""All the members of My Bloody Valentine now have serious hearing issues". Sad. But not surprising. In old concert videos I often see these alt rock guitarists standing so close to the wall of Marshall speakers for two or three hours onstage every night that it was inevitable they'd have hearing loss issues as they got older.
I caught MBV on the Loveless tour at First Avenue in Minneapolis, which is the club featured in the Prince movie "Purple Rain". MBV played the noise section of "You Made Me Realise" for 35 minutes. I know for sure because I timed it. My friend and I were about 15 feet away from the main PA stack stage left the entire time without any sort of hearing protection (hey it was the early 1990s and we didn't think about that kind of thing, especially when you're in your early 20s and think you're indestructible). The vast majority of people in the club were packed against the back wall, or any other place that seemed out of the way of the barrage of noise. A handful of us stayed up front to listen. My ears were ringing for 72 hours after that. It was still one of the best shows I've ever seen and I know I'll never forget it.
A.R. Kane finally getting recognised for their work warms my heart. I was turned onto them by a guy in a record shop who noticed I was buying some Cocteau Twins records, he dug out their debut single 'When You're Sad' for me and I was like "Sure I'll buy this one too!". I was immediately blown away, I've played that one dozens of times.
Anything by Cocteau Twins, Loveless and the Lush debut are still among my favorites. 30 years later they still sound fresher and more original than 99% of the music I hear on a regular basis. I have a pretty broad sensibility, but this dreamy reverb washed soaring melody really clicks with me. I was lucky enough to see all of these bands (Cocteau Twins, Lush, and MBV) live in the early 90s, and they were all excellent live bands, at least as far as replicating the feel of their recordings. Galaxy 500 opened for Cocteau Twins, they were pretty good, too.
Japan went wild and crazy over the Cocteau Twins. It was one of the few countries, where the Cocteaux sold-out stadiums. They changed the entire landscape of sound; primarily, because it didn't offend the -- parents -- of 1980's Japanese kids. At that time, Japan was still extremely conservative, so Punk and most, Post-punk bands of the 80's, placed these kids in a strange situation. They were subject to their parents constant criticisms (or worse, the friends of the parents), if they saw rebellious youth, then they often would refer to these kids as "degenerates". Plus, it called into the question of "morality" and "modesty". Everything you did, reflected your parents good standing. The Cocteaux provided, youth culture a way to be different, without offending their parents and their parents friends.
I remember before I knew what shoegaze was always being attracted to music where the vocals didn't punctuate the rest of the music. It's very different from pop radio music where it's essentially just vocal and a beat in the background. When I found shoegaze it was the type of music I had been searching for my entire life. Completely new yet familiar to me
28:48 The time taken to record and produce Loveless didn’t just almost ruin Creation, it very, very nearly bankrupted McGee himself. Can remember one interview he gave where he said he had to ask his father for his life savings to prevent this: and his father was by no means rich, he had been a welder in a factory. In the interview I saw, he didn't look back at the album with much fondness, but not because of the album itself, but because of the bad memories of the sheer stress it caused him. That said, Loveless is an absolute masterpiece...it was sad it never got the full recognition at the time, as its release almost coincided with Nirvana’s “Nevermind”
When he described Elizabeth Fraser's singing as 'swooning gibberish' and her voice 'an additional instrument', I was like YES! That's the perfect way to describe it.
If he describes the Cocteaus as shoegaze or dream pop, I will throw my phone.. (I'm just not watching, I hate this sort of thing.. clueless, usually.🙄🤭)🙏💜🇬🇧💜
Many people don't understand that art is a chain. Just like science artists learn and build upon the work of people who came before them. It isn't magic. Ok, it's magical but it isn't literally magic.
“Has it ever struck you that life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going?”― Tennessee Williams
Right? lol Like, what genre after them did they not have an effect on? Even got sampled in Hip Hop. Massively influential band. So much attitude and mood. Wild.
Indeed, though they were discovered by and released their first EP on One Little Indian. Missed a chance, too, to highlight their MARRS B-Side "Anitina".
Wild Eye While I don’t think AR Kane is a shoegaze band (I’m sure they would agree too) they did have at least 3 shoegaze wonderful songs and and are worth mentioning.
I love how "Loveless" is such a masterpiece that tons of musicians brag about POSSIBLY being an influence for it. And tons of musicians that came afterwards proudly name "Loveless" as their influence.
this and Today are the song that got me hooked on Ride. The EP was unobtainable at the time I remember (in France). Finally, resorted in buying an overpriced Japanese import but I haven't regretted it at all. Fun fact: there was a French band called Drive Blind and they were quite good. Of Course, obvious reference and inspiration.
@Julian Melville it's vaguely possible to meet a total babe that's into ride. I'm guessing not many babes have those NZ mugs pinned up on their bedroom wall.
Shoegaze being one of my absolute favorite sub-genres of all time, i put off watching this video for almost a month, knowing what a lofty goal the proper creation of this video would be. But in my personal humble opinion, you really captured the whole scene - from predecessors to successors, from both sides of the Atlantic. Tying in Dinosaur Jr was a pleasant surprise I did not see coming. I think that as soon as I heard you speak the word Souvlaki, I was totally satisfied. I always enjoy your content, but this video, as well as How Goth Became Goth, are my two favorites. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK SIR!
In my opinion one of the greatest bands of all time, never got enough love, always turned in something different and surprised with every album, only turned in a bad one with Wishville but yet the first two songs on that still sound absolutely mighty so it literally isn't all bad. I wrote a lovely long letter to Rob on MySpace and he replied how flattered he was. I now have their first two albums on vinyl and they get played a lot. Yeah. I'm a fan. ❤
Great video, a bit random but the fact my bloody valentine,the Jesus and Mary chain,dinosaur jr and blur were all on the one tour is insanity that I would’ve love to seen
I was there... Blur where goddamn awful - drunk AF and tripping over the mic cables as Damon pogo'd about pissed. But yeah other than that great gig - it was called "The Rollercoaster Tour" - first time I saw MBV and JaMC
@@forelight4999 I love the fact you critique Blur who you didnt like, but didnt say anything much about MBV and JAMC... you couldnt even be bothered to call the last 2 by their full names!! twat
@@mattiemclean9882 tbf blur are my favourite band and from what the band even say they were either drunk or fighting each other on that tour,also leisure isn’t the greatest album
Saw all four at the Glasgow 'Rollercoaster' concert in 1992. It was very good. MBV were loud as fuck, gave my mate a 'whitey'. Blur were a good for a bouncy. Dinosaur Jnr were all right, but being a big Dino fan that didn't bother me (they were only ever all right when I saw them at other gigs). JAMC were loud as fuck as well, the drum sound nearly gave me a heart attack. A good night.
