Shoegazing 2014

W♥M132: Shoegazing (42 mins) Read More Slowdive Shoegaze band Slowdive are currently on a reunion tour, stopping by Minneapolis' Fine Line Music Café, after being absent from the city in twenty-two years! …

It's an exciting time to be a shoegazing music fan, especially with the recent Slowdive, Chapterhouse, Mazzy Star and My Bloody Valentine reunions.

Just to brush you up on this music genre, it involves layers and layers of guitars and indistinguishable vocals. Journalists called it 'shoegazing' because the musicians and fans are often staring at their shoes. As insulting as the name is, it stuck.

There is a movement among fans to re-define the music as 'stargazing', which is a good idea... but I doubt the term will catch on.

Check out Amy & Vu's Shoegazing Podcast to get a better introduction to the genre.

Bands on our list:

Slowdive (later Mojave 3)

Chapterhouse

My Bloody Valentine

Moose

Lush (early Lush)

Catherine Wheel

Fleeting Joys

Belong

DIIV (recently changed their name from Dive)

Twilight Sad

Ringo Deathstarr

Young Prisms

The Depreciation Guild

Song of the show is Catherine Wheel's "Black Metallic"

Read More The Jesus and Mary Chain Now... The Jesus and Mary Chain; totally not what I was expecting at all. After seeing Duran Duran last week though, it was nice to see a group of guys (that herald from a similar era, but opposite genre) …

THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN
thejesusandmarychain.uk.com

The Scottish shoegazing/alternative band The Jesus and Mary Chain has a new book written by Zoë Howe called The Jesus and Mary Chain: Barbed Wire Kisses (named after their 1999 album) out today on St Martin's Press. I thought I read this was the band's first biography, which Record Collector described as "engaging throughout." The biography follows the story of brothers Jim and William Reid and their journey to Alan McGee's Creation Records and beyond.

Psychocandy Live November Dates

If you didn't know, the band broke up in 1998 (officially 1999), but after the successful reissues of their five albums, the band decided to reform to play Coachella in 2007. In 2014, the band signed back with Alan McGee and announced November 2014 tour dates to debut the performance of Psychocandy Live ... to lead to the record's 30th anniversary tour in 2015. Here's hoping they bring Psychocandy Live to the USA.

The Jesus and Mary Chain tour dates:

19/11/14 London Troxy
20/11/14 Manchester Academy
21/11/14 Glasgow Barrowlands
23/11/14 Glasgow Barrowlands
24/11/14 London Troxy
16/02/15 Liverpool Guild of Students
17/02/15 O2 Academy Leeds
18/02/15 Newcastle O2 Academy
21/02/15 Norwich Norwich UEA
22/02/15 Rock City Nottingham
23/02/15 Brighton Dome
25/02/15 Birmingham Digbeth Institute
26/02/15 O2 Academy Bristol
27/02/15 Park Place, Cardiff Great Hall

Read More Whirr Heavy distortion rockers Whirr are making the rounds around the States. Literally in every city. They'll be making a stop in a really rad Art Gallery called The Big Top (3 Ring Circus) right of St. Charles …

NOTHING
bandofnothing.com

Nothing and Whirr recently recorded two new songs with producer Will Yip. The Yip songs will be on a split 12", which will come with a full-length Whirr/Nothing 'In The Studio' documentary DVD.

Nothing Tour Dates:

11/11 - Cassiopeia - Berlin, Germany
11/12 - Hafenklang - Hamburg, Germany
11/13 - Loppen, Christiania - Copenhagen
11/14 - Inkonst - Malmö, Sweden
11/15 - Revolver - Oslo, Norway
11/16 - Kulturhuset Lava - Stockholm
11/18 - Dynamo - Eindhoven, Netherlands
11/19 - Jugendhaus West - Stuttgart
11/20 - De Kruen - Kortrijk, Belgium
11/21 - Green Door Store - Brighton, UK
11/22 - The Oobleck - Birmingham, UK
11/23 - Broadcast - Glasgow, UK
11/24 - Brudenell Social Club - Leeds, UK
11/25 - Birthdays - London, UK
11/26 - Het Bos - Antwerp, Belgium
11/27 - OCCII - Amsterdam, Netherlands

BRIEFLY...

PINKSHINYULTRABLAST bandcamp.com Russian five-piece Pinkshinyultrablast just released their first single "Umi" on November 10th via Club AC30. The song (taken from their forthcoming album Everything Else Matters) is described as evoking the spirit of bands like Slowdive, Lush, and The Cocteau Twins. Disdain for a stagnant scene can often be a driving force of creativity; the band say of St Petersburg that, “we realised the local indie scene was totally boring and wanted to play something radically different”.

DRAAG draagdraag.bandcamp.com Los Angeles shoegaze rockers Draag recently shared their latest single "Lavender Hole", from their forthcoming EP Tracii Lordz. Draag started in the fall of 2013 as the solo recording project of Adrian Acosta (guitar, programs, vocals) who would later recruit Jessica Huang (guitar, keys, and vocals), Adrian De La Cruz (guitar), Carlos Michel (bass, sampler) and Danny Rossi (drums).

REV REV REV facebook.com/revrevrev.band Italy's Rev Rev Rev has a debut single "Catching a Buzz" (released via new One Little Indian imprint Win-Win Records) out now, which you can hear on Mark Radcliffe's 6music show last month. The band is mostly Sebastian Lugli and Laura Iacuzio, but when they play live, there's also bassist Andrea Dall'Omo and drummer Giovanni Sisillo.

TIBICAN facebook.com/tibican London based Tibican has a new EP called It Runs Deep. The band is described as "Indie/Shoegaze mixed with a tinge of psychedelic garage", and influenced by My Bloody Valentine, Mogwai, Muse, Foals, etc. Tibican are Domenico Scialo (guitar/vocals), Peter Saunby (guitar), Cathal Wharton (bass), and Marc Saunders (drums/vocals).

STILLWAVE stillwavemusic.com Utrecht trio Stillwave (Michaël van Putten, Marcel Jongejan and Adriaan Hogervorst) semi-recently released their single "Rich Ones" from their eponymous self-titled EP (which they described as sounding like Merchandise, The National, My Bloody Valentine). Their upcoming single "Slow Binders" will be out November 25th.

UMMAGMA ummagma.com Originally formed in Moscow in 2003, Ummagma (Canadian Shauna McLarnon and Ukrainian Alexx Kretov) is currently based in Ukraine. Their latest album Kiev Remixes came out October 31st on Emerald & Doreen Recordings, and the duo has received support from Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins) and Malcolm Holmes (OMD).

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Comments

[Rebecca Leonard]

Cool - All good news. Any chance you might put together a playlist or embed some Soundcloud or Bandcamp tracks from these releases? Pinkshinyultrablast, Ummagma and Rev Rev Rev rock! Would be great to have a listen though :)