Formerly known as Dive, indie poppers DIIV have recently changed their name “…out of respect for Dirk Ivens and the original Dive … We’ve not been contacted by Dirk Ivens or his lawyers, but the short of it is that I don’t really give a fuck what the band is called. I originated this project in a bedroom with no internet and didn’t know if it would ever leave the bedroom. “DIVE”,the word, was an element of what inspired the project in its genesis, but we’ve outgrown the name and its associations. The band is the same, the music is the same, the future will always be the same. A name is nothing.” So there you go. Respect.
DIIV are a foursome from Brooklyn created out of a solo project by frontman Zachary Cole Smith, who looks like he could be about 16 years old. This may make some sense, having the word “yearling” written on his guitar. He was wearing a light green long-sleeved,over-sized shirt with “Malibu” written on it which could have been purchased at either the Goodwill or Urban Outfitters and with his shaggy blond hair he could have been mistaken for Zack Morris’s cuter, more rebellious younger brother. But I digress.
Their music was a mix of shoegaze pop with obvious sounds of early ’80s British bands like The Cure and Echo and the Bunnymen. They’re young and new to the game but have already released three singles and will continue to grow with their first album “Oshin” scheduled for release on June 26th.