52 replies to this topic

[opus]

I just discovered Autolux via another forum that I frequent. The songs on their MySpace page are solid (the beat on "Turnstile Blues" is especially hott).

[PrivateStorm]

No one has given Serena-Maneesh a listen yet? They've been mentioned on this forum a few times and their self-titled album is great. For fans of Jesus & Mary Chain, MBV, etc. They are touring the U.S. this fall with Woven Hand (DEE solo) opening for a portion of the tour.

[opus]

No one has given Serena-Maneesh a listen yet? They've been mentioned on this forum a few times and their self-titled album is great. For fans of Jesus & Mary Chain, MBV, etc. They are touring the U.S. this fall with Woven Hand (DEE solo) opening for a portion of the tour.

I know they've been mentioned in at least one other thread on A&F. I've listened to a couple of tracks on their MySpace page, and I liked what I heard. They should make for a nice contrast to Woven Hand on tour. Unfortunately, they're not coming anywhere close to Lincoln, NE, so I won't be able to find out for sure.

[Jason Panella]

Of course, they're not touring anywhere near me either. (boo hoo!)

Band worth checking out: Early Day Miners. They're based in Bloomington, IN. They're not strictly dream pop; they toss in elements of slight shoegaze shimmer, Americana, post-rock, and so on-- there's a big influence from Talk Talk, Daniel Lanois and the like. Still, a very good band that keep perfecting their sound with each album. They have a new disc (Offshore) coming out at the end of August. I have the advance copy, and I'll say it's probably the best thing they've released. It's a set of six tracks that merge perfectly, all of them based off of a song from an earlier album. (Here is a link to one of the new tracks.)

[Kyle]

For fans of Jesus & Mary Chain,

Who now has a truck load of reissues.

[opus]

Band worth checking out: Early Day Miners. They're based in Bloomington, IN. They're not strictly dream pop; they toss in elements of slight shoegaze shimmer, Americana, post-rock, and so on-- there's a big influence from Talk Talk, Daniel Lanois and the like. Still, a very good band that keep perfecting their sound with each album. They have a new disc (Offshore) coming out at the end of August. I have the advance copy, and I'll say it's probably the best thing they've released. It's a set of six tracks that merge perfectly, all of them based off of a song from an earlier album. (Here is a link to one of the new tracks.)

"Return Of The Native" is a gorgeous, graceful track. How does it compare to the rest of the album?

[Jason Panella]

"Return Of The Native" is a gorgeous, graceful track. How does it compare to the rest of the album?

Stylistically, "Return of the Native" is the most somber (and the most influenced by roots music). That said, the rest of the album glides along the same way. AMG has clips up of the whole album, and they're pretty good examples of what to expect.

[opus]

Here's a fairly recent interview with Lush's Emma Anderson:

Emma Anderson formed Lush, one of the most successful acts from the period. "When we started out in 1989 this shoegazing thing didn't exist," Anderson says. "We became aware of the movement in about 1990." Anderson wasn't offended by the name, although she does think it ridiculed unfairly. "What it really meant was that we were staring at the effects pedals, I think, rather than our shoes," she says. Wedged in between the heady Madchester years of the late Eighties and the excess of mid-Nineties Britpop, Shoegazing was too laid back to predict a riot, too unconfrontational to make the tabloids. No shoegazer was ever going to slurp tea at No. 10.

[opus]

I recently discovered Raymond Scott Woolson, who in addition to being quite the shoegazer, also happens to be a Christian (here's an interview). Listening to the tracks on his MySpace page is like listening to all of the best bits of Slowdive and classic 4AD (Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil) all rolled into one.

[Kyle]

Hey Opus, have you heard Beach House. I've been listening to their self-titled debut a bit lately and I'm really liking it. At first I thought the name Beach House was a bit of misnomer, thinking technicolor MTV, but this Beach House is much more Oregon Coast in winter, you really didn't know grey could come in so many shades. The music seems a bit droney to me. Personally, the most obvious musical touchstone is Mazzy Star, but not nearly as polished or radio friendly.

[opus]

LittleRadio has a brief overview of the genre, as well as their "best of" picks from the U.K. and U.S. Most of their picks are fairly obvious, but it's nice to see lovesliescrushing, Starflyer 59, All Natural Lemon And Lime Flavors, and Flying Saucer Attack get some nods.

