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Attention all shoegeezers!

Posted over 2 years ago
Showgaze - the love that dares not speak its name - has gone mainstream!Britain's artiest broadsheet the Guardian has a big article today about the return of shoegaze, and its new incarnation "nu-gaze" (catchy!). It touches on a lot of points made in our recent "Maps thread.":http://mog.com/FluxCapacitor/blog_post/96888 It includes interviews with shoegaze luvin' film-makers and novelists, as well as interviews with Ulrich Schnauss, Ride's Mark Gardner, and Map's James Chapman.Link:http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/Comments:I've included the entire article here as the full link is impossible to embed.May Very Well Interest:Marigold, The Boy Flood, GirlCrawl, Lord Alfreston, ccmr30, Dale, and anybody else who likes music that "stares at the stars (not the shoes)" (Thanks Mr Gardner!)Tune!To celebrate Mog being on top of this latest cultural wave...here's a shoegaze classic:
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Comments (29)

  1. FluxCapacitor
    FluxCapacitor says Diamond gazers Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 'Shoegazing' is back - and has shaken off its old image of being about bands who just stare at the ground while they play. Jude Rogers talks to the pioneers of nu-gazing. Jude Rogers Friday July 27, 2007 Guardian At the start of summer 2007 a supple, shimmery thread started darning itself through a long line of euphoric-sounding albums. From Maps to Blonde Redhead, Mahogany to Deerhunter, Asobi Seksu to Ulrich Schnauss, you could hear the heady, woozy influence of a style of music that had been a byword for naffness and overindulgence for the past 15 years; a type of music that Richey Edwards of the Manic Street Preachers had said he "hated more than Hitler". Names like nu-gaze, stargaze and shoetronica were used to describe it, names that couldn't quite hide the scene that dared not speak its name. For shoegazing was back - the sound of jangly indie fed through layers of distortion, overdrive and fuzz; of delicate souls turning themselves up to 11. In Summer 2007, bands, clubs, Mercury prize-nominated albums, films, and novels are all proud to claim it as an inspiration. Why shoegazing and why now? "Because it's time to be adventurous again - and it's time to reclaim the music from the term," says Nathaniel Cramp, the cheerful, bearded promoter of Sonic Cathedral, both a shoegazing club that travels around the UK, and a record label. The term is the first problem: it began life as it remains - a derogatory word coined by Food Records boss Andy Ross in 1990, co-opted by the NME to describe bands like Slowdive, Chapterhouse and Moose, who would stare at their pedals through their curtains of hair rather than engage with their fans when they played live. "It wasn't very fair," says Neil Halstead, formerly Slowdive's shy teenage frontman, and now the leader of country band Mojave 3. "The live shows were far from fey. They were about the energy of the experience, about sheer volume, and about taking a quantum leap. It's was about getting excited, getting stoned, but the same time it was about being geeky - something that wasn't rock'n'roll in any respect." Groups like Ride and My Bloody Valentine were the big bands of shoegaze, and were fiercely anti-rock in their music and their outlook. "We didn't want to use the stage as a platform for ego, like the big bands of the time did, like U2 and Simple Minds," says Mark Gardener, then Ride's lead singer, and now a solo artist. "We presented ourselves as normal people, as a band who wanted their fans to think they could do that too." Ride managed to take this to another level in February 1992, having a top 10 hit with the eight-minute epic Leave Them All Behind. So what went wrong? Indie's dance revolution harmed shoegazing early on, bands from prosperous Thames Valley towns such as Oxford and Reading being easily mockable, and less exciting, next to their druggy and arrogant Madchester rivals. From 1992, grunge started bovver-booting its presence all over pop culture, its pessimistic lyrics and musical sparseness utterly at odds with shoegazing's lush, languid optimism. "We had no chance after grunge," says Gardener. "We were the opposite of greasy smack-takers from America. We were nice boys - and nice boys on the wrong kinds of drugs." But 15 years later shoegazing has become hip again. Cramp thinks the soundtrack to Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation in late 2003 - curated by My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields - speeded its return, and his club's mission is to contextualise shoegazing in terms of its influences and inspirations. "You'll just as likely hear Syd Barrett and Ladytron as you will Swervedriver and Moose. It's music I know people in Ride T-shirts with fringes will like - although