I was at a London show - the one where Damon Albarn took off his trousers and pants and danced around with his todger flapping about. Great show though.
This is really excellent. It's both reframing my teenage record collection for me and illuminating areas I missed on the way (easy to do before the internet). It's clearly made by someone with a real passion for the genre. Thanks man.
You’re not wrong... the most intense album I’ve ever heard and brilliant at that. Somehow very listenable at the same time. The magic of The Cure in full bloom
Thanks for covering Shoegaze! It's one of the most least talked about & underrated music genres ever. At least here, in the U.S., that is, lol. Also, i learned about all kinds of awesome, creative, experimental bands, that i'd never heard of, from this video. I'd only known of a handful of bands, covered in this video.
@@julianhermanubis6800 I think she’s implying that “simple” men aren’t into Miki Berenyi. Pretty sure it’s a compliment suggesting you’re sophisticated.
Love KoD too... also The Wild Swans, Chameleons, Sad Lovers and Giants, Lowlife, The Sound, For Against, The Ocean Blue, Snake Corps, And Also The Trees, Modern Eon, Modern English so many great bands were pioneering the Dreampop sound.
What I love about your videos is that, even if I think I know about a genre, you put it into so much context that I always come away with homework to listen to (whether or not I actually get around to it). You hear band names but you don't really know what the band means. You put the meaning into it.
I thought Ride had the best Shoegaze single with " Leave Them All Behind " & Slowdive the best album with Souvlaki . It was great to see Slowdive be received so well on their comeback with the 2017 album being a classic. The live clip of their cover of Golden Hair ( with the blue haired girl ) is perfect. Brilliant band.
Leave Them All Behind is beautiful. The closet thing I ever had that made me feel weightless and about to fly. That song is what redemption sounds like.
Another great rockumentary! I'm a big fan of shoegaze - although for me, the absolute pinnacle album is Ride's 'Nowhere' - the tracks 'Polar Bear' 'Vapor Trail' and 'Nowhere' are perfection in dreamy wall of noise - the whole album is phenomenal. Really enjoy your work, keep it up!
Thanks for the tip! Listening to 'Nowhere' for the first time now, sounds great. Never really dove into the origins of shoegaze before, lots to discover still
I was looking for new music in the early ‘90s. Listening to local alternative radio I bookmarked Lush and The Sugarcubes. Years later “Soon” was a revelation.
I saw MBV live seven times between 1992 and 2013. Three of those were on three successive nights at Santa Monica Auditorium in 2008--three nights of You Made Me Realise. Those were the three most insanely mercilessly loud live performances I've ever seen out of about 100 concerts, including The Stooges. It was what I image it could have sounded like standing near a Saturn V rocket blasting off at Cape Canaveral for one of the Apollo missions to the moon.
As usual The Chameleons are sadly overlooked, Reg Smithies and John Lever’s guitars were a major influence on shoegaze... 1983’s Script of the Bridge a seminal one...
During a round table discussion with Brian Eno at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis in 1990 when Eno was asked what music he liked at the time, he mentioned mainly listening to gospel but he also liked My Blooldy Valentine and their "wall of sound". I made note of that after hearing that and would keep the band on my radar then buying Loveless the following year upon release. I still love that album to this day.
dont blame kevin and the gang for not wanting to play the major label industry game anymore. ur better off just buying a used physical copy or even just pirating the dang stuff, cuz its not like streaming makes any real revenue for those who arent legit 1% popstars already :/
@@capngrim It might make people angry, but I will always encourage piracy. When I think of all of the artists/bands that I got exposed to too that I would never have heard of only because I downloaded something with interesting album art or because there was an album review attached to the post... My personal taste in music would never have been this eclectic and I wouldn't have seen so many of these amazing artists live, simply because I would never have heard of them.
buy the record (of course not the vinyl record cause its rare) they also sell digital downloads of their albums, my "m b v" cd came with one, if im not mistaken
I really love this channel, and every video i swear it gets closer and closer to mentioning The Sundays, one of the most criminally underrated bands of the 90s, who have since disappeared without a trace. I'm convinced The Sundays took inspiration from Ride and Lush and fall into the more 'Dreampop' type of music. Harriet Wheeler's ethereal vocals are seriously reminiscent of Elizabeth Fraser's of The Cocteau Twins and I'm sure there's a connection somewhere. Would love to see them mentioned in future videos, especially their fantastic debut album 'Reading, Writing and Arithmetic' x
sundays were always thought of as the love child of the smiths and the Cocteaus... :-) the thing that kept them from being considered dreampop or shoegaze was partially not being part of the same scene, but also that a lot of their early music was more sparse and minimal. when it was more full bodied it was jangly and acoustic driven. not really hazy or surreal enough to get lumped in with the rest! same with the cranberries. those bands were often liked by the dreampop crowd, but weren't considered part of it. it's funny, cos Mazzy Star is now. back in the day the same people liked them, but they were obviously doing something very different. retro psychedelic folk revival stuff. but when iTunes got rolling, everything had to be in a category, and whomever was in charge of that stuff only knew fade into you, so from 2011 out MAZZY STAR WAS DREAMPOP. okie dokie lol
as far as being inspired by any of the dreampop bands, the Cocteaus, probably. maybe pale saints? the Sundays first single came out 9 months before anything Lush had out, and a full year before Ride had their first single. the Sundays first album wsa out before either of those other two had pretty much done anything. :-)
Lush were always the most special of all the shoegaze bands to me. I still listen to them all the time. When they reformed briefly in 2016 and put out the "out Of Control" E.P. I was so excited to hear more. Then they split up again for good without even releasing a new proper LP.
I saw Lush a couple of times. Was a huge fan - have pretty much everything they ever released. But in all honesty Piroshka is a better live act than Lush ever was. So there's always them to look forward to. Miki is an absolute character. Spoke to her after a Piroshka gig and she makes hilariously entertaining conversation.
This is probably my favorite 2020 video on TH-cam by far, man that's such good content. Will be for days adding new songs to my playlists after so many good references. Thank you.
There is a very underrated band called 'Loop', formed in England in the second half of the 80s. For me, one of the main bands that started shoegaze and British rock of the 90s.
I guess Loop was overall more post-rock, space rock and psychedelic than the main shoegaze bands which had a more melancholic and post-goth vibe to them derived from Cocteau Twins. There is a more psychedelic and space rock line of shoegazey bands like that. There is Spacemen 3 which was a sort of indietronica psych band, there was Loop and also The Telescopes and the first album by The Verve. Spiritualized was probably the highest point of that tendency. Also related with shoegaze but simply less goth inspired, more psychedelic and more spacey.
