Shoegaze Music

I saw Lush and My Bloody Valentine in the early 90's, still listen to them. Pale Saints is another favorite.

Yes. My favorite band was Lush. I love every album except the last one where they changed styles and became a generic Britpop band.

I love My Bloody Valentine, but they are insanely loud live. I wouldn't see them and stand anywhere near the stage without earplugs. They are known for deliberately playing louder than necessary which detracts from seeing them.

Lush's box set "Chorus" is one of the best that has been released in last few years.

I only saw Slowdive after they reunited recently. Saw them three times - before and after the release of their new album - they're amazing live.

R6, R1 here. You are right, when I saw them I was so looking forward to it and was really disappointed that they played so loudly. Their theory being that it helps the audience get lost in the sound, but actually the loudness undercut everything I liked about their music. And I'm a fan of loud music, but not in this case.

r6 My girlfriend referred to My Bloody Valentine as 'My Bloody Ears Hurt.'

She was not a fan.

OP, I caught My Bloody Valentine at Coachella back in the 2000s -- thankfully, before Coachella became a total douchebag magnet and when it was still (largely) about the music. I'd actually gone to one of the tents to see the terrific English band The Horrors. The Horrors played a solid set, but were visibly upset about being programmed at the same time as MBV as their tent was maybe 1/3 full at most because virtually everyone had gone to the mainstage to see MBV. I was a dumb kid who didn't know MBV and didn't know what I was missing. Luckily, something told me I should leave The Horrors set early and check out a little of MBV and I'm so glad I did. I walked up right as they were starting their You Made Me Realise (Holocaust) song and my jaw literally dropped as that sound just swirled around me. It was absolutely mesmerizing. I imagine seeing them at an outdoor venue like that is ideal as the sound was (almost) overwhelming but not so much that earplugs would have been mandatory.

Does Yo La Tengo count?

I love Swervedriver.

That Chapterhouse "Rownderbowt" is worth a few hundred dollars

I saw Slowdive just a few months back, and saw Yo La Tengo a few weeks ago.

Yes! Love Shoegaze OP.

Catherine Wheel, Black Metallic is one of the best.

The newish Slowdive is great too.

Sugar for the Pill

R16 That is one of my favorite songs

Black Metallic is a gem partly because Tim Friese-Greene produced it.

Slowdive!

I like that version r18!

Always loved Anemone by Brian Jonestown Massacre. Shoegaze was music to smoke pot to.

Do y'all consider Deerhunter (at least some of their music) shoegaze? Regardless, I feel like this wonderful song has definite hallmarks of shoegaze influence. The second, largely instrumental, half of the song with its wall of sound and reverby layer upon layer of guitars building upon one another in this infinite loop is just gorgeous... even if it's not technically shoegaze, I'm guessing most of you would enjoy it if you're not already familiar...

I'm not sure if they are technically considered Shoegaze r22. I don't pay much attention to the technicalities. I just like them, Deerhunter that is.

A lot of msic I like is probably not considered Shoegaze, but it has that wall of guitar and reverb sound that got me hooked in the first place. You get wrapped in sound.

Bands like Cigarettes after Sex and My Morning Jacket have that cocooning ability too.

Dondante by MMJ. It really kills in the last half.

Op, yes! My favorite band is Catherine Wheel. They are more of a blend between hardrock, grunge and shoegaze. Their first two albums are classic (as good as Nevermind).

Australian band Swirl, circa 1994

From their second album...

[quote]I'm not sure if they are technically considered Shoegaze R22. I don't pay much attention to the technicalities. I just like them, Deerhunter that is.

[quote]A lot of msic I like is probably not considered Shoegaze, but it has that wall of guitar and reverb sound that got me hooked in the first place. You get wrapped in sound.

[quote]Bands like Cigarettes after Sex and My Morning Jacket have that cocooning ability too.

R23, "cocooning" is a great way to describe that sound -- I find it irresistible, too. Any other songs you'd recommend that feature that type of... coooning sound experience like Desire Lines?

Yes, I love all of them, everyone mentioned here. Another great band was Curve - I used to play Doppelgänger endlessly and was obsessed with Toni Halliday's voice. R11, I agree, the Horrors are fantastic. And R22, love Deerhunter, particularly that album, and I think they fit into shoegaze quite well. And let's not forget Blonde Redhead.

"Tom Courtenay" (acoustic) by Yo La Tengo

Came here to post about Curve, my favorite band ever. Their early EPs and Doppelgänger were masterpieces. Still a mystery to me how everything went sideways for them.

How about some Ringo Deathstarr. This is probably a terrible version though.

