Sh!tgaze
 

Yes, a ridiculous label i know, but for the sake of this thread it is to be applied. A term coined to categorise an influx of bands that, from the mid-00's, have utlised an extreme, treble-heavy, lo-fi approach, amplifying sound to the absolute maximum and largely neglecting bass, to create an abrasive brand of music that flutters in and around indie-pop, punk, noise rock and even goth. Basically you could say the whole 'shitgaze' movement is based around a production aesthetic as oppose to a specific musical formula. Im sure there are those of you already aware of it so who's your favourite band?

For those not aware, bands coined with the label include:

Wavves
No Age
Times New Viking
Eat Skull
Women
Blank Dogs
*** Cop
Psychedelic Horseshit
Dublin Duck Dispensary
Ex-Cocaine

I've only heard material from Wavves, No Age, and Dublin Duck Dispensary, they're all pretty decent but I could live without.

Ah, check out Psychedelic Horsesh!t, they bring a heavy 60's pop influence to the table, as do Women, whilst Eat Skull and Blank Dogs are darker - the former have a freakbeat meets garage rock thing going on; complete with organ, whilst the latter is goth. They, along with TNV, Wavves, No Age and DDD are the cream of the crop.

I like noise rock but most of these bands that I have heard do absolutely nothing for me.

To me it's just bland commercial indie rock with added noise for the sake of adding noise to it & little else.

I can't really explain it, it's almost like these type of bands go into a state of the art studio to record something and do their best to make it sound as crappy & Lo Fi as possible for no other reason than it happens to be fashionable at the moment rather than out of necessity. To me it just makes it sound fake & uninteresting.

I concur that there are some bands out there that do it for the sole purpose of fitting into a fad and hoping that get swept up in its tails, but there a certain few that genuinely do it either out of necessity or for artistic statement.

Dublin Duck Dispensary, for example, records his albums from his bedroom and releases them through this Dutch label i for one have never heard of before. Whilst bands like Eat Skull, Wavves, TNV and Women are releasing albums on indie labels such as Siltbreeze, Fat Cat, Killertee and Whoodsit records - not exactly rolling in cash

It has gained popularity recently, this is obvious with TNV and No Age releasing their most recent albums on Sub Pop and Matador, quite esteemed labels, but its only indie kid popularity, and albums such as Nouns, Luanqibazao, Women, Magic Flowers Droned, Rip It Off and Wavvves do certainly have some artistic merit to them i think.

I've only really listened to No Age, Times New Viking, and Wavvves. While I'm not too partial to any, they're tolerable and at times I desire listening to them. Though I don't understand the infatuation with Wavvves as I believe him (them?) to be nothing more than overhyped Pitchfork drab.

Maybe seeing Wavvves live at this year's festival will sway my opinion.

I really don't care for any artist labled as shitgaze... I just don't find it very appealing.

In a (sort of depressing) way I was excited when I realized that a revival of early 90s indie rock/shoegaze was going on.
But then I didn't like any of the bands I heard do it. Even bands that may be otherwise good can't seem to do it right. I'm going to go full-on old-guy and say that they don't appear to understand the music that they are copying.

I only have the Dead Families EP, you got anymore Eat Skull i can gnaw on?

As for all the negativity prevalent in this thread, what i like about'shitgaze' is the nihilism of it. Its quick, trashy and raw as fuck. In my opinion its fun and exciting whilst also cathartic.

That's cool - I actually envy you - it sounds like you are experiencing what I did when I first heard early Pavement and Royal Trux. I wish I could re-experience that with some new bands, but they always fall short for me and I just get bored.

I think bands like Pavement, Daniel Johnson, GBV, Royal Trux, Sebadoh etc were rooted more in college radio and the alternative music of the mid-late eighties, whereas a lot of the bands now are more influenced by punk and noise rock. You do of course have bands like DDD who are more indie pop, but overall i think the new wave of lo-fi acts are a bit more aggressive and immediate.

Thats taking nothing away from the precursors, in fact Pavement, Sebadoh and GBV are three of my favourite bands and i'd place them above bands like Wavves, No Age and TNV in favour, i just think this new batch of noiseniks have breathed fresh life and a bit of fun into what i personally thought was a pretty stagnant few years in music.

They all became college radio staples for sure. But let's look at just Pavement: Their earliest recordings were pretty much drug-fueled catharsis through noise. Definitely closer to punk than anything college-rock. Royal Trux was similar - heroin junkies with rockband equipment making noise. The indie/college rock tags came a bit later with their more polished music. I'm not saying all the new bands are straight ripoffs, though. Some seem to have something to offer, I just haven't caught on.

I actually really enjoy Wavves and No Age.
but what a stupid name ****gaze is.

I've only heard Times New Viking, but I did get the "noise for the sake of noise" feeling from them.

This was a while back though and I'm more open minded towards music, maybe I should give shitgaze another try.

There's only so much of this noisy, fuzzy music I can handle. From the couple of songs I've heard from Psychedelic Horseshit, it really didn't have an impact on me. But I do like No Age, Times New Viking and Wavves. Haven't heard the others ones yet though I shall soon.

MOSTLY true actually. But No Age are at least one exception. The noises they've created by messing around in the studio actually happen to be quite rich and interesting. Have u heard Nouns?



Oh, and nobody mentioned Japandroids! Though I'm not sure they really fit in with the rest, as they're more of an outright explicit garage punk band. They just record it noisy. They also benefit from not being pretentious at all, which seems to be a problem with a lot of these other sh!tgaze bands.

I really like a lot of these bands but what a stupid name for a genre.

most of these bands are simply playing loud, fun garage punk/rock music. what exactly is pretentious about that?

i've seen Times New Viking live, and it was possibly the most fun i've ever had at a gig. no pretense about them whatsoever, just good fun rock music with an awesome vibe and atmosphere. i've never left a gig as satisfied and surprised at how much i enjoyed it.

Yeah i'll do it this evening.

I completely condemn this 'sh!tgaze' tag and the person who coined it. Now that shoegaze is in vogue we have every sort of shoegaze-associated genre i.e. metalgaze (Nadja) and of course nu-gaze. I really like Wavves and Eat Skull but i would just class them as lo-fi indie

There are actually alot of modern bands doing a great job of a shoegaze revival of sorts - Fleeting Joys, 93MillionMilesFromTheSun, Amusement Parks on Fire, Asobi Seksu, etc. Even bands like Japandroids and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart seem to have incorporated some of that fuzzy guitar shoegaze influence in their music

It's all about separating the good from the crap, The "nu-gaze" or "****gaze" tags are stupid, don't pay attention to that stuff - there are some damn good bands who are wearing their Loveless and Nowhere influences on their sleeves :) if you're huge into shoegaze like I am, I'd recommend checking out the shoegaze.co.uk forums - thats where I found out about a lot of these bands

Has anyone heard The Pains of Being Pure At Heart? I remember hearing their EP last year, and then they released their debut album this year, which I thought was pretty good. As far as these bands like Wavves, No Age... They really aren't doing it for me either...

Agreed. Haven't seen Times live, though I imagine it would be quite energetic, like seeing Titus Andronicus live.

vivian girls' s/t album is worth checking out though, seriously.

Kevin De Broux of Pink Reason

wavves blows

I second that. There new album that was just release is just meh, but their self titled one is a definite listen.

haha ****gaze sounds like a cool label, that would be an even cooler band name.