Post-punk pioneers Wire were oft recognized as a group in a strange nether region – one that was too artsy to be punk, too punk for the art kids. Wire was angular and minimal, with gorgeous melodies remaining subtle and rewarding. As such, it makes total sense to extract those under-the-surface pop structures, add dense layers of sound that the band sometimes hinted at, and reimagine this begrudgingly poppy gem as shoegazing, whose artists also tended to be begrudgingly poppy. Continue reading ‘Imagining Wire As a Wall of Sound’
I had to go through a labyrinth of amazing old school Geocities websites to find a decent photo of Lush. The mid-’90s was such a golden age for web design, ya’ll. Why don’t designers use wicked animated GIFs anymore? Man… fuckin’ Geocities… oooh weee. I had a Geocities website and it ruled so hard.
Anyway, conventional shoegazing history operates, for all intents and purposes, as follows. When the “Scene That Celebrated Itself“ collapsed on itself around the same time as grunge (roughly Q3 of 1994) your band did two things: either dismantled or went a very different direction. Lush chose the latter, and released some kinda shitty music toward the end of their career. However, Lush’s Gala compilation, which comprised of the group’s first three EPs collected on one priced-to-own record long before the Beta Band thought of doing it, is not just some of the best dream pop ever recorded – it’s just some of the best rock and roll recorded. Lush, along with Cocteau Twins, established what the 4AD sound was all about. Continue reading ‘Lush’s Gala Will Destroy You’
Since setting short or long term goals for yourself tends to keep you focused and away from the dangers of drugs, so as such, it is my short term goal to write a few entries this week digging through my archives. My archives are kept in a fortress outside the city proper and mote-protected. However, I will share certain gems from these archives on my blog, because sharing is caring. Here’s one from classic UK dream pop outfit Chapterhouse.
So, Chapterhouse’s 1991 release Whirlpool never made a huge, umm, splash in the shoegazing scene, but it was very good. Had they developed these sounds more, expanding on their sonic landscape instead of following-up with a corny, overtly poppy, overly slick, incredibly dated sounding album (1993’s Blood Music), Chapterhouse might have been as recognizable of a name as Ride.
Though Chapterhouse tended to be more poppy than many of their contemporaries, they made quite a statement when they weren’t going for verse-chorus-verse structures and soft guitar sounds.
This… this is a total brain melter. And it’s a rare treat. Continue reading ‘A Rare One From Chapterhouse’
Alright, as promised, here’s the full set from My Bloody Valentine’s Aragon performance on Sept. 27. Continue reading ‘My Bloody Valentine in Chicago – Full Concert Recording’
No need for any commentary here – behold three choice tracks from last weekend’s My Bloody Valentine concert / religious sermon in Chicago. The audio quality is outstanding, so I assume this recording is directly from the soundboard. I plan to have the entire set up soon (probably Monday or Tuesday), so look out for that. That reminds me… yeah, why don’t you subscribe to the Decibel Tolls RSS feed, so you’re the first to know when I unload shipments of awesome on this blog? Continue reading ‘A Few Tracks From My Bloody Valentine in Chicago’
Like me with this site’s design and layout, Deerhunter likes to tweak and change and constantly alter the forthcoming Microcastle/Weird Era Cont cover. The original, found here, will still be displayed on the domestic Kranky vinyl release, though. There’s also this one floating around that appears as the proper art via iTunes. So… what do you think? Continue reading ‘So… Watcha Think of the New Deerhunter Art?’
The photo above is Kenny Bloggins doing his angry Michael Gira face, exhibited with the gatefold spread of the Can’t Find My Way Home 12″ by Swans. I love this single. It was a going-away gift from punk rock historian Uncle Bill Widener when I moved to Chicago. I like to crank it when I take my relaxation bubble bath, complemented by only the finest sacred oils and incense imported from India. This, among other reasons, inspired a little write-up on Swans.
First, boo’s been into reading rock biographies as of late. In the past month, she’s read memiors by Beatle wives Pattie Boyd and Cynthia Lennon, Clapton by Eric Clapton (not joking about the title), and Everyone’s Fucking: The Fleetwood Mac Story (okay, I am joking about that one). Now she’s in the middle of the new Sonic Youth biography, Goodbye 20th Century by David Browne, which she says is excellent. The first half of the book details Thurston Moore’s relationship(s) with experimental/no-wave luminaries in the New York area, Michael Gira in particular. She was excited to discuss with me all the reasons why Michael Gira, at least at the dawn of the ’80s, was pretty much a doo-doo head, albeit an intriguing one. Secondly, Swans is not recognized nearly enough for being a premiere shoegaze band, and as such, I wish to entertain an argument for this premise. And thirdly, M. Gira’s playing a show this evening in NYC for five binks. All these reasons seemed poignant enough to me to write an entry, so let’s begin, shall we? Continue reading ‘Me and Michael Gira Down By the Schoolyard’