they're too old to have fringes now, they've receded too much - but also music younger people will find exciting too." He mentions one of Sonic Cathedral's latest signings, Kyte, a band of boys in their early 20s who'd never heard shoegazing records until Cramp played them some, and Manchester's Working for a Nuclear Free City, who came to shoegaze through the ambient music of Brian Eno. James Chapman, the 28-year-old bedroom musician behind Mercury prize-nominated Maps, likes this idea of putting shoegazing into context. He was only dimly aware of it as a child. "To me, shoegazing is just a stage of psychedelic music. I hear late 1980s dance in the music of that time, but also a lot of the late 60s psychedelic folk scene." These influences were also flagged up by bands at the time: Shields said that dance music was the inspiration for his band's biggest album, Loveless, while Gardener and Halstead still love the Byrds, the Doors and the Velvet Underground. Chapman thinks psychedelic music of either the dance or rock kind is always exciting to experience live. "I want to make music and play music that has the same effect on someone as My Bloody Valentine had on me - making people want to join together and escape themselves." Ulrich Schnauss, the 29-year-old DJ whose dreamy second album Goodbye came out in June, thinks this escapism is vital to shoegazing's appeal. He comes from the north German outpost of Kiel, a dull town that he saw as the equivalent of Reading, home to Halstead's Slowdive. "Too much music these days is about how bad these towns are, about everyday life, and all the dull details. Shoegazing is a way out of that - there's melancholy in it, but lots of heaven there too." He thinks people connect with dreamy music more in times of world crisis, and points out how psychedelic music has flourished during the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. "It's music that offers a much more profound way of trying to cope with a bad world, isn't it? Offering hope rather than breaking your guitar and shouting 'fuck you!'" Andrew Prinz of New York's Mahogany, who have played to huge crowds in North and South America, believes the romantic nature of the music has universal appeal too. "All the imagery on the original records was about love - all nature and kissing, subjects that could be really wet. But with these washes of sound, they become really electrified and erotic - and everyone wants to hear music that's electrified and erotic." Shoegazing is also spreading beyond the CD racks. Eric Green, a young film-maker from Los Angeles, is in post-production on a documentary about shoegazing and the music that preceded it called Beautiful Noise, in which he interviews fans of the genre, including Trent Reznor, the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne and Billy Corgan. They were willing to talk, he says, because there wasn't a shoegazing backlash in America; the music was seen as part of an ongoing heritage of experimental rock, which fed into later genres like space-rock and post-rock. "But I decided not to use the word shoegazing in the film in case it upset anyone," he admits. "And because someone had said to me, 'The word "mafia" isn't in The Godfather, you know.' So I left it out." First-time novelist James Buckley was braver, calling his book Celebrate Myself, after another mocking NME name for the original shoegazers, The Scene That Celebrates Itself. It tells the story of a self-righteous MBA student who's also into shoegazing music. "The business world and shoegazing both attract intelligent idealists," he says. "And a lot of those bands were university-based." He has met a lot of Ride fans in the City, and says he sees plenty of men from the trading floors at the back of gigs. Still, images like these won't help change the minds of detractors. It doesn't help that Alan McGee, the man who signed Ride, My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive to Creation, is its most vehement critic. "Bloody nonsense. My Bloody Valentine were my comedy band. Ride were different - they were a rock band, really, a fantastic rock band - but My Bloody Valentine were a joke, my way of seeing how far I could push hype." Although he said Shields was a genius in the Guardian in 2004, he now says, unconvincingly, that the revival is just people still buying his lies. But the fans don't agree - they see this music as theirs. "This music is the opposite of hype," says Schnauss, vehemently. "It's about genuine emotion. It's about standing at a gig or walking around with your headphones on and being completely transported. It's about that kind of beauty." Or a Chapman neatly puts it: "It's all about music that doesn't stare at its shoes. It stares at the stars."
    Permalink posted 07/27/2007
  2. The Serenity Vortex
    The Serenity Vortex says Dammit, I have to go to a meeting right now. But I will return to this thread. Oh yes!!!