Been waiting for you to cover shoegaze for so long!! Also so happy you discussed AR Kane, they're rarely as mentioned as Jesus and Mary Chain and Cocteau Twins when it comes to proto-shoegaze
I grew up with Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, then Pale Saints, Lush... but I did not know the term "shoegaze" until 2005. 4AD Records has produced so many great bands.
INJECT THIS DIRECTLY INTO MY VEINS DUDE. pleasantly surprised you mentioned yuck, i still have their self titled album on rotation. thank you for making this video
Luckily my experience with music growing up I always searched for new music that was not easily accessible. Skinny Puppy, Cure, Lush, Cocteau Twins, Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, Psi Com, getting to see these bands perform was such a experience
I’ve been binging your channel for over a week now and I’m amazed at how many of the songs you brought up can be fount on Grand Theft Auto radio. Many many things and artists I love were introduced to me by the game but I never had idea of how many of them are staples on the history of music. From San Andreas to V, many songs from the games are way more significant than I thought and it’s great to (finally) learn that. Thanks!!! Great content
Props for giving SWERVEDRIVER the attention they deserve. Saw them live on the Mezcal Head US tour, and they were thrilling. Ejector Seat Reservation was a terrific album that might have carried forward their momentum if it had actually been released in the states. Luckily for us, Adam Franklin and crew are still making great music. I think you hit all of the major shoegaze influences, though I always wondered about how space rock bands like Hawkwind and later Loop fit into the picture.
@@iwearthegold Good answer! Yeah, I do feel like there is a blurry line there, and some crossover between branches. Arguably Spacemen 3 is more on that space rock side of things along with Loop. Also interesting that Kevin Shields aligned more with Peter Kember (Spectrum, Experimental Audio Research) post-Spacemen-3 and post-MBV, staying on the more experimental spacey side, while Jason Pierce/Spiritualized found commercial success by leaning into the gospel music and doing things like playing the Royal Albert Hall with full orchestra and choir.
Fantastic video! I was a teenager here in Brazil in the early 90s when I first heard bands like RIDE, Slowdive and Moose on a local radio show (thanks Kid Vinil!). These and other bands from that scene are still some of my favorites to this day.
Your videos always introducee me to music id never been exposed to, and I always end up enjoying it. I haven't stopped listening to White Pony since your last video! Thanks for everything you do to make these videos
Amazing doc, brought a tear to my eye, not kidding. If anyone hasn't seen Beautiful Noise, it's a similar doc. This one was unique in how it connected different influences and styles to the genre, rather than focusing on the stories behind the bands. Both essential viewing for any shoegaze fan. Very nice.
What impressed me the most with Loveless is that despite the wall of sound, the noise and everything, I always end up whistling the melodies... and it's so simple so pure but it wouldn't work without the wall of sound the noise etc.. Truly a before and after album. Like a sonic UFO that landed in November 1991. I don't think listening to it leaves anyone indifferent. Wish I could have seen them live.
Great work. In France, we were trying to get everything posible form UK but mainly the way to hear new sounds was to see unknown bands on stage. So we discovered many bands in concerts and festivals. Amazing years !!!
I had the opportunity to see MBV on their 2018 tour and they closed with “you made me realise.” I can’t remember how long they played that song for, but it is one of the best memories I have from a live show
a little fact that could be added to the "proto shoegaze" bit: the beach boys' song "all I wanna do" (from the sunflower album) is often considered to be one of the first dream pop/shoegaze/chillwave examples ever, and it was released in 1970 (!!)
It all makes you wonder just how far back you can push origins and influences. I’ve always been a fan of baroque music, and (I may be alone in this, but) to me there are certain elements of that which seem to have an affinity with the dreamier, more melancholic end of shoegaze: the droning of the ground bass, the tragic minor keys and wall of emotion turned up to 11, the dark, beautiful and exquisite misery! I’m sure there are probably even earlier forms of music you could connect to it too, but baroque and shoegaze are the ones that particularly speak to my Inner Adolescent :-D
Mate, years ago a friend of mine showed me the track with the remark 'hey listen, this is the first shoegaze track'. Even if this would turn out as a stretch or as predeceased by VU I still love this hunt for protothisandthat-songs. And that's why I love this channel. :)
Love your channel! Been waiting on this one for a while! I saw Cocteau Twins on their Four Calendar Cafe tour in the States. The opening band was called The Veldt. They were an American band that had a shoegaze / soulful approach to their music. Have you heard of Sarah Records? They had a few less known shoegaze acts like Secret Shine.
Dig's first album was a great shoegaze album. I still find Catherine Wheel's early stuff to be the pinnacle of this genre...and Curve took it into a sexy, beat-driven ecstacy.
I’m literally copy and pasting all these amazing comments so I can go and listen to your recommendations…. I was 12 in 1990 but by 14 I was getting into it but I missed out on the beginning. Thanks 🙏 for my new listening wish list
@@lorrenaelliott161 I've got tonnes of Shoegaze/Dream Pop recommendations. Check out "Fall" by Sway, "Pretty Police" by See Through Dresses, "Gamma" by Slush, Year Zero's "Oceania, I Will Return", Isobella's "Kidnap Someone And Make Them Happy", Project Skyward's "Strange Synchronicities". Also the bands Air Formation and Buddha on the Moon. Plenty more if you want them.
@@chrisdavie8163 looks like I have some new sPotify playlists to curate THANK YOU SO MUCH!! Gonna start with Buddha on the moon… I’m a Buddhist, seems like a good sign lol 😆
Would love to see dream pop as well! That and shoegaze have always seemed quite similar to me, would be interested in seeing the differences between the two.
Love Mazzy Star but they're much more dream pop than shoegaze. The distinction between those two genres can get a little fuzzy, true, but I think in Mazzy Star's case a clear line can be drawn and say that they're on one side of it. That said I do fucking love them and So Tonight That I Might See is one of the best albums of any genre ever produced.
@@chriswhinery925 Wrong. Hope literally sings with her head down looking at her shoes. Thus the orgin of the term Shoe Gaze. She is the posterchild of that music genre.
Around the release of Loveless I attended a My Bloody Valentine concert at Reading Universdity Students Union,and 30 years later it still rates as the loudest concert I have ever attended...the air was cottage cheese,and even the gaps in between songs was deafening...it took my ears 3 days to recover and someone who worked at the venue told me later they had done a pre concert sound check which lasted over two hours...it took them that long to just turn everything up to 11! I'd add this instead of whingeing about any band missing from this documentary.
