The SHOEGAZING revival, starts.......HERE!!!! OH YES!!!

20 years! 20 GLORIOUS YEARS!!

IT's been 20 long years since the likes of Ride, Curve, Swervedriver, Pale Saints, Lush, Chapterhouse, Moose, Slowdive, Telescopes,The Catherine Wheel, and hell, even The Boo Radleys, not forgetting the twin UBER-gods of Shoegaze - MY BLOODY VALENTINE and HOUSE OF LOVE - all forged a guitar revolution in rock just before US Grunge and its imitators came along and blew it all away with its bad acne, lank greasy shaggy barnets and lumberjackoff shirts...and suicidal lyrical angst.

Who could forget the floppy fringes, the slow-motion blurred 'arty' videos, the neutral, sexless and indecipherable lyrics buried beneath tons of FX-treated guitar overdubs and all manner of dubious 'groove beats', not to mention the regulation 4-track 12" EPs with their one word titles (RIde, Play, Fall, Sway, Cack, Shit, Wank, Toss, Itch, Scratch, Throb, Phaze, Haze, Laze, and indeed Gaze and Shoe)....?? ;)

If the likes of PWEI, Neds, Wonder Stuff and their ilk can reform 20 years later to mark a milestone, then surely it is high time these much-maligned sonic purveyors of "nonchalant blankness" came out of semi retirement and re-staked their place in musical history.

Anybody here a fan of this rather dubious and admittedly androgynous 'movement' that at one point was seriously threatening to make big inroads into the pop charts at the start of the 90s.... ultimately derailed as it turned out, by the fall out from baggydom (which gave way to trance) and grunge-lite (which gave us Green Day) and the countless bandwagon jobs both of these latter genres spawned, much to the inherent disgust of the more sensitive footwear-ogling fret-stroking contingent.

List your favourite Shoegaze albums and singles here .......... if you dare!!

Come on, don't be afraid....

Biti too pissed and I'm the club at the mo to read all that in full but Sliwdive and Pale Daints dud a few fgood tunes. wil give fuller response the morrow Pale Saints' Sight Of You' was good

Ride - Nowhere

Still one of my favourite albums

I remember booking a triple header of I think The Family Cat, Pale Saints, and Chapterhouse c.1991 at So'ton.

The Family Cat were cool cos they played a version of the Reynolds Girls hit, 'I'd rather Jack' to the Family Cat..

Pale Saints were alright, but the seriousness had set in.. and bloody Chapterhouse were awful, constantly bombarded by abuse from us about giving us a smile.

Booked Lush later, who were just dazzling, especially afterwards.

So basically any shoegazing revival can f'off unless Lush reform and Ride, perhaps.

Does The Cure - Disintegration count? Great singles but, fuck me, theres some dour shit in between.

Gene wrote: Does The Cure - Disintegration count? Great singles but, fuck me, theres some dour shit in between.

You have a valid point, cos FatBob Smith admitted to loving Ride, so his next album Wish (which I would re-title as "Pish") was very much inspired by shoegazing stuff cos of the very long guitar intros on some of the tracks on it... zzzzzzzz.....zzzzzzzz.....zzzzzzzz.....

johnny wrote: Biti too pissed and I'm the club at the mo to read all that in full but Sliwdive and Pale Daints dud a few fgood tunes. wil give fuller response the morrow Pale Saints' Sight Of You' was good

Funny to relate, I have that first Pale Saints album - only cos I saw them support the Pixies and was actually quite taken in by their stuff. Agree that Sight Of You is a great song, but that first album had tones of great songs. One song (True Coming Dream) even reminded me of - shock - The Wedding Present.

I liked Lush as well simply because they were a kindergarten version of My Bloody Valentine. But much of the rest of those bands were just somewhat anonymous. A lot of them had their moments though, nevertheless. It's a strange one, this shoegazing lark.... but at least it brings back a lot of good memories.

Liked a few Slowdive tunes back in about 92 but listened to a couple recently and they sound cack.

Lush were alright yeah though i didn't view them as shoegazing like Slowdive etc

Get some of this into yer ribs.

I still get a twinge in my heart and a faint throb in my groin whenever I think of Rachel from Slowdive getting all sweaty at Stoke Poly in 1991. She is lovely.

This is still my favorite shoegaze song....

PS-It's about a car....

By 'Eck! My Neck! wrote: not forgetting the twin UBER-gods of Shoegaze - MY BLOODY VALENTINE and HOUSE OF LOVE -

Not sure i ever considered House Of Love to be shoegazers but any excuse to post some cracking tunes from 1992's Babe Rainbow album.What was the thing with Terry Bickers on that album? Is he on it but then left the band before its release or did he leave before they recorded it and not feature on it at all? My guess is the latter as the guitar work doesn't quite match up to the previous 'Butterfly' LP.

