It's Shoegaze week!
 

Shoegaze generally refers to a style of music that could be said to offer certain aspects of drone and noise rock. Often a dreamy, psychedelic, distorted, wall of sound.

This style of music, it is said, was labelled shoegaze due to the low energy, motionless way it was played live by its performers. These bands were said to almost be staring at their shoes.

Wikipedia has this to say about the movement.

The heavy use of effects pedals also contributed to the image of performers looking down at their feet (shoegazing) during concerts.

The shoegazing sound is typified by significant use of guitar effects, and indistinguishable vocal melodies that blended into the creative noise of the guitars. A lump description given to shoegazing and other affiliated bands in London in the early 1990s was The Scene That Celebrates Itself. In the 1990s, shoegazing groups were pushed aside by the American grunge movement, forcing the relatively unknown bands to break up or reinvent their style altogether. Recent times have seen a renewed interest in the genre among "nu-gaze" bands.

Reading Materials
Wiki
RYM
Shoegaze.co.uk

All right, let's see what we've got here...

Shoegaze with harsher vocals:

Some "proto-shoegaze":

A shoegaze week = a very good week indeed.

Right so here's a few awesome songs:

One of my favourites.

YouTube - Pale Saints - Throwing Back The Apple

^ I love that song, great band. I was looking for 'Sea Of Sound' on youtube but couldn't find it, probably my favourite Pale Saints song.

Ah man...I should have loaded my shoegaze comp earlier. I'll try to get it up tomorrow. I have some choice tracks on there.

Until then:

Might as well throw in some of the big boys (and girls)






Classic stuff.

My favorites forever

I'm very conservative about this stuff but I love it so much that I'll share another classic song ..

Murmansk - Silver Heel

Some newer shoegaze from Finland.

Such a great song. Always been my favourite Ride track.

Here's a couple more:

Most of what I know has already been posted, but there are some newer bands with some intriguing ideas.

Frances M83 put out Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts which really did a wonderful job at mixing electronica with the hazy fuzz of shoegaze.



Another band I've really come to respect has been New York's A Place To Bury Strangers which have been regarded as "One of New York City's 'Loudest Bands'". So far I've only heard their self-titled album, which I remember liking



There's another band from around the same area called The December Sound that I remember enjoying at the time. I really don't know much about the band, but you might enjoy them if you're after a "nugaze" band.



Last band I can really think of that hasn't already been named in this thread is the group The Depreciation Guild, who fused the layered fuzzy distortion along with 8-bit Nintendo-esque sound effects. At first I thought it would be very light and chirpy, but a surprising amount of effort has gone into really making the 8-bit sound fit in with the rest and not just be some gimmicky bullshit to get noticed.





I am curious as to how people who are fans of shoegaze but not black metal feel about the emerging genre from France. This year has seen 3 high profile releases of this sound, and I'm assuming a lot of smaller bands trying to capitalize on the popularity as well. These releases are:

Alcest - êcailles de lune
Lantlos - .neon
Les Descrets - Septembre Et Ses Dernières Pensées

I'm already read a lot of opposition to this fusion from black metal fans, mostly claiming that the bands are "bastardizing" their genre by trying to make it more friendly and accessible. I'm not really sure if that's necessarily a bad idea, but black metal fans tend to be a little... extreme in their zealousness to their genre and the encroachment of another genre into their "territory" will not always receive a warm welcoming. Still at the same time symphonic elements have been added to black metal and have met both critic and fan appraisal and since then has been evolving, yet still staying within the boundaries that make up black metal.

I figured this would be the best time to get some feedback on my ideas and what you all think about it.

That Alcest album is one of the best releases of the year. I love the whole atmosphere and feel of the album and even the album cover goes so well with the sound. It's really interesting to see shoegaze influences and black metal influences being mixed together so effortlessly. Screw the black metal purists btw, if they could actually open up their minds to music they will see the beauty in Alcest's music.

I haven't checked out the other two albums you've mentioned but i probably will soon enough.

