OK COOL
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. Their latest EP, Surrealist, is an emo paragon that ranges from bouncy open-D jams reminiscent of Marietta to punk riffs that wouldn’t be out of place on a Joyce Manor album. 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. —Joshua Carter