Best Ever Albums

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

Kloo — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 05:17:04 GMT

Author: Kloo

Posted: 12/11/2011 10:17

Big Troubles? Not the Best, but is great!

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

tonagamu — Tue, 6 Dec 2011 02:34:23 GMT

Author: tonagamu

Posted: 12/06/2011 07:34

Gish is very dreamy and atmosphere based, besides that I find it to be just as enthralling as any other Pumpkins album.

If you want the perfect blend of Grunge and 'Gaze, check out Swervedriver, more specifically their album, Mezcal Head

I think LSD And The Search For God are pretty much the closest we have to a band that picked up where MBV left off.

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

Jackwc — Sat, 3 Dec 2011 15:53:15 GMT

Author: Jackwc

Posted: 12/03/2011 20:53

noWaxJim wrote:

Jackwc wrote:

noWaxJim wrote:

Sorry to be contrary, but I'm finding it hard to understand how bands like Yuck and The Horrors are classed as shoegaze. Let's ignore what Wikipedia tells us - ostensibly these bands ARE NOT shoegaze/nugaze... they may have a couple of fuzzy pop songs which sound like they were purposely produced in the bottom of a bucket, but the aesthetic is completely wrong. For starters, there's not a hint of feyness and fragility in site (the best SG bands always had at least one female member, Ride apart - but look what happened to them).

PS - Smashing Pumpkins' "Gish" - Grunge or Shoegaze... now there's a dilemma...

1. I'm not really sure you've listened to Yuck at all... they're pretty damn fragile. They also have a girl. Not sure why that part is important...

2. I think "Gish" is neither grunge nor shoegaze.

Re. your 'you haven't listened to Yuck' accusation, sorry to disappoint. I accept that they may have a modicum of fragility, but I still maintain that they are not a shoegaze band. Sunday, for example, sounds like a very poor Teenage Fanclub track. Shook Down is in a similar vain. Get Away is Pavement-lite (you should check out Los Campesinos if you like that sort of thing). Suicide Policeman is acoustic-pop... And even more ironically Suck sounds like it could have been lifted wholesale off Gish (the hook is a blatant rip-off of Rhinocerous). And as you say that Gish is not shoegaze, ergo neither are Yuck. Also how could the cover art of the LP be from a shoegaze band? Where are the water references? The pastel shades? The fractuals? THE BLUR!!!

Just because a band has access to delay, echo and chorus pedals it doesn't make them shoegaze. If we are talking effects, I would say the key one would be a pitchshifter and a tremolo arm. A girl member isn't the be-all-and-end-all - I'm not really sure you've read my comment properly at all... I said 'the best SG bands' did - MBV, Slowdive, Lush (before they went Britpop). I could have also said that for a band to considered truly shoegaze they have to come from Oxford or Reading. But that would have meant people would have started saying 'are Radiohead shoegaze' and that would have caused all sorts of trouble.

There is no blueprint for the 'perfect' shoegaze band, but given history I would suggest for spotty indie boys in the early 90s to fall in love with a band, a female member was close to mandatory. The same is true of indie pop, but that's for another thread.

I dunno man, I feel we're delving more into superficialities here. I think shoegaze (though it does have a very distinct image) is first-and-foremost in the sound. These nushoegaze bands may not share all the same aesthetics of the old-school shoegaze bands, but that doesn't make them not shoegaze. ...well, okay, it makes them "nushoegaze", but you get what I'm saying.

Ok, back to Gish - if anything I'd say it's more Grunge, but it's really more-or-less garage punk.

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

Jimmy Dread — Sat, 3 Dec 2011 14:59:31 GMT

Author: Jimmy Dread

Posted: 12/03/2011 19:59

Jackwc wrote:

noWaxJim wrote:

1. I'm not really sure you've listened to Yuck at all... they're pretty damn fragile. They also have a girl. Not sure why that part is important...

2. I think "Gish" is neither grunge nor shoegaze.

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

Jackwc — Sat, 3 Dec 2011 12:55:14 GMT

Author: Jackwc

Posted: 12/03/2011 17:55

noWaxJim wrote:

1. I'm not really sure you've listened to Yuck at all... they're pretty damn fragile. They also have a girl. Not sure why that part is important...

2. I think "Gish" is neither grunge nor shoegaze.

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

mooseboy101 — Sat, 3 Dec 2011 12:28:23 GMT

Author: mooseboy101

Posted: 12/03/2011 17:28

Boogn1sh wrote:

I have yet to hear anything that approaches Galaxie 500's On Fire from the first wave of shoegaze

Galaxie 500 was more Dream Pop than Shoegaze.

