DIIV are getting two fresh tracks off of their new album Frog in Boiling Water added to the WGSU rotation this week: “Raining on Your Pillow” and “Frog in Boiling Water”.  The Brooklyn, NY-based indie rock group is back for their fourth full-length album, this time with a darker, grittier sound than their last album, 2019’s Deceiver.  On the two tracks we have chosen for you this week, you’ll get a taste of the churning, brooding electric guitar work and the floating vocals of founding DIIV member Zachary Cole Smith. Frog in Boiling Water offers a more somber interpretation of the shoegaze style. Shoegaze is an indie rock genre that emphasizes guitars to create a dreamy, immersive sound, often featuring heavy effects and delicate, whispery vocals. If you like what you hear from this latest album by DIIV, consider it this year’s reflection of Ride’s 1990 album Nowhere. Frog in Boiling Water, released by Fantasy Records, is the perfect addition to your summer playlist, offering a deep dive into DIIV's unique sound and a taste of the shoegaze scene in 2024. 

We are also adding “Modesto” by Seattle’s Pedro the Lion, a chapter in the autobiographical Santa Cruz album, released this month on Polyvinyl. In “Modesto”, singer-songwriter (and creative force behind Pedro the Lion) David Bazan recalls a stop in the long line of towns that his family moved to and from throughout his childhood and into his late-teens as a preacher’s son. In the first verse, Bazan recalls working as a vacuum salesman and only ever selling a single vacuum, to a customer who “couldn’t afford it/She wrote out the check/And burst out sobbing.” He perfectly captures his feelings of being a conflicted and lost teen in California in the early ‘90’s, similar to Sun Kil Moon’s pervasively intimate Benji from 2014.

“The Fall” by Roki builds like a plane on a runway gaining momentum, increasing energy while you, on the plane, begin to lose sense of just how much you are moving because your brain just can’t comprehend it.  Then, the plane’s tires leave the ground, and you are hit with gravity’s pull.  That’s how Roki’s latest single hit me.  As the instrumentation of the track finally reaches the climactic fullness of sound, I feel gravity kicking in.  But it’s been there the whole time.  Roki does a fantastic job of creating a sense of feeling small, which is fitting given her thoughts on the tack.  She recently spoke with NXTNOW music: “In this big world, sometimes we can feel so small, like we're unable to make change but still feeling like we have to take responsibility for the situation we're in.”  

“Levitate”, another track we are adding to our rotation, is the triumphant return from hiatus of Canadian singer-songwriter Billie Zizi.  In her most straightforward indie rock sound yet, Zizi’s latest is informed by the live looping, jazz-injected guitar work, and soulful melodies that she has picked up with each stage of her career. “Levitate” recalls the powerful vocals of Lucinda Williams, while filling out with a warm, pronounced guitar reminiscent of Snail Mail.