Shoegaze

[Stick Legs]

Being 46 and always very into music I figured that no surprises would bubble up from my own era but I stumbled on slowdive the other day.

Never heard of them.

Now working my way through their back catalogue and Lush as well.

Fantastic & music that could have been written just for me.

The thing is I don’t get how I missed this the first time around?

I was never very much of a ‘scene’ person and would listen to just about anything.

I also bought so many bands who were ‘adjacent’ such as Saint Eitenne, Portishead, Suede…

I suppose because I was very much into stuff like Nine Inch Nails, Black Crowes as well as mining older music like Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd & The Smiths it just got missed.

Anyway, I’m really pleased I found this sub-genre and if anyone has any other suggestions I’m literally all ears!

[President Merkin]

Doubt you'll get much change in here

I always found it a bit on the downlow for my tastes, it's well named! I suppose the big beast is Ride, who released a new album last week. My Bloody Valentine, The Cocteau twins, JAMC, all slightly crossover to the main scene. Then what you'd consider the B teams, Swervedriver, Curve, Pale saints, Moose, Chapterhouse and so on. Lush were definitely a band of two halves, they went pop indie around 1993ish.

All this reminds me of being in the Union bar!

[Mammasaid]

The OG Shoegazers, Ride

[dxg]

Undertow by Lush - sublime...

[essayer]

I must confess I hadn't heard it either! Does seem to have aged well though.

I reckon we were slightly too young - early 90s I just remember as endless SAW acts, grunge and Michael Jackson, then mid 90s it all getting blown away by Britpop..

[Stick Legs]

President Merkin said:

All this reminds me of being in the Union bar!

Ahhh, never went to Uni, 6th form college then Merchant Navy, Warsash Cadet.

That may explain it.

[vixen1700]

Love the genre, hate the name.

Different types, but try the first three Tess Parks albums lovely and dark and moody. Love her!

Local band to me, Black Doldrums, tonnes of cool stuff on Youtube, great long tracks with sawing guitar riffs. Fantastic band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH96I8k5KpA

Black Paws by Venera 4 love it!

[wal 45]

A few starters from me would be Ride, My Bloody Valentine, Chapterhouse and Catherine Wheel.

If you haven't heard them already then MBV's Loveless and Ride's Nowhere are greater starters. Saw most of the shoegaze bands at the time and it was really going well until all that Grunge nonsense turned up and finished a lot of good band's careers off.

You might possibly like a bit of Mogwai too, more post rock than shoegaze but they've put out some exceptional work.

[vixen1700]

Fave album of 2019 Diabolique by L'Épée.

[Vsix and Vtec]

The album "among my Swan" by Mazzy Star is a work of genius. Thier lead singer, Hope Sandoval has even provided guest vocals with a big favourite of mine, Massive Attack, on thier single "Paradise Circus" which was used in the TV series Luthor as the title music.

Mazzy Star had thier hauntingly beautiful "Happy" used in the film "Down in the Valley" but other than that I've never seen it used outside of the release context.

[vixen1700]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxV32LK-ldo&t=...

A fair bit of The Brian Jonestown Massacre to be getting on with.

[Crook]

I remember going to watch Slowdive in probably '89/'90 at a student union bar in London. Good music.
Another left field one I used to like amongst all the other stuff was The Field Mice.

[President Merkin]

Stick Legs said:

President Merkin said:

All this reminds me of being in the Union bar!

Ahhh, never went to Uni, 6th form college then Merchant Navy, Warsash Cadet.

That may explain it.

I definitely recall the heyday of it being a fairly middle class white boys scene, although that may have been a product of being at university at the turn of the 90's when it was everywhere. I tend to think of it as something that came & went quite quickly in the public consciousness but has left a fairly big legacy on indie guitar music to this day.

But in a wider context, that period was a pretty big cultural explosion in the UK. We'd had the first flourish of indie,then Madchester & the rise of the rave scene, all of which got swept away by the Britpop thing & all of that along side people like Tracy Emin, Danny Boyle, Hanif Kureishi, Damien Hirst They were heady days.

Edited by President Merkin on Tuesday 2nd April 15:48

[toon10]

I was massively into Lush and Chapterhouse back in the day. If you haven't already, seek out Celeste by The Telescopes. I still listen to that track now. Curve was another good band around at the time. I love Coast is Clear.

[vixen1700]

Tess Parks from a couple of years back. Never tire of this.

[toon10]

I highly recommend a band called Victories at Sea. They're a more recent band but are influenced by the likes of Slowdive. One of my personal favorite bands and are great live.

[Stick Legs]

Firstly thank you everyone for your suggestions.

President Merkin said:

I definitely recall the heyday of it being a fairly middle class white boys scene, although that may have been a product of being at university at the turn of the 90's when it was everywhere. I tend to think of it as something that came & went quite quickly in the public consciousness but has left a fairly big legacy on indie guitar music to this day.

But in a wider context, that period was a pretty big cultural explosion in the UK. We'd had the first flourish of indie,then Madchester & the rise of the rave scene, all of which got swept away by the Britpop thing & all of that along side people like Tracy Emin, Danny Boyle, Hanif Kureishi, Damien Hirst They were heady days.

Edited by President Merkin on Tuesday 2nd April 15:48

I am the epitome of a middle class white boy…

But yes, it was a whirlwind time & by moving to different circle of friends or changing pubs could change the artistic & musical landscape greatly.







Yours truly at 18.

[Brent Hoffmeister]

It’s not to everyone’s taste, but as the OP is coming from a rock/metal background they might be open to a bit of ‘blackgaze’. There’s something about the mix of metal soundscapes and melody that gets me.Try

Deafheaven - Infinite Granite
Anything by Alcest

Also a big Mogwai and God is an Astronaut fan. Plus if you haven’t already, try NIN Still or some of Reznor’s instrumental stuff.

Edited by Brent Hoffmeister on Tuesday 2nd April 18:40

[dxg]

Others to check out, that are prominent in my collection:

Cranes

Emma Ruth Rundle

2:54

The Jezabels

The Twilight Sad (what an accent!)

Edited by dxg on Tuesday 2nd April 18:46

[miniman]

This is a great blast-from-the-past album.