Dean Garcia had another group, I think with his daughter as singer, that sounds a lot like Curve, SPC ECO.

Interpol notches in.

Dont think ive heard that before R33. I like!

I cannot wait to see My Bloody Valentine in a few weeks. I saw them in 94, and also a few years ago.

R35, you can find their full albums on Youtube

Wasnt Jesus and Mary Chains “Psychocandy” (1985) considered an early example of Shoegaze? Whats the story behind that release?

Any fans of A Place To Bury Strangers? They get so LOUD (earplugs, definitely required), but they never lose their sense of rhythm or songcraft under all that wonderful noise. Incidentally, their founding member also founded an effects pedal company that, equipment from which, they employ in their wall of sound, reverb-heavy aesthetic. Their equipment is also used by bands as diverse as U2, Nine Inch Nails and Portishead.

They've gone a bit mellow on their newest work. Definitely prefer their earlier albums. But , I bet they still put on a killer show

I remember someone posting on here in the last year who was a family friend of the Reid Brothers from Jesus and Mary Chain. He wrote that they were very low-key, didn't get along, and did a lot of coke in the early days.

Ride, cute English boys

Ride "Vapour Trail"

Bump

The band Neuman is Spanish and has a lot of shoegaze influence, though not part of the original groups from the 90's. They do a lot of songs in English, this is one of my favorites.

A pre-Shoegaze song that may fit the genre for you OP.

The Feelies - Boy with Perpetual Nervousness

Godfathers of Shoegaze (IMHO). The Stone Roses

24 Gone is a Canadian band that you probably haven't heard of, but their song "Girl of Colours" reminds me of British shoegaze music

Indian shoegaze:

Again, not Shoegaze per se, but snuggles in nicely.

The Chills - Pink Frost

No. Never was.

The best of Lush, or Shoegaze, right here.

When “Loveless” came out was it completely overshadowed by “Nevermind”? Seemed like there was room for both.

I saw The Stone Roses in 1989 at their legendary Alexandra Palace concert, and Ride in the Students' Union bar of the then Kingston Polytechnic, the guitarist who went on to join Oasis gave me the set list which I have in a box somewhere with the Roses ticket. The whole shoegazer thing was however not as much fun as what I next got into - The Orb. I basically took a lot of drugs in London in the late eighties and early nineties.

Ooh. I wish I'd been your friend back then r53.

R48 - I loved that. Who woulda thought. Lovely shoegaze dreampop from India.

R46 - Love Ian Brown. He never really caught on in the US, did he?

R42 beat me to it!

love neo-Shoegaze Asobi Seksu

R53, you must be 45.

R58, guess my age, guess my age!

R1

R48 I am 47 - and when I look back on my youthful antics I'm quite surprised I made it!

Bloody hell they are still going, and look quite good

Never dug back far enough into Shoegaze, though I dabbled but I did go through a full 90's Britpop submersion about 5 years ago and still remain a fan of the genre and the cultural era to this day. I spent an entire vacation in 2014 listening only to "Modern Life is Rubbish" every night.

Shoegaze fans can scoff at anyone who loves "Blur" as too glossy-mainstream to move in their privileged circles but I think "Blur" were the peak of cultural reflection in British music from that time period. Great at social satire, character studies and creative reflections on British cultural changes in their music.

I still love seeing their comedic send up of "Last Year at Marienbad" in their "To The End" vid. All art house solemnity and lingering gazes:

[quote]Bands like Cigarettes after Sex and My Morning Jacket have that cocooning ability too.

Cigarettes after Sex is more dream pop than shoegaze.

R62, personal opinion here, but I think Pulp's "common people" is better than anything Oasis or Blur did.

R64 I love the playful snarl of Pulp but prefer the elaborate storytelling of Blur. Oasis is a good band but I never got into them.

any Low fans here? Their new album is pretty beautiful.

Longtime fan here R66 and I saw them live on Monday, fantastic new songs!

Low’s new record really is amazing

I had a big crush on the boys of Ride, especially the singer. So adorable.

This was a good song too.

House of Love was another group I liked a lot

I love Low but haven't listened to them in forever. I'll have to check out the new album if its that good.

I liked a lot of Spaceman 3 and while they may not be Shoegaze, will forever love Stereolab.

Rachel from Slowdive was my crush; she's still a looker

Thank goodness someone mentioned Ride on this thread. They recently reunited BTW. I will also throw in Sianspheric, and Spacemen 3. The Jesus & Mary Chain is touring with NIN last I heard.

This is rather rare, but it stuck with me since it was mislabeled as a Radiohead song back in the days of Napster, just before Kid A came out.

