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Earl Jolly Brown
26-08-2007, 19:15
Class assignment here! I'm burning a couple of CDs of dream pop/shoegazery for a friend and I'm looking for tips on lesser-known bands and songs.

I've been into this kind of stuff for a while now - think it was the Guthrie/Budd Mysterious Skin soundtrack that kicked off the obsession. I'm wanting to include newer folks like Ulrich Schnauss, Maps, Trespassers William as well as early-90s classics like Ride, Chapterhouse, the astounding Slowdive (how did I go without them so long?) and, of course, MBV.

Here's my basic list so far. I'm going by the one song/one artist rule so when there's more two or more listed then they'll need pruning - argue over the merits or suggest alternatives!

Playlist (not in order)

1) Mazzy Star - Disappear
2) M83 - I guess I'm floating
3) The Sundays - Goodbye
4) Asobi Seksu - Thursday
5) The Duke Spirit - A Message to a Pretty
6) Trespassers William - Vapour Trail (Ride cover)
7) Lorna - Flux Capacitor
8) Foxtail Somersault - A Love Song Part 1
9) Mojave 3 - My Life in Art / Hard to Miss You
10) Galaxie 500 - Blue Thunder / Snowstorm
11) Livid - Love Song (Syd Barrett)
12) Joy Zipper - Out of the Sun
13) Maps - When you leave
14) Lovesliescrushing - Blooded and Blossom-Blown
15) Cocteau Twins - Iceblink Luck
16) Chapterhouse - Breather
17) Red House Painters - All Mixed Up
18) My Bloody Valentine - Soon
19) Pellumair - Retirement Gold
20) Seefeel - Plainsong
21) Slowdive - Waves / Days / When the Sun Hits
22) Spacemen 3 - Drive/Feel So Sad
23) The Radio Dept. - Against the Tide
24) Ulrich Schnauss - As If You've Never Been Away / In All the Wrong Places
25) Air Formation - Adrift / For the Hours


A roughdefinition - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_pop

It's more an American term than a British one but 'shoegaze' was too narrow (can you have pre-89 shoegaze?). Earlier stuff like Catherine While/Swervedriver are maybe a bit guitar heavy for my chosen audience and don't quite have the etheral vibe I'm trying to capture (basically soundscapes and ambience - but with a strongish melody and some kind of song structure).

Basic rule of thumb for choosing tracks. Playing it, can you imagine yourself -

a) in the midst of a blissfull heroin overdose? (ok, maybe that's just me)
b) taking a late night taxi ride through the neon-lit streets of some foreign city?

You have... well, however long you like really :thumbs:

Thanks for all suggestions!

DM
26-08-2007, 19:26
Mew - Am I wry
Ride - Leave Them All Behind
Boo Radleys - Lazarus

Earl Jolly Brown
26-08-2007, 19:33
Thanks DM!

Playing Mew track at the moment (think I got it from a mag coverdisc, never gave a proper listen). Nice stuff!

Ride... ahhh, I missed Today from the playlist. Leave them... is a great opener - Twisterella is fantastic too, but maybe too straightforwardly 'pop'

And Lazarus - superb! First heard this on a skateboard video circa '95. From this to Wake Up!... shudder

platty
26-08-2007, 19:34
:lol: god i'm old....i havent heard of any of these pop groups ...;)


i tell a lie ...the Cocteau twins ...!!!!

Earl Jolly Brown
26-08-2007, 19:44
'tis a funny term, isn't it? Can't imagine many of them troubling the top 40! (though RHP's cover of The Cars is WAY ahead of the chart-topping original)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=59ETuvo14is


As for someone a bit more famous - do you think Disintegration-era Cure fits in here? Hearing Plainsong in [I]Marie Antoinette[I] makes me wonder...

KeyserSoze
26-08-2007, 19:46
Au Revoir Simone - Dont See The Sorrow or Way To There.

Not sure what you feel about foreign music but...

Lily Chou Chou (Salyu) - Arabesque (Japanese)

My Little Airport - Leo, Are You Still Jumping Out Of Windows In Expensive Clothes (Hong Kong, but with english lyrics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avXr4FozMVY Sounds a bit cheesy but the album version is very dreamy).

douglasb
26-08-2007, 19:47
This Mortal Coil's "Song To The Siren.

Lush would fit the bill. Also investigate AR Kane. And as you've got Spacemen 3, I suggest Loop - perhaps. Maybe something like "Head On".

Finally, I recommend The Telescopes' "Perfect Needle."

PS. Oh - what about something by Angelo Badalamenti or Julee Cruise?

Earl Jolly Brown
26-08-2007, 19:57
The foreigns are more than welcome! I've heard Japan also has a pretty thriving shoegaze scene but I've nary a clue where to start.

I'll look into iTunes for Au Revoir... and a couple of others (I somehow doubt My Little Airport are on there!)

Lots of forehead slapping... how did I miss This Mortal Coil and Lush? (what's a good Lush song - I know the later less-interesting stuff, not the first 2/3 albums?)

