I have no better way of describing OK Cool than the words they have chosen to share: “If you long for a charming union of noodly math rock and queer-themed shoegaze, look no further than emo duo OK Cool, aka Bridget Stiebris and Haley Blomquist. These Chicago shredders not only play twangy riffs deep enough to be in a Foxing song, but they also prove their shoegaze mastery through beautifully reverberated telecasters and transcendent vocal effects.”
Their Bandcamp description reads “two tiny tiny rats with a dream of one day becoming human”, and this band is from Chicago, Illinois. Their new album is called Chit Chat.
I wonder if “ok cool” is like agreeing in a chilled manner with something that one likes, or a purely sarcastic reaction to someone doing something very lame and weird. Could be both.
There is a certain vibe and attitude that comes with this band that could only possibly be US. To Europeans like me, it’s about a certain stylistic sound flavour that is somewhere between punk and rock ‘n’ roll, with several shoegaze elements, and many moments that could be found on a Joy Division or The Smiths album, but without that deadly gloominess that the UK has produced from time to time.
I’m not sure if The Smashing Pumpkins’ origins in Chicago created a unique vibe and style, or if they were a product of that vibe and style,, and simply gained enough fame to reach the rest of the world.
I like the boldness and (genuine) coolness of this album. Not cool as in “look at how cool I am”, but I am cool because I genuinely don’t care, and I am doing my music and pouring my soul into it. The right amount of diy for my taste, and also a great balance of rawness, punkish sounds and “vocals from a tunnel” and more good ol’ songwriting like in ‘pool’ which was a lovely surprise.
Also, some very cheeky synth moments there (unless those were guitars?) and a sense of not taking this too seriously, like in ‘Fading Out Forever’, which is possibly the most whimsical and playful moment in the album.
The vocals are raw, genuine, soft, sweet, melodic and at times hypnotic. I am getting the impression that the people in the band are very young,, but I could be wrong,; they may be in their early 30s (not that that is old!), because there is a certain freshness to this sound and the way it is delivered that comes across as very youthful.
In any case, I enjoyed the album, and I would be very curious to see what the atmosphere is like at one of their gigs.
Written by Spiros Maus