Great Post man . Longed to see Chapterhouse featured too. out of the pile i'd say Adam Franklin and the SwerveDriver guys are producing their best signature sounds Still. Liz's voice still blows you away when she features on someone's song despite what she may think of it . More than ever ,now I wish Miki would do something with Ulrich Schnauss or/and i wish Bob Mould would cover Lush's cover of Abba's song Hey Helen . Sigh ~ ⌚
I went from "Oh look, a ton of bands that I like" to "Oh shit, I can't write down all these others". PS: I'm gonna leave a non-english speaking band's shoegaze album fro those who want to discover; 1992 "Dynamo" by "Soda Stereo".
Great video! Loop is another great shoegaze band not talked about on here. I think the 13th floor elevators also had a big influence on shoegaze, the clip of Spacemen 3 on here (rollercoaster) is actually a 13th floor song. Most Spacemen 3 songs were actually modified versions of other bands songs. One band I think was proto shoegaze is the Japanese band Les Rallizes Denudes, check em out!
great video! i would like to add the brazilian band from the 60's Os Mutantes... although many music fans probably already know them, i think they don't get the recognition they deserve for being one of the most creative musicians of their time. pioneers of a psychedelic sound with a dreamy footprint mixed with more traditional brazilian sounds. their entire discography is incredible, but i would like to recommend "o relógio" and "dia 36"
Don't forget, they were also one of the most important members of the countercultural revolutionary movement, tropicalia led by some of the best musicians in Brazil and possibly the world, Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso. They had to be some of the bravest people in the world to use music against a US backed right wing military dictatorship. It was sad what happened to the movement but it already left it's mark on Brazilian music which changed the country.
@@lenini056 that's right! it's just a little sad that while Caetano and Gil are adored as the great artists that they are here in Brazil most people only know Rita Lee's solo work while the work of Os Mutantes as a group ends up only reaching a niche audience. not to mention the solo work of other members such as Arnaldo Baptista, who has brilliant albums that are practically forgotten. i really love them, they were a big part of my introduction to a world of experimental music when i was a teenager. so cool to see that people from other countries are interested in them... thanks for commenting :)
@@archer60x43 That's sort of where "shoegaze" really started. MBV was technically a goth band. Cocteau twins, the cure, loop, telescopes, spacemen, Mary chain, bunneymen, chameleons imo where some of the most important precursors of the later MBV sound all influenced by the VU.
@@hurkamur1 The cure, bunny men, banshees and mary chain didnt start as goth, they were all post punk bands (mary chain were more just a punk band than post punk on there first and best album). There was punk. then post punk , then you had multiple genres that came out of post punk, one of them was Goth. In the UK indie scene of the 80's you can find shoegazey elements in nearly every band, same with the indie bands that they influenced in the 90's, but that doesnt mean every band was a shoegaze band or big influencers in the genre, bands like the chameleons are very important in there own right but they were never a real shoegaze band. A more pure shoegaze sound had been formed by other bands by the time the chameleons were putting out music with some minimal shoegaze influences.
@@karebushmarebu233 Where did I say all of those bands were goth? I said MBV was a goth band, and started as such. The cure, and the banshees were post punk turned "goth" while the bunneymen and Mary chain were never "goth" bands. Along with Bauhaus, the cure and Siouxsie & the Banshees basically defined the genre. While I agree bands like the chameleons, bunneymen, don't really fit the bill, they were important precursors. While one could argue specifically spacemen 3, loop, the Cocteau twins , and mary chain (to a lesser extent) made "shoegaze" records before MBV did.
"proto-everything band The Velvet Underground" I definitely should remember that one.
That was a good one.
Well they weren’t proto Beatles or Stones, were they.
i had to stop and nod.
Best descriprion ever of them
@@greva2904 proto as in "proto metal" or "proto punk" lol
I put my laptop on my feet to watch this properly
based
Brilliant
It's a lifestyle, mate. It's a lifestyle.
Dad? Is that you?
😆
""All the members of My Bloody Valentine now have serious hearing issues". Sad. But not surprising. In old concert videos I often see these alt rock guitarists standing so close to the wall of Marshall speakers for two or three hours onstage every night that it was inevitable they'd have hearing loss issues as they got older.
I caught MBV on the Loveless tour at First Avenue in Minneapolis, which is the club featured in the Prince movie "Purple Rain". MBV played the noise section of "You Made Me Realise" for 35 minutes. I know for sure because I timed it. My friend and I were about 15 feet away from the main PA stack stage left the entire time without any sort of hearing protection (hey it was the early 1990s and we didn't think about that kind of thing, especially when you're in your early 20s and think you're indestructible). The vast majority of people in the club were packed against the back wall, or any other place that seemed out of the way of the barrage of noise. A handful of us stayed up front to listen. My ears were ringing for 72 hours after that. It was still one of the best shows I've ever seen and I know I'll never forget it.
My hearing is REALLY messed up.. but I think it's from my vacuum cleaner.
Yeah, But it was worth it. Waking up with your ears ringing doesn't bother much after awhile,
It’s a damn shame they never worse earplugs.
MBV was one of the loudest bands I ever "saw." They slowed down time and space. The Verve was the other band that blew away. And, of course, Slowdive.
A.R. Kane finally getting recognised for their work warms my heart. I was turned onto them by a guy in a record shop who noticed I was buying some Cocteau Twins records, he dug out their debut single 'When You're Sad' for me and I was like "Sure I'll buy this one too!". I was immediately blown away, I've played that one dozens of times.
Anything by Cocteau Twins, Loveless and the Lush debut are still among my favorites. 30 years later they still sound fresher and more original than 99% of the music I hear on a regular basis. I have a pretty broad sensibility, but this dreamy reverb washed soaring melody really clicks with me. I was lucky enough to see all of these bands (Cocteau Twins, Lush, and MBV) live in the early 90s, and they were all excellent live bands, at least as far as replicating the feel of their recordings. Galaxy 500 opened for Cocteau Twins, they were pretty good, too.
Cocteaus are amazing. Unique
This is pretty much spot on influence wise and routes to shoegaze. at least I can confirm up to Pale Saints cos I was in them. ;-)
The Edsel Auctioneer!
This should be pinned on top!
You guys had good songs
hi
@@EricEsenwine great band
Shoegaze is pretty strong in Japan (Mass of the Fermenting Dregs, The Novembers, Downy, Kinoko Teikoku, and many many many more)
East Asia in general! I was dumbfounded and thrilled to see how many newer shoegaze bands are from that area a few years ago.
i love japanese shoegaze! i would add clams, oeil, and uchu nekoko to the list
@@shayla4007 clams is really great!!!
