Favorite ShoeGazer Artist - Page 2

The Jesus and Mary Chain were faves of mine in High School and despite being considerabley more raucous than a lot of the other shoe-gazers you mentioned (at least on Psycho Candy) they did do a HEAP of shoegazing - and they have the videos to prove it

Oh, and Miki from Lush was well....lush

SALUT!

sm

Sigur Rós is definitely your cup of tea, Dark Angel. Drop what you're doing right now and go out and get Ágætis Byrjun and listen to it. Bliss-out heaven. Mogwai are also very good, but a bit more post rock. Yeah, I can see the Radiohead side of things, but definitely not Coldplay. Coldplay are more song oriented. Sigur Rós (and Mogwai) are probably more on the Spiritualized side of things. What I've been calling space rock. (Yeah, it's not really shoegazer any more.)

PS And I can't believe you left out Just for a Day in your top 3. It's right up there with Loveless in my book, if not just a wee bit higher (heresy! I know...).

Lush's album Split has to be, IMHO, the high point of the whole genre. Of course, it's no coincidence that it was the first album of it's kind that I purchased. Funny how that works...

Other shoegazers: Stone Roses - their (self-titled) first album is, IMHO, absolutely required listening. Though I also loved their only other full-length, Second Coming, I think most of their fans weren't so happy. There is also a "The Complete Stone Roses" which is, IIRC, the collection of their singles & b-sides, and can be had very very cheaply. A bargain, if not a great standalone album.

BTW, I think I might resist Mogwai being labelled as shoe-gazers...I'd always grouped them with Post Rock, though AMG disagrees.

(Ok, one more: lately I've been listening to a Dutch group called "Seedling" - I would say they're borderline shoegazers, though slightly more pop-oriented than most...opinions? Has anyone else heard of them? AMG hasn't.)

-jP

A completely underrated album -- I got into shoegaze long before that, but was still heavy into Lush when that came out, when a lot of people were getting into other things. Are you sure that it isn't Ling by the group Seed? I have that album, it kind of looks like that...very good! I'll have to pull it out again, haven't listened to it in a while, but remember liking it muchly. Don't remember the shoegaze connection, though...

Just came out of a Sigur Ros show -- a must see! These guys are phenomenal! Visuals! Lots of new material from the upcoming album. Highly highly recommended. (And I envy any of you people in vancouver who are going to see them in a more intimate setting than I saw them...

LOL...yes, I'm sure. They're called Seedling - their first album is called Elevator Tourist. It can be purchased in the Netherlands, but I haven't found it anywhere else (online, for example). CDNow doesn't know about them, AMG doesn't know about them...

My former colleagues in Rotterdam hadn't heard of them, but apparently they're growing in popularity. I downloaded a bootleg of their Maida Vale concert by accident from Usenet...

They do have a website at http://www.musicweb.nl/seedling/ which has huge schwacks of good-quality free concert footage, although it's a bit annoying to navigate. Check out "Every match must crash and burn" - you will not be disappointed.

-jP

A follow up to my other post in this thread:

As a new Mercury Rev fan, I decided to take the plunge on their 2 most recent cds; they just released "All Is Dream" a couple of weeks ago. This disc was alright I guess, but not as catchy as their 91 release "Yerself Is Steam". It was a major change from the psychadelic space alternative rock on that 1991 album. This one was more like a chamber rock album, with the flute and piano being featured prominently. The strings were used well. Usually, I find them tacky, but they were used to carry melodies rather than serve as wallpaper. My biggest pet peeve was the lead singer's high pitched voice. I didn't mind him so much on Yerself because he was mixed lower and overdubbed but its a bit irritating to listen to on this album.

The other cd I got was their 98? release, "Deserter's Songs". It had a closer vibe to Yerself than the brand new "All Is Dream". The instruments were similar to the new one, but the songs were more rocking, and vocals were well done (some were sung in lower keys). I'm really liking this one right now - so much so that its changing my view of "Dream" for the better.

If you're a fan of alternative music but wonder what the hell happened to the "alternative", then check these guys out. They seem to know what I like about music. They're a bit eerie like late Radiohead and Smashing Pumpkins, but the mood is very relaxed in a Spiritualized kind of way, maybe not so trippy anymore though. Good sounds, good music. I recommend them.