Shoegaze Nolstalgia

December 27, 2023 5:55 AM

The Shoegaze Revival Hit Its Stride in 2023

Still, nobody took shoegaze further this year than Yves Tumor, whose astonishing Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) funneled the Prince-indebted funk of their 2020 album Heaven to a Tortured Mind into a rapturous churn of rope-like electric basslines, silica-dry snares, onionskin vocal harmonies, and guitars so volatile they seemed volcanic. It probably doesn’t hurt that Tumor had the iconic producer and mixing engineer Alan Moulder on hand to apply some of the magic potion he used back in the day for My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Curve, and Lush. Tumor’s vocals—hissing, purring, wailing, pleading—run far hotter than the original shoegazers’, but on standouts like “Meteora Blues” and “Echolalia,” they recall the first-gen bands’ method of threading their vocals into the very fabric of the music. Tumor’s voice slides in between the guitars and drums as though slipping beneath ultra-high thread count sheets. It feels like the singer is whispering right in your ear even when the music rages like a tornado.[1,2,3,4]

also btw...
-Strobolights
-Slowdive: KCRW Live from HQ
-Spiritualized - Always Together With You (Official Music Video)
-The Microphones w/ Explosions in the Sky - Live in Virgo, Spain 2003
-Animal Collective " my girls " Live at Midi Festival French Riviera 2007[5,6,7]
-björk ft. rosalía : oral[8]

posted by kliuless (31 comments total)

I...would not have anticipated Yves Tumor and shoegaze being in the same sentence. What a marvelous place the future is.
posted by mittens at 6:37 AM on December 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

Lush may be gone for good but Miki and Emma are still doing their thing.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 7:50 AM on December 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Ditto with Swirlies.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 7:56 AM on December 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

Holy shit Microphones with Explosions in the Sky…had never known this existed…thank you!!!!!
posted by bxvr at 8:06 AM on December 27, 2023

A companion piece on Stereogum: https://www.stereogum.com/2245469/tiktok-has-made-shoegaze-bigger-than-ever/columns/sounding-board/ - There are overlaps and the Stereogum article is more focused on younger artists on TikTok, but well worth reading, in my opinion.
posted by bigendian at 8:46 AM on December 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

apropos of absolutely nothing, every time I read the word shoegaze I pronounce it in my head as if it rhymed with Fugazi

that's all
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 8:55 AM on December 27, 2023 [19 favorites]

My teen came to me about a year ago and was like Dad you have to hear this awesome old-school band I discovered, and it was My Bloody Valentine, and I'm like I guess I did something right as a parent.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 9:12 AM on December 27, 2023 [14 favorites]

I advise any fans of the genre to not sleep on the current Japanese shoegaze scene. While the classic Japanese Shoegaze bands like Spitz, Supercar, and Coaltar of the Deepers mostly took Slowdive as their touchstone, the newer bands are deep in MBV camp and it's made for some great records in the past few years. Collapse is probably the one who get the most time on my speakers. Their most recent full length was Black Sheep Is Still Dreaming, released in 2022, and it's great. Mother is also an outstanding band. Their most recent one is From The Cradle To The Grave. Herveil only have the one EP out but it's really good too. The Florist is another favorite. Forbear have a good EP. If you like Lush, you're going to like Spool too. This scene does a lot of their packaging and advertising in English too, so that's convenient if you aren't completely up on your Japanese language skills.
posted by Siempre La Luna at 10:12 AM on December 27, 2023 [14 favorites]

This is just to note that I will be ruthlessly mining this thread for recs.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 11:21 AM on December 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

I'm a big fan of Subsonic Eye from Singapore. Say Sue Me err on the side of power pop and surf rock, but they dip into shoegaze at times.
posted by pxe2000 at 11:50 AM on December 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Is this technically shoegaze’s third wave?
posted by Jon_Evil at 12:24 PM on December 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Seconding Coaltar of the Deepers, which I discovered through their haunting song “Dear Future” as featured in the ED of Mawaru Pengiundrum.
posted by snortasprocket at 12:43 PM on December 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

I occasionally remember to check the Thai Shoegaze Facebook page The Year Shoegaze Broke.

Also in case you haven’t heard it, there’s Japancakes’ slide guitar infused instrumental full-album cover of MBV’s Loveless. (Spotify YouTube)
posted by larrybob at 12:44 PM on December 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

One of my faves is the appropriately named Tokyo Shoegazer. Plus, I thiiiiiiiink the kanji they used for "shoegazer" is something like wine, barf, sit. I could be very wrong though.

My favorite album of theirs, Turnaround, doesn't seem to be on Bandcamp though, and I don't remember where I got it.
posted by fnerg at 2:24 PM on December 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Is this technically shoegaze’s third wave?

