A Shoegaze Thread

thedisavowed · Post by **thedisavowed** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 3:07 pm

So......

Courtesy of Derail and Lost in Translation I've started to develop some affection for this shoegaze stuff. I can't say I'm a fan just across the board, but there are some tracks that I've really liked. M83's "Teen Angst" and Slowdive's "Soulvaki Space Station" are among my favorite finds so far.

I know MBV's "Loveless" is a centerpiece of the genre, but I was wondering if you guys who dig shoegaze could put together a list of some shoegaze tracks that you especially like.

THANKS.

niknak · Post by **niknak** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 3:37 pm

I think Ride are now underrated, though they were huge at the time. Get Nowhere and the Today Forever EP. I also had a soft spot for Swervedriver.

Also check out Spacemen 3, though they're not really a shoegazing band, but were huge influences on that direction of music.

dj_todos · Post by **dj_todos** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 5:23 pm

I feel a bit of an idiot now. I really like M83 yet ive never come across the term 'shoegaze'. Is that bad? Should I have? Is 'shoegaze' a genre?

Derail · Post by **Derail** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 5:48 pm

I recommend you get these tracks as soon as it's humanly possible.

If you're looking for all out rock type shoegaze, these are some nice choices;
Airiel - Strotosphere
Airiel - Jeanette
Slowdive - Avalyn 1
Slowdive - Catch The Breeze
My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow
Highspire - Until The Lights Go Down
Mahogany - Optimism
Serena Maneesh - Un-Deux
The Winter Pageant - Identical
Amusement Parks On Fire - Venus In Cancer

Now, if you're looking for artists that mix shoegaze and electronic, here's some of my favorites;
Ulrich Schnauss - Gone Forever
M83 - I'm Getting Closer
M83 - Run Into Flowers
Loden - A Star On Your Shoulder
Boom Bip - From Left To Right
Caribou - Kid You'll Move Mountains
Manual - Clear Skies Above The Coastline Cathedral
On!Air!Library! - PassThe Mic

Ok, sorry for going overboard but I LOVE this sound!

There are loads and loads more, but I think this is a good starting point. Nlogax, anything to add? I know you got some more goodies that I did'nt think of.

niknak · Post by **niknak** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 5:52 pm

Aw bless, dj_todos. You must be too young. I wouldn't call it a genre as such. It was a pretty short lived catch-all term for guitar bands who used lots of reverb and effects and breathy vocals. The bands tended to quickly move on and mature and people stopped using it. It's still useful to describe a certain sound though, but these 'genres' come and go all the time. Anyone remember 'new wave of new wave' and 'riot grrrl'? Exactly. Media constructs invented by lazy journalists to lump bands together.

I've never heard of M83, so i'm off to hunt them down and see what they're like.

steve-o · Post by **steve-o** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 11:50 pm

Check out All Natural Lemon Lime Flavors' "Turning into Small" an absolutely evolved shoegaze sound. They were from New Jersey and sadly have broken up. They were on the Gern Blandsten Label.

nlogax · Post by **nlogax** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:20 am

yeah!
what Derail said; also there's a great label called Clairecords; you could start by buying some of their samplers (tonevendor.com); which are very cheap and always come with at least two or three good songs.
There are other modern shoegaze bands like Pia Fraus, The Vera Violets, etc but their songs can be a hit or miss...if you want a sure thing go with anything by Airiel or Mew's latest cd "And the glass handed kites" which is just incredible.

I'm not too knowledgeable on old school shoegaze bands except for MBV and slowdive so I'm waiting for Dr. Orleuf to chime in as well

DocteurOrlof · Post by **DocteurOrlof** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:06 am

nlogax wrote:I'm not too knowledgeable on old school shoegaze bands except for MBV and slowdive so I'm waiting for Dr. Orlof to chime in as well

MBV, Slowdive, Ride and The Boo Radleys are the only shoegazing bands I can still listen today, so here's a very short list:

- "Leave them all behind" by Ride on their 2nd album ("Going blank again", Creation, 1992), the song is as beautifull as MBV's "Soon".
- MBV did Loveless, The Boo Radleys did Everything's Alright Forever (Creation, 1992) and the incredible Giant Steps (Creation, 1993)
- Never been a huge Lush fan, but they made quite a few good singles (pop, direct, effective, "catchy"?). Don't buy their best of, do your own compilation (label: 4AD)
- Pale Saints: 1st and 2nd albums with their mastermind Ian Masters, later on ESP Summer (for the SoulSeekers, the songs: "Half-Life Remembered" and "Hunted" are a good introduction). Since it's not on Creation, of course it's on 4AD.
- Not stricly shoegazing (not at all?) but a must-have: Piano Magic's Low Birth Weight (on Rocket Girl).
- forgotten, highly underrated, but beautiful: Moose (try to find their first album ...Xyz, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful)

Recent: Yellow6 (on Makeminemusic), and Gregor Samsa

On the electronic side: Sugrcane has a Myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/sugrcane), a website (http://www.sugrcane.com), a netlabel called Soundzfromnowhere ('cause he's from Luxembourg, try to localize this one on a map), and several albums and eps to download from archive.org (Musica é arte is really great).

