can someone show me a NEW shoegaze band

saw it this morning

very curious

the tiktok angle is strong and solid, sure, but ambient also seems very in vogue with gen z, and that's not, to my knowledge, tiktok related

I feel there must be pre-SoMe examples of generational genre revivals

As the fairly-thorough article intimates, there is more than one shoegaze, and the sort to go properly viral is the sleepier, more drain rap /vibesy beats adjacent sort, because idk young people have been traumatised by internet exposure and need to numb the pain of existence or something, but it's cool to note that some actually good shoegaze is rising up alongside the dirges (for example it's nice to see Jane Remover get a shoutout, although I'd actually describe her stuff as kind of a bridge between numbgaze and something more structured and lively - the Best Draingazer lol)

'actually good shoegaze' = 'shoegaze that still remembers to be psych-rock/pop'

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. when are low going to have a tiktok hit

i'm pretty sure beach house's "space song" was originally a youtube algorithm thing? or it was used in a tv show (years ago, not wednesday)? its popularity predates tiktok anyway i'm pretty sure

most of the stuff in that article is just 'we have deftones and hum at home' idk

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.

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.

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

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.

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

numero put out that box set in 2019, maybe gave the band some mystique from the perspective of young folx

i think duster was hyped on /mu but at this point i'm guessing 4chan et al is more of a milennial thing

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.

It's kinda cool how with any scene, some bands reputation resonate with subseq

somewhat related to the revive Cigarettes After Sex

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

...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.

"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

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

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

anyhoo, carry on shoegazing shoegeezers!

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

(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!)

kairon; irse is proggier/psychier than any of the original blend shoegaze bands imo. good stuff tho

speaking of 'we have [x] at home', this Bloody Comeback song is Ulver at home lol (I am enjoying it)

but yeah where are the kids trying to sound like this ;_;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlJwXe4dmSc

i still have my copy of turning into small. such a great mesh of my stereolab valentine. thy did it best in the states.

have put Frysh on, it's sounding quite interesting, excellent Y2Kwave (see also that one Fireside album)

we are however massively off-topic lol

Pitchfork w/their 2023 shoegaze revival article
https://pitchfork.com/features/article/the-shoegaze-revival-hit-its-stride-in-2023/

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.

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.

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.

Concrete Avalanche posts a pretty good intro guide to Chinese shoegaze https://jakenewby.substack.com/p/a-beginners-guide-to-chinese-shoegaze

Really into the new somesurprises record, they’re touring the east coast in a couple weeks https://somesurprises.bandcamp.com/album/perseids

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!

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 year

https://belong.bandcamp.com/album/realistic-ix

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

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.

They Are Gutting a Body of Water put out a collection of previously unreleased tracks earlier this week and they've been kicking my ass. For my money they're the most interesting band making shoegaze/adjacent music right now--doing a whole lot more than just rehashing old sounds. They incorporate electronic music in really cool and sometimes subtle ways, have a bit of a glitch thing going, and work in some breakbeats here and there. Got to see them play in NYC back in March and though it was a very short set, it was most excellent. Had almost DnB-like tracks playing through a sequencer or something in between songs played by the band.

And what's the deal with Philly? Seems to be a pretty clear thruline from Alex G-->Blue Smiley-->TAGABOW. Don't know that I'll be able to find the interviews but I seem to remember the guy from Blue Smiley calling themselves an Alex G tribute band and then another interview with the guy from TAGABOW calling themselves a Blue Smiley tribute band. But each is much more than their influences.

So, anybody else keen on these guys?

What’s the album? Doesn’t seem to ge on their bandcamp page.

swanlike (loosies 2020-2023)

It's up on spotify and youtube

I love TAGABOW. I didn't get into "s" quite as much as Dextiny XL, but I agree completely that they're doing more interesting stuff w/ shoegaze than most.

I am a major sucker for heavy distortion, warped sounds and tons o' fuzz.

You know Blue Smiley's main songwriter passed away several years ago now, yeah?

"what's the deal with Philly?"

best indie rock scene in America for a decade now, probably? i assume it's because everywhere nearby got too expensive and artists ended up there. (idk, i live 3,000 miles away.)

Mad not to make the album buyable.

Philly is pretty good for independent music and always has been, ime as someone both from here and as someone who left for 15 years only to return. The punk/hc and indie-rock scene of the mid to late 90s was incredible, and it's kept up since then tbh.

xpost alpine static, yeah it's a damn shame. Spotify algorithm fired Blue Smiley across my bow a few months before the remaining members put out their previously unreleased material in the fall of '23 and I was utterly crestfallen to hear that the brains behind the operation had passed away. Their music sounds like it comes from a damaged soul, but it has a particularly uplifting quality that I feel can only come from such a source.

The new album by Orcas (Rafael Anton Irisarri + Benoît Pioulard) came out this week and will make your ears bleed technicolor

https://orcasmorr.bandcamp.com/album/how-to-color-a-thousand-mistakes

Lorelle Meets The Obsolete in Tijuana last night. (my short review: fuck yeah!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_CgDxFZlJI