"Slowcore": Search & Destroy

seam - headsparks LP, kernel EP, days of thunder 7", granny 9x 7"
search tracks: "new years", "driving the dynamite truck"(breaking circus cover)

slint - spiderland LP
search tracks: "washer", "don aman"

more later... (btw i've never heard low or bedhead).

Would you really call this slowcore? I've owned it for a while, and do enjoy it, but wouldn't have thought to call it that. "Washer" perhaps, but the rest of it seems to be relatively upbeat and propulsive; not draggy.

If you've never heard Low.. search the tracks "Two-Step" and "Caroline" for starters. They're pretty great, methinks.

pehr records rocks. most of those are great. some of their roster fits the slowcore idea even if some are more in the somber indie pop realm. timonium's "self evidence"... download it. empress is classic. in that same vein, hyrdoplane and cat's miaow are also tremendous...

m.

Yes, i would wager that it was very impactful for most of the bands that will be discussed in this thread.

Moving on, Bedhead and Rex were alright.

(don't take me selling it back as a bad sign... my collection ebbs and flows.)
m.

the only record i have ever returned. it seemed very mediocre, like the 'i mother earth' of indie rock.

crescent.

what about flying saucer attack?

m.

Also, regarding Seam, The Problem With Me is my unqualified favorite.

The Problem With Me is my fave Seam record as well.

- Red House Painters - Ocean Beach
- s/t (Rollercoaster)
- Down Colorful Hill
- Idaho - Three sheets to the wind

three bands who may or may not be slo-core:
mazzy star - she hangs brightly
radar bros. - and the surrounding mountains
slint - spiderland (washer and for dinner... could be termed slo-core)

DESTROY:
codeine - the white birch (brittle and unlovable)
american music club - mercury (prob not slo-core, but it's a load of arse.)

Low are gods, get as many of their albums as you can. Secret Name is the pick of the bunch, though. The perfect crystallisation of their sound.

Boa Morte are an Irish group, they were reviewed in a couple of British mags, but they pretty much disappeared without trace. Their album is a treasure, shamefully neglected. They play support to Teenage Fanclub, so I'll be seeing them on Wed. They have lovely deep, rich voices.

they are also in session, live on peel this coming thursday (22:00-00:00 gmt) and you can listen to it live or for up to a week afterwards (www.bbc.co.uk/radio1)

see also: will oldham / palace brothers / palace music
and, maybe, any of the mojave 3 albums.

andy

BTW, good call on Duster. Low and Bedhead fans who need another fix would do well to check out Contemporary Movement.

revive!

this genre has been kicking my ass all month
an introduction to slowcore

i have never considered slint to be slowcore. possibly because i don't like them?

BEDHEAD. All three of there albums consistently rotate as my favorite among them, and my top ten album ever. Its the painstaking subtlety they maintain as they redefine grandiosity in every song.

And Duster rules too. Such bittersweet guitar chords; gorgeous.

...and one of my top ten albums ever.*** -Is what I meant to say instead.

Low low low.

(Among the best, most intense -- and most facsinating -- acts of the decade, btw)

^what he said

yea since "discovering" this genre my head rolodexes "what fun life was" and whatever the fuck mishmosh of low songs i was able to find. can't wait to have some extra scratch to go get the rest of bedhead's catalog.

suggest me more of this type of musics, y'all please

I am a certified corny Low fanatic but I think I like Bedhead even more. Bedhead at their best reached loftier heights (by just a hair) than Low, and Low has more meh material. But then Low were prolific compared to Bedhead. But then I like other Dallas things like the Cowboys and Rich Hippie.

Other things to try

Jesse Sykes - Reckless Burning or Oh, My Girl.

Or as slowcore bleeds into shoegaze, Slowdive - Souvlaki.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol787NjpBS4

The world hasn't changed that much since then.

i am desperately in love with speck mountain and you all should be too

http://pry.com/codeine/codeine_barelyreal_vinyl_cover_print.jpg
(/thrd)

I recently grabbed that album for a dollar but haven't listened to it yet.

i'm a codeine fan but imo it's their weakest. if 'broken hearted wine' was on it, it would be improved tenfold.

Looks like the Belvedere Palace in Vienna. Nice cover shot.

I really like this one. Don't know why I've waiting this long to check'm out

i've been listening to frigid stars all week!!!

some people swear by barely real... i think my fave is the white birch.

Yeah, The White Birch is my Codeine pick.

The White Birch is great but almost oppressively sad.

Its geeky, but does anybody acknowledge "sadcore" as the related, but more lyrically focused genre?

Anymore I mean. Or is it just an outdated term that nobody really uses.

Hi everyone, just seen this thread for the first time. Has anyone mentioned Low yet?

:-)

Oh I just noticed sadcore mentioned up thread

I don't know where to put this, so I'm putting it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uKl3xeBVY4

Because whoa... <3

Codeine rules.

Loss Leader is one of the best songs of the last 20 years.

Wondering if I'll ever get my hands on that Codeine Numero box! Someday I'll just get it.