    Permalink posted 07/27/2007
  3. Marigold
    Marigold says Great article Flux. I just made note of 3 bands I have never heard of and will now need to go off and investigate further. I read about that movie coming out about a week ago. That should be pretty good when it comes out. Shoegeezers of the world....Unite! .....in the stars.
    Permalink posted 07/27/2007
  4. FluxCapacitor
    FluxCapacitor says Yeah, me too - lots to investigate in there. We're not ploughing a lonely furrow afterall!
    Permalink posted 07/27/2007
  5. Marigold
    Marigold says Before mog, I seriously thought I was the only person who still enjoyed the "shoegaze" sound as much today as I did 15 years ago. Let me know if you find anything in your investigating. I had never heard of Moose before and it seems they were right at the beginning of the shoegaze scene. The other bands I will check out are Kyte and Mahogany.
    Permalink posted 07/27/2007
  6. 1234chainsaw
    1234chainsaw says Heh, another shoegaze stalwart here, I was just reading that article on the Guardian. Among the newer US bands, check out The Brother Kite, among others. (This might please you as well, in case you missed it.)
    Permalink posted 07/27/2007
  7. Marigold
    Marigold says ...The Brother Kite. Check, added to my list. I just checked out Kyte that is mentioned in the Guardian article. You can download three of their 4 myspace songs. http://www.myspace.com/kyteband ...have not listened to them yet, but you can download them...so that is cool.
    Permalink posted 07/27/2007
  8. 1234chainsaw
    1234chainsaw says Of course, anyone who isn't familiar with For Against should go and check them out post haste (especially December, Echelons, and Coalesced.) From Brother Kite, check out Waiting For the Time To Be Right. It blends early Ride/Chapterhouse type stuff with Beach Boys-esque harmonies. Really quite good.
    Permalink posted 07/27/2007
  9. 1234chainsaw
    1234chainsaw says Damn, my brain is a like sieve today. The Sleepover Disaster are really good as well (read my gig review here), and I wrote about For Against here.
    Permalink posted 07/27/2007
  10. poebegone
    poebegone says I have a very long comment/rant in my head that has something to do with the shift of shoegazers from people doing drugs (old school) to people up all night reading about people doing drugs ("nu" school), and I'm sure I can even think of a more decent metaphor after sleep, plus that article up there (which I have not read yet) looks long for past 1 am - so I'll get back to you, Flux. (Why did you have to post this on a Friday night, dammit?) Later. (:
    Permalink posted 07/27/2007
  11. Dale
    Dale says Oh, I will return to read this, make no mistake!
    Permalink posted 07/27/2007
  12. FluxCapacitor
    FluxCapacitor says Marigold -- I'll get on that download, cheers. 1234 -- Thanks for recommendations. Will read your articles, too. The shoegeezers are growing! Dale - Cool, take your time! Poe - posted it first thing Friday over here! Interesting about the drugs thing, I'm not sure that shoegaze was a heavy drugs scene compared to, say, Madchester! A crafty joint here and there rather than the space biscuits, me thinks. The theory that I put forward in the Maps post was the sounds are very much about replicating what it feels like to be high, either naturally or otherwise.
    Permalink posted 07/27/2007
  13. 1234chainsaw
    1234chainsaw says Flux, Sleepover Disaster is probably very hard to find in your neck of woods. But go here: http://www.myspace.com/thesleepoverdisaster (and Brother Kite have a Myspace page as well).
    Permalink posted 07/27/2007
  14. FluxCapacitor
    FluxCapacitor says Well they've certainly got an intriguing name, that's for sure. Thanks, will do.
    Permalink posted 07/27/2007
  15. jessicattivo
    jessicattivo says I've got this song on repeat, embarrased to admit I have never heard of Chapterhouse, I will look for the album somewhere I guess, although I'm guessing I will only find it online. Just like everything else
    Permalink posted 07/27/2007
  16. The Serenity Vortex
    The Serenity Vortex says So much good news on the shoegaze front. Especially after my fussy ways on Flux and Marigolds posts of late. Good work Flux, have the day off from work. You deserve it ;)
    Permalink posted 07/27/2007
  17. darmuzz
    darmuzz says I missed shoegaze when it was new so it isn't nostalgic to me! Have been listening to MBV and Slowdive for the past few months. I have also been listening to Blonde Redhead and Asobi Seksu, but didn't really make the connection - I had been just referring to them as dream pop. Leave it to the UK press to come up with the nu-gaze tag; reminds me of the poor Klaxons and their impossible-to-shake-off label, nu-rave! Great article and lots of bands for me to look up, too.
