― the surface noise (electricsound), Saturday, 13 December 2003 11:46 (twenty years ago) link
― JoB (JoB), Saturday, 13 December 2003 12:24 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 13 December 2003 16:27 (twenty years ago) link
― A Nairn (moretap), Saturday, 13 December 2003 17:58 (twenty years ago) link
― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Saturday, 13 December 2003 18:03 (twenty years ago) link
― Sonny A. (Keiko), Saturday, 13 December 2003 18:16 (twenty years ago) link
― keith m (keithmcl), Saturday, 13 December 2003 18:36 (twenty years ago) link
― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Saturday, 13 December 2003 19:12 (twenty years ago) link
― Ian Johnson (orion), Saturday, 13 December 2003 19:22 (twenty years ago) link
I think most bands these days that are labelled "shoegazer" would be better suited to "slowcore" or "dream-pop" labels.
Labelling is wrong.
― Stupid (Stupid), Saturday, 13 December 2003 20:24 (twenty years ago) link
― cs appleby (cs appleby), Saturday, 13 December 2003 20:45 (twenty years ago) link
― Aaron W (Aaron W), Saturday, 13 December 2003 20:54 (twenty years ago) link
― cs appleby (cs appleby), Saturday, 13 December 2003 22:13 (twenty years ago) link
Coldplay have certainly been influenced by Catherine Wheel, My Bloody Valentine and other bands like that, but that's not to say they're a shoegazer band.
I guess this is a semantical debate. Shoegazer, to me, isn't about an "atmospheric aesthetic", it's much more specific than that.
― Stupid (Stupid), Saturday, 13 December 2003 22:29 (twenty years ago) link
I declare 2004 the year of the Shoegaze. I'm chinese for sake of argument. With all the discussion around here about it in the last month or so I feel Congress will agree.
A firecracker parade will follow.
― cs appleby (cs appleby), Saturday, 13 December 2003 22:44 (twenty years ago) link
― Nihilist Pop Star (mjt), Saturday, 13 December 2003 22:47 (twenty years ago) link
― cs appleby (cs appleby), Saturday, 13 December 2003 22:56 (twenty years ago) link
this thread is good now
― the surface noise (electricsound), Saturday, 13 December 2003 22:57 (twenty years ago) link
― cs appleby (cs appleby), Saturday, 13 December 2003 23:09 (twenty years ago) link
― dlp9001, Saturday, 13 December 2003 23:13 (twenty years ago) link
www.theearlies.com
― the priest, Saturday, 13 December 2003 23:14 (twenty years ago) link
― the priest, Saturday, 13 December 2003 23:18 (twenty years ago) link
I will now check out melodic.com
― cs appleby (cs appleby), Saturday, 13 December 2003 23:26 (twenty years ago) link
― keith m (keithmcl), Saturday, 13 December 2003 23:58 (twenty years ago) link
I would click the "Free Sample Issue" button on the side and see what happens.
This zine is run by Ryan Anderson who used to play with Fuxa back in the old Michigan space rock days. Each issue comes with a free cd comp that is mostly showgaze and space rock. If you are interested in that sound they are very worth picking up. Ryan keeps the prices dirt cheap, they cost $7.20 a piece and that covers the shipping.
If you do decide to pick up back issues I would recommend that you start with issue three and work your way forward. The first couple issues were a bit patchy but they got better with every following issue.
As far as bands go, I would recommend looking into Tristeza/The Album Leaf, Cerberus Shoal, Landing, Hinterland, and Tex La Homa. ESOJ's(the surface noise) and Ned's picks are both completely otm and I would have recommended them myself if they had not beaten me to the punch.
― Nihilist Pop Star (mjt), Sunday, 14 December 2003 00:09 (twenty years ago) link
― Nick Mirov (nick), Sunday, 14 December 2003 02:36 (twenty years ago) link
― Kent Burt (lingereffect), Sunday, 14 December 2003 04:40 (twenty years ago) link
Readymade isn't exactly new. They were sending out annoying promo stuff 6/7 years ago.
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Sunday, 14 December 2003 05:46 (twenty years ago) link
― cs appleby (cs appleby), Sunday, 14 December 2003 07:56 (twenty years ago) link
― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Sunday, 14 December 2003 08:13 (twenty years ago) link
― derrick (derrick), Sunday, 14 December 2003 08:49 (twenty years ago) link
― cs appleby (cs appleby), Sunday, 14 December 2003 22:57 (twenty years ago) link
― the surface noise (electricsound), Sunday, 14 December 2003 22:58 (twenty years ago) link
― the surface noise (electricsound), Sunday, 14 December 2003 22:59 (twenty years ago) link
― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Sunday, 14 December 2003 23:37 (twenty years ago) link
The Meeting Places as well...reasonable enough rotegaze.
