DIIV, man. What can I say about them? Speaking for most people, you are probably asking who are they? For starters, DIIV is a rock band from Brooklyn, New York led by front man Zach Smith. Zach has been a busy man when he started working on his musical career. Involved in bands like, Beach Fossils and Darwin Deez, he was certainly making a name for himself. Back in 2011, he wanted to start a non-self named solo project. Inspired by Nirvana, they decided to name themselves “Dive”, but eventually changed the name to DIIV. It is significant due to their heavy influence with water and ocean music. Zach and fellow artists Andrew Bailey (guitar), Devin Perez (bass), Collin Caulfield (keyboard), and Ben Newman (drums) decided to unite and get to work. Their first album set a precedent for classic shoegaze dream rock. For those of you who do not know what “shoegaze” means; it is essentially a sub-genre of alternative rock that incorporates echo and distortion noises. It originally started in the United Kingdom from bands like My Bloody Valentine and Jesus and Mary Chain. Some notable newer bands that use this include Yo La Tengo and The War on Drugs. With that, Is the Is Are uses heavy usage of reverb and echo effects mixed with airy guitar hollow body sound and washed out drums.  Oshin, which dropped in 2012, set the bar high for a new era shoegaze rock. Some popular songs include “Doused”, “Past Lives”, and “Earthboy” inevitably made their way into the indie stratosphere.  Now, lets face the music.

So, to start this new year, DIIV blessed us with multiple singles like “Dopamine” and “Under the Sun.” Oddly enough, DIIV released 5 singles in 2015-2016. I will never understand why some bands release so many singles and then once the album comes out, you have already heard most of the album. It doesn’t seem as special if you release too many singles. Anyway, once I started listening to this album, I realized how hard at work the guys must have been. As I said previously, DIIV definitely incorporates a dream/ocean feel to their music. Low key and with simple single string guitar. It was really awesome to see the product that they have made and also adding a couple of instrumental songs from their sessions. Pitchfork, I believe, gave them a fair rating of 8.1 (I would have probably given it an 8.5, personally). Some of their best songs include, obviously, their singles like “Under the Sun” and “Bent (Roi’s Song). However, some of my personal favorites were “Out of Mind” and “Yr Not Far.” If you like Beach Fossils and Wild Nothing, then I am sure you will like this album. They really capture inner-shoegaze/dream with their distant guitar and soft vocals. In my opinion, well-worked guitar is the what makes shoegaze rock, shoegaze rock. Without it, you don’t really have it. 

For a track by track breakdown, “Dopamine” reminds me a lot of The Smiths without elongated vocals by Morrissey. The guitar and drum remind me a lot of The Queen is Dead. I find it very hard to ignore the signature Devin Perez bass hooks. They are just so catchy, you know? “Yr Not Far” incorporates a lot of string deadening and some heavy strumming, almost sounding like U2 artwork. I know the song (Fuck) will capture a lot of people’s attention, because, you know (Fuck). I think it is really cool that they include some of these short segments taken from their outtakes of studio sessions. You can think of it almost like an interlude, because it is, like 17 seconds. 

To break it down, I think that their label Captured Tracks is doing a pretty great job at keeping DIIV’s original sound  still. One of my friends argued that their sound is a little bit different from Oshin, which I can agree with. Of course, some sound a little different, but I believe for the most part that they were excellent at not tampering with their style. If there is any good time to listen to this music, I would suggest on a sunny day driving around. Well, if I am going to be blunt (kinda literally), most of the core lyrics in this project involve smoking and getting high. Now, for starters, I don’t smoke, but I can see why many stoners flock by the masses to get their hands on the new DIIV album. You will understand once you listen to them.

Is the Is Are by DIIV out now in stores. Available on Spotify, Apple Music, MP3, and music stores everywhere.

Again, make sure to check out my Spotify profile for some cool playlists. jkiser2016