    Permalink posted 07/27/2007
  18. sunscream
    sunscream says This is great
    Permalink posted 07/28/2007
  19. FluxCapacitor
    FluxCapacitor says jessicattivo - Glad you like the tune - I've been listening to it all week myself. Doubt if you'll find a downloadable version. But it'll definitely be on eBay, and they're on last.fm if you want to sample more tracks. TBF - Cheers, mate, I think I'll take today off: Saturday. And there's gotta be something in the above thread that'll toot your horn! Darmuzz - Thanks for dropping by. With all these new bands popping up, thankfully it doesn't feel nostalgic to me either. I don't think I would have written a word about "shoegaze" if I hadn't discovered Maps. Right-on about the tags. Though I think "nu-gaze" is more about the writer having fun with words than a label that will catch on (at least I hope!). But even "shoegaze" was a daft moniker for a scene, I reckon. Did these bands _really_ stare at their shoes on stage?! I don't think it's very helpful when you're trying to describe the music.
    Permalink posted 07/28/2007
  20. Girlcrawl
    Girlcrawl says Have never quite understood the disdain heaped upon the earlier shoegaze bands or movement. I enjoyed shoegaze then, will enjoy it now, and most importantly will not apologise to anyone for partaking of its lustrous beauty. A refreshingly worthwhile read, and glad you posted as I might have missed this one. Appreciate you looking out for the nu-gaze crowd. Looking forward to Green's Beautiful Noise documentary; will read Buckly's book entitled Celebrate Myself (cause you know that I do); and will explore the nu-gaze artists mentioned above. Wish to convey this point: I generally comment positively on the music posted here on MOG, and some fellow mogsters may assume that means my musical depth is limited. This would be incorrect; can assure you that I possess highly discerning musical tastes. Tend to delve eclectically into many musical genres, eras, and cultures, and am therefore averse to snobbishness regarding music. Even if I do not 'like' the music, I can generally, and sincerely appreciate the creative effort. So forgive the harshness, but what sort of imbecile states that he 'hates shoegaze more than Hitler'? If it was meant to be shockingly clever, it wasn't. As for Alan McGee: Naff Off! Perhaps you're the joke. Mindlessly bashing genres such as shoegaze does not diminish the music to those who enjoy it, rather it demonstrates that said basher is a miserably shallow arse. Well-done Flux!
    Permalink posted 07/28/2007
  21. poebegone
    poebegone says Flux, nice article, great post. i am as thrilled as everyone else by the notion of shoegaze resurging, and welcome the coming of all new shoegazing bands/artists. speaking for myself, it's exactly as Neil Halstead said: it was a lot about getting stoned and being geeky at the same time (as opposed to doing drugs in a very rock n' roll way). what you said about the newer shoegaze sound being very much about replicating what it feels like to be high, either naturally or otherwise, is pretty close to what i have in mind. i am having a lazy weekend and this is the most succinct way i could put it: old shoegaze: eruptive. organic. breathtaking. coexistent chaos. new shoegaze: calculable. scientific. overwhelming. organized chaos. of course, the new is a progression, incorporating influences that did not yet exist during the time of the old. i guess my point is that i love this new sound yet i am not too compelled to label it "the new shoegaze". if you ask me if i have found the new Slowdive or the new Ride - no, i have not, but i am finding something else. but that's just me. (: (btw: nu-gaze - sucks! there's got to be a better name...)
