Née: Andrés M. Pichardo
Raíces: La Romana, República Dominicana via Brooklyn, NY
Sounds Like: DIIV, Wild Nothing, or Beach Fossils with a stomach full of mangú, brugal, and yaniqueques.
You should listen to Grand Resort because… dream pop got a ticket to paradise, drank some piña colada, and flew back home.
The Dominican Republic isn’t the first place one would have in mind as inspirational home to dreamy, ’80s-style shoegaze/post-punk/pop, but that’s exactly the story of Grand Resort.
Andrés Pichardo, a Dominican resident of Brooklyn, created Grand Resort, a dream pop act totally influenced by the eternal summer of La Romana, a town located on the South-Eastern coast of the Dominican Republic. A mix of guitar sounds and rhythms, old synths, distortion and drum sets with a touch of nostalgia was born, easily compared to projects like Beach Fossils, Wild Nothing, and the shoegaziness of The Pains of Being Pure At Heart.
Grand Resort’s debut album, Vanguard Dreams, was released last year, which included nine songs full of melodic strengths, near-whisper vocals, and its conceptual atmosphere. The band is releasing its second LP this summer and, because they’re based in Brooklyn, you could actually catch them perform any time for a guaranteed dazed experience, Dominican style.