The core duo of Chicago indie-rock band OK Cool, Bridget Stiebris and Haley Blomquist Waller, managed to fit a big, honking sound into compact songs on their 17-minute 2023 EP, Fawn. For their follow-up, they didn’t go bigger—OK Cool’s debut album, the new Chit Chat (Take a Hike), doesn’t rip harder or get more aggressive. On these relatively somber songs, Stiebris and Waller repackage the intensity of their earlier material. The riffs are still pretty huge, but the tone is more cool and subdued. On the chorus for “Safety Car,” twinkling, minor-key synths embroider crunchy, pent-up guitar and forlorn vocals—the overall effect is to supersize the tune’s bittersweet wooziness, which makes for a fun contrast with its lighters-up rock ’n’ roll roar.
OK Cool Truth or Consequences New Mexico and Superdime open. Thu 8/14, 8 PM, Subterranean, 2011 W. North, $21.80, 17+
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Leor Galil (he/him) started writing for the Chicago Reader in 2010. He joined the staff in 2012 and became a senior staff writer in 2020.
Galil mainly covers music, with a singular focus on Chicago artists, scenes, and phenomena.
He’s won a handful of journalism awards; he’s won two first-place awards from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (for music writing in 2020 and arts feature in 2022) and a Peter Lisagor award (for Best Arts Reporting and Criticism in 2022).
Galil lives in Chicago. He speaks English and can be contacted at lgalil@chicagoreader.com.