I probably forgot many other names...

nlogax · Post by **nlogax** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:25 am

the doctor dropping SCIENCE!
will look into that for sure.

there's also a tribute compilation from club AC30 which consists of modern shoegazer bands doing covers of shoegaze classics: Airiel's cover of "Blowin' Cool" is amazing

www.clubac30.co.uk

DocteurOrlof · Post by **DocteurOrlof** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 3:55 am

Science is boring, links are better:

http://www.archive.org/download/sfn025/03a.mp3
(Sug(r)cane "a" from Musica e arte, for BOC, MBV & Slowdive fans)

http://www.gregorsamsa.com/audio/GregorSamsa_Three.mp3
(Gregor Samsa's untitled track from 27:36, for L'Altra, Sigur Ros, Low & Explosions in the Sky fans)

dj_todos · Post by **dj_todos** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 11:23 am

niknak wrote:Aw bless, dj_todos. You must be too young. I wouldn't call it a genre as such. It was a pretty short lived catch-all term for guitar bands who used lots of reverb and effects and breathy vocals. The bands tended to quickly move on and mature and people stopped using it. It's still useful to describe a certain sound though, but these 'genres' come and go all the time. Anyone remember 'new wave of new wave' and 'riot grrrl'? Exactly. Media constructs invented by lazy journalists to lump bands together.

I've never heard of M83, so i'm off to hunt them down and see what they're like.

Ha Ha. Too young!!

Jesus. I dunno. Its jus amusing coz im 25 and work within music yet never heard of that term. Looking at the lists people are providing im actually into quite a few of the artists and have bought music by them over quite a few years. Id just never heard that term used to describe them.

I feel like a complete wazzock!! ha ha. Oh well I know now. Cheers!

M83 'Before The Dawn Heals Us'. Very good album

Lone · Post by **Lone** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 5:28 pm

derail, strange you mention amusment parks on fire... i know those guys!! good band..

nlogax · Post by **nlogax** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 5:27 am

Lone wrote:derail, strange you mention amusment parks on fire... i know those guys!! good band..

i saw them live a few weeks ago in LA, they are really great!

fauxteur · Post by **fauxteur** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:59 am

i like autolux in addition to what's been mentioned. (let me know if you are interested in hearing them.)

i've also got an m83 bootleg here if anyone is interested:

info

http://rapidshare.de/files/17448042/M83 ... .part1.rar
http://rapidshare.de/files/17448167/M83 ... .part2.rar
http://rapidshare.de/files/17449334/M83 ... .part3.rar

niknak · Post by **niknak** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 9:58 am

dj_todos wrote:
niknak wrote:Aw bless, dj_todos. You must be too young. I wouldn't call it a genre as such. It was a pretty short lived catch-all term for guitar bands who used lots of reverb and effects and breathy vocals. The bands tended to quickly move on and mature and people stopped using it. It's still useful to describe a certain sound though, but these 'genres' come and go all the time. Anyone remember 'new wave of new wave' and 'riot grrrl'? Exactly. Media constructs invented by lazy journalists to lump bands together.

I've never heard of M83, so i'm off to hunt them down and see what they're like.
Ha Ha. Too young!! Jesus. I dunno. Its jus amusing coz im 25 and work within music yet never heard of that term. Looking at the lists people are providing im actually into quite a few of the artists and have bought music by them over quite a few years. Id just never heard that term used to describe them.
I feel like a complete wazzock!! ha ha. Oh well I know now. Cheers!

M83 'Before The Dawn Heals Us'. Very good album

Actually i hadn't heard the term for years and i didn't think it was used anymore, but judging from the number of posts and suggestions here it obviously is! There seems to be a whole group of bands influenced by this type of music that i've never heard of. I'm definitely going to check some of them out.

wb · Post by wb » Thu Apr 13, 2006 12:39 pm

M83's Before the Dawn Heals Us has some nice tracks but I've never considered it as "shoegaze" music, maybe "post rock" or something... Slight Night Shiver and In the Cold I'm Standing are frickin' beautiful.

Slowdive's albums were recently released remastered and packed with bonus tracks. I prefer Pygmalion and the slow, "ambient" tracks like Golden Hair and Avalyn I & II, although couple tracks on Souvlaki rule (SSS and Melon Yellow). I don't like their electronic tracks tho.

nlogax · Post by **nlogax** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 12:18 am

wb wrote:M83's Before the Dawn Heals Us has some nice tracks but I've never considered it as "shoegaze" music, maybe "post rock" or something... Slight Night Shiver and In the Cold I'm Standing are frickin' beautiful.

I agree; but it's probably been brought up because they also use a lot of pedal tweaking when playing live

p.s. - thanks for the bootleg fauxteur!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:31 pm

Listen to the first album of " Verve " A storm in heaven, on Hut records. The album is from 1993 and very shoegazing, after that they had to change their name in " The Verve " because the verve jazz label made a complaint. That album is still the best they ever made.

nlogax · Post by **nlogax** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:45 pm

D4VERD4NN wrote:Listen to the first album of " Verve " A storm in heaven, on Hut records. The album is from 1993 and very shoegazing, after that they had to change their name in " The Verve " because the verve jazz label made a complaint. That album is still the best they ever made.

good call man!
i lost that cd

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 12:17 am

nlogax wrote:
D4VERD4NN wrote:Listen to the first album of " Verve " A storm in heaven, on Hut records. The album is from 1993 and very shoegazing, after that they had to change their name in " The Verve " because the verve jazz label made a complaint. That album is still the best they ever made.
good call man!
i lost that cd

Well log in to soulseek and you can download it if you like. I got also the first ep from them, very good