Siansperhic's masterpiece imo

It's "The Sound Of The Color Of The Sun", sorry.

I loved Ride too, of course

And Slowdive's music was (is!) achingly beautiful at times, just perfect.

^^ Reunited 20 years later, they're as sublime live as ever.

Another forgotten band

House of Love "I Don't Know Why I Love You"

Was at a club recently on a 90s night and they played “Soon” by My Bloody Valentine. It was perfect.

Someone already posted this song, but here is the psychedelic video for it

the Flying Nun/NZ scene was great too. The Clean, The Bats, Bailter Space/Gordons, The Mad Scene, The Skeptics, Straitjacket Fits, the Chills, The Dead C....... Yo La Tengo was very very influenced by this scene.

Shoegazers of the world, UNITE!

Closedown - Nearfield

These guys were from East L.A. and doing shoegaze in the early 90s. This really needs to be re-issued on vinyl.

I don’t know how to link videos, but everyone check out “mind the wires” by Tears Run Rings. They’re a newer band, but sound straight outta the 80s/90s.

Do they nurture the urge to lower one's head shoe-ward, R88?

R89, indeed. Indeed.

Chapterhouse

BEACH HOUSE -- "DARK SPRING"

One of my favorites, R91!

Dirty on Purpose were a nugaze band from Brooklyn and had some beautiful tunes.

I can't find any link with my favorite song of theirs, Marfa Lights. Mind Blindness is a close second.

[quote]Yes. My favorite band was Lush. I love every album except the last one where they changed styles and became a generic Britpop band.

I LOVED Lush. Was sad to hear their drummer committed suicide.

R58 You just blew my mind. I am 45. All this music came out my freshman year in college. I still get the magical feels listening to My bloody Valentine, Ride, Curve (totally magical), Slowdive, Lush etc etc, . What a great moment in music. 1990-91.

(Also was crazy about The Orb but that gets into other genres that don't apply here.)

Beach House is great for neo-shoegazing. Spiritualized are not technically shoegaze, but this song did the fucking job my freshman year, when I empowered myself to buy my own pot and my bedroom was lined with christmas lights. Best to listen to it in the dark.

Adorable "A To Fade In"

Chapterhouse is underrated

Youth Lagoon

Ballerina Out of Control by The Ocean Blue

"Sometimes Always" / Jesus and Mary Chain with Hope Sandoval

Pale Saints

I've love FOR LOVE. That song was zeitgeist of my childhood

The Radio Dept.

Travis "Why Does It Always Rain On Me"

I love The Radio Dept

"Pet Grief" - The Radio Dept

The Ocean Blue were great last night at Echoplex

The Ocean Blue - "Ice Skating at Night"

Mojave 3 is a Slowdive spinoff

R108 you saw The Ocean Blue live? I'm oozing green. BETWEEN THE RHYTHM & THE SOUND changed my life, and 'Crash' is one of my "play this at my funeral" songs.

R101 Hope Sandoval raised me, basically. She's the Goddess Mama I needed and loved since I was little, and I look on THROUGH THE DEVIL SOFTLY as a cornerstone in my adolescence. Plus I've always heard rumors that she's a lesbian, any credence to that?

No love for Spiritualized?

R111 They sang Crash

Speaking of Hope Sandoval, do Mazzy Star count as shoegaze?

Jesus and Mary Chain "Just Like Honey"

I loved Lush BECAUSE of Lovelife in addition to there other stellar catalogue. They could do no wrong in my eyes. Also Liz and Robin? Hello??? Not Bringing up the Twins at the mere mention of shoegaze or anything dreampop related is like leaving out Kraftwork when mentioning synth pop. Actually the whole reason I love shoegaze, twee, madchester and anything c86 related is because of the way they phased out that awful synthesizer. For some reason the Cocteaus tend to be clumped next to Talk Talk. I could not be more appalled. The drum machine is the closest thing CT ever came to being remotely related to synth pop.

Stereolab combined shoegaze with 70s drone-rock and 60s easy-listening.

I loved a lot of the Boo Radleys work even their neo psyche and poppier numbers. The Chameleons had an amazing discography. KCRW In LA classified Trash Can Sinatras as shoegaze legends although they’re on the jangly side like the Sundays. They are ridiculously underrated.

Were Talk Talk at all influencial on the dreampop scene or even shoegaze? I noticed they were always clumped together with the Cocteaus. Never heard or noticed any similarities. In fact I was listening to some podcast where both were referred to as SYNTHPOP which kind of outraged me to be honest. Part of the reason I love the whole shoegaze, dreampop, jangle pop, twee and c86 scene or era was because of the fact that started slowly phasing out the synthwave scene which I absolutely loathe. The closest thing I could think of as to why the Cocteaus were mentioned in the same breath as synthpop was because of their drum machine early on but still can’t put the two together.