I think that Babe Rainbow album still stands up unlike the Ride debut,but Ride did release some good 4 track E.P.s I suppose. The main band of interest from that period for me remains My Bloody Valentine,they did create something special...

Loveless is just such a fucking strange record. I actually find it a very difficult record to describe in words.

I do find it very very odd - if not ironic - that the way they linked the tracks together with bits of guitar FX and ambient noises was NOT as unique and pioneering as they would have us believe.

Why? You may wonder?

Because PALE SAINTS bloody well did it first with THEIR debut album a year earlier.

Johhny - Bickers fucked off from HOL good 2 years earlier, never the same since. Was good to see em back doing the classics 4/5/ years ago when 'days run away' came out.

Always a big fan of Allison, Souvlaki space station etc.. by Slowdive. The rest bar, early ride stuff was SHITE.

Ah right, thanks Andrew. Regret never seeing HOL live. Was gutted to find out they'd even played a gig in my town once in 1990 ( Chadwick had apparently lived here for a while at one time so possibly why they played here) Only found out when I bought the Spy In The House Love b sides and rarities compilation - they had a gigography in the sleeve notes of their 89/90 tour dates . Some good tunes on that comp- Marble, Soft As Fire, Love 2, Baby Teen...

Kind of drifted off em just before Audience With The Mind came out in 93. Can't recall even listening to that album, like yer say Andrew they were never quite the same after Bickers left. Did he rejoin for Days Run Away and the gigs a few years back?

My Bloody Valentine - never seemed to get round to giving them much of a listen for some reason and still never have

Thanks to this thread I have rediscovered this by Slowdive..

Does anybody here remember a very elusive band that were on 4AD called SWALLOW , who were a duo and had one album out called BLOW - they sounded like a cross between Cocteau Twins and MBV circa 1991. Not sure what year this album of theirs came out (I discovered them by accident when I got a free 4AD sampler that came with something from their catalogue when I ordered a Pixies album.

They [Swallow] sounded very shoegaze if you don't mind me saying. In fact I know for a fact that they even got sampled by Chemical Brothers on a track on their first album...

By 'Eck! My Neck! wrote: Does anybody here remember a very elusive band that were on 4AD called SWALLOW , who were a duo and had one album out called BLOW - they sounded like a cross between Cocteau Twins and MBV circa 1991. Not sure what year this album of theirs came out (I discovered them by accident when I got a free 4AD sampler that came with something from their catalogue when I ordered a Pixies album.

They [Swallow] sounded very shoegaze if you don't mind me saying. In fact I know for a fact that they even got sampled by Chemical Brothers on a track on their first album...

Yeah, they were good - more than a hint of Hooky's bass sound in there too. I think I actually bought their album 'cos Paul Lester's review in "Melody Maker" said they were "a perfect amalgamation of [his] three favourite bands" (ie - New Order, MBV and the Cocteaus).

I even saw them live supporting Mazzy Star at Manchester UMIST in June 1994. They were very nervous and an absolute shambles: my girlfriend at the time was sure that the singer dashed off in tears at the end. Mazzy Star, however, were astonishing....

Clayhead Liberation Faction wrote:

By 'Eck! My Neck! wrote: Does anybody here remember a very elusive band that were on 4AD called SWALLOW , who were a duo and had one album out called BLOW - they sounded like a cross between Cocteau Twins and MBV circa 1991. Not sure what year this album of theirs came out (I discovered them by accident when I got a free 4AD sampler that came with something from their catalogue when I ordered a Pixies album.

They [Swallow] sounded very shoegaze if you don't mind me saying. In fact I know for a fact that they even got sampled by Chemical Brothers on a track on their first album...

Yeah, they were good - more than a hint of Hooky's bass sound in there too. I think I actually bought their album 'cos Paul Lester's review in "Melody Maker" said they were "a perfect amalgamation of [his] three favourite bands" (ie - New Order, MBV and the Cocteaus).

I even saw them live supporting Mazzy Star at Manchester UMIST in June 1994. They were very nervous and an absolute shambles: my girlfriend at the time was sure that the singer dashed off in tears at the end. Mazzy Star, however, were astonishing....

YOwsa! another Mazzy Star nut...I salute you! :) LOve them so much too - perfect and essential " late night slo-mo velvet curtain and blue medicine bottles " listening experience! Must try and listen again to the debut Swallow ep (didn't get the album BLOW - think it's completely out of print now).....and I will play She Hangs Brightly for afters!!!

It's kinda weird cos I like a lot of that electronica stuff like Mouse on Mars, Add N to X, Stereolab, Two Lone Swordsmen, a lot of the Warp acts etc etc.... but I also have a lot of time for the early 90s guitar revolution bands!!!