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

Boogn1sh — Sat, 3 Dec 2011 11:08:23 GMT

Author: Boogn1sh

Posted: 12/03/2011 16:08

I have yet to hear anything that approaches Galaxie 500's On Fire from the first wave of shoegaze

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

thoughtful_salt — Fri, 2 Dec 2011 22:24:19 GMT

Author: thoughtful_salt

Posted: 12/03/2011 03:24

Guitar released a pretty good record in 2002 called Sunkissed, check that out.

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

nrs182 — Fri, 2 Dec 2011 10:53:32 GMT

Author: nrs182

Posted: 12/02/2011 15:53

tonagamu wrote:

noWaxJim wrote:

Cripes... Serena Maneesh, A Sunny Day In Glasgow and especially Ringo Deathstarr - who have nicely found themselves a home in my chart - are all fantastic choices, as are The Engineers (their debut is exquisite), The Radio Dept and Asobi Seksu, as mentioned earlier in the thread.

I'd wholeheartedly suggest the three below - hours of swimmy-headed brilliance:

93 MILLION MILES FROM THE SUN - Northern Sky
SOUNDPOOL - Dichotomies & Dreamland
AIRFIELDS - Up All Night

One could also argue that Panda Bear's Tomboy has a shoegazing ambience about it... I saw him at the Electric Ballroom in Camden last night play the album live from start to finish (with Spacemen 3's Sonic Boom helping out. Extra shoegaze kudos). It was trippy as fuck. Until the machines blew up when he did Bros. as an encore.

Sorry to be contrary, but I'm finding it hard to understand how bands like Yuck and The Horrors are classed as shoegaze. Let's ignore what Wikipedia tells us - ostensibly these bands ARE NOT shoegaze/nugaze... they may have a couple of fuzzy pop songs which sound like they were purposely produced in the bottom of a bucket, but the aesthetic is completely wrong. For starters, there's not a hint of feyness and fragility in site (the best SG bands always had at least one female member, Ride apart - but look what happened to them). Deerhunter are borderline at best (although great), although Bradford has potential to be the ultimate shoegaze frontman... fragile, emotional and in need of a haircut.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as a proud 80s/90s teen shoegaze was always about creating a synthetic sensation of being on an acid trip or drowning in a technicolour ocean with as many effects pedals and as floppy a fringe as you could afford/cultivate. The more swimmy and watery the production/effects and the more incomprehensible/buried the vocals (c.f. Loveless), the better. Playing straight-up & under-produced 6th form pop, wearing leather and ripping off Pavement can't be considered to be in-keeping with the genre.

Signed... a shoegazing purist.

PS - Smashing Pumpkins' "Gish" - Grunge or Shoegaze... now there's a dilemma...

While I whole-heartedly agree with your purism and saying that a lot of bands mentioned here aren't shoegaze, I would like to defend that The Horrors are shoegaze. They may not be the happy, poppy, upbeat shoegaze you're used to hearing, but it still feels just as wavy in textures as early 90s bands. The difference comes in the fact that they're aiming for a "darker" more "nightmarish" sound, as if to induce an opposite effect of the earlier bands using the same techniques. Other examples that follow this are A Place To Bury Strangers and Singapore Sling. Then again, what do I know? I wasn't super conscious in the late 80s/ early 90s as I was just a baby.

I think Yuck would even be more shoegaze than The Horrors, but they're not, Yuck is indie rock and noise pop. The Horrors are a mix of synthpop and post-punk, I agree with noWaxJim.

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

tonagamu — Fri, 2 Dec 2011 10:45:59 GMT

Author: tonagamu

Posted: 12/02/2011 15:45

noWaxJim wrote:

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

Hayden — Fri, 2 Dec 2011 08:57:06 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 12/02/2011 13:57

noWaxJim wrote:

�'�

Great post.

In my opinions, The Horrors ARE shogaze, but Yuck isn't. When I first heard Yuck's debut, I considered it just indie rock.

Deerhunter isn't really shoegaze either, but it you stretched it far enough, you might be able to classify them as that. And yes. He needs a haircut.

And Gish - Alternative Rock 😜

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

weedygonsalez — Fri, 2 Dec 2011 08:41:16 GMT

Author: weedygonsalez

Posted: 12/02/2011 13:41

noWaxJim wrote:

93 MILLION MILES FROM THE SUN - Northern Sky

Heck yeah! Another awesome, super-gazey album. Possibly the gaziest mentioned yet.

