Taz hasn’t chimed in for a long, long while. I love the way the man writes, and his knowledge of 80s/90s indie rock makes me look like a Menudo fan, so I wanted to share. I added a few hyperlinks for the uninitiated:
“Imagine my delight as I had my first proper shufty of the year at The PyeMan’s magnificent Blog (been on holiday in Thailand for 3 weeks folks, so that explains the neglect of this otherwise essential source of info for the Hamid Zeitgeist…) when I saw that 4AD post-Pixies Great White Hopes, LUSH came into the focus of the red hot laserbeam of impeccable taste that is Pye In The Face!
It warmed the cockles of my retro-indie loving heart! Took me back to days as a black denim 501s, trenchcoat and suede brogue wearing grad student in the early 90s and the late late nights wallowing in Lush’s dreamy soundscapes from the ‘Scar’ mini-LP and their first 12″ EP featuring De-Luxe, Thoughtforms, etc. Shoegazing was indeed a much maligned sub-genre of a great time in underground Brit popular music. The pioneers were the peerless My Bloody Valentine and the groundbreaking dronesters-par-excellence Spacemen 3 but the torch was then manfully carried into pastures newer and poppier by Lush, Pale Saints, Chapterhouse, The Telescopes, Slowdive, Catherine Wheel and many many more.
Some fell by the wayside, some enjoyed a modicum of success… ALL were interesting and worthy of both fiscal and emotional investment! These were heady times for guitar-driven bittersweet bedsitland indie-rock, and like Dave, my iPod still has a corner occupied by classic albums by the above, plus the other subsequent bands who kept the dream alive like Spiritualized and Low.
The great thing is, Shoegazing has now morphed into ‘Newgazing’. Check out my favourite exponents of this artform for the enlightened, NYC’s very own Ambulance Ltd. Their debut album is magnificent in it’s own right but will have you clued-up indie-kids digging out your old Lush and MBV albums with a wave of nostalgia. Respect to you PyeMan… once again your cultural barometer is giving all the right readings and the calibration is faultless! De-Luxe indeed…Taz, Frankfurt.”
There are worse things to have in your inbox first thing in the morning, like animated elf porn. Wait – did I say “worse”? Good to hear from you, homesnake!
Taz, I downloaded all this stuff last night and am having a total Shoegazing rennaisance right now.
As designated house dj in chief over at the spider’s web, your musical selections this afternoon were a bit more inspired & put together today… Follow that muse.
and Thanx Taz!
Séan-0-riffic
Pyester! You’ve unleashed the floodgates of reverb and shimmering guitar-driven indie rock now! Last night I returned home and plundered the late 80’s to mid-90s ‘Golden Age’ section of my extensive Library of Congress-esque CD collection with renewed vigour plunged headlong into deep, warm waters of the shoegazing era…
It was a venture that was as uplifting as it was heartachingly nostalgic! A fine bottle of Malbec slipped down as the night drew on and I worked my way through dozens of lost masterpieces…the Scotch inevitabley came out shortly after as I surfed the karmawave into the post-midnight interzone and this soaring music cut right to the core…a blissed out cacophany of soaring guitars and dark melancholy vocals. It was glorious! The beat went on…and on…and ON…into the early hours! I’m now curating a full-blown Retrospective of the genre in my living room and it’ll run all week! Hell, I’m close to printing flyers and calling a press conference to make it official! Been iPodded up the max today too and hooked into all sorts of cool stuff. Cannot stop listening! I’ve somehow got through the day, bleary eyed and hungover.
Anyway, I discovered many neglected gems amongst this rich seam of digital beauty I can tell you. As your Blog is rapidly becoming a spin-off forum for us bedraggled 30-something Indie Anoraks to occasionally swap the odd musical tip or simply to wallow in bittersweet pop memories like the hopeless pop romantics-without-street-cred that I suspect we are, I’m going to share some of these stone classics with your captive Blog audience of literally billions…many of them fine, good, dare I say even amazing people but I gingerly hypothesise not exactly switched onto the world of wonder that is truly great pop music! How many will own a Pavement or a Galaxie 500 or even a Pixies album!?! They barely have an inkling of the obscure but infinitely rewarding artistic furrows you and I happen to plough in the wee small hours on either side of the Great Pond!
The world won’t listen Your Royal Pyeness but I’ll be damned if I don’t ride this karmawave of inspiration and get this off my chest while I’m in the mood and have a few minutes to myself here in the veal fattening pen. I’ve compiled a quick Top Ten of Shoegazing Classics (plus the odd related sub-genre popular beat combo). I urge some of your extended Blog family, friends and even enemies, to seek these lifechanging opus’s (opae!?) out and give them the fevered fawning attention they deserve.
1) My Bloody Valentine: ‘Loveless’
2) Pale Saints – ‘Comforts of Madness’
3) Lush – Gala
4) Chapterhouse – ‘Whirlpool’
5) Ride -‘Nowhere’
6) Cocteau Twins – ‘Blue Bell Knoll’
7) The Boo Radleys -‘Everythings Alright Forever’
8) The Boo Radleys -‘Giant Steps’
9) The Kitchens of Distinction – ‘Love is Hell’
10) Slowdive – ‘Just for a Day’