Don't start the SHOEGAZING revival without me! I'm, like, the shoegazing guy and have the CDs and ticket stubs to prove it. And an Alesis Quadraverb GT loaded up with custom shoegazing presets. And Dean Garcia's bass pick in a little shrine.

Here's a link to photos of Kevin Shields' pedalboard if you think your puny computer monitor can handle it.

Gnu Odor wrote: Don't start the SHOEGAZING revival without me! I'm, like, the shoegazing guy and have the CDs and ticket stubs to prove it. And an Alesis Quadraverb GT loaded up with custom shoegazing presets. And Dean Garcia's bass pick in a little shrine.

Here's a link to photos of Kevin Shields' pedalboard if you think your puny computer monitor can handle it.

Well you know what to do sir - JUMP ON BOARD NOW!

:p

How about starting by listing your favourites so we can see.

here's a few of mine:

Pale Saints - Comforts Of Madness/Barging Into The Presence of God/Half Life/Flesh Balloon... MBV - Loveless/Tremolo/Soon Swallow - sampler EP Lush - Mad Love EP / Gala LP / Scar EP Southpacific - Constance Bowery Electric - Vertigo / Beat / Fear Of Flying / Empty Words

One of my favourite eras in music - I love most of the groups who were associated (some more loosely than others) with the shoegazing tag, although I remember the Melody Maker also calling it The Scene That Celebrates Itself.

The noisier and the dreamier the better as far as I was concerned! It was a shame it burnt itself out by about 1992/93 and got flattened by Britpop, but all good things come to an end and most of the music still sounds great today.

Favourite groups were/are: My Bloody Valentine, House Of Love (Guy Chadwick was a genius songwriter), Lush (had a huge crush on Emma), Ride, Slowdive, AR Kane (more weird dreampop than shoegaze but they made a fearsome noise), Bleach and Moose. Never really liked Chapterhouse though.

Saw Lush and House Of Love live, sadly none of the others.

Christ, this is making me feel old.:)

Ahhhhh... Don't forget ADORABLE!

I was playing the first Pale Saints album again last night - what a coincidence that this thread should re-appear!!

RE: that album - one of my favourite bits is the little section where the band go apeshit between the tracks Insubstantial and A Deep Sleep For Stephen.....

Such a classic debut album, and sadly all but forgotten now.

:)

It's got to be Sonic Youth, although they were the precursors...

I've seen them twice in the last few years and they are definitely bringing it back!

Vive the revival!

Canadia wrote: It's got to be Sonic Youth, although they were the precursors...

I've seen them twice in the last few years and they are definitely bringing it back!

Vive the revival!

They may have been the innovators of that fx-guitar sound but I don't think Sonic Youth have much to do - if anything - at all with the 'shoegazing' thingy..... they operate on a completely different level.

Most of these shoegazing acts hailed from the Thames Valley part of the UK....and around Oxford....well, with the obvious exception of Radiohead of course!!

I think the Shoegazing revival started HERE to be fair ;)

There have been some nice Slowdive demos circulating recently, some of which would have made for a very interesting follow up to Souvlaki, but then we wouldn't have Pygmalion

M1 wrote: I think the Shoegazing revival started HERE to be fair ;)

There have been some nice Slowdive demos circulating recently, some of which would have made for a very interesting follow up to Souvlaki, but then we wouldn't have Pygmalion

This Swallow act are possibly the missing link between Cocteau Twins, MBV and Seefeel...... sad that they vanished without trace though....

Ger Boy wrote: Ride - Nowhere

Still one of my favourite albums

Yep. Ditto.

Still a thing of wonder...

Good call on Seefeel, saw them supporting Spiritualized and the Cocteaus at various points. "Quique" a long-term fave...

Pretty good for a rich Jewish smackhead....

The original and best...

From the mean streets of Burton-on-Trent....

Revolution through repetition, comrades...

Clayhead Liberation Faction wrote: Pretty good for a rich Jewish smackhead....

The slightly geeky guy with glasses playing guitar in this video is Moby..

Clayhead Liberation Faction wrote: Pretty good for a rich Jewish smackhead....

Oh, how could I forget that first UVS album eh? THis is taking me right back!!

BLATANT RIP OFF OF THE VELVETS ALL TOMORROWS PARTIES TOO!!! :)

Love "Crash" as well - no, not that insipid 4th rate Blondie-by-numbers Primitives hit!!!

Clayhead Liberation Faction wrote: Good call on Seefeel, saw them supporting Spiritualized and the Cocteaus at various points. "Quique" a long-term fave...