M83, now lemme tell ya, I guess I enjoyed the album the one time I heard it, but that was six months ago and I haven't felt any need to listen again.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 14 December 2003 23:53 (twenty years ago) link
― keith m (keithmcl), Monday, 15 December 2003 00:08 (twenty years ago) link
― the surface noise (electricsound), Monday, 15 December 2003 00:09 (twenty years ago) link
Everyone should hear the new For Against.
― JC (JC A.), Monday, 15 December 2003 00:24 (twenty years ago) link
― the surface noise (electricsound), Monday, 15 December 2003 00:29 (twenty years ago) link
― keith m (keithmcl), Monday, 15 December 2003 00:35 (twenty years ago) link
― the surface noise (electricsound), Monday, 15 December 2003 00:45 (twenty years ago) link
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 15 December 2003 05:38 (twenty years ago) link
Also Trespassers William, whose cover of Ride's "Vapour Trail" is gorgeous and a fair sign of how they sound in general.
― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Monday, 15 December 2003 15:53 (twenty years ago) link
― Ben Boyer (Ben Boyer), Monday, 15 December 2003 17:19 (twenty years ago) link
― dieblucasdie (dieblucasdie), Monday, 15 December 2003 19:21 (twenty years ago) link
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 15 December 2003 19:24 (twenty years ago) link
― Michael Patrick Brady (Michael Patrick Brady), Monday, 15 December 2003 19:25 (twenty years ago) link
― desolert (desolate), Monday, 15 December 2003 19:42 (twenty years ago) link
― Palomino (Palomino), Monday, 15 December 2003 20:42 (twenty years ago) link
To really generalize it, Duster and shoegaze seem like just the sort of rock that would catch on with a generation that doesn’t really respect or like to rock.
― Chris L, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 14:38 (five months ago) link
And by respect I don’t mean show fealty to the rock gods, they just don’t seem interested in some of the sensations wild or abrasive rock n roll can provide. Or at least not without interrogating it to the point that they can’t.
― Chris L, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 14:41 (five months ago) link
Slowdive seems far bigger with the youth than with their contemporaries.
I like this a lot, best Vondré track yet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdlcmzP0Gi8
― bendy, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 14:46 (five months ago) link
the big thing i don't understand is how duster (though they're not shoegaze) ended up with a such a following among younger people.
― ufo, Wednesday, December 20, 2023 6:50 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
I think it's because they capture a particular mood through their music that resonates with that demo... a blend of zoned-out and deep-feeling that carries a ton of weight without any melodrama. Poignant bliss that never gets too sappy. Slowdive deliver that kind of thing too.
― Evan, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 15:23 (five months ago) link
But there are a million 90s bands that can be described exactly that way. Don't get me wrong, Duster's cool and I think Stratosphere (which I only heard for the first time last year) is a good record, but weren't they at best like a fourth tier slowcore band at the time? Like I knew a lot of Codeine and Bedhead and even Rex fans back in the day and I don't recall any of them ever even mentioning Duster. The randomness of the algorithm is a mysterious thing
― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 16:09 (five months ago) link
numero put out that box set in 2019, maybe gave the band some mystique from the perspective of young folx
― brimstead, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 16:13 (five months ago) link
i think duster was hyped on /mu but at this point i'm guessing 4chan et al is more of a milennial thing
― global tetrahedron, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 16:19 (five months ago) link
Well once their cult following gained momentum it totally snowballed, so at a certain point along the way they're benefitting from that effect, but I do believe their approach has something indescribable about it that hits differently than those other examples. Something about how they handle melody and sound design. I do hear a lot of variation across those bands you mentioned, but the stylings of newer bands in the genre are closest to Duster. It's hard to pin down.
But yes Duster was not a big deal when they came out at all. I picked up Stratosphere on vinyl for cheap in ~2010 or so and they still hadn't been rediscovered yet.
― Evan, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 16:19 (five months ago) link
It's kinda cool how with any scene, some bands reputation resonate with subseq
― bendy, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 16:51 (five months ago) link
somewhat related to the revive Cigarettes After Sex
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, 20 December 2023 16:52 (five months ago) link
speaking of Rex, tho not a shoegaze band— the Numero reissue of “C” this year was my intro to them, i fuck with this stuff so hard.as far as the HTNT record— I like it a lot but I do sense some really weird production issues. the bass is muddy af, and at times the vocals are much more buried than at others— really inconsistent production-wise. that said i still think it’s an excellent record
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Wednesday, 20 December 2023 16:52 (five months ago) link
...submit button problem
It's kinda cool how with any scene or movement, some bands' reputations bubble up with subsequent generations. Also, originators don't always become the ones who resonate the longest.