Japan went wild and crazy over the Cocteau Twins. It was one of the few countries, where the Cocteaux sold-out stadiums. They changed the entire landscape of sound; primarily, because it didn't offend the -- parents -- of 1980's Japanese kids.
At that time, Japan was still extremely conservative, so Punk and most, Post-punk bands of the 80's, placed these kids in a strange situation. They were subject to their parents constant criticisms (or worse, the friends of the parents), if they saw rebellious youth, then they often would refer to these kids as "degenerates". Plus, it called into the question of "morality" and "modesty". Everything you did, reflected your parents good standing.
The Cocteaux provided, youth culture a way to be different, without offending their parents and their parents friends.
@@spinglasshydra Whatever the case, Japan makes the best modern shoegaze music.
I remember before I knew what shoegaze was always being attracted to music where the vocals didn't punctuate the rest of the music. It's very different from pop radio music where it's essentially just vocal and a beat in the background. When I found shoegaze it was the type of music I had been searching for my entire life. Completely new yet familiar to me
Great point. The vocals are often just another layer/instrument, rather than the whole point of the song.
THIS
@@Sam-go3mb sort of like Death Metal
@@godetonter4764 Lol, yeah. Maybe even more so.
@@godetonter4764 shit that’s a great point
28:48 The time taken to record and produce Loveless didn’t just almost ruin Creation, it very, very nearly bankrupted McGee himself. Can remember one interview he gave where he said he had to ask his father for his life savings to prevent this: and his father was by no means rich, he had been a welder in a factory.
In the interview I saw, he didn't look back at the album with much fondness, but not because of the album itself, but because of the bad memories of the sheer stress it caused him.
That said, Loveless is an absolute masterpiece...it was sad it never got the full recognition at the time, as its release almost coincided with Nirvana’s “Nevermind”
What a story!!! Genius doesn’t always = guaranteed ££££ (Tesla can confirm that lol 😂 )
I'm listening to it Right now for the first time. First song feels good
When he described Elizabeth Fraser's singing as 'swooning gibberish' and her voice 'an additional instrument', I was like YES! That's the perfect way to describe it.
If he describes the Cocteaus as shoegaze or dream pop, I will throw my phone..
(I'm just not watching, I hate this sort of thing.. clueless, usually.🙄🤭)🙏💜🇬🇧💜
@@bangtanbangtan7 wow that's . . . a really poor outlook
@@bangtanbangtan7 but it is??
@@bangtanbangtan7then what would it be?
I hope it was ironic flippancy. That's how I'm going to take it. She has the voice of an angel. I will accept nothing less!
Two things the 80s couldn't get enough of: cocaine and drums with gated reverb.
Gated Verb was so cool at the time too, it was like drums from the future man :P
I love gated reverb. Still use it daily.
Now it's meth and primal bongos.
Gated verb is kinda back now but idk im a zoomer hah
@@rishabhdeb8747 That makes me surprisingly happy to hear.
Many people don't understand that art is a chain. Just like science artists learn and build upon the work of people who came before them. It isn't magic. Ok, it's magical but it isn't literally magic.
Well said.
Or rejection. Punk was a rejection of #Progrock
You’re right...and you’re funny.
Art is always in conversation with itself.
Standing on the shoulders of giants
What you've done here is, basically, traversed my record collection in full.
absolutely. 🎶
拙い英語力ながら、Lovelessに至るまでのシューゲイザーの歴史が理解できてとても面白かった。同ジャンルをディグってるとどうしてもLoveless以降のバンドとかアルバムに出会うことが多かったから、その音楽的なルーツを実際の曲を聞きながら知れたのは大変ありがたい....
no ingrish
“Has it ever struck you that life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going?”― Tennessee Williams
“Proto-everything band, Velvet Underground” Yeah.... pretty much haha
Right? lol Like, what genre after them did they not have an effect on? Even got sampled in Hip Hop. Massively influential band. So much attitude and mood. Wild.
Skipntosh I wanna talk to the demon Lou Reed made a deal with.
I love it. A band so ahead of it's time and such influence
Honor when honor is due! 🤟
My record collection is organized by genre so I can never quite figure out where to put the Velvet Underground.
finally someone talks about ar kane in one of these shoegaze videos
Indeed, though they were discovered by and released their first EP on One Little Indian.
Missed a chance, too, to highlight their MARRS B-Side "Anitina".
Can't tell if it's cause they're black or cause they were too experimental, probably both. 69 is one of the best dream pop albums ever.
Wild Eye While I don’t think AR Kane is a shoegaze band (I’m sure they would agree too) they did have at least 3 shoegaze wonderful songs and and are worth mentioning.
AR Kane.....so so underated
You should watch the doc Beautiful Noise if you haven't seen it already. It also covers the origins of shoegaze.
Sweetness & Light...one of Lush's most beautiful songs. Love the "layers" in the video for it as well.
I love how "Loveless" is such a masterpiece that tons of musicians brag about POSSIBLY being an influence for it. And tons of musicians that came afterwards proudly name "Loveless" as their influence.
Like when Garbage hits those first four drumbeats in their debut. Oh yeah: they wore that on their sleeves.
its all a construct
Your favorite bands favorite band
I just really appreciate in these days when people know what they’re talking about and there’s passion involved... thx for this. Good job.
"That sounds reverberate to this day".
I just picture your planet sized grin as you wrote this line.
shit eating grin
Clever pun
"The sound variably oscillates through a daisy chain of 12 pedals to this day"
Ride's "Vapour Trail" is one of the most perfect songs I've ever listened to.
this and Today are the song that got me hooked on Ride.
The EP was unobtainable at the time I remember (in France). Finally, resorted in buying an overpriced Japanese import but I haven't regretted it at all.
Fun fact: there was a French band called Drive Blind and they were quite good. Of Course, obvious reference and inspiration.
also best rendition ever of Nowhere: th-cam.com/video/t8EFbvsoo0Y/w-d-xo.html
@Bruno Hebert that outro! never heard that man. thank you!
Yep. Also waving my New Zealand flag, Bailter Space's 'X' is right, right up there. Those 2 songs are pretty much it for me.
@Julian Melville it's vaguely possible to meet a total babe that's into ride. I'm guessing not many babes have those NZ mugs pinned up on their bedroom wall.
The mention of swirlies, lilys, and drop nineteens made me so happy
I think it was the first time I realized that I can change the world.....
Lilys were great
Shoegaze being one of my absolute favorite sub-genres of all time, i put off watching this video for almost a month, knowing what a lofty goal the proper creation of this video would be. But in my personal humble opinion, you really captured the whole scene - from predecessors to successors, from both sides of the Atlantic. Tying in Dinosaur Jr was a pleasant surprise I did not see coming. I think that as soon as I heard you speak the word Souvlaki, I was totally satisfied. I always enjoy your content, but this video, as well as How Goth Became Goth, are my two favorites. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK SIR!
