Shoegaze

You might like some more recent shoegaze-y, dreampop stuff too...I felt the Depreciation Guild (split up last year) were really trying to do something interesting with a similar sonic palette, by incorporating chiptune elements into the mix. There are loads of videos on youtube, these two are probably their best-known:

The Depreciation Guild - Blue Lily
(you might have to skip a crappy ad at the start)



The Depreciation Guild - Dream About Me

Zero1986 wrote: »

Did a search for threads on shoegaze but none existed, so now one does. Over the past few years it's become very much one of my favourite musical styles and best of all as you look deeper into it you just discover more and more great bands.

My Bloody Valentine are the obvious ones of course, you all know them. Just had to get them out of the way first.

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

The best in my opinion however are Slowdive who are just f**king amazing. Just check out their second album Souvlaki.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J2O6SAOmxw

Ride were another one of the more popular originals, their debut album Nowhere is amazing. Guitarist Andy Bell is now wasting his talent in Beady Eye.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygGw_zo_W8A

Pale Saints were an amazing band as well, especially on their first two albums The Comforts of Madness and In Ribbons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L4s00Fa2Hg

Highest recommendation I can make re shoegazing - terrible name for a scene but a step up from the NME's 'Scene That Celebrates Itself' moniker - is Moose. They were lumped in with all of these bands - Chapterhouse, Lush, Slowdive etc but somehow grew out of it and made some beautiful albums long after the scene imploded especially 'XYZ' and 'Honey Bee'.

What about galaxie 500

indiewindy wrote: »

What about galaxie 500

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn6db8RuV1I

Galaxie 500 had nothing to do with what was termed shoegaze.

A modern-ish one. Not even shoegaze, but it has that dreamy vocal style. I love it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SDPG_LOM0w

All this shoegaze reminds me so much of this movie.

cinnamon girl wrote: »

I don't disagree, but what they were doing wasn't exactly a million miles away from shoegaze, either. In fact I'd argue it was closer to the sort of classic shoegaze sound than Pale Saints were.

20 years on it's reasonable to mention them in a discussion of shoegaze IMHO.

Oh Christ no. For me much of the 'shoegaze' scene was merely a journalistic construct when there was very little else happening. They - the NME and Melody Maker in particular - lumped together several younger, generally London-based bands trying their best to create some form of excitement. Then Suede came along and they didn't need them anymore. Like most scenes, much of what was lumped in with the scene was drivel anyway in the same way as drivel such as Northside and Flowered Up were lumped in with the Baggy/Madchester thing.
Galaxie 500 however were just a three college kids who formed a unique band happy to make beautiful, Velvet Underground inspired music. The other thing is that G500 came before shoegaze and it's only been in the past decade or so that there's been a critical appreciation of their legacy. For all things Galaxie 500 related, you can't go wrong with this guy below who is rather pleasingly obsessed.

rustyregan wrote: »

Did anyone go to the Dean Wareham does Galaxie 500 gig in the Working Mans' club? Was very good indeed. Pity no reunion though. I think that one's definitely out.

I was at that gig, it was excellent, nearly fullv in a nice venue, got all the classics, didnt like the clown heckler at the back though. Picked up his book black postcards after the gig, one of the best music autobiographies that I have read. Wouldnt hold out any hope of a reunion

cinnamon girl wrote: »

That's why I said "20 years on". We can all reminisce about what was or wasn't part of the scene back then - I'm certainly doing enough of that - but "scenes" become irrelevant with time and what's left is the recorded output. To someone listening to that output today, with no knowledge of who were or weren't scenesters, I think musically they would find Galaxie 500 a fairly comfortable fit - more so than a lot of Pale Saints' output or even Moose's even though they were supposedly the original "shoegaze" band.

That doesn't make Galaxie 500 shoegazers, but it does make them relevant to a thread about shoegazers.

Well whatever gets people turned on to Galaxie 500 is fine by me even if I'd never associate them with shoegaze. On Fire is a relentlessly beautiful record.

nlgbbbblth wrote: »

My first exposure to Galaxie 500 was reading a 12 dice review of On Fire in Hot Press in 1989.

Caught them at Manchester Uni in February 1990 supporting The Sundays who were on the Reading, Writing and Arithmetic tour. A pretty intense experience.

We were supposed to head down to The Sundays in London a couple of days later but had to go back to Ireland. Pity - because 'Arriet 'ad a sore throat so gig in Kentish Town was called off and the Galaxies played instead in the Camden Falcon. Supposed to be a blinder.

As were most of their gigs by all accounts. You had to read the live reviews through an Everett True filter though. Before he, ahem, discovered Nirvana.

The Dean Wareham gig in the Workmans Club was amazing. Just to see him finally playing those songs live was a great experience. Good to see a big enough crowd there as well. I grabbed Britta's set list/song notes from the stage at the end.

I guess my user name is a nod to the band!

Not sure Loop could have been considered Shoegaze but much of their stuff up to and including the album Heaven's End wasn't far from it - albeit a little dark. One of the few bands I travelled for and whose sounds frequently accompanied my getting very familiar with my shoes...:p

From album 'The World in Your Eyes'


From 'Heaven's End'

nlgbbbblth wrote: »

Loop's LP A Gilded Eternity was great. Two slabs of heavy heavy wax.

I saw them at McGonagles in December 1990. Therapy? supported.

Here's a photo from the gig - by Karl Burke.

I was there:D

Is it any wonder they were considered carpetbaggers to begin with

Of course, per Mr. Agreeable, the scene was called 'shoegaze' coz they needed to look at their hands to find the chords