    Permalink posted 07/28/2007
  22. FluxCapacitor
    FluxCapacitor says GC - wow, great comment yourself! Passionate stuff, and I concur completely. Down with "shoehazing"! Poe - That's great, "being geeky and getting stoned". Rather than all the macho bullshit that comes with drug culture. It makes me laugh in particular when I see hip-hop artists boasting about smoking blunts or whatever. So f***in' what, mate! Join the club! I can only take this when it's very cleverly done, like as a metaphor (as documented in my Mos & Talib post) or with really original wordplay (as with Clipse). Equally Mike Skinner waffling on about his coke use resulted in a really poor Streets album. And I was a huge fan up til then. And I agree, the new stuff is not exactly shoegaze, and we wouldn't want it to be. Shoegaze is just a handy label...though curiously it's not a cataegory you ever see in record stores...and if the tag switches to "nu-gaze" then let's hope the record stores ignore that one too! Sunscream -- ...and we're not even high. (I think!)
    Permalink posted 07/28/2007
  23. Marigold
    Marigold says wow, this has turned into a wonderful post. Great feedback and great to see the shoegazery is still going strong and is being revitalized. Love Girlcrawl's setiments. She is spot on with her comments regarding some of the rediculous things that have been said regarding the genra. It really touches on one thing I have been coming to grips with over the last few years. I have come to the realization that I do not really "hate" any style of music or artist. I have come to grips more that I can appreciate most artist and their craft....however there are still some that really do annoy me and I am working on appreciating what they do. :) But in general I no longer say I hate country music....I actually find myself appreciating a lot of it now days. Still won't buy much of it, but I can appreciate it. So I have made personal progress into a further appreciation of music. I have found that the more I open the door to stuff I would normally disregard, I actually end up appreciating what I do like more and do so with a better understanding. I also dislike the "nu-gaze" term....lets hope it does not stick.
    Permalink posted 07/28/2007
  24. Dale
    Dale says Ya know, as much as we've talked here about how the music was about replicating the feel of getting high, it was one of the key surprises from reading the 33 1/3 book on Loveless to find out how FEW drugs were being ingested while making that album. You'd figure the whole band, especially Kevin, must have tripping themselves loopy, but they weren't, aside from the occasional joint. As someone that doesn't partake, that impresses me even more. As for Alan McGee's comments, I wonder how much of his rancor is masking frustration that he missed the boat this time, or perhaps resentment that he failed to recoup the cost of making Loveless. I have to think he still digs the sound. It remains constantly refreshing to know that there ARE other people that still hang on the sound; it does get tiring to get a stupid bemused look when you tell someone that you're listening to My Bloody Valentine. Mmmmmm, community. :)
    Permalink posted 07/28/2007
  25. FluxCapacitor
    FluxCapacitor says Marigold - As the great comic book writer Alan Moore says, "don't be cool, try to love everything." I'm still at the Johnny Cash stage with country music myself, though! I love when my initial prejudice is overhauled when I truly _listen_ to a band. A recent example for me is Bloc Party, whom I had hated on sight due to them being from a particularly snooty part of London. It was only this year that I truly got what they were about. Dale - That's a great point about how little drugs were needed to make a masterpiece. I think the connection between drugs and creativity is really overstated. It might make a band newsworthy, but I'm willing to bet that heavy drug use is responsible for tons more atrocious albums than great ones. McGee's got a neck like a jockey's bollocks. If he hadn't had My Bloody Valentine on his roster, he would never have attracted Ride, or later, Oasis, without whom he wouldn't be the high-profile media mouthpiece he is now (since his days of representing good bands are long gone). And he only has to look at the recent output of fellow Scots' Primal Scream. With Shields on board, they make the XTRMNTR and Vanishing Point, two incredibly cutting edge albums. When Shields is not around, Primal Scream make highly unoriginal pastiche "rock'n'roll" music (with celeb chums like Kate Moss on backing vocals). So how he can diss Shields is beyond me. And yep, big-up the shoegaze community!
    Permalink posted 07/29/2007
  26. david hyman
    david hyman says great post. thank you.
    Permalink posted 07/30/2007
  27. Anna
    Anna says A bit late on this one, but it achieves bookmark status for sure. There is just so much shoegazing wuving & info here. Well done!
    Permalink posted 08/03/2007
  28. FluxCapacitor
    FluxCapacitor says Anna & David -- Thanks guys!
    Permalink posted 08/07/2007
  29. Billbones
    Billbones says Check out Time.Space.Repeat I write about them on my blog http://mog.com/Billbones/blog_post/122764 more info http://www.myspace.com/timespacerepeat
    Permalink posted 11/09/2007

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