The Catherine Wheel also deserves a lot of praise. The first two albums are classics.
Right? I was just thinking this. Ferment is a hell of an album.
Hell yeah !!! They are AWESOME😀😀
I agree
Thank you!! Catherine Wheel absolutely slaps and deserves a mention for their contributions to Shoegaze.
In my opinion one of the greatest bands of all time, never got enough love, always turned in something different and surprised with every album, only turned in a bad one with Wishville but yet the first two songs on that still sound absolutely mighty so it literally isn't all bad.
I wrote a lovely long letter to Rob on MySpace and he replied how flattered he was. I now have their first two albums on vinyl and they get played a lot.
Yeah. I'm a fan. ❤
I live for this music. Flyying Colours, Nothing, Ringo Deathstarr, Airiel, Slowdive and Ride are all coming out with new music in 2020/ 2021
Omfg, i didnt know Airiel will release new material, amazing news!
Flyying Colours! Great band!
Wait what, Slowdive and Ride? I'm dead.
Ringo Deathstarr are so good and very underrated!
Wow, some 2020 bands have terribbble nammmmes.
The best British Rock genre of the last 30 years. Well done. Great documentary.
Sorry it’s ours
Sorry but no. I think Ed Sheeran is the best punk rock genre of the last 30 days
After britpop*
My Bloody Valentine are Irish
Great video, a bit random but the fact my bloody valentine,the Jesus and Mary chain,dinosaur jr and blur were all on the one tour is insanity that I would’ve love to seen
I was there... Blur where goddamn awful - drunk AF and tripping over the mic cables as Damon pogo'd about pissed. But yeah other than that great gig - it was called "The Rollercoaster Tour" - first time I saw MBV and JaMC
@@forelight4999 I love the fact you critique Blur who you didnt like, but didnt say anything much about MBV and JAMC... you couldnt even be bothered to call the last 2 by their full names!! twat
@@mattiemclean9882 tbf blur are my favourite band and from what the band even say they were either drunk or fighting each other on that tour,also leisure isn’t the greatest album
Saw all four at the Glasgow 'Rollercoaster' concert in 1992. It was very good. MBV were loud as fuck, gave my mate a 'whitey'. Blur were a good for a bouncy. Dinosaur Jnr were all right, but being a big Dino fan that didn't bother me (they were only ever all right when I saw them at other gigs). JAMC were loud as fuck as well, the drum sound nearly gave me a heart attack. A good night.
I was at a London show - the one where Damon Albarn took off his trousers and pants and danced around with his todger flapping about. Great show though.
I'm so happy A.R. Kane got some recognition in this video. They often get overlooked.
This is really excellent. It's both reframing my teenage record collection for me and illuminating areas I missed on the way (easy to do before the internet). It's clearly made by someone with a real passion for the genre.
Thanks man.
Did anyone else's eyes dilate after seeing this upload?
I haven't listened to some of this music for years.. It still gives me goosebumps..
@JoKro yep lol
@@matteframe same! Someone sent this to me and I forgot about so much! Getting back into this shit asap. It's gonna be a good autumn
Yeah but then I stared at my shoes and it was all good.
Do you mean dilating via 1980’s muscle memory?
The Cure's Pornography was a masterpiece.
You’re not wrong... the most intense album I’ve ever heard and brilliant at that. Somehow very listenable at the same time. The magic of The Cure in full bloom
*is 😉
My favorite Cure album....
ABSOLUTELY. I just said this last week lol
I mean... so are Disintegration and Seventeen Seconds. They're a legendary band. (and Robert Smith is an eternal mood and I live for that)
Thanks for covering Shoegaze! It's one of the most least talked about & underrated music genres ever. At least here, in the U.S., that is, lol. Also, i learned about all kinds of awesome, creative, experimental bands, that i'd never heard of, from this video. I'd only known of a handful of bands, covered in this video.
so many commas
Hi Mom loop
We had grunge and "altsrnative" shoveled at us
Don't forget the Verve, their first album A Storm in Heaven was one of the best shoegaze albums ever!
Love that album!
The verve does get a brief mention in there around 30:25
Love the verve, but I dare you to listen to My Vitriol.
Omg I was the only one who had the same thought!! Their best album for sure
I prefer Northern Soul.
I'm a simple man: I see Miki Berenyi's face on a video thumbnail, and I click.
Same here brother.
I actually think that indicates the opposite.
@@kassandrakid9440 How so?
I remember standing next to her at the Brixton Academy bar, at an MBV gig. (either that or someone wholooked just like her).
@@julianhermanubis6800 I think she’s implying that “simple” men aren’t into Miki Berenyi. Pretty sure it’s a compliment suggesting you’re sophisticated.
YESSS I'VE WAITED FOR THIS
Oh have we waited! It was worth it though! Music for the few, not many!
History has forgotten the excellent Kitchens Of Distinction which is a shame. Also the House of Loves early records were a big influence on shoegaze.
There are quite a few of forgotten acts in shoegaze and adjacent genres. New Zealand for example had their scene too that got omitted in this video.
Kitchens of Distinction are among my personal top 5 bands! Sooooooo underrated!
The chameleons
@@HawkOfGP
Yeah !
Flying Nun ! Pink Frost ! the great unwashed Clean ! The Gordons !
Love KoD too... also The Wild Swans, Chameleons, Sad Lovers and Giants, Lowlife, The Sound, For Against, The Ocean Blue, Snake Corps, And Also The Trees, Modern Eon, Modern English so many great bands were pioneering the Dreampop sound.
something that doesn't get enough credit is how this genre really started to peak, the audio engineering was seriously on point
i’ve always linked phil spector and brian wilson and the wall of sound with shoe gaze in my head, and you brought it onto a video and that is amazing.
What I love about your videos is that, even if I think I know about a genre, you put it into so much context that I always come away with homework to listen to (whether or not I actually get around to it). You hear band names but you don't really know what the band means. You put the meaning into it.
I thought Ride had the best Shoegaze single with " Leave Them All Behind " & Slowdive the best album with Souvlaki . It was great to see Slowdive be received so well on their comeback with the 2017 album being a classic. The live clip of their cover of Golden Hair ( with the blue haired girl ) is perfect. Brilliant band.
I like Just For A Day a bit more, but Souvlaki is awesome too.
My favourite song of all time. Leave Them All Behind. An absolute anthem
Leave Them All Behind is beautiful. The closet thing I ever had that made me feel weightless and about to fly. That song is what redemption sounds like.