[opus]

A shoegazer documentary is in the works, and it looks like the director has done his homework:

To help tell that story, then, Green went straight to the sources, interviewing on camera pretty much anyone who's anyone in the genre: My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields and Debbie Googe, JAMC's Reid brothers and Douglas Hart, and Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde, as well as Robert Smith (the Cure), Neil Halstead (Slowdive), Mark Gardner and Andy Bell (Ride), Emma Anderson (Lush), Adam Franklin (Swervedriver), Toni Halliday (Curve), Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream), David Pearce (Flying Saucer Attack), Ian Masters (Pale Saints), Martin Carr (the Boo Radleys), noted producer Alan Moulder, and Creation honcho Alan McGee.

Green also sat down with noisemakers who owe a debt to shoegaze-- such as Billy Corgan, Trent Reznor, and Wayne Coyne-- as well as contemporary bands still tapping into the genre's essence, like Asobi Seksu, Serena-Maneesh, Ladytron, and Autolux, among others.

[Jason Panella]

Thought I'd dump a few videos here.

Both live videos of HUM on 120 Minutes.





I miss the '90s.

[Jason Panella]

I finally got ahold of a few more Catherine Wheel full-lengths. I was blown away by how good Chrome actually is; it has a hard rock element similar to what Swervedriver has, but some of the sly melodies and shimmering forests of guitars blow my hair back. I'd read somewhere that, if it weren't for Chrome, Ben Gibbard would never have formed Death Cab for Cutie. And I can really see the influence on tracks like "Line of Best Fit" and some of the other earlier songs.

[Kyle]

Is anyone familiar with School of Seven Bells. I've been listening to a couple of tracks off of 2008's Alpinism and have found them to be a wonderful slice of Cocteau Twins meet some distortion ethereal goodness.

Speaking of Cocteau Twins:

Asobi Seksu - Hush

I've been listening to Asobi Seksu's 2009 new release Hush. Over the course of three albums, they've transistioned from being a pretty straightforward neo-shoegaze act to a more ethereal dream-pop one. It definitely sounds influenced by Cocteau Twins. In fact, I wasn't paying attention and opener "Layers" came on I thought I HAD actually put on some Cocteau Twins. As the album progresses the songs definitely have a greater rigidity and traditional rock formulas than Twins and have put together a nice atmospheric cycle of songs that feature some gorgeous Japaneese/American female vocals that meld and rise into chorus of gental noise. Compared to Citrus, it's weaker in terms of individual songs but in terms of overall sound its a better album.

[chillinrev]

In my opinion this genre is just going from strength to strength at the moment. With bands like Deerhunter/Atlas Sound/Lotus Plaza, Ask for Joy, Daniel Land and the Modern Painters, Engineers, Kyte, Sad Day for Puppets, The Field and Sunray, amongst many others, and a rediscovery of Seefeel, Bowery Electric, The Telescopes and Luna amongst others, I have found loads of new music to listen to in 2009. The club Sonic Cathedral is going from strength to strength too, recently releasing an amazing compilation album called Cathedral Classics. Also worth mentioning for a history lesson is Rob Da Bank's compilation Sci Fi Lo Fi Vol 3. Shoegaze from the beginning to the present sounds of Maps, M83 etc. Both great introductions to a great scene.

[opus]

The club Sonic Cathedral is going from strength to strength too, recently releasing an amazing compilation album called Cathedral Classics. Also worth mentioning for a history lesson is Rob Da Bank's compilation Sci Fi Lo Fi Vol 3. Shoegaze from the beginning to the present sounds of Maps, M83 etc. Both great introductions to a great scene.

Do you have the track listing for Cathedral Classics?

And speaking of new stuff, I just listened to the new single from Keith Canisius. It's pretty much a perfect track for summer, blissed and buzzed out in all the right ways, like a less pristine and polished M83.

[chillinrev]

Here is the tracklisting to Cathedral Classics. Worth investiagating for sure for a picture of where shoegaze/dreampop has gone/is going.


1. Sally O'Gannon - Tambourines 2. Be Around - Tambourines 3. Story Of The Eye, The - Gardener, Mark 4. Something For You - Tucek, Sarabeth 5. My Cabal - School Of Seven Bells 6. Planet - Kyte 7. Secular Ventures - Kyte 8. White Horses - Dean & Britta 9. Life Boat - Richards, Miranda Lee 10. To The Sky - Maps 11. We Own The Sky - Maps 12. Soon - Japancakes 13. Touched - Japancakes 14. Like A Suicide - Early Years 15. Computer Voice - Early Years 16. Within Boundaries - Land, Daniel & The Modern Painters 17. Benjamin's Room - Land, Daniel & The Modern Painters

[opus]

Nice to see Daniel Land and the Modern Painters on there. They sent me a copy of their EP a few months ago, which I liked quite a bit.