AR Kane and Loop are both bands I've been meaning to investigate. Thanks for all tips so far!

Earl Jolly Brown
26-08-2007, 20:20
Badalamenti + Tim Booth? ;) I quite liked that collaboration

I DO need some Julee Cruise/Badalamenti - love what I've heard in the Lynch films, but where to start?

KeyserSoze
26-08-2007, 20:41
Twin Peak of course ;)

Johnny Vodka
26-08-2007, 21:01
Blue States - Allies
Cranes - Shining Road (think that's the title - not heard it in yonks)
Mercury Rev's Holes would probably fit in quite well, and maybe some of Mogwai's hazier stuff?

toffee
26-08-2007, 22:07
maybe

Adorable - "Sunshine Smile"

Martin Ball
27-08-2007, 11:38
Badalamenti + Tim Booth? ;) I quite liked that collaboration

I DO need some Julee Cruise/Badalamenti - love what I've heard in the Lynch films, but where to start?

Julee Cruise: Floating into the Night

features the main songs from Twin Peaks. Simply divine.

Art Vanderlay
27-08-2007, 14:37
Some A.R.Kane would fit - Baby Milk Snatcher, or any of the tracks on 69 would do the trick. Particularly as they referred to themselves as Dream Pop on some of their sleeve notes IIRC.

Also how about Black Metallic by Catherine Wheel

Agree with the suggestions of Telescopes, Boo Radleys and Ride as well - though I think Lazarus by the Boos is a bit too anthemic to fit perfectly on there (cracking tune though it is), something from Everything's Alright Forever may fit better

sideshowbob
27-08-2007, 14:51
Pale Saints - Sea of sound
Sonic Boom - Angel
Field Mice - Below the stars (maybe less twee than their average output)
Earwig - Every Day Shines


?

Rachel_M
29-08-2007, 07:39
Check out the new Apparat CD, 'Walls' for some electronic / shoegazey crossover goodness! The track Headup should be a good starting point.

douglasb
30-08-2007, 09:41
Twist on a theme: I used to use the term 'dreampop' to describe the slightly odd, vaguely MOR pop of the 1950s, the kind of thing David Lynch might use in a movie. I've lifted this from the Bioshock thread elsewhere on the board, which in turn lifted it from elsewhere:

QT3 thread (http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=38155)

Bobby Darin. "Johnny Remember Me". Maybe some of the more maudlin girl-group stuff. I think that would be a killer 2-CD set.

GregB
30-08-2007, 10:26
Swervedriver - Duress

Earl Jolly Brown
30-08-2007, 17:16
Thanks for all the suggestions. Haven't been online much in the past few days but I'll get a chance to hit up iTunes over the weekend. Thought i'd heard of pretty much every band in the genre but new ones keep creeping in... Earwigs, Apparat? Further investigation required...

Do people on here remember shoegaze first time around? I caught the tail end thanks to my older brother's Ride fixation but it's the reissues of Slowdive, Chapterhouse etc in the last few years that really grabbed my attention. It's bizarre to read in the sleeve notes how albums like Souvlaki and Whirlpool were written off by critics as 'parochial', 'irrelevant' and 'unimaginative' - the same critics who championed some thoroughly disposable Britpop bands a few months/years later...

History's won out though, I reckon - with perspective the early 90s seem like a fantastic time for British guitar music. A lot more experimental than today's 'supermarket indie' at the very least. Shoegaze/ambient at its best takes you places that Editors or the Kooks don't seem to know exist...

Who are people's favourite nu-gazers? Maps and Schnauss are fine, 'nice', listenable and all - but I can't get mad about them...

sideshowbob
30-08-2007, 17:28
I definitely remember shoegazing first time round ... vinyl and everything.

toffee
30-08-2007, 18:52
yes, i'm old enough to remember it first time around.....

Anyone looking for current bands of this ilk could do worse than check out "The Voices" from cardiff:

http://www.lostinconfusion.com/

Their second album "The Sound of Young America" has just been released.

DM
30-08-2007, 19:15
My Vitriol weren't that long ago and had some pretty decent tunes.. Mew are the best at that sound currently...

Why are You Looking Grave ft Mascis is another stunning song by them.

broxibear
31-08-2007, 18:21
seek out ...

The Trembling Blue Stars - Abba on the Jukebox
Autour De Lucie - Island
Swirl - Poppel Grave
The Boo Radleys - Boo Forever
The Pale Saints - anything from Comforts of Madness
Secret Shine - Sun Warmed Water
Slowdive - Morningrise

ceiberman
01-09-2007, 06:41
How about

Spiritualized's Ladies & Gentlmen - We Are Floating In Space or Angel Sigh (off Lazer Guided Melodies)
Jesus & Mary Chain - Just Like Honey.
Lush - Sweetness & Light

You'll almost certainly need some Cranes and Telescopes on there somewhere...