It’s kind of an interesting question, when does “revival” become “perennially rediscovered?”
posted by atoxyl at 2:26 PM on December 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

Like ska!
posted by whuppy at 5:20 PM on December 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

For someone who missed not only the present but also the past waves of shoegaze, where should I start? (Don't be afraid of recommending the most famous/obvious albums; I haven't heard any of them and would like to start with the most accessible. Doesn't have to be chronological.)
posted by splitpeasoup at 5:32 PM on December 27, 2023

Splitpeasoup, most people are going to say Loveless by My Bloody Valentine but I started with and still prefer their previous album, Isn’t Anything.
posted by larrybob at 6:12 PM on December 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

Souvlaki by Slowdive is often cited, the first track just smells like staring at your Chucks.

Lush's Gala is a compilation from their earlier shoegazier (lushier?) days, they kinda went Britpop in the later albums.
posted by credulous at 7:44 PM on December 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

My intro to the entire genre was Soon by MBV, off the Glider EP, then into Ride via Vapor Trail and Slowdive's Souvlaki.
posted by fnerg at 8:07 PM on December 27, 2023

I think the most accessible place to start would be the Cocteau Twins' Heaven or Las Vegas album. 30 years of joyful replayability.
posted by atomo at 8:46 PM on December 27, 2023 [6 favorites]

yeah, definitely cocteau twins and maybe dream-pop adjacent galaxie 500 (luna's bewitched later), groove armada, blur, cLOUDDEAD and (funkier ;) bran van 3000 :P
posted by kliuless at 11:43 PM on December 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

Arguably not really shoegaze as the vocals are more upfront and the rhythms bouncier, but Kitchens of Distinction were/are for me the fullest and best embodiment of the sound of guitar pedals.
posted by GeorgeBickham at 7:26 AM on December 28, 2023 [3 favorites]

Reading this thread it appears I am a shoegaze fan (shoegazer?) but didn’t know it. Is Radar Bros. shoegaze?
posted by slogger at 9:33 AM on December 28, 2023

splitpeasoup: "For someone who missed not only the present but also the past waves of shoegaze, where should I start? (Don't be afraid of recommending the most famous/obvious albums; I haven't heard any of them and would like to start with the most accessible. Doesn't have to be chronological.)"

The aforementioned My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Lush are excellent places to start. But there's also Ride, Chapterhouse, Swervedriver, Medicine(more noisy)...

Advanced studies might also include Catherine Wheel, Curve, Boo Radleys, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Pale Saints, early Seefeel, Bleach, Bowery Electric, Airiel, The Telescopes...

For modern-day 'gazers I like DIIV, Holy Fawn and Yuck (at least the first album)

Man, I'm a little jealous of someone getting into shoegaze at this stage in the game. There's just a wealth of stuff to listen to.
posted by 40 Watt at 9:59 AM on December 28, 2023 [2 favorites]

I feel like I would be remiss in not mentioning that there are a legit crap-ton of other old MeFi posts about the genre that have a ton of other references...

It would appear that we LOVE us some shoegaze here at Metafilter?
posted by 40 Watt at 11:30 AM on December 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

Thanks 40 Watt for that history lesson. Just listened to Portland folk musician Kenny Feinstein’s Loveless: Hurts to Love based on a mention in an old MF post.

But it doesn’t look like MF has ever mentioned one of my favorite Shoegaze obscurities, lesbian supergroup Snowpony, which included MBV member Deb Goodge, ex-Stereolab member Katharine Gifford, and at times Deb Smith, formerly of Curve and Echobelly. There’s an album on Spotify but unfortunately I can’t find that single they did with liner notes by Patrick Califia online.
posted by larrybob at 12:52 PM on December 28, 2023

Obligatory plug for sign crushes motorist, via my teenager nephew
posted by iamck at 1:02 PM on December 28, 2023

For someone who missed not only the present but also the past waves of shoegaze, where should I start?

IMO, you should start with Velocity Girl's first album Copacetic. It's got shoegaze tracks mixed with pop tracks, so the lack of melody from so many shoegaze bands and lack of discernible vocals makes shoegaze a hard genre to really lock into for a first time listener. I mean unless of course you like the sound of constant jet engine guitar. Living Well and Pretty Sister are quality shoegaze tracks, and Crazy Town is a mix between pop and shoegaze. They were heavily influenced by Lush.

Their later albums drop shoegaze, so if you are interested in shoegaze you can skip those. If you really like the pop shoegaze sound, then you can get into My Bloody Valentine for straight shoegaze.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:44 AM on December 29, 2023

larrybob: ...But it doesn’t look like MF has ever mentioned one of my favorite Shoegaze obscurities, lesbian supergroup Snowpony, which included MBV member Deb Goodge, ex-Stereolab member Katharine Gifford, and at times Deb Smith, formerly of Curve and Echobelly."

Oh yeah, Snowpony! There's at least "The Slow-Motion World of..." and "Sea Shanties for Spaceships" on Apple Music. And yeah, that's definitely a little on the obscure side... I've been listening to this stuff for literal decades and only just realized Snowpony was a thing a few years ago, despite loving MBV, Curve and Stereolab.
posted by 40 Watt at 11:42 AM on December 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

Nobody told me about Tanukichan, who are based in the Bay Area, even though I live in SF and they have played in my neighborhood in SF??
posted by larrybob at 11:33 AM on December 31, 2023