@@nicholasromig5506 Pygmalion is even better imo
Drive Blind was the only decent thing Ride ever did
Another great rockumentary! I'm a big fan of shoegaze - although for me, the absolute pinnacle album is Ride's 'Nowhere' - the tracks 'Polar Bear' 'Vapor Trail' and 'Nowhere' are perfection in dreamy wall of noise - the whole album is phenomenal.
Really enjoy your work, keep it up!
'Paralysed' is a really underrated song.
BTW, the song 'Nowhere' was not originally on the album. It was a bonus track added from the Fall EP.
The best shoegaze band was Moose ( their first songs). And the best album of the 90´ is « XYZ... ».
I'll second that.
Thanks for the tip! Listening to 'Nowhere' for the first time now, sounds great. Never really dove into the origins of shoegaze before, lots to discover still
1:44 "It's All Too Much" fits the mold of a Shoegaze songs much more than anything else of its time, and certainly more than "Tommorow Never Knows"
Really true.
was gonna write the same thing then seen you done it
Yeah
I was looking for new music in the early ‘90s. Listening to local alternative radio I bookmarked Lush and The Sugarcubes. Years later “Soon” was a revelation.
The Chameleons' "View from a Hill" (1983) is like a early version of "When the Sun Hits". From the album "Script of the Bridge".
I've been waiting for this video for a very long time. Thank you!
So wonderful to hear you talking about two of my very favorite groups Siouxsie and the banshees and cocteau twins!
Listen to this conspiracy podcast. They talk about the Cocteau Twins and Elizabeth Fraser.
www.thehighersidechats.com/chris-knowles-song-to-the-siren/
I saw MBV live seven times between 1992 and 2013. Three of those were on three successive nights at Santa Monica Auditorium in 2008--three nights of You Made Me Realise. Those were the three most insanely mercilessly loud live performances I've ever seen out of about 100 concerts, including The Stooges. It was what I image it could have sounded like standing near a Saturn V rocket blasting off at Cape Canaveral for one of the Apollo missions to the moon.
As usual The Chameleons are sadly overlooked, Reg Smithies and John Lever’s guitars were a major influence on shoegaze... 1983’s Script of the Bridge a seminal one...
The chameleons are one of my favorite bands ever. Crimally underrated.
100% agree. They were dreary dream pop, a bit paisley goth and a bit crunchy post punk pop.
Yep, I was wondering when View From a Hill would grace my ears, but no, nothing.
One of the best bands period
The Chameleons are a band that are actually underrated. Strange times was a huge influence. As is the script of the bridge.
During a round table discussion with Brian Eno at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis in 1990 when Eno was asked what music he liked at the time, he mentioned mainly listening to gospel but he also liked My Blooldy Valentine and their "wall of sound". I made note of that after hearing that and would keep the band on my radar then buying Loveless the following year upon release. I still love that album to this day.
Man, it would sure be great if I could listen to My Bloody Valentine on Spotify again...
dont blame kevin and the gang for not wanting to play the major label industry game anymore. ur better off just buying a used physical copy or even just pirating the dang stuff, cuz its not like streaming makes any real revenue for those who arent legit 1% popstars already :/
Thank god I live in america
@@capngrim
It might make people angry, but I will always encourage piracy.
When I think of all of the artists/bands that I got exposed to too that I would never have heard of only because I downloaded something with interesting album art or because there was an album review attached to the post... My personal taste in music would never have been this eclectic and I wouldn't have seen so many of these amazing artists live, simply because I would never have heard of them.
I want bands to be able to make a living from recording, so I'm not going to steal their records.
buy the record (of course not the vinyl record cause its rare)
they also sell digital downloads of their albums, my "m b v" cd came with one, if im not mistaken
I really love this channel, and every video i swear it gets closer and closer to mentioning The Sundays, one of the most criminally underrated bands of the 90s, who have since disappeared without a trace. I'm convinced The Sundays took inspiration from Ride and Lush and fall into the more 'Dreampop' type of music. Harriet Wheeler's ethereal vocals are seriously reminiscent of Elizabeth Fraser's of The Cocteau Twins and I'm sure there's a connection somewhere. Would love to see them mentioned in future videos, especially their fantastic debut album 'Reading, Writing and Arithmetic' x
Yes, the Sundays, yes yes yes
I was thinking “any minute he’ll mention The Sundays or Curve”.
LOVED the Sunday’s . Played that CD until there were holes in it ♥️
sundays were always thought of as the love child of the smiths and the Cocteaus... :-)
the thing that kept them from being considered dreampop or shoegaze was partially not being part of the same scene, but also that a lot of their early music was more sparse and minimal. when it was more full bodied it was jangly and acoustic driven. not really hazy or surreal enough to get lumped in with the rest! same with the cranberries. those bands were often liked by the dreampop crowd, but weren't considered part of it.
it's funny, cos Mazzy Star is now. back in the day the same people liked them, but they were obviously doing something very different. retro psychedelic folk revival stuff. but when iTunes got rolling, everything had to be in a category, and whomever was in charge of that stuff only knew fade into you, so from 2011 out MAZZY STAR WAS DREAMPOP. okie dokie lol
as far as being inspired by any of the dreampop bands, the Cocteaus, probably. maybe pale saints?
the Sundays first single came out 9 months before anything Lush had out, and a full year before Ride had their first single. the Sundays first album wsa out before either of those other two had pretty much done anything. :-)
Lush were always the most special of all the shoegaze bands to me. I still listen to them all the time. When they reformed briefly in 2016 and put out the "out Of Control" E.P. I was so excited to hear more. Then they split up again for good without even releasing a new proper LP.
I agree big time
I saw Lush a couple of times. Was a huge fan - have pretty much everything they ever released. But in all honesty Piroshka is a better live act than Lush ever was. So there's always them to look forward to.
Miki is an absolute character. Spoke to her after a Piroshka gig and she makes hilariously entertaining conversation.
@@whssy Have you read her book?
Miki was a legend. She should have slapped Alex James when he 'bit' her.
This is probably my favorite 2020 video on TH-cam by far, man that's such good content. Will be for days adding new songs to my playlists after so many good references. Thank you.
Lush is such an underrated band!
Here I only saw them referenced at the indie music store, but to me they're the most listenable as they relieve angst, not add to it.
There is a very underrated band called 'Loop', formed in England in the second half of the 80s. For me, one of the main bands that started shoegaze and British rock of the 90s.