Seefeel's side project SCALA were also interesting...but they had a lot of problems translating their recordings to live performance due to their stubbon equipmentalways playing up. I remember seeing Scala at a gig once where absolutely everything that could go wrong with their sequencer and computer set up went wrong...this really pissed the band off cos they ended up doing just three songs before calling it a day...fucking shame really.

Seefeel were a great band - like Cocteaus meets the Orb meets MBV...... they were arguably the first WARP act that had a guitarist (or was it Broadcast?)

:)

Quique is an astonishing album, disappointed by their comeback though... This thread has made me dig out several old albums I haven't listened to in years - been listening to the Swallow album today, not the best for keeping you alert when driving though, so switched to this for the way home:

Snorri xxx

Swervedriver all look like the folk who used to do tent-to-tent drug sales at Glastonbury.

Anyway, about time this lot made an audio-visual appearance:

Seefeel remix the Coc's. Very pretty for a song about giving birth and being torn from your fanny to your arse.

When the Cocteaus last toured in 1996 they had Mark from Seefeel playing with nobs and buttons and other clever stuff. They did all these wonderful, barely-there ambient versions of stuff from 'Treasure' and 'Garlands'. Sent my girlfriend to sleep they did, which back then was the highest of compliments...

To fill that MBV-shaped hole in your life...

Never understood the (brief) fuss about this lot, but this particular tune is lovely...

They sounded like MBV at first, the title "Everything's Alright Forever" a direct nod to "Isn't Anything".

This is ace, like all the best summers rolled into one. There was another Martin who used to frequent this place who loved this...

Everything's Alright was genius... As was Giant Steps, one of my favourite albums of all time... Me and my best mate from way back then used to marvel at how the Boos could take an absolutely perfect pop song and fcuk it up with ridiculous amounts of feedback, weird noises, odd trumpets, etc. Noone else got it - our Boo Radleys DJ set at a college disco cleared the room in less than a song...

And on a 'before they became shit' theme:

Good times, top tunes...

Snorri xxx

Snorrimon wrote: Everything's Alright was genius... As was Giant Steps, one of my favourite albums of all time... Me and my best mate from way back then used to marvel at how the Boos could take an absolutely perfect pop song and fcuk it up with ridiculous amounts of feedback, weird noises, odd trumpets, etc. Noone else got it - our Boo Radleys DJ set at a college disco cleared the room in less than a song...

And on a 'before they became shit' theme:

Good times, top tunes...

Snorri xxx

The Boo Radleys were so underrated for what they achieved. They had a number 1 album for goodness sakes (although it was their pop record Wake Up Boo, which I didn't like as much cos it felt contrived, and not the twisted genius that was Giant Steps, Everythings Alright Forever OR C'mon Kids - which was deranged!). FRom Dinosaur Jr copyists via MBV to Beatles eclecticism and out-there expertimentalism with a hefty does of pop tunes.... there were very few bands who operated like them. I saw them and Pale Saints co-headlining in 1992 when they both had albums out together and it was like Yin and Yang. Lorraine preferred the more sedate Pale Saints but I was blown away by the wall of noise the Boos concocted up there on stage.

Clayhead Liberation Faction wrote: They sounded like MBV at first, the title "Everything's Alright Forever" a direct nod to "Isn't Anything".

This is ace, like all the best summers rolled into one. There was another Martin who used to frequent this place who loved this...

THis was such an amazing tune...your description is pretty much spot on. Me and the wife woud spend lazy days (geddit?) chilling out in our backyard with this album playing and some of the tunes were just bliss: Firesky was immense, as onomatopoeic [?] a song as you could expect, Song For The Morning To Sing was just that, Does This Hurt and Sparrow were perfect twisted rival siblings: one brash, the other introverted......and Paradise, although nicking its title from New Order, is actually a far better song than its namesake....I love the way the languid strumming guitars evoke the blissful reverie of lying on the grass gazing up at the sky (not our shoes!!!) without a care in the world. I couldn't rave about this record any more than I have done (with the exeception of that first Pale Saints album of course).

THis thread is fast becoming a really nostalgic one now just cos of the number of old tunes people are bringing back up in this way! :) :)

Heard this one in Fac251 a few times, love it [the full 8 minute version]

Another decent tune I would class as Shoegaze, though from 1985

everyoneverywhere wrote:

Another decent tune I would class as Shoegaze, though from 1985

Ah, Felt... Though this was probably the only bit of their career that could be considered even vaguely shogazey, thanks mainly to the fact that Robin Guthrie produced the album - it sounds much less crisp than any other Felt release...

As a nice link between the above two vids though, have 8 minutes of Felt from 84, slightly disproving my earlier point about only one bit of their career being even vaguely shoegaze...

Snorri xxx

I care not one jot if this is shoegaze-y or not. It is perfect.

Plus, if we're having felt, we are also definitely having this wondrous trio...

