expect delay
Chapterhouse have never seemed to have the best timing. Despite being key players in the “Scene That Celebrates Itself”, history has relegated them to also-ran status. Perhaps that’s because after representing a danceable bridge between shoegaze and baggy on their 1991 debut Whirlpool, they pivoted further into dance and psychedelia with 1993’s Blood Music, but […]
I’m pretty sure I’d heard Pixies‘ version of The Jesus and Mary Chain‘s “Head On” before the original, and so it’s maybe a bit of an overcorrection on my part to insist the original is better than the cover, which is probably just as well-known. Or maybe it’s just that I’m into drum machines these […]
While Curve are usually named in the second tier of first-wave shoegaze bands, they haven’t gotten the same level of respect as their ’90s peers, despite arguably just as groundbreaking. They embraced electronic and dance textures earlier than most, and frontwoman Toni Halliday’s sexy/scary charisma set the template for many alt.rock rocks to follow. A […]
Last year, I marked the 29th anniversary of Ride’s Going Blank Again with a “Twisterella” post so this year – the much rounder 30th birthday – here’s the record’s opening track. While understandable that the video uses the radio edit – it’s doubtful the full eight-plus minutes would have cracked the UK top 10 – […]
Ulrich Schnauss‘ take on the centrepiece of Slowdive’s Pygmalion was one of the standout tracks on the uniformly excellent Blue Skied an’ Clear, a 2002 tribute album assembled by German electronica label Morr Music. I’m of the belief that this comp in no small part helped elevate that record from its initial status as career-ending […]
With news that Slowdive are back in the studio working on their fifth album, let’s go back five – FIVE?!? – years to July 2017 when Neil Halstead appeared on Song Exploder to dissect the band’s writing process, particularly as applied to my favourite song from the self-title record, “Sugar For The Pill”. And hearing […]
It’s been a minute or two since I’ve done one of these iterations posts – they do take some time do, you know – but I’ll ease back into it with one of the landmark songs of shoegaze and dreampop, arguably Ride’s signature song, “Vapour Trail”. Written and sung by Andy Bell, it was the […]
The Jesus and Mary Chain released their landmark debut album Psychocandy way back in November 1985, which means despite putting together a remarkable career and releasing a number of good to great records, Jim and William Reid have been talking about Psychocandy for over 35 years. I went down this particular rabbit hole after seeing […]
I saw German composer/producer Ulrich Schnauss live a few times ages ago – I think SXSW 2005, supporting M83 that same year, and then opening for Chapterhouse in 2010 – and confess I never appreciated what he was doing at the time. I mean, as a certified guitar fetishist, his style of electronic shoegaze was […]
I imagine the early aughts were an odd time to be a small, independent band. On one hand, the internet and its potential to reach a massive audience, had largely arrived. On the other, the technological infrastructure to support media, e-commerce, and everything besides just words and pictures on a screen, had frustratingly not. All […]