Am I alone in liking Seam, I ask myself

there was some chat about them on the codeine thread last year around the time of the box set and tour, not a whole lot though. think I was the only ilxor to catch one of their reunion shows. and it was one of the shows of the year for me.

xp

bluetile lounge released a pretty classic album entitled 'lowercase'. it sounds quite a bit like codeine, except for the songs are longer/less structured. i believe this album came out on sunday records, of all places. i'm pretty sure i've seen bluetile mentioned elsewhere on ilm, however.

yes, codeine were good. haven't listened to them in years, and couldn't bear to now. they were just a little too real, ya know?

summershine not sunday. their second album was on smells like

bluetile lounge were pretty great, sadly i never got to see them live

summershine! untrustworthy memory. i'll check discogs next time.

Oh man yes, Loss Leader - that was always the one song for me too.

I saw Codeine last year in LA. They were really good though it became a little monotonous toward the end. (I feel the same way about their records - even if I really like them!)

"Cave In". Jesus Christ.

Just getting around to this Duster comp on Numero. Fuck, it's great. Stratosphere just damn near took the top of my head off.

it's solid gold, that LP. it's great that they finally got the attention they deserved.

half-cut by bluetile lounge is still my #1 'slowcore' album.

Did I imagine there was a Duster thread? I can't find one. So, I'm just getting around to the Valium Aggelein albums and having one of those shit, why did no one TELL me about this? moments.

Whelp, as someone who was a Duster fan way before they developed the cult audience, I really dropped the ball on this as well! I was either totally unaware of that or completely forgot about it?

It's so good!

...surprised there's no Duster thread?

Anyway, (surprise?) new Duster record sounds like a Duster record one listen in: https://dusternumero.bandcamp.com/album/together

just seen that duster are playing NYC in april... i checked tickets: $120+ for two? that seems incredibly high. what's going on there?

i don't know but they are huge now. it's fucking weird to me; duster played easily one of the worst shows I've ever seen, like they hadn't even bothered to practice. this was many many years ago admittedly and I'm sure it was an outlier.

yeah, i've seen a lot of clips with them where the guitars just sound bang out of tune. now that jason's left the band and they're probably playing new material (last album pretty tedious) idk if i can justify it. at any rate, tickets for NYC are resale, that's why they were so expensive.

my kid (16) is into duster which is just weird; he went and bought the new album on cassette (we don't even have a player). I was like, "wait, duster, that duster?"

That does seem fairly high for Duster tickets, but guess that Numero bump worked out for them.

I like the new album well enough, but the first comeback record was better (though neither quite a patch on that original run).

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/aug/02/glacial-pleasures-of-slowcore-codeine-duster?fbclid=IwAR0vKowbQEEax5tgP5ph4HtxyaXUigjEMLT-FQ15Nqnjbpc7-ifvkGxhuC0

Thanks for that, always good to read more about Bedhead.

i used to dislike codeine, but gave em another chance recently, and they have grown on me hugely. i think i referred to them as brittle and unolveable (about 20 years ago) upthread, but now i am excited about seeing them live this month.

i enjoyed this article, but it could have touched more upon this massive resurgence Duster have had, which fascinates me. i noticed recently that their spotify numbers were impressively large.

i googled and found this, which tries to explain the phenomenon: https://www.themarysue.com/what-are-the-most-popular-bands-on-tiktok-and-instagram/

no bad thing, of course. it's just unusual to strike such a big chord with a young fanabse, at such a late stage in your career.

yeah it's crazy. my son is into duster. I'm sure I said this elsewhere. I had to tell him they played the worst set I've ever seen a band play, it was like they had not practiced once, worse even than half the shows I've played myself and that is saying something. but good on them for capitalizing on this.

Best Duster item was the private DM that went public a year or 2 ago from the stepson of one of the members being wtf at his peers being so enamored with "my stepdad's shitty 90s band"*

*my paraphrase

Codeine is the best, both the Brokaw and Scharin lineups are massive for their own reasons.

https://✧✧✧.tik✧✧✧.c✧✧✧@o✧✧.o✧✧/video/7216392583751273770

the kids are gonna be alright

hmm maybe if i link directly

well whatever

i used to dislike codeine, but gave em another chance recently, and they have grown on me hugely. i think i referred to them as brittle and unolveable (about 20 years ago) upthread, but now i am excited about seeing them live this month.

i enjoyed this article, but it could have touched more upon this massive resurgence Duster have had, which fascinates me. i noticed recently that their spotify numbers were impressively large.

i googled and found this, which tries to explain the phenomenon: https://www.themarysue.com/what-are-the-most-popular-bands-on-tiktok-and-instagram/

no bad thing, of course. it's just unusual to strike such a big chord with a young fanabse, at such a late stage in your career.

― weaselly diesel, Wednesday, August 2, 2023 10:17 AM (four months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Funny because I went through some waves with Codeine as well where the spell broke a bit. Like I remember listening to their plodding slowcore framework carrying the lyrics "I feel so sad, so bad today" and wondering if everyone was just fooling themselves as it all seemed a bit too on the nose in those moments. Like a straight parody of the style at worst. But I keep coming back around!