...not least because there is a direct ambient continuum between Talk Talk's finest moments and late-period Slowdive's more abstract-minimalist offerings...

And linking things nicely together and back to where it all started for me:

Having bought most of the first first 30 or 40 Sarah Records singles, I remember being struck by how different this one by Eternal was (aside from the Golden Dawn's rather noisy but much less fantastic effort). I think either wrote to the band or Matt from Sarah to enquire about where I could find more of the same... Little did I know that Christian from Eternal would end up in Slowdive... Eternal's one and only single still always sends me to sleep, which I suppose is half the point of drifting walls of sound or whatever... Late period Talk Talk are peerless... Currently assembling a nice playlist from all the posted tracks on this thread... Top stuff - keep it coming...

Snorri xxx

Before they added the "The"-prefix and stopped openly dropping acid on stage and became lumpen wank, Verve were astonishing - everything was fluid, polymorphous genius:

Cranes were usually seen as plinky-plonk goths, but this is somewhere sad and lovely between Cocteaus & Slowdive...

AR Kane were fucking bonkers:

Czars best songs were always quite ethereal. This is one of them (via Tim Buckley):

I adored early Spiritualized gigs. Air muggy with dope smoke, sit down yer bum, here comes another ode to love/smack...

I am not at all ashamed to say that this is one of my favourite songs ever. After the music press lost interest, Moose went ace and sold no records. Play this fucker at my funeral.

[The] Verve may well have been cosmic in their early spaced-out days, but there was the small matter of them forgetting to write actual tunes.....

;) :p

AR Kane..... they were also a 4AD act for just one [astonishing] EP "Lolita".

I can still feel the sheer white heat from the climax of the track "Butterfly Collector". I know I know, Robin Guthrie produced that first record that's probably how I got into them (AR Kane, that is). Mind you, their second album "i" was fucking incredible...... I recommend everybody who has any interest in this genre to get hold of that album as a matter of priority because it is as awesome and kaleidoscopic as the Boo Radleys "Giant Steps"....i.e. it's all over the shop, and brilliant with it.

Clayhead Liberation Faction wrote:

Wow, now you're talking!

I saw Loop at the Bristol Bierkeller on the A Gilded Eternity tour, unbelievably loud. Supported by Godflesh and World Domination Enterprises, so my eardrums took a right kicking.

Talk Talk, Slowdive, Cranes, AR Kane - this is getting me all misty-eyed and nostalgic.

Cranes were proper scary. AR Kane journeyed into space and they're still out there somewhere, 'i' sounds bonkers even now.

I must investigate Giant Steps sometime, it sounds just like my kind of thing!

RE: early Verve. Who need tunes when you've got GROOVES, maaaaan... ;)

I have no idea who BOWS were or why I own their record (other than that it's perfect) or what this is supposed to "be", but I suspect one or two of you will like it:

One of Robin Guthrie's side projects:

This lot are channeling pure Spacemen 3:

I've always thought The Radio Dept were like The Field Mice if only they could afford effects pedals. And drugs:

The Big Pink have their moments, of which this is one:

Juana Molina is great, if not a good idea when you're tripping:

Finally, this is just ace on every conceivable level:

I really loved Broadcast, kinda like a chilled-out Stereolab. This is beautiful and autumnal, and also the least "single-y" single ever.

This is why people creamed themselves over this lot for 12 months:

And back to the Boos - for all the acclaim I always felt that "Giant Steps" was too contrived to ever love. And they were shit live. But this is FAB (though sadly not the astonishing full-fat 12" massive bollocks original single release):

Oh, and this - just because we all love it (and it reminds me of the sirens of my yoof).

An openly gay singer, songs about burning everything belonging to former lovers, "sonic cathedrals", and a band without whom Interpol would have no fucking ideas whatsoever:

This is the brilliant, much-overlooked B-side to "Pump Up the Volume", which (whisper it) is arguably better than the A-Side. Pure 80s 4AD, & you can really hear AR Kane in here too:

"I'll feed you sugarcaaaaane...."

Trippy as only a record featuring prominent use of glockenspiel can be:

Clayhead Liberation Faction wrote: This is the brilliant, much-overlooked B-side to "Pump Up the Volume", which (whisper it) is arguably better than the A-Side. Pure 80s 4AD, & you can really hear AR Kane in here too:

"I'll feed you sugarcaaaaane...."

Me too me too..... LOVED this flip side. It came out just after True Faith went top 5, making M/A/R/R/S the second "proper" indie smash hit to bother the real charts!!

That summer of 87 - I was only a teenager then but it was good shit all around.....

Clayhead Liberation Faction wrote: Oh, and this - just because we all love it (and it reminds me of the sirens of my yoof).

OH yes sireee.......

