Vibragun
by Vibragun

From MadhattanJack 01/10/2026 09:02 | #312553

It's hard to say what kept this album from making a bigger splash — or rather, any splash at all — back in 2014. True, they were doing heavy, Swervedriver-influenced grungegaze at a time when all the cool kids were into "nugaze," which was less aggressive and had more synthesizers lying around. It's also true that they signed to a new-ish (at that time) Japanese record label, Hands and Moment, that probably couldn't afford to promote them heavily in the USA. As for their self-promotion efforts, well... their band name was clearly a mistake. "Vibragun" is a kind of "Kleenex™ word" for common massage guns that have been available in stores and online for years, so anyone searching for this band on the internet were unlikely to find them among the vast array of massage gun products out there, and not only that, they were based in Seattle, which as everyone knows is not a shoegaze town. (You're supposed to move to Portland if you're a shoegaze act, everyone also knows that.) So, none of these things were conducive to their success, but it's a pretty good album — I expected it to be too heavy and maybe a little derivative, and maybe it is a bit, but at the same time there's virtue in not trying to be too clever. There's also a kind of almost-power-pop sensibility to the songwriting that you didn't get from most "classic" shoegaze bands, which is sort of refreshing in a way. So... call me crazy, but I like it.