The Stargazer Lilies

Hailing from northern Pennsylvania, Stargazer Lilies craft an intoxicating blend of Slowdive/My Bloody Valentine-era shoegaze and plaintive electro-ambient indie pop, proudly reviving "the raw rock primal gaze, no bullshit sunshine haze." Their first outing, the 2013 album We Are the Dreamers, paved the way for repeated tours alongside Tobacco of Black Moth Super Rainbow, who later shaped their 2019 release Occabot.

Multi-instrumentalists John Ceparano and Kim Field, both formerly of Soundpool, assembled the group with drummers EJ DeCoske and Johnny Lancia. The resulting debut, curated by Tobacco and issued by Graveface Records, surfaced as We Are the Dreamers in October 2013. After DeCoske and Lancia exited, the band welcomed L.A.-based Tammy Hirata of Blood Candy on drums. This revised lineup finished the follow-up LP Door to the Sun, which appeared in June 2016, before issuing the outtakes collection Lost the following year.

Having tracked their subsequent album independently, the members passed the recordings to Tobacco, whose input amplified its raw contours into something heavier and more hallucinatory. Occabot, the aptly named result, emerged on his Rad Cult label in 2019.