Did you have a good Labor Day? Did you chill in the pool and hang with friends? Did you eat too much and enter a near trance state of satiated bliss? Well if you want to keep that good feeling going a little longer might we suggest “Surprise” by Laveda. Falling on the poppier side of shoegaze, it’s a hazy slice of indie rock goodness that isn’t so much a throwback to the classic 80’s/90’s sg sound as it is a timeless addition to that tradition. Turn it up and keep the dream of summertime three day weekends going.
September 6, 2022
Week Starter – Laveda
August 17, 2022
The Midweekly – Horsegirl
The Midweekly is our column from Mike Jeffers; lead singer of Chicago punk stalwarts SCRAM, music junkie and all around righteous dude.
When shoegazing to some jams, what do you see? A pair of vintage sneakers or some new modern kicks? For the rockers of Horsegirl it’s both. On their first official LP, Variations of Modern Performance, this Chicago trio are pumping some fresh blood into the old sounds of post punk and indie pop. With a rhythm section galloping along steadily, flowing guitar riffs, and the vocal harmonies of a wild spirit, these Variations include tight bangers, washed out gazers, and ambient interludes. These kids are stepping up with one shoe in the past and one in the future.
August 2, 2022
Tuesday Tip-Off: crsa
Viola, minimalist percussion and cooing vocals are the ingredients to “We’ll Be Forever” by crsa, and honestly if anything else were added it’d probably ruin the whole thing. A floating, hazy, dream state of a song; it feels huge and intimate at the same time, like a memory you can’t quite grab onto or a feeling you can’t quite express. It vibes like a more organic Cocteau Twins (albeit with actual words, not just sounds) and is perfect for these languid days of summer.
July 28, 2022
The B-Side: Jimmy Joyride
From Lithuania we get “Expire” from Jimmy Joyride, a mishmash of shoegaze, jangly driving indie and fuzzed out alternative rock that somehow manages to feel both audacious and natural at the same time. On first listen the skipping through styles felt a bit disjointed, but now that we’ve spun it a few times we realize we were the ones out of sync. This is a banger of a song if you can get on it’s level of stitched together beauty. They got chocolate in the peanut butter and we’re all the better for it.
July 15, 2022
Friday 5×5
It’s been a long week, and so let us dilly dally no more, let us get right to the point with the briefest of reviews of new music by Sterile Cuckoo, INASEH, November Ultra, Father Baker and Cherokee Death Cats.
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June 28, 2022
Tuesday Tip-Off: roman around
“Rhythm” by roman around is a study in simultaneous contrasts. A driving indie rock number that is also cloaked in hushed-ness, somehow both big and small, anthemic and intimate all at once. From the low breathy vocals to the ways the guitars and drums are recorded it envelopes you in a cocoon like feeling while also rocking out the entire time. We know this will be a strange sentence, but it’s almost as if an early Foo Fighters song was covered by a shoegaze band and it’s weird just how well that works.
June 24, 2022
Friday 5×5
Behold! Our 55th installment of the Friday 5×5! We’re five fiving it up today with new music from Twin River, East Mane, Vargen, The Dirigibles and Low For High. Check it out after the jump.
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January 20, 2022
Thursdays With J.R. – selfpity
Sometimes beauty can come in small, short yet noisy packages. Take “Dead Dreams” by Canada’s selfpity, my spin of the week. Guitars wash over you quickly as the music starts on a collision course towards your brain. “You are alone” cuts through the mix as the first line of lyric. I believe they are doubled with a lower octave track that creates one collective sound for most of the song, certain lines poking out at you for added effect. The drums at first seem simple and punchy, yet tight and fitting. However, when the song really opens up in the middle there are ghost notes and snare work that shines through. These are either analog or whomever programmed them has a drummer’s ear. Waves of guitars swirl around and upward while the bass dives into the tonal depths of the mix to drive everything forward. Altogether it works to create a beautiful, upbeat yet dark noise.
May 12, 2021
The B-Side: New Candys
With “Zyko” the New Candys show that you can keep it simple and still be engaging and rocking. Most of the song is built on a repetitive 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 down beat that you would usually hear as an intro or build up to an explosive chorus, but here it’s the groundwork for the whole song. Sure they add and remove layers and guitars move in and out, but most of the band most of the time is playing that simple, driving rhythm. The overall effect is one of the same effortless cool of the 80’s shoegaze movement, just don’t try to dance along.
May 3, 2021
We Never Asked For This
Today we have new music from Simone Istwa, Vypera, Disturbios, Karaboudjan, Ari B. Ingber, ameliarose, NATL PARK SRVC, Plaster of Paris, the HVNZ and seasonal.
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