#237

Slow Crush do the riding the tremolo arm thing well

1 Like
#238

yeah i get you

1 Like
#239

Possibly. Don’t agree though. As far as we’re accepting shoegaze to be a thing at all, think Isn’t Anything pretty much kick started it and Loveless is the absolute pinnacle, so in that respect they probably sound less ‘ordinary’ than other shoegaze bands, but think you’d be fairly hard pressed to argue their records completely transcended the genre.

#240

so glad I haven’t paid attention to the Pixies post-reformation. they still totally have that mystique for me.

I only really listen to the originals as a treat now and again, so it just takes me back to being 16 and getting Doolittle from Plymouth HMV, listening to it on the bus home from art college, gazing at the Vaughan Oliver artwork.

or downloading a handful of tunes on Limewire before that.

like, I can still feel the strangeness of their feral, warped power pop being on 4AD at all, and happily not being able to group them with anyone because of how idiosyncratic they were.

also Kim is still in the Pixies in my mind.

1 Like
#241

Bet all these MBV haters just haven’t heard the 48-bit masters

3 Likes
#242

Think you could just as easily argue that Loveless is the pinnacle of that particular sound and there’s no point in “ripping it off” because any attempt to do so wouldn’t be as good as the original. Just depends which angle you’re coming at it from

1 Like
#243

it just feels like… a slew of impressionists trying and failing to get anywhere near them.

glad someone mentioned Pixies, because they feel similar in being totally distinct offshoots from Hüsker Dü’s rupture in the hardcore punk continuum.

all the bands that followed over here have a very UK indie genetic makeup. it maked perfect sense that the acts that best took their lead are/were non-UK/mostly US acts.

#244

Wouldn’t go quite as far I don’t think. Agree that MBV were head and shoulders above pretty much all of their contemporaries, but still think that there were loads of good records made by other bands. The first albums by Lilys and Ecstasy of Saint Theresa are pretty much straight rip offs of Isn’t Anything, but both of them are great.

Think it’s probably fair to say that the fact that Loveless was so good was one of the major factors in killing off shoegaze at the time, but also think shoegaze was more than just a bunch of bands trying to sound like MBV and failing miserably

#246

what I liked about mbv was that it sounded like a relaxed, grown-up version of that sound. inhabiting it - it sounded nice and lived in.

better that than trying to be the next great step on from Loveless, which is impossible, really. altho this outdid any attempts Third Eye Foundation made at mixing drum and bass with noisy/drone guitar

2 Likes
#247

i was at that gig too, it was amazing bar the whole “holocaust” section which is absolutely unnecessary wank

1 Like
#248

Haha, right on cue

8 Likes
#249

never listened to Ecstasy of Saint Theresa, don’t know them at all tbh

Lilys though, they’re interesting. I mean, they’re from the US, but they were blatant anglophiles in their sound.

I still think being from the US had a hand in their music not feeling quite as meek as allll the UK bands sound to my ears.

still just a better kind of impressionist, mind, with an interesting wrinkle in their love of 60s psychedelic pop music.

#250

Swirlies

3 Likes
#251

did they write that because of us

2 Likes
#252

Regardless of the quality of the music, I think it’s pretty hard to disagree that MBV aren’t part of the cultural landscape in 2020 in the way we might have expected them to be fifteen or twenty years ago. What they needed was an iconic album sleeve you could bung on a T shirt. Worked for Unknown Pleasures and Goo.

#253

They’re a Czech band (although if you didn’t know you’d guess they were from the Thames valley). Really good too

2 Likes
#254

When was this? I used to work in the Plymouth HMV

#255

Supreme have just based an entire collection around them…

2 Likes
#256

I definitely know what you mean, but there are exceptions (and not just Ride or Swervedriver). Have you heard Star by the Teenage Filmstars? Really great (and massively overlooked) UK shoegaze band that don’t sound too lightweight. Early Boo Radleys stuff too (although you might not like Sice’s vocals)

#257

Must people have been saying they’re shit tbf :man_shrugging: