous Manifest Destiny and other deteriorating effects of political ideologies in shoegazed, Western-noir packaging.   

We caught up with Flessa just after the release of “Landers” to chat about the (pandemic-induced) means of recording and mixing the album, tonal and lyrical inspirations, and the bar featured in the “Landers” video.

Dayton Swim Club. Photo courtesy of the band

CJ Sommerfeld for Also Cool Mag: Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with Also Cool today, and cheers on the new album!  What forces were responsible for Nick Flessa Band’s conceptual and sonic transition into Dayton Swim Club? 

Nick Flessa for Dayton Swim Club: Thank you! I guess the main force behind the transition is my collaboration with guitarist Mario Luna, who took over composition and production duties. Mario has a strong and focused vision for the project. He’s also responsible for a lot of our visual presentation – flyers, band photos, etc. So far in Dayton Swim Club I’ve mostly been a lyricist and frontman, as well as the de facto manager.  

Nick Flessa Band hit a stride in 2019 with a lineup including Dominique Matelson, Jessica Perelman and Kirsten Bladh. At the beginning we were playing songs from my previous solo releases. Once this band became a regular unit, and we started writing new material together, it began evolving into its current form. Without having released anything, we played three shows as Dayton Swim Club in late 2019/early 2020 shortly before the shutdown. 

Also Cool: Dayton Swim Club is a collaborative ensemble between numerous L.A.-based musicians. Were you acquainted with these artists prior to creating music together, or did you get together for this project? 

Nick Flessa: We mostly knew each other in some capacity. It’s funny because Mario and I went to CalArts at the exact same time but didn’t cross paths until later, through music. Then we kept running into each other at Kaldi Coffee in Atwater Village and became friends. A few years later I also met Dominique at Kaldi, where she was working at the time. Greg Marino, who plays sax on the record, works there too. Mario, Jessica and I have all played in another project called Fragile Gang. Kirsten is an old friend from Cincinnati, where I’m from originally. J.D. Carrera (pedal steel on “Predatory Drift”) and I have collaborated a bunch and were roommates for a long time, and Pauline Lay (strings on DSC) is another art/music friend. 

Most of the players we’ve worked with are people I've been familiar with already – knowing so many excellent musicians is a huge perk of living in Los Angeles. The current iteration of the band includes our friends Daniel and Scarlett (on bass and synth, respectively), whom I met for the first time at a practice a few months ago. Mario brought them in and they’ve been doing great work – our live show feels stronger and more cohesive than ever.  

AC: Hangman was written during the pandemic – what was it about that time that encouraged the creation of this project? 

NF: Like many, I needed a project to hold me together during that time. At first it was a challenge to try to coordinate everything remotely, but Mario and I developed a workflow where he would send me song ideas and I would write lyrics in response, then record vocals and send them to him for mixing – Postal Service style. We found ways for our other collaborators to contribute parts remotely, and developed some pre-pandemic demos into full-fledged songs. 

Working on the record helped create structure to combat the general isolation of that period. The stakes of life itself felt raised, and since I had the freedom to focus solely on writing lyrics, I tried to take the day-to-day as a prompt to explore my thoughts and feelings about the past few years as we collectively bore the bizarre brunt of American history – a nightmare from which I'm still trying to awaken. I took a break from drinking, sharpened the focus of my reading and writing, and went on long walks. Making this record was part of surviving and processing that time and the years that led up to it, fueled by some distant hope that we’d eventually be able to finish, share and perform the project.  

AC: The locations where [the video for your track] “Landers” was filmed —Landers and Palm Springs—reflect the death cult that the United States has become. Can you tell me a little more regarding what it is about these communities that represents both a history and present state of self-destruction? Can you elaborate on the track’s lyrical motif “Be your own man, be your own hang-man"? 

NF: I spent much of 2020 in Palm Springs at my partner Chloe’s dad’s house, right next to a public golf course. It was a huge luxury to be in a relaxed environment with a swimming pool and plenty of space to walk around. It felt like I was hiding out on a permanent vacation during the apocalypse. I walked around the golf course frequently, and thought a lot about how many resources went into maintaining it. 

Those thoughts led to more thoughts about Western expansion, “Manifest destiny”, and the US as a colonial superpower; how the pandemic laid bare so many structural failures, but how control is always prioritized here. American individualism came full circle in 2020, a sort of ouroboros where the self-made head eats the tail of its own self-destruction — the anti-mask movement and nationally sanctioned super-spreader events being examples. “Be your own man, be your own hang-man” refers to this, and also to the isolation of having to be one’s own “hang” during the pandemic.  

Landers is a remote community in the high desert near Joshua Tree. It’s beautiful, isolated, and the site of a lot of extraterrestrial and UFO sightings. We performed there one night in 2019 a few days after the death of the late, great David Berman. It was a heavy and heady trip. Jessica’s drum kit got run over by a drunk driver in the parking lot of the venue. There had just been a rainstorm, which caused our ill-equipped cars to get stuck in the sandy dirt roads on the way in and out. The night had an enchanted and cursed quality to it. This experience was also a tonal and lyrical inspiration for the song. The venue we played at was called Landers Brew, it’s also featured in the video. Just a few weeks after we filmed there, it was bought by a developer and shut down. I learned this via Instagram when I announced the video premiere.

AC: The remainder of the album carries strong socio-political concerns. Much has changed between when you wrote this album to now. In what ways do you think your next album will reflect this social change? 

NF: One concrete change is that we’ve all been able to gather together and perform live shows, now that there’s a vaccine. That’s been very new and exciting, but also a big moment of adaptation.  As a group we are hoping to have the opportunity to record in a studio together. We are gunning to make a very deliberate record that is conceptually thought through with an arc from start to finish. There's a sense in which Hangman is a cut-up record in terms of its structure, and I think that’s a strength, but I also think a more focused follow-up is in order.  

As much as the 2020 election was a pivotal moment, things aren’t great here. There’s a point, politically, where you can never go home again. As much as the attempt at a sanitized return to the Obama era has been a reprieve for some, I think there is much worse to come unless the Left can consolidate in a meaningful way.  

Our music speaks to a popular resentment. It’s valid to feel resentment at the way things work in the US, and that feeling is potent; ideally this is a power that can be harnessed to fight injustice rather than enforce it. While there are plenty of things to be optimistic about, even the most seemingly progressive of our elected politicians are doing more to appease Republicans than represent their own constituents. Corrupt city councilmen abuse the unhoused with impunity. Military budgets continue to inflate. The charade can’t be kept up forever, though. People are savvy. We can all see it happening in real time. Climate change, too, promises big catastrophes soon. This will continue to change the world we live in, and by necessity my writing will reflect that change.  

AC: Thank you again for your time, I’m loving this album and am looking forward to your future projects. What can we expect to see next from Dayton Swim Club? 

NF: Thank you so much! We have a few new things coming up, including a video by our brilliant friend Will Wiesenfeld (Baths) for our track “Predatory Drift”. We’re also doing a TV theme song cover for Perpetual Doom’s Stay Tuned compilation.  

Several DSC members have solo projects with upcoming shows and releases. Mario, Scarlett and Daniel are all playing in Daniel’s project Dearly Departure at Substance Festival in November. Dominique has a solo record she’s been working on concurrently with this one, coming soon. I'm working on a cover of a song by our friend and labelmate Austin Leonard Jones, also coming soon.  

We’re DJing labelmate Grady Strange’s residency at the Echo on November 1st, ahead of a short hiatus before one final 2021 show in December. Once we wrap these, then it’s back to the drawing board. 

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HANGMAN

Released September 17th, 2021 via Perpetual Doom

1. Darker Moves

2. Pillow Talk

3. Night Breed

4. Landers

5. Predatory Drift

6. Rage All Night

7. DSC

Produced and mixed by Mario Luna

Contributors include Jessica Perelman, Kirsten Bladh, Pauline Lay, Greg Marino, and J.D. Carrera

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Dayton Swim Club

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CJ Sommerfeld (she/her) is a Vancouver-based freelance writer with a particular interest in the convergence of language, art and society. When she is not writing, you can find her experimenting with harmonic minor progressions on her keyboard.

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Le vaisseau d'or Release Ethereal Dreampop EP Desire Forever

It's Friday, the summer heat is shimmering before you, and you're trying to ease your way into the day. Desire Forever drifts in with silky chords drift in to accompany your late-summer weekend adventures, and suddenly you're the main character of an indie film where nothing happens, but everything is beautiful.

If you enjoyed that little bit of daydreaming, you'd love the Montreal shoegaze dream-pop outfit Le vaisseau d'or. They've just released their fifth EP Desire Forever, a three-track blend of the smooth and soft sides of early Spiritualized, Jesus & Mary Chain, Suicide, and Mazzy Star. The songs started as an improvised live session and were then mixed and elevated by Collin Hegma from The Brian Jonestown Massacre. 

Watch the ethereal visualizer filmed in Nunavik by Farid Kassouf 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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Singapore's Shoegaze Sweethearts Kekko Share Their Love Story on Debut EP "Dreaming Life"

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Kekko, Tim Kek (left) and Cherie Ko (right), shot by Jared Rezel

The devotion between Kekko, Singapore’s shoegaze sweethearts, fully materializes on their debut EP Dreaming Life, released on Californian lo-fi pop label Spirit Goth Records this past June. If not already evident by the band’s namesake —which combines the last names of the husband and wife duo, Tim Kek and Cherie Ko— Kek’s lush atmospherics intertwined with Ko’s ethereal vocals manifest a radiance unique to a soulmate connection. 

The couple first met in 2009 as teens while working odd jobs at their local mall. Then, Ko was covering My Bloody Valentine and Air on Youtube and Kek was blossoming in the Singaporean music scene. The pair stayed platonic friends for over 10 years while carving out separate paths in the music industry, with Ko performing with her former bands TOMGIRL and Bored Spies, and Kek founding his music promotional agency Symmetry Entertainment. In conversation with the band, they explain that the beginnings of Kekko were a natural progression from falling in love because of their similarities in music taste and creative sensibility. 

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Kekko, shot by Jared Rezel

Ko tells me that working with her husband nurtures her musical approach; allowing her to embrace an artistic outlook that feels more genuine. “With all my previous brands and musical projects, I felt the need to put on a persona to write music. With Kekko, I have grown into my own person and I’m now able to tap into a deeper and more authentic space in the writing process,” she shares. 

The level of intimacy at the core of the project is also crucial to Kek’s conjuring of sublime  instrumentals to compliment Ko’s dream-like voice. He articulates that following intuition is crucial to building their tracks layer by layer and that he “finds what sounds right not just with [his] head, but with [his] heart as well.” This songwriting technique, which Kek refers to as “world-building,” was devised on Dreaming Life with Kek’s masterful playing of his right hand vintage Yamaha keyboards and microKORG. Kek hints that on Kekko’s upcoming LP, he plans to “explore the possibilities the legendary Moog can offer.” 

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Kekko, shot by Jared Rezel

The duo describes Kekko’s aura as a “hazy, surrealistic dream,” which comes alive just as much in the band’s visual identity as their sound. The artwork for Dreaming Life was illustrated by visual artist Alexis Jamet, who’s vivid and playful florals, according to the band, resonate with their essence perfectly. 

Knowing every aspect of Kekko’s output is cherished, I was curious about the fan-made music video for their song “Within You.” As it turns out, the video is set to cuts from Kekko’s favourite film Picnic At Hanging Rock. Kekko informs me that the music video, made by I’m A Cyborg By That’s Okay, came to be purely by coincidence, and that they love the film because of its “beautiful and enigmatic mise-en-scene, and [they] love a good unsolved mystery.” 

