We know very little about Gum, only that there are five of them and that they are from London. Judging from the three songs available (one of which has two different names in two different places), we can probably safely assume that they are fans of My Bloody Valentine. Whether their sound (layers of reverby, bending guitar and distorted vocals) is slightly too similar to the 90s shoegazers you can decide, but I'll be keeping a close eye on these in the next few months regardless.
So this is ace. New music from a dude from New Hampshire, formerly in The QC, apparently - and now going by the name Water Moccasins.
EP Broken Tone is four tracks of luscious, woozy, beautiful noise - the first half slightly more melodic and tuneful, the second more experimental and dreamy. Layers of delicate synth lay atop reverberating guitar and modest vocals to stunning effect. It's this kind of thing that makes you fully understand why some people refer to shoegaze as 'dream pop'.
This is really, really good. Listen below, or download the full EP for free from bandcamp.
Amidst growing personal suspicion that - despite Stokes Croft and all its related awesomeness - Bristol wasn't perhaps as 'buzzing' as I'd previously seen it in my mind, up step Holy Stain and blow that silly suspicion away with an almighty wall of noise.
Through driving tech-y drum beats and layers of guitar - ranging from intricate and plucky to heavily distorted, droning, and in your face fuzz - the Bristol four-piece give a bloody good go at the shoegazey post-rock sound. Given that, it was probably a little bit silly to miss them play a free gig the other night.
Check some stuff out below, or download the (intermittently excellent) Sun Zoo EP for free (with permission) here.
As much as the noisy and whirring shoegazey sound has been done to death, I still find it pretty difficult to resist. Heavy Ghost are another group opting for this musical route; heavily distorted and bending guitar sounds, a pounding and clicking drum machine, and some coo-ing synths come together to make sounds wholly unoriginal but still pretty captivating.
Check out stuff below, or grab the Chicago trio’s entire Ten Thousand Years EP over at bandcamp for free.
Only a quick post today, but I think it's a pretty good'un - music from Brighton artist BEACH!.
Fast paced and noisey, 'Summertime' is a fine showing from a project in such early stages. A song with an overriding pop feel, though awash with plenty of echoing shoegazey reverb and catchy surf vibes, it reminds of the likes of Jesus & Mary Chain but yet never feels inferior to the genre's masters.
Expect more top music from (and more words of praise on here for) BEACH! in the near future, hopefully.
Shit. A slightly less new, more established band. Don’t tell anyone I'm posting about them.
It’s with pretty good reason that I write about US shoegazers Asobi Seksu, though. Quite simply they’re really good, and so is their new album.
Now on their fifth studio album, Fluorescence puts the New York band back into more familiar plugged in and distorted territory following the entirely acoustic Rewolf. Although certainly fitting in with the shoegaze movement giving the whirring and noisey guitars, there’s also definite indie pop hints with the high-pitched and beautiful vocals from front-woman Yuki Chikudate and songs still holding a catchy, sing-along feel. Both wonderfully put together and brilliantly executed, it’s an album full of plain old good songs.
If you don’t know of Asobi Seksu then you should start. If you do know of Asobi Seksu, then you might be interested to know that they tour the UK soon. Catch them at the following venues in the following cities on the following dates:
London Electric Ballroom, April 15
Manchester Academy 2, April 16
Glasgow Garage, April 17
Birmingham O2 Academy April 18
London XOYO, April 19
Brighton Audio, April 21 [event info]
Nothing overly original or groundbreaking, but three tracks of Jesus And Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine heavy influence from New York/New Jersey’s Youth Castles.
Hangover Kid starts with a fairly basic high-pitched guitar lick but a drum machine and countless guitar pedals and vocals effects later it becomes something all the more intriguing and interesting – like much of shoegaze, these are essentially pop songs wrapped in blankets of noise. Youth Castles do it pretty well, and tey also add interesting tweaks here and there, such as on Feel, where the typical MBV woo-ing synth noise is replaced by a female vocal sample which works really well and is a nice touch.
There are far worse bands to be influenced by. Grab stuff below or head to bandcamp. Full EP expected ‘in Spring’.
Still haven't gotten over these since posting about them in August. Feel very teased by the small amount I have heard from them, in fact.
Just re-stumbled upon the track (I Cannot Be) Much More Than This, and I really, really love it. The perfect blend of 90s 'gazey jangly pop, and fits in perfectly with my recent listening habits of Beat Happening and Galaxie 500.
Motorcycle Au Pair is still pretty darn great, too. Still pop, but a bit more of a 60s vibe to it.
More stuff soon, hopefully.
The Louche F.C - (I Cannot Be) Much More Than This
It can sometimes feel a little false and pre-meditated when a modern band sounds exactly like the ‘sound’ from a specific era. Lots of the time it can be a sound fashionable at the time. The shoegaze scene is a clear influence on lots of the noisey and droney bands around today, and the Phil Spector wall of sound is seeing a good resurgence, too. IOf course it is increasingly difficult to be truly original, and it’s not necessarily a negative criticism of a band to sound exactly like the bands of a movement from yesteryear (The Horrors’ Primary Colours springs to mind, sounding a carbon copy of the likes of The Chameleons), but it can hint at a lack of personal creativity or just lazy song-writing.
If there’s one band that would be allowed some leeway with this, though, it’s Thunder Bunny, seeing the 90’s is when they were first active and all. Although lead man Christopher Padula – and pretty much the only ‘proper’ band member since starting Thunder Bunny back in 1995 and resurrecting it with some friends recently – denies the shoegaze (hence the 90’s reference) sound, the layers of noise, the distant vocals, and the distorted guitar sounds do at least hint otherwise; though beneath the fuzz does lie beautiful and almost folk-y songs with some definite hints of psychedelia and pop. Sometimes building from slow-paced acoustic guitar lines, a staple of the sound are guitars sounding like they were recorded in another room with the doors shut and Christopher’s calming, ethereal, and slightly effeminate vocals.
Head to their MySpace page for more information. Download “The World Gathered To Watch Him Fade Away” and “Sleepy Head” from Ashtapes here, stream and download Storm below, or here if that doesn’t work, where you can also buy tonnes of Thunder Bunny releases old and new.