Splitting off a bit from shoegaze, I think that the biggest potential dream pop revivalist band this year is... Mazzy Star.

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

Jimmy Dread — Fri, 2 Dec 2011 08:12:04 GMT

Author: Jimmy Dread

Posted: 12/02/2011 13:12

Cripes... Serena Maneesh, A Sunny Day In Glasgow and especially Ringo Deathstarr - who have nicely found themselves a home in my chart - are all fantastic choices, as are The Engineers (their debut is exquisite), The Radio Dept and Asobi Seksu, as mentioned earlier in the thread.

I'd wholeheartedly suggest the three below - hours of swimmy-headed brilliance:

93 MILLION MILES FROM THE SUN - Northern Sky
SOUNDPOOL - Dichotomies & Dreamland
AIRFIELDS - Up All Night

One could also argue that Panda Bear's Tomboy has a shoegazing ambience about it... I saw him at the Electric Ballroom in Camden last night play the album live from start to finish (with Spacemen 3's Sonic Boom helping out. Extra shoegaze kudos). It was trippy as fuck. Until the machines blew up when he did Bros. as an encore.

Sorry to be contrary, but I'm finding it hard to understand how bands like Yuck and The Horrors are classed as shoegaze. Let's ignore what Wikipedia tells us - ostensibly these bands ARE NOT shoegaze/nugaze... they may have a couple of fuzzy pop songs which sound like they were purposely produced in the bottom of a bucket, but the aesthetic is completely wrong. For starters, there's not a hint of feyness and fragility in site (the best SG bands always had at least one female member, Ride apart - but look what happened to them). Deerhunter are borderline at best (although great), although Bradford has potential to be the ultimate shoegaze frontman... fragile, emotional and in need of a haircut.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as a proud 80s/90s teen shoegaze was always about creating a synthetic sensation of being on an acid trip or drowning in a technicolour ocean with as many effects pedals and as floppy a fringe as you could afford/cultivate. The more swimmy and watery the production/effects and the more incomprehensible/buried the vocals (c.f. Loveless), the better. Playing straight-up & under-produced 6th form pop, wearing leather and ripping off Pavement can't be considered to be in-keeping with the genre.

Signed... a shoegazing purist.

PS - Smashing Pumpkins' "Gish" - Grunge or Shoegaze... now there's a dilemma...

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

GM84 — Thu, 1 Dec 2011 18:01:11 GMT

Author: GM84

Posted: 12/01/2011 23:01

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

Rikuff — Thu, 1 Dec 2011 13:03:32 GMT

Author: Rikuff

Posted: 12/01/2011 18:03

Yuck by Yuck is great!

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

Anonymous — Thu, 1 Dec 2011 12:34:12 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 12/01/2011 17:34

These three bands are pretty good

Link

Link

Link

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

weedygonsalez — Thu, 1 Dec 2011 12:31:35 GMT

Author: weedygonsalez

Posted: 12/01/2011 17:31

Letting Up Despite Great Faults lay down some potential for shoegaze revivalism, but their debut was released without much fanfare and they kinda disappeared after that. Still, it was a pretty good album worth checking out.

Also, seconding Radio Dept. One of the most underrated, accomplished bands of all time.

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

nrs182 — Thu, 1 Dec 2011 10:49:53 GMT

Author: nrs182

Posted: 12/01/2011 15:49

Norman Bates wrote:

I'm not that much into this shoegaze revival, and haven't listened to each every album you list, but I must admit The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart really have some charm. I'd probably vote for their first album if I had to.

Has anybody tried to listen to The Field Mice, genuine shoegaze/dreampop from back then ? The Pains Of... surely have. It's nice to have those kinds of influences if it gets people to listen to the original stuff to.

Link

I started listening them not long ago, I've heard only the first album and "Letting go" was my favorite, really nice song.

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

SquishypuffDave — Thu, 1 Dec 2011 04:56:08 GMT

Author: SquishypuffDave

Posted: 12/01/2011 09:56

I love TPOBPAH's self-titled album. That's in my top 10 for 2009 for sure.

Re: Best Shoegazing revivalism album?

Norman Bates — Thu, 1 Dec 2011 04:47:42 GMT

Author: Norman Bates

Posted: 12/01/2011 09:47

I'm not that much into this shoegaze revival, and haven't listened to each every album you list, but I must admit The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart really have some charm. I'd probably vote for their first album if I had to.

Has anybody tried to listen to The Field Mice, genuine shoegaze/dreampop from back then ? The Pains Of... surely have. It's nice to have those kinds of influences if it gets people to listen to the original stuff to.

Link