is served up by Greg Bird of Flamingo Flame / Sunset Cinema Club fame and one third of This is Tmrw.
Shoegaze is back, and it’s not such a dirty word anymore, just as long as you stick a ‘Nu’ where the ‘Shoe’ should be.
The likes of Radio Dept, The Raveonettes, Billy Corgan, M83, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Magnetic Fields and Help She Can’t Swim (Who really deserve credit for their Midnight Garden EP) have been kicking out their own whirlwinds of bending, jet-engine guitars and ‘wall-of-sound’ ambience throughout the last decade, but what’s different today is that the shoegaze influence is finally stretching far beyond a mere handful of self-contained rock/alternative acts.
Yeah, you can hear a ‘bit’ of Cocteau Twins in Beach House and a ‘lot’ of Mary Chain in those-new-bands-with-really-long-names, but also you’ve got fairly straight-laced indie acts like Chapel Club following in The Horrors’ footsteps with that Kevin Sheilds(TM) whammy pedal sound, not to mention this Glo-Fi movement (mentioned elsewhere on this site) or the cool MBV bits in the best songs from post-electro acts like Delphic and Friendly Fires.
If you listen really close you can hear mainstream pop acts (finally) slapping reverb back on the snare drums, and the slow, inevitable return of the chorus pedal is a topic for another blog. It’s the 80′s revival gone full circle; we’re finally done with the bland 4/4 indie-disco trite of the 00′s and getting to the good stuff, the awesome parts of the 80′s that grunge seemed to wipe from music history.
But my favourite part of this ‘revival’ isn’t just these brilliant new bands getting recognition when they might have flopped 5 years ago, or the so-so bands that are sounding much better for these retro production values; it’s the respect that bands like Slowdive, Ride, Pale Saints, Chapterhouse, Spacemen 3 and even Swervedriver are finally getting after living in the shadow of My Bloody Valentine for so long.
I originally planned to slap up a mix to honour all of the above; a smarmy “Just in case you didn’t already know” guide to the genre… But instead I’ve had more fun lumping songs from the likes of The Byrds, Scott Walker, Neu! and even Prefab Sprout under the ‘shoegaze’ banner, and ended up with a mix of both obvious and questionable tracks from bands that I personally think did the groundwork for the original shoegazers; Oldgaze.
What do you think? Comment away!
- Gb”
Tracklist: Oldgaze [1963 - 1985]
“And The He Kissed Me” – The Crystals
“Out On The Streets” – The Shangri Las
“Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)” – The Beach Boys
“Sunday Morning” – The Velvet Underground
“Some Velvet Morning” – Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra
“Here Come The Warm Jets” – Brian Eno
“I’m Not In Love” – 10cc
“Heroes/ Helden” – David Bowie
“Cheree” – Suicide
“Souvenir” – Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
“View From A Hill” – The Chameleons
“Sugar Hiccup” – Cocteau Twins
“Dazzle” – Siouxsie & The Banshees
“Song To The Siren” -This Mortal Coil
“Just Like Honey” – The Jesus & Mary Chain
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