Well I don't listen to too much shoegaze, just a few things here and there. But it just so happens that I got into the Swirlies album quite heavily this week, and downloaded My Bloody Valentine's Isn't Anything and am playing it now. So I guess I can finally participate in one of these weekly genre threads while it's still going on.

I still haven't been able to get into Loveless because it just seems too noisy and hurts my ears. This one may not be as good (I don't know) but it's easier to listen to.

I started listening to The Jesus and Mary Chain recently too, but I also felt Psychocandy's production was a bit painful at times. Good album though, it'll get played more soon. Darklands didn't appeal to me as much, but maybe in time.

Perhaps I'm finally getting more into shoegaze.

I find that volume plays a huge role in the mood of Loveless for me. Turn it down and it's a beautiful, soothing lullaby album. Or turn it up and go hard.

Been listening to Lush's Split lately.

I absolutely love the stuff. I don't quite understand why black metal fans have to be so opposed to this. Just don't listen to it. I'm sure there are still plenty of traditional black metal bands out there. I think black metal lends itself perfectly to shoegaze. Both are all about guitars and both are all about atmosphere. I thought about combining the two long before this started gaining any popularity, so I was very happy to see it actually happen.

you should check out their EP's....they are much more pop based




the band Nadja is a wonderful blend of shoegaze, doom metal, drone and i suppose some black metal type guitar work...and a plus is that they seem to endlessly record


Bowery Electric were a great shoegaze band...how kind of blended in 'trip hop' beats with underlining guitar noise


The Boo Radleys were a great shoegaze/brit-pop band


Lilys...all be it a obvious MBV clone band espicially on their first album...they are one of my favorite...this song has really clever pedal work


The Brian Jonestown Massacre defiantly have shoegaze inspiration on their album Methodrone

Pretty much this. I may not be in the best position to judge because i like SOME black metal but I cannot claim to completely well educated with the genre as I can be very, very, picky when it comes to black metal.

However I love those three records and I've listened to the Alcest one inparticularly heavily. I guess I can see why black metal fans would take issue, as they are gaining a lot of popularity by branching outside of the genre. Their name will now be being dropped all over the place in "black metal" discussions even though they are not strictly black metal.

Personally I feel they are shoegaze but with light black metal influences rather than black metal fused with shoegaze.

Some very good songs posted here. The most interesting were obviously the ones I haven't heard before, like all that shoegaze, doom metal blend. It has the potential to really sound great.

I've been meaning to check out A Place To Bury Strangers properly, as I only heard a couple of songs. They sounded worth checking out.

I'll add His Name Is Alive. They're not really shoegaze, but have those elements, and of dream pop and ethereal as well.

'The Torso' (Mouth by Mouth, 1993)

The Sundays, dream pop really, but fitting
Here's Where The Story Ends


I know they're mentioned but I have to post this Pale Saints song 'Sight of You' from The Comforts of Madness (1990). Great album and a great song. Too bad 'Sea of Sounds' cannot be found on youtube.

Shoegaze Mixtape

In case anyone is interested, I made this shoegaze mixtape sometime in early September. It includes pretty much every artist mentioned so far, but in case you're getting tired of just Youtube videos, here's an alternative.

Mazzy Star wasn't technically a shoe gaze band but Hope Sandoval is the most exquisitely lovely lady to ever spend large amounts of time gazing away at her sexy Gucci boots. I'll volunteer to tickle her pretty little feet whenever she's feeling blue.

I don't really consider them shoegaze, but god damn that's one of my favourite songs ever. It's just perfect.

I thought I'd post some gems that people need to hear instead of posting shoegaze bands that people already know.

surprised Ride didn't get more of a mention, criminally underrated band, also crystal stilts have (although far from original) the perfect shoegaze sound imo.

the former drummer from Crystal stilts has a new band, Frankie Rose and the outs. the albums not out till next month but the previews i've heard have been superb.

They were mentioned a few times on the first page.

I forgot to add Pale Saints... they sound kind of twee-ish do they not?