― bendy, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 16:54 (five months ago) link
"ignored at the time of release, so and so was discovered years later by collectors and quickly developed a massive cult following" is hardly a new phenomenon
― Evan, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 16:59 (five months ago) link
imago, you listen to Beyond Dawn? such a weird discography. i figured if anyone did here it would be you. cuz you weirdo. i've been listening to the last album on vinyl. they started out as 90s norwegian metal and then ended up being...whatever it is they ended up being.
this is from the last album. which is why i thought of you. hahaha!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQnu8KW1MVk
― scott seward, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 17:56 (five months ago) link
even in the mid-90s they were already weird:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c4UceAHwqo
their first tape was this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvPXREnG7dY
― scott seward, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 17:57 (five months ago) link
anyhoo, carry on shoegazing shoegeezers!
― scott seward, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 17:58 (five months ago) link
Ooh ty will give that a whirl!
All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavours are the great underrated 90s shoegaze band and Kairon; IRSE the great underrated one now, among others ofc
Cigarettes After Sex are the single worst band in the world. I hate them with a passion you can only guess at
― imago, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 18:00 (five months ago) link
(and if you want something in between those eras, Coaltar Of The Deepers should be much, much bigger with The Kids than they are imo!)
― imago, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 18:01 (five months ago) link
kairon; irse is proggier/psychier than any of the original blend shoegaze bands imo. good stuff tho
― kissinger on my list (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 20 December 2023 18:04 (five months ago) link
speaking of 'we have [x] at home', this Bloody Comeback song is Ulver at home lol (I am enjoying it)
― imago, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 18:06 (five months ago) link
but yeah where are the kids trying to sound like this ;_;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlJwXe4dmSc
― imago, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 18:23 (five months ago) link
i still have my copy of turning into small. such a great mesh of my stereolab valentine. thy did it best in the states.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 18:32 (five months ago) link
have put Frysh on, it's sounding quite interesting, excellent Y2Kwave (see also that one Fireside album)
― imago, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 18:36 (five months ago) link
we are however massively off-topic lol
Pitchfork w/their 2023 shoegaze revival articlehttps://pitchfork.com/features/article/the-shoegaze-revival-hit-its-stride-in-2023/
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 28 December 2023 03:04 (five months ago) link
It has long seemed to me like the shoegaze approach to rock that has never dated or gone on a downswing, unlike the genres that it rose from -- goth, jangle, NYC noise, post-hardcore. Maybe because it has always sat in a sweet spot just below mainstream, accumulating interest as listeners age into it, hooks always buried enough you have to search for them. I don't really associate it with a generation or a wave. Like, when the UK music press tossed it aside, it was just getting going in the US.
― bendy, Thursday, 28 December 2023 16:23 (five months ago) link
I remember feeling a bit superior about that at the time, the landmark MBV/Ride/Slowdive albums had been and gone - with just the occasional mention of the term as an arch callback to its original put-down usage - and then the US was all “hay guys I looooove shoegaze” and lots of not-really-relevant or second-rate bands being picked up seemingly at random.
― assert (matttkkkk), Thursday, 28 December 2023 16:58 (five months ago) link
i was way into it and it woulda happened if it wasn’t for that meddling grunge. but all grunge did was push shoegaze just under the surface where it’s festered and now it is a wonderful ubiquitous toxic algae bloom.
― digital chirping and whirring (Hunt3r), Thursday, 28 December 2023 22:05 (five months ago) link
Concrete Avalanche posts a pretty good intro guide to Chinese shoegaze https://jakenewby.substack.com/p/a-beginners-guide-to-chinese-shoegaze
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 22 February 2024 03:14 (three months ago) link
Really into the new somesurprises record, they’re touring the east coast in a couple weeks https://somesurprises.bandcamp.com/album/perseids
― JoeStork, Monday, 29 April 2024 15:24 (one month ago) link
Yeah I need to get around to listening to that -- Catbus, a Bluesky account I've been following for a while for the good new shoegaze recs, has talked this up and I know I have it around here somewhere!
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 29 April 2024 15:27 (one month ago) link
there’s a new Belong album coming out . the sample tracks seem a little odd but gotta say, not on my bingo card for the yearhttps://belong.bandcamp.com/album/realistic-ix
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Thursday, 16 May 2024 02:09 (one month ago) link
also admit that their second album continues to get regular plays 13 years later
1) always amazes when i see release dates like 3 mos away, and while it makes sense to me roughly understanding what is supposed to happen, it still seems soooo far away, it would stress the hell out of me if i were an artist.2) recommendation of stuff unknown to me from trusted source— another good day
― well below the otm mendoza line (Hunt3r), Thursday, 16 May 2024 02:21 (one month ago) link
my kid is way into all of this now. I think i said elsewhere that duster played one of the worst sets I've ever seen a band play probably 20 years ago. It's cool they have this revival; they're headlining the Warfield in SF! that's so weird. obviously I like all of these bands and even like some of the new ones. We saw Soft Blue Shimmer at a bar in SF last week and they were really good.
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Thursday, 16 May 2024 03:56 (one month ago) link