THis was a BOSS single.....make no mistake.

Clayhead Liberation Faction wrote: I really loved Broadcast, kinda like a chilled-out Stereolab. This is beautiful and autumnal, and also the least "single-y" single ever.

I was shocked when Trish passed away at the beginning of the year. I saw Broadcast for the only time ever when they supported the mighty Stereolab in 1996 (along with Mouse on Mars) in a triple header down in London....

By 'Eck! My Neck! wrote:

Clayhead Liberation Faction wrote: I really loved Broadcast, kinda like a chilled-out Stereolab. This is beautiful and autumnal, and also the least "single-y" single ever.

I was shocked when Trish passed away at the beginning of the year. I saw Broadcast for the only time ever when they supported the mighty Stereolab in 1996 (along with Mouse on Mars) in a triple header down in London....

Ditto - saw them in 97 at the Radio One Sound City (as it was then) in Oxford, quite possibly opening for Spiritualized... Same week as I saw this lot for the first time, again not exactly shoegaze, but in terms of sheer sonic cathedral, wall-of-sound, let's make guitars do cool things-ness worth remembering:

Snorri xxx

Listened to this on the way to work this morning... Great album, even with the weird celtic folk song half way through...

Snorri xxx

Snorri xxx

Ah yes.......... talk of "Sonic Cathedrals"

A phrase that became so fantastically pompous that even Steve Wright adopted it on his old afternoon radio show for one of his crazy characters (the spoof music journalist).....

Shame that it was never actually used as an album title by any of the aforementioned acts then!

Snorrimon wrote:

Snorri xxx

Christ, if you told me that was a long-lost Slowdive tune from the very early 90s I wouldn't doubt it for a second! Any band who have tracks stretching above 8 minutes are OK with me, mind. ;)

Re: sonic cathedrals. Surely this lot were taking the piss with the title of this one just a wee bit, no? :)

^^

Yo La Tengo!!!

Nearly forgot this lot... The perfect union of two of my early 90s obsession: shoegaze and twee indiepop/Sarah Records - then:

and (almost) now:

Snorri xxx

Not really shoegaze related but interesting for others to listen to nevertheless:

This was a project started by the guy from Sarah popsters The Field Mice (who themselves were big New Order fans - check their record sleeves) after that first band split up. Northern Picture Library come on variously like an ambient synth version of Slowdive meets the Go-Betweens at their saddest, but as this remarkably schizoid track shows (check out the last four minutes), their sound owes more to guitar noise terrorists Loop than any cute jangle pop band.

btw, the second track on this ep is called "Here To Stay" and is actually better than the NO namesake that came later....

I dunno if it counts as shoegaze, but I would love to mention Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized (mostly the early stuff).

And as recent band there's Exit Calm.

Bere wrote: I dunno if it counts as shoegaze, but I would love to mention Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized (mostly the early stuff).

And as recent band there's Exit Calm.

Didn't one guy out of Six By Seven (that band you are so obsessed with) form a shoegaze tribute band?

If memory serves me correct.

Not really a tribute band, but the drummer's new band Spotlight Kid is called to be kind of shoegaze.

It sounds like he's been listening to too much My Bloody Valentine......

However - I don't really care about that guy as he'll always be one of the main reasons (in my mind) that the band imploded.

By 'Eck! My Neck! wrote: The Field Mice (who themselves were big New Order fans -

The Field Mice are probably my second favourite band behind NO/JD...

Just perfect...

Snorri xxx

Snorrimon wrote: The Field Mice are probably my second favourite band behind NO/JD...

Just perfect...

Snorri xxx

^^

That one is just pure New Order!!

They have nothing to do with Shoegaze though - apart from their Loop obsession. They have a track called Freezing Point which, sadly is not on YouTube, but it's sheer all out guitar fx assault at the climax.....

Bere wrote: Not really a tribute band, but the drummer's new band Spotlight Kid is called to be kind of shoegaze.

& a mighty fine album their debut is as well

another great new band ploughing the shoegaze furrow is the fauns from bristol

This lot I came across on an old Rocksound CD - they're from the US and their sound owes a heck of a lot to the classic shoegaze sound - an amorphous guitar haze and slow beats.....

I like them Fauns, Hibster. Very good. While gawping aimlessly at their sexy librarian singer on youtube this kept cropping up. I had forgotten how wondrous they were...

...almost.

And on a vague tangent, I am ceaselessly amazed that this much-missed combo (by me, anyway) don't get mentioned more round here. Kind New-Order-meets-Stereolab-gone-folk, and a bit shoe-gazey too.

This is one of their best (and most New Order-y) tunes. They use one of the gob-omophone things Barney has. I had a bit of a crush on the singer, natch. Great voice.

