Shoegazer Subculture

Listen!!!

2009-05-28T22:18:00.000+10:00

Shoegazer Classic

My Bloody Valentine
http://www.mybloodyvalentine.net/

Ride (First singles, Nowhere and Going Blank Again)
http://www.rideox4.net/

Slowdive
http://www.musicstack.com/slowdive/index.html

The Boo Radleys (Everything Allright Forever)
http://booradleys.co.uk/

Lush (Gala)
http://www.curve.demon.co.uk/lush/

Pale Saints
http://www.palesaints.co.uk/

Swervedriver
http://www.swervedriver.com/

Research Based Entries 3 - Interview

2009-05-28T15:25:00.006+10:00

Following is the interview with Allen, a musician who plays drums in a Taiwanese band called Feu! He is also a friend of mine. We both share the interest of shoegaze music. I thought by conducting an interview with someone who loves shoegaze music for a long time would help to gain more insights of a shoegazer. So, here it is.

Tom: Do you like shoegaze music, what do you like about it?

Allen: I love it!!! Noise. I love it because it's noisy!

T: How long have you been listening to shoegaze?

A: Not sure, 4 or 5 years I guess.

T: Are you also interested in other genres?

A: Indie pop, noise pop, electro pop. I love pop music.

T: Cool! Do you think there's anything common between pop music and shoegaze?

A: I would say noise pop, insteard of shoegaze. To me, noise pop is like pop music plus noise; sweet vocal and noisy guitar.

T: Do you play in any band?

A: Feu! Noise pop, indie pop stuffs.

T: Back to shoegaze music, what exactly you like about noise? How do you feel about listening to noisy guitar?

A: I think no one has a specific answer of why they like those noises, I can only say it's just a feeling that your ears being filled up. I think those guitar sounds are something about attitude, the attitude created by those guitarists.

T: The noisy guitar sound was created in a way that goes against the "normal" popular music?

A: Yes, I think so.

T: Umm... are there many people you know who listens to shoegaze?

A: Not many, compare to those who listen post-rock. shoegaze is like indiepop, you can always find in somewhere that a small group of people listen to it.

T: For you, personally how did you come across with shoegaze music? Did anyone introduce you?

A: No one really told me what to listen. But it's like when you tired of listening to Britney Spears, you listen to punk, then britpop, then post rock, then indie pop, and then shoegaze. I didn't listen to Britney Spears though. I used to love KC & Jojo.

T: Haha, yeah they're good R&B singers. So... as a shoegazer, what do you think it's neccessary to be a shoegazer? What's important? clothes? beliefs? or simply music?

A: Well, first of all, you must to have a pair of strong ears. I think so, clothes, or beliefs are completely irrelevant to shoegaze!

T: Okay... tell me your top 5 shoegaze bands? Not necessary five, just name the ones you really like.

A: Haha love this question. But I've never thought about it though. You know it's pretty easy to think about top 1, everyone loves MBV (My Bloody Valentine).
(After a while) MBV, Jesus and Mary Chain, Yo La Tengo, Galaxie 500; actually only the first two are real shoegazers.

T: Yeah...

A: I think the so-called shoegazing bands we're listening to nowadays are the MBV or JAMC cover bands. When you listen to them, trust me, you're only trying to look for something close to MBV.

T: Yeah...umm... there are more what you call "so-called" shoegazing bands coming up lately. Do you think shoegaze is getting trendy?

A: I think so. You can see so many bands are doing this stuff, doing some electric shoegaze stuffs, or add more popular sounds into the "shoegaze".

T: Do you think it's a bad thing for shoegaze?

A: I would not say it's bad, but you can see the so-called shoegaze music is actually limited. I mean no matter how many bands are playing shoegaze music today, they can not get rid of the barrier MBV stood.

T: Do you think it will it turn out to be like punk or hip-hop? Become mainstream?

A: I don't think shoegaze would be like hip-pop or punk. Like i said, not everyone has that kind of strong ears. And not everyone can stand those high volumes.

T: So... do you think people who listen to shoegaze normally would have appreciation for other types of music? like you do for indie pop, noise pop...?

A: No! I think those who's listening to shoegaze music have narrower taste than normal people. Once you accept this kind of music, you can never go back. When you're listening to some indiepop stuffs, you would wonder why don't they put some noise elements in?