Despite their fascination with whodunnits, the band doesn’t leave us hanging on their plans for the coming months at the end of our chat. “The scene in Singapore is really tight-knit and supportive, however we are planning to make Canada our new home in the near future! We’re starting to write our first LP and hopefully we can release it next year and start doing some live shows.” 

Listen to Dreaming Life below

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Zoë Argiropulos-Hunter (she/her) is the co-founder and managing editor of Also Cool Mag. Aside from the mag, she is a music promoter & booker, and a radio host & DJ.

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Come Along on a Dreamy Adventure with Freck's New Track "222"

via frecks

Wanna get lost in a shoegaze dream? freck's latest track, "222" is the perfect fix. It's a beautiful combination of sparkly guitar strumming, with Mazzy Star-esque vocals, that make us feel like summer is on the way. The track is a follow-up to the Portland-based artist's last single, "Alone Again," which we covered earlier this year.

The music video follows two best friends as they explore a forest, have a picnic, and share predictions of the future for each other. Alternating between shots of melting candles, Tarot cards, and the cloudy sky, freck's honey-smooth vocals bring us along on the adventure in a dreamlike state.

Water rushes around the girls, and sunlight filters through the trees, leaving us with a languid sense of nostalgia. For fans of Mazzy Star, Soccer Mommy, and all those who want to feel something slow and sweet, this one's for you.

Watch the video for 222 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 specialist, currently based in Montreal.

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Premiere: Kue Varo Has Something to Say with Debut Album Daffodil-11

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Kue Varo, photo courtesy of Ariana Molly

After much anticipation, it’s finally here – Montreal-based artist Kue Varo (she/her, he/him, they/them) has released their debut album, Daffodil-11, and we couldn’t be happier.

Kue Varo is the solo project of Kat Spreen, a musician and multi-instrumentalist with a passion for creativity and authenticity. Daffodil-11 is the accumulation of years of writing, working and playing in her local DIY scenes, whether that was during her teenage years in the traditionally conservative city of Calgary, or the artistic hub of her current home, Montreal. 

Album standouts are a-plenty, including “Dreaming” – an emotional freefall of a track in which Varo pleads to anyone who will listen: “Is this the waking life / Or have I died in my sleep? / I used to have something / I thought I could keep.” Shoegaze fans will be entranced by “Fully Clothed”, a feminist anthem that cloaks the listener in reverb. Between bouncy guitars and wails of release, “Animals” will get you thinking about your relationship with social media. Can you tell we’re a fan?

Float away and feel the feels with Kue Varo on Daffodil-11 – and take a look at our November interview, where she dished on identity and its influence on her creative expression. If you need us, we’ll be ~vibing~.

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Kue Varo, photo courtesy of Ariana Molly

”Daffodil-11 is a reference to Kurt Vonnegut's Slapstick, which is my absolute favourite book of all time," said Spreen. "It’s roughly about human decency for human [decency’s] sake, without attachment to outcome. This album starts with an angry introduction to the planet, and ends with me trying not to bury her. It’s a very vulnerable and sometimes uncomfortable undressing."

Daffodil-11 was recorded at Montreal's St Zo Studio. The album features Matthew Spreen on rhythm guitar, Chris Dadge (Alvvays) on percussion, Scott Munro (Preoccupations) on synth, and Rena Kozak (Child Actress) on bass and production duties. The seven songs on Daffodil-11 each have one of two personalities attributed to them.

"Although I believe strongly that traits assigned a gender are silly, I enjoy exploring duality in the form of gender to help come to terms with what was imposed onto me," Spreen said. "Gender presenting is a fun visual way for me to do so through my art. Each song on this album has one of two personalities attributed to it: the mod princess light and magnificent of the 1960’s and the grungy 1970’s/90’s beatnik poet/failed artist who is bitter and feels entitled to be. These traits simultaneously exist within me and it’s incredibly liberating to lean into them as a form of expression and creativity."

Listen to Daffodil-11, out now on all major streaming platforms.

Kue Varo · Daffodil 11 (January 28, 2021)

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