5 Rising NYC Bands That Played SXSW 2012

2. Dive Dive, a side project of the band Beach Fossils, makes music that sounds like a dream. In the spirit of bands that celebrate beach culture, such as Beach House and Wavves, Dive differs from the bunch by adding a new mix to the table through meditative tracks that force listeners to literally dive into the original sound the band has managed to create. Dive played the Brooklyn Vegan party this past SXSW at Hotel Vegas. The barely lit bar turned into a sweaty pit of swooning heads. The mix of jangle sounding guitars and low-fi vocals left the sound to the listeners’ interpretation. Dive’s lyrics were nearly impossible to understand as they came under a roar of drums and guitar. This band needs to be taken in with a warning: Dive is loud and forces a hallucinatory experience. The songs allow listeners to imagine alternate worlds while tracks like “Sometime” and “Geist” play. [Cole of Dive, left] Front man, Z. Cole Smith (Cole), sings with a muffled tenor that you’d want whispered into your ear. The combination of unique sounds, interplay between instrumental break downs, and Cole’s lyrical display of affection to his music is enough of a reason to catch this Brooklyn band at an upcoming local set. Dive will be playing at Le Poisson Rouge on 4/06.