T: That's a very good point. Myself, I listen to all sorts of music, apart from shoegaze, I also listen to folk, eletronic, indie-pop, indie-rock. I thought most shoegazers are like that. Unlike metal or emo fans, who would only listen to the hardcore stuffs.

A: To some extent, I agree with you. Listening to music is always relating to your mood.

T: Wow, I already asked so many questions. What are you currently listening to?

A: Currently my ears are kind of broken, can't stand listen to anything. I'm getting tired.

T: Really? How come? Too much noise?

A: No, too much music.

T: Yeah... I know how you feel. With the Internet, there are just so many new bands and so much music that's becoming unbearable for me as well. Most of them are not bad, but certainly not that good. I'm getting sick of it, but still I listen to some of them. With the internet, you just realise that new bands are coming out crazily like baby boomers. Don't you think? Do you use Myspace, Facebook or Twitter to discover new bands?

A: Yeah, I think so. It's weird. Even though I'm tired of it, I still buy CDs from the record store. Yes, Myspace.

T: Cool. Thank you so much for your time!

Research Based Entries 2 - Album Reviews

2009-05-25T17:45:00.007+10:00

My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

I got my hands on this album about two years ago. I bought the CD with great expectations that it would turn out to be one of the best shoegazing album. However when I put in into the CD player, I was like "huh?". The music sounded like as if the CD was warped, sounded horrible to me back then. Perhaps I was expecting the noise-popping songs like Jesus and Mary Chain. However, the only song I like was Sometimes which I've previously heard in the movie Lost In Translation. Okay... I didn't get it.

Because I wanted to do shoegaze music for the MSTU2000 assignment, I decided to revisit Loveless again. I've done some research for the album as well. The album was released in 1991, three years after their first album release. They have spent two and a half year in studio, trying to perfecting the shoegazing sound with Loveless. However, the long period time of recording cost their label, Creation almost £140,000 which was a tremendous amount of money for recording a indie album. If Kevin Shields would put on so much time and energy to perfect the sound, it's gotta be good right?

Yes, it's fantastic! Unlike their aggressive first album and earlier EPs, this album overall presents a dreamy tone. It's definitely a concept album. Even though different songs have different melody and approach, all the songs were encircled with the thick wall-of-sounds. From my listening experience, if you listen to the album carelessly you will find the album plainly loud and full of weird noises. But if you pay more attentions to the songs, they distinguish from one another and are distinguished. Yet, the whole album flows like a lava stream from one track to another, subsuming everything in the mix into its blissful roar. Even the voices were almost indistinguishable; they melted into the lava stream. Thus, the lyrics are not so important. This is a very different approach to normal rock music. For this aspect, this album is very experimental but created its own aesthetic that later defined the shoegaze sound. To me, every track is great. I think I get it now, still this is not an album for everyone. For the shoegazer kids, this is always their best album, now I know why.

M83 - Saturdays = Youth

This album was released in 2008. It is one of my favourite newly-released shoegaze record. I went to their gig in March this year. Their live sounds truly amazing, so beautiful and energetic. I personally think M83 was one of few bands who could really follow the aesthetic soundscape of My Bloody Valentine. At the same time, M83 also created sounds that is unique to M83. Like electronic beats, atmospheric synth, cinemaic dialogues, floating ambience. Unlike their previous albums, Saturdays = Youth has more pop tunes that turn out to be very fresh and alluring. I can play this album for hours and never get sick of it. Plus, their videos were made beautifully as well. What a beautiful band!

M83 - We Own The Sky

M83 - Graveyard Girl

Research Based Entries 1 - Shoegazeralive

2009-05-24T12:43:00.008+10:00

As a shoegaze listener myself, a website like Shoegazeralive is extremely convenient when it comes to listen to music and discover new bands.

Shoegazeralive is a blogger website which provides many relevant information about Shoegazer and its related genres, such as Dream-pop, Post-punk, Noise-pop, Nugazer, recently they included other two related genres C86 and Sarah Records. Genreally, the website does not review the album. Instead, it provides the complete zipped album download links from free file hosting websites, like Mediafire, Badongo, Rapidshare, and Megaupload. The purpose for posting the music is for listeners to evaluation before they purchase. Often, the website would attach the links to online record stores which encourages people to purchase and support the bands. Another reason for sharing music online is because of inaccessibility of Shoegaze music. Although, the number of listeners is growing up recently, this Shoegazer subculture still remains a minority group comparing to other types of music. Also the website would provide rare EPs, live recordings, remixes, box sets; again it's due to the inaccessibility. However, sharing music without permission is illegal. The website of Shoegazeralive has been removed by Google several times. Currently it is still Shoegazeralive2.