This one is just beautiful. They should have been huge etc. I met a Welsh guy at A Slowdive gig once who ended up tagging around with them flogging t-shirts. Through Slowdive he met Moose, who he start roadie-ing for. I used to get postcards from him from all over Europe and the States. Twat.

Big for Moose and for The Fauns...

Snorri xxx

Engineers' Three Fact Fader was my fave album of 2009. Listening to this beautiful song the other day reminded me of this thread:

Keep on coming back to this one..... it's one of my favourites of theirs, ever.

Just LISTEN to the spaced out, reverb-heavy production. You can almost drown in the huge cavernous womb of FX noise......

And this NY duo's first album has a very distinct MBV-on-mogadon feel to a lot of its snail-paced tracks....

Old skool 'gaze, motherfuckers. Great soundrack for taking mushrooms up Mow Cop as the sun sets....

NEU!'s second album really does my head in...... especially the second side.

What the fuck were they thinking???

Gregg Araki's films are giving the US a crash course in shoegazing

Link

cranelane wrote: Gregg Araki's films are giving the US a crash course in shoegazing

Link

A very thorough and illuminating read indeed...... even if my 'shoegaze' preferences are, at best, decidedly selective (there is some of it which I adore fanatically and there is some of it which I think is a tad vacuous and unimpressive).

'88. So a few years before shoegazing really but great track

Well, I think I have to remind everybody of why this thread started in the first place.....

...so thought I'd reactivate it and stick up the key tune that arguably started the whole thing off:

:)

and here is the - unbelievable - full length version from Manchester Apollo which must have disabled one half of the audience and vaporised the other half.....

was it really THIRTY BLEEDING MINUTES?????!!!

Nah still can't give My Bloody Valentine a chance or more than 30 seconds. Dunno what it is about 'em. Though i think it was possibly some song by em sounded half alright when i'd taken an acid tab in Eilat back in about 93. Could have been them, maybe it wasn't will never know though at the time i was sure it was.They do sound great on LSD if it was them

johnny wrote: Nah still can't give My Bloody Valentine a chance or more than 30 seconds. Dunno what it is about 'em. Though i think it was possibly some song by em sounded half alright when i'd taken an acid tab in Eilat back in about 93. Could have been them, maybe it wasn't will never know though at the time i was sure it was.They do sound great on LSD if it was them

Well, their early beginnings weren't much to write about, it was their post-1989 phase that got all the music papers all wet between the legs.

I don't think they're GREAT or BRILLIANT - just ..... different. They had a strange way with guitars that's for sure. Dunno how they made half of those bizarre sounds on their two Creation albums (for instance, all the keyboard sounds on Loveless were actually all created by sampled feedback - even the fucking flute sounds!!!).

i love all the new wave, weirdo shit. makes me so happy. shoe gazing too.

some good new shoegaze bands doing the rounds, check out the fauns from bristol, or pink playground from the states for example

hibster wrote: some good new shoegaze bands doing the rounds, check out the fauns from bristol, or pink playground from the states for example

The Fauns album is excellent...

I really like this lot as well, both albums well worth checking out...

Snorri xxx

^^

For about ten seconds I'd have sworn they were going to break into a version of the Mary Chain's Just Like Honey!!

And for that first minute or so, that drummer really could do with learning to start keeping the beat IN TIME, there's such yawning split-second delays to his playing you could drive a bus through them!!! I keep wanting to lurch forward and WILL him to hit the drums quicker!

Oh - and around 1.20 minutes, there is some REAL shoegazing to be had as well! Neat!

play one the drummer knows!

Can I throw this one in the mix although it was 88 or so http://youtu.be/74mT5ABGsKY

Used to love the HOL and saw them at Brum Irish Centre in 87/88. Enjoyed them at Reading 89 when the Order headlined. A bloody knackering 3 band mosh with 3 of my fave bands one after the other - HOL, Sugarcubes and the Order. One of the best music nights of my life.

With regards to the shoegazing I used to quite like the Pale Saints and saw Slowdive.

Did anybody else see the Rollercoaster tour with Blur (bottom of the bill), MBV, Dinosaur Jnr and JAMC?

Villa Mark wrote:

Used to love the HOL and saw them at Brum Irish Centre in 87/88. Enjoyed them at Reading 89 when the Order headlined. A bloody knackering 3 band mosh with 3 of my fave bands one after the other - HOL, Sugarcubes and the Order. One of the best music nights of my life.

Oooh forgot that House Of Love were on the same bill as New Order at Reading 89. Makes me wish i'd gone even more now remembering that.Imagine that- House Of Love live with New Order to follow later on. Musical heaven. Would have had to skip Sugarcubes and Bjork's strangled cat vocals in between though, deffo dash to the beer tent that would have been.With ear plugs rammed tight in my lugs

johnny wrote:

Villa Mark wrote:

Used to love the HOL and saw them at Brum Irish Centre in 87/88. Enjoyed them at Reading 89 when the Order headlined. A bloody knackering 3 band mosh with 3 of my fave bands one after the other - HOL, Sugarcubes and the Order. One of the best music nights of my life.

