Arizona’s Alison’s Halo are one of the OG American shoegazers, having formed way back in 1992 and despite going to ground before the turn of the century, remained one of the first names you’d think of when talking about the first wave of the genre from the Americas. They reformed in 2009 for sporadic shows and a steady stream of live and archival releases around their one main release – 1998’s singles compilation Eyedazzler – but new music didn’t seem to be on the table… until now.

Today brings the release of “Happy”, their first new song in forever – though according to the band, while the release may be new, the song itself has lived a life or three:

This lilting and lovely little number spans three decades and was captured along the way to a wide range of lo-fi and hi-fi recording contraptions: drums on a boombox, guitars on a four-track, more guitars and bass on an eight-track cassette portastudio, and then countless vocals, harmonies, AND EVEN MORE GUITARS on a modern day super computer (aka 15 year old Mac).

Alison’s Halo @ Instagram

Alison’s Halo’s live engagements have generally stayed on the west coast, but they are venturing east next year for a few dates supporting Panchiko, though sadly no on the Toronto date.

Fun fact – guitarist Adam Cooper was the mastermind behind the guitargeek.com gear schematic website back in the ’90s, adored by many and paid tribute to here a few years ago.