I heard Alison by Slowdive today.

Cool. Here in LA, maybe bimonthly, at various clubs the Cocteau Twins will have a special appreciation night and a lot of times they’ll share it with other bands. They’ll sometimes have women of dreampop and shoegaze night which they should have had this week when it was Women’s Appreciation Day....well actually the whole month is Women’s Appreciation Month so they could definitely do something. But yeah, Slowdive, Lush, Curve and even MBV on Valentines Day have all gotten to share the spotlight with Cocteaus on their tribute shows. Of course it’s all only djs spinning their favorite songs but sometimes they’ll have a shoegaze related band perform a few songs here and there.

Swervedriver has a new album out

Spacemen 3 - Walking With Jesus

R114, I could see Mazzy Star being considered shoegaze to some extent, but they were also known to emerge out of the whole "paisley underground" scene as well.

Catherine Wheel - Black Metallic

Sway - Fall from the beautiful album "The Millia Pink And Green"

My entree iinto shoegaze.

Great track by Death In Vegas featuring Hope Sandoval. It's not strictly shoegaze per se, but a great track, but an interesting collaboration between her and DIV. Liam Gallagher also made a guest appearance on this particular album, Scorpio Rising, and Oasis' first album, which is kind of regarded as being shoegaze-ish. Strangely, this is the only album from DIV that is not available from them on Spotify.

Shoegaze has aged very well to my ears--better than grunge or britpop from around the same time period.

I love that song Sugar for the Pill by Slowdive

I love Black Metallic and the name Catherine Wheel.

Diiv is a band I really like that I think is considered Shoegaze. The lead singer has had a long battle with addiction, but luckily he seems to be doing better and they are still putting out new music.

R97 I am a big fan of Adorable and cherish that record. I think they were the purest example of Dream Pop on the whole 90s scene, and were extremely underrated (barely anyone remembers them now). I wish I could have seen them live.

Their most sublime track was the obscure single ‘Sunshine Smile’ with its sparkling delirious video. I also still frequently listen to ‘Vendetta’, ‘Submarine’ & ‘Glorious’ to this very day (27 years later!)

I liked its influence on downtempo 10 years after. I don't like it per se.

Same R133

R132 a friend of mine is a guitarist-songwriter and Adorable is her all-time favorite band. She messaged the lead singer, Pete Fijalkowski, on Myspace (!) in 2006 and they ended up becoming friends. He mailed her promo materials from England and CDs of demos and unreleased music.

R135 frankly I’m in shock that another fan still exists in the world, that’s beautiful. Not to mention that I am oozing green. Your friend struck gold! I have always loved Pete’s unique down-to-Earth yearning voice (it captures the early 90s really well, somehow), and confess to having a little crush on him too (it was the floppy hair).

Please post a track by your friend here if she doesn’t mind; it would be interesting to see how Adorable shaped her sound..

R127 to my joyful relief I still own a CD copy of SCORPIO RISING, an original I bought at HMV in ‘02/3 sometime. Knowing that it’s obscure and not on streaming (yet) makes me even more glad to have it! Hope’s KILLING SMILE is definitely the best song on the album (of course it is, she’s a Goddess) but the entire record is eminently spinnable in its entirety 18 years on. It’s perfect for getting into a focused trance, or for making out..

I’m not a fan of Oasis -more of a Verve/Travis girl - but even I really get into Liam Gallagher’s vocals on the title track. Did he write the lyrics? Because if he did they’re surprisingly excellent, melon-twisting poetry. I have always thought he sounds pretty sexy singing that cut, too, which again is not an epithet I have never before or since associated with Liam Gallagher.

I love Scorpio Rising...I really enjoyed the music of the late nineties (lounge) and early oughts.

I saw DIIV live and they kind of sucked. Anyone a fan of Perfume Genius?

Shoegaze is still around. The band, Nothing, reminds me a lot of Catherine Wheel at times.

War on Drugs in a current band that is on the Shoegaze trend

I'm a huge shoegaze fan. I've seen My Bloody Valentine twice, front and center, no earplugs. I'm obsessed with this cover of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" by Sleigh Bells. I wouldn't call them shoegaze, but this song definitely blurs the lines.

I bought the My Bloody Valentine "Glider" single for the B-side "Don't Ask Why"

Bedhead? The New Year? Just throwing them out there. Seems Shoegaze is a pretty flexible term.