Oooh forgot that House Of Love were on the same bill as New Order at Reading 89. Makes me wish i'd gone even more now remembering that.Imagine that- House Of Love live with New Order to follow later on. Musical heaven. Would have had to skip Sugarcubes and Bjork's strangled cat vocals in between though, deffo dash to the beer tent that would have been.With ear plugs rammed tight in my lugs

Bjork wasn't the problem in the Sugarcubes, it was that irritating jester Einar, ruining all the tunes with his spoilt brat yelping and extremely annoying 'rapping'. And when did he ever put that flamin' trumpet to his lips? Unless Bjork shoved it up his arsecrack after the show, that is.....

Amazing to realise that they had their very own Bez.....

:p

Villa Mark wrote:

With regards to the shoegazing I used to quite like the Pale Saints and saw Slowdive.

Did anybody else see the Rollercoaster tour with Blur (bottom of the bill), MBV, Dinosaur Jnr and JAMC?

Me too - kicking myself I never got round to catching them at Mcr Apollo when they did that tour in 1992..... Even back then it was probably the very first time that MBV started doing the extra long and intensely head-shreddingly loud chord during the middle of You Made Me Realise.....

Well if this is about reviving shoegaze, how bout these guys who have been supporting Smashing Pumpkins in the last few weeks. Heard this track on 6 music a few days ago. Looks like it got uploaded a year ago mind you.

johnny wrote:

Villa Mark wrote:

Used to love the HOL and saw them at Brum Irish Centre in 87/88. Enjoyed them at Reading 89 when the Order headlined. A bloody knackering 3 band mosh with 3 of my fave bands one after the other - HOL, Sugarcubes and the Order. One of the best music nights of my life.

Oooh forgot that House Of Love were on the same bill as New Order at Reading 89. Makes me wish i'd gone even more now remembering that.Imagine that- House Of Love live with New Order to follow later on. Musical heaven. Would have had to skip Sugarcubes and Bjork's strangled cat vocals in between though, deffo dash to the beer tent that would have been.With ear plugs rammed tight in my lugs

you sure? I thought the Swans were up before Sugarcubes and Wonderstuff before them?

ahh fuck knows.. Just don't remember HoL.

Villa Mark wrote: Can I throw this one in the mix although it was 88 or so http://youtu.be/74mT5ABGsKY

Used to love the HOL and saw them at Brum Irish Centre in 87/88. Enjoyed them at Reading 89 when the Order headlined. A bloody knackering 3 band mosh with 3 of my fave bands one after the other - HOL, Sugarcubes and the Order. One of the best music nights of my life.

With regards to the shoegazing I used to quite like the Pale Saints and saw Slowdive.

Did anybody else see the Rollercoaster tour with Blur (bottom of the bill), MBV, Dinosaur Jnr and JAMC?

was at the irish centre gig & at that reading dont forget mbv were on that day as well, lower down the bill

who was support at the irish cente gig - know it was a creatioon band - was it someone called pacific? it was something like that

oh & burt

Cheers Hibster - not a bad lineup!

I did see Pacific at the Irish Centre so they must have supported HOL there then. I remember me and my mates were very impressed with them but they pretty much disappeared.

Not really shoegazers but I was a big fan of Kitchens of Distinction back in the day. Saw them 3-4 times and were a very good live band.

i'm in a goldfrapp mood.

hibster wrote: oh & burt

Must have fucked off to the bar then. Don't remember Tackhead and below either. And i couldda sworn the Mission were on before New order in terms of days. In retrospect i should've gone home well before Monday.

well i was looking forward to tpe & remember mbv - they played on the right hand stage of the two afair

Villa Mark wrote:

I did see Pacific at the Irish Centre so they must have supported HOL there then. I remember me and my mates were very impressed with them but they pretty much disappeared.

thanks for clearing that up, has been puzzling me for years!

Pacific were one of the more mysterious Creation acts. Who exactly were they, and where were they from?

I have never properly heard any of their records, 'cept on YouTube....

I'm sure thay were from Brighton? A mate of mine got a demo or an EP by them I think

Villa Mark wrote: I'm sure thay were from Brighton? A mate of mine got a demo or an EP by them I think

There is bally all about them on the web anyway - but youtube their two singles and you get a strange folky/indie/electro/acoustic hybrid, a couple of songs feature a very 80s sounding Fairlight synth and the usual busy sequencer sounds, but they're quite an unusual proposition.