Shoegaze is originated in certain towns of UK. In the early 90s, shoegaze was almost abandoned by people in music industry in UK. Without much exposures on the media, the Shoegazer scene quickly vanished into thin air before it had a chance to spread worldwide. However, in the beginning of 21st century, the sounds of overdrive, fuzz, and jangly layers of distortion have found their way to appeal to the new generation. Now, the new shoegaze bands came out from all around the world. France's M83, New York's Asobi Seksu and The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Glasgow's Glasvegas, Sweden's The Radio Dept. and The Legends, Sydney's Van She and many more from different cities. This explains why Shoegaze subculture scene is based on Internet. Shoegaze is about the sound, it's all about the music. It does not concern with the places you are in, as long as you listen to shoegaze music, as long as you are playing shoegaze, you are all in the Shoegaze subculture.

Therefore, Shoegazeralive is like an online fanzine, except that it operates completely different to fanzines. Umm... Okay, let me explain. Fanzine can only describe the music with personal opinions, while Shoegazeralive can show you what the album sounds like. Fanzine only focus on local active bands, but Shoegazeralive can introduce shoegazing albums from all over the world even from Taiwan (a small Asian country where I'm from). The only thing in common would be that they both dedicated for the pleasure of people who share similar interests, and receive no finicial compensation.

Of course, it would be unfair to say that every shoegazer goes to Shoegazeralive and download music there. Some of them may even never heard of the site. And people who visits the site is still purchasing the CD to support the artists (I know I do). As a shoegaze listener myself, I discovered this blog through a friend's blog. Personally, it only represents an online shoegazing fanzine to me. Shoegazeralive is important for a fan like me, but I do not think it is essential. Without Shoegazeralive, shoegaze bands are still out there somewhere swirling their guitars, shoegaze listener are still out there somewhere losing themself in the mist of white noises.
Cheers!

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - "Young Adult Friction"

Brief Shoegaze Introduction

2009-05-03T17:01:00.009+10:00

Shoegaze (also known as shoegazing or shoegazer) is a genre of late '80s and early '90s British indie rock, named after the bands' motionless performing style by Britsish music press (NME, Melody Maker), where they stood on stage and stared at the floor while they played. But shoegaze wasn't about visuals -- it was about pure sound. The sound of the music was overwhelmingly loud, with long, droning riffs, waves of distortion, and cascades of feedback. Vocals and melodies disappeared into the walls of guitars, creating a wash of sound where no instrument was distinguishable from the other.

My Bloody Valentine (on the left picture) was considered the major influence to shoegaze music. With their early EPs and first full-length album, they ultimately defined the sound of shoegaze. Many shoegazer bands like Ride, Lush, Chapterhouse and Slowdive followed, and created some remarkable classic shoegaze albums which helped creating the scene. However, these shoegazing bands acted in such a low-profile, rarely appeared on the media, and were strongly critised as over-privileged, self-indulgent and middle-class. They were perceived as "The Scene That Celebrates Itself". Also, facing the rising of the nationalism Britpop, the first wave of shoegazers were forced to split or move into other genres of music.

Other genres closely associated with shoegaze were Noise pop, Dream pop and Britpop. Dream Pop is an atmospheric subgenre of alternative rock that relies on sonic textures as much as melody. The Cocteau Twins, with their indecipherable vocals and languid soundscapes, are frequently seen as the leaders of dream pop. The debut albm by The Jesus & Mary Chain, Psychocandy (see right photo), pretty much demonstrated the style of Noise pop - pop music wrapped in barbed-wire kisses of feedback, dissonance, and abrasion. Bands like The Verve and The Boo Radleys turned their way to Britpop during the decline of shoegaze in the mid '90s. Many believed it was the end for shoegazers, but clearly it was not. For me, shoegaze took his time off, and waited for another time to take off. Recently with the reunites of My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus & Mary Chain, and many new emerging shoegaze bands only prove this is just a beginning.