I guess Loop was overall more post-rock, space rock and psychedelic than the main shoegaze bands which had a more melancholic and post-goth vibe to them derived from Cocteau Twins. There is a more psychedelic and space rock line of shoegazey bands like that. There is Spacemen 3 which was a sort of indietronica psych band, there was Loop and also The Telescopes and the first album by The Verve. Spiritualized was probably the highest point of that tendency. Also related with shoegaze but simply less goth inspired, more psychedelic and more spacey.
Totally agree. "A Gilded Eternity" is one of the great lost treasures from this era.
Great band
Yes, well said. I was a Loop fan back in the day. There were more sonic in sound but I would still class them as shoegaze.
Saw them once or twice. Totally hypnotic.
Been waiting for you to cover shoegaze for so long!! Also so happy you discussed AR Kane, they're rarely as mentioned as Jesus and Mary Chain and Cocteau Twins when it comes to proto-shoegaze
Slowdive actually was from one of the members dreams
I grew up with Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, then Pale Saints, Lush... but I did not know the term "shoegaze" until 2005. 4AD Records has produced so many great bands.
It baffles me how Les Rallizes Denudes are still overlooked in the journey of noise/shoegaze. They invented it, period.
I've been waiting 25 years for this video. Thanks!!!
This video is brilliant. I wish we could all go for a pint and discuss all this stuff
INJECT THIS DIRECTLY INTO MY VEINS DUDE. pleasantly surprised you mentioned yuck, i still have their self titled album on rotation. thank you for making this video
yuck is great, especially around 2012.
Luckily my experience with music growing up I always searched for new music that was not easily accessible. Skinny Puppy, Cure, Lush, Cocteau Twins, Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, Psi Com, getting to see these bands perform was such a experience
I’ve been binging your channel for over a week now and I’m amazed at how many of the songs you brought up can be fount on Grand Theft Auto radio. Many many things and artists I love were introduced to me by the game but I never had idea of how many of them are staples on the history of music. From San Andreas to V, many songs from the games are way more significant than I thought and it’s great to (finally) learn that. Thanks!!! Great content
Props for giving SWERVEDRIVER the attention they deserve. Saw them live on the Mezcal Head US tour, and they were thrilling. Ejector Seat Reservation was a terrific album that might have carried forward their momentum if it had actually been released in the states. Luckily for us, Adam Franklin and crew are still making great music. I think you hit all of the major shoegaze influences, though I always wondered about how space rock bands like Hawkwind and later Loop fit into the picture.
@@iwearthegold Good answer! Yeah, I do feel like there is a blurry line there, and some crossover between branches. Arguably Spacemen 3 is more on that space rock side of things along with Loop. Also interesting that Kevin Shields aligned more with Peter Kember (Spectrum, Experimental Audio Research) post-Spacemen-3 and post-MBV, staying on the more experimental spacey side, while Jason Pierce/Spiritualized found commercial success by leaning into the gospel music and doing things like playing the Royal Albert Hall with full orchestra and choir.
Fantastic video! I was a teenager here in Brazil in the early 90s when I first heard bands like RIDE, Slowdive and Moose on a local radio show (thanks Kid Vinil!). These and other bands from that scene are still some of my favorites to this day.
Your videos always introducee me to music id never been exposed to, and I always end up enjoying it. I haven't stopped listening to White Pony since your last video! Thanks for everything you do to make these videos
What about "Space Age Love Song" by A Flock of Seagulls? It's pretty much proto-dream pop.
Listen to the tennis system cover
It's a pretty standard new wave synth pop ballad... not shoegaze at all.
Amazing doc, brought a tear to my eye, not kidding. If anyone hasn't seen Beautiful Noise, it's a similar doc. This one was unique in how it connected different influences and styles to the genre, rather than focusing on the stories behind the bands. Both essential viewing for any shoegaze fan. Very nice.
Oooh, didn’t know it existed …thx 🙏
Yes. Beautiful Noise was pretty great. Glad someone mentioned that.
What impressed me the most with Loveless is that despite the wall of sound, the noise and everything, I always end up whistling the melodies... and it's so simple so pure but it wouldn't work without the wall of sound the noise etc.. Truly a before and after album. Like a sonic UFO that landed in November 1991. I don't think listening to it leaves anyone indifferent. Wish I could have seen them live.
I just wish that "Loveless" had more bass/low end.
"Low-endless"...
As Shoegaze convert and an MBV obsessive, this is the video I've been waiting for
Robin Guthrie roasting My Bloody Valentine at 25:44 🤣🔥🙅🏻♀️Ooooof
That’s some salty Fish n Chips
🤓 chorus pedal 🤪
Kevin Shields laughs in recluse
I feel like Echo and the Bunnymen should fit into the history.
Agreed.
love them
And the chameleons
And the Lightning Seeds
@@zuuldestroyerofworlds4393 absolutely, the chameleons are amazing
Great work. In France, we were trying to get everything posible form UK but mainly the way to hear new sounds was to see unknown bands on stage. So we discovered many bands in concerts and festivals. Amazing years !!!
I had the opportunity to see MBV on their 2018 tour and they closed with “you made me realise.” I can’t remember how long they played that song for, but it is one of the best memories I have from a live show
Omg RIDE IS AMAAAAAAZIIIING!!! Thank you sooooo much for introducing them to me!!
a little fact that could be added to the "proto shoegaze" bit: the beach boys' song "all I wanna do" (from the sunflower album) is often considered to be one of the first dream pop/shoegaze/chillwave examples ever, and it was released in 1970 (!!)
It all makes you wonder just how far back you can push origins and influences. I’ve always been a fan of baroque music, and (I may be alone in this, but) to me there are certain elements of that which seem to have an affinity with the dreamier, more melancholic end of shoegaze: the droning of the ground bass, the tragic minor keys and wall of emotion turned up to 11, the dark, beautiful and exquisite misery! I’m sure there are probably even earlier forms of music you could connect to it too, but baroque and shoegaze are the ones that particularly speak to my Inner Adolescent :-D
He did mention The Beach Boys. Also Sunday Morning by the Velvet Underground has been called the first Dream Pop song from 1967
Mate, years ago a friend of mine showed me the track with the remark 'hey listen, this is the first shoegaze track'.
Even if this would turn out as a stretch or as predeceased by VU I still love this hunt for protothisandthat-songs. And that's why I love this channel. :)
@@iancossey105 yea we could go back to georgian chants and say that was the first sandel gaze.
See My Friends, the Kinks. First use of drone sound, very melancholic murmuring about a gone girl, gazing over the river...
Excellent video. Shoegaze must be my favorite genre of music. I am so glad I was there to see it coming up.
Swervedriver is freaking awesome, glad they've still been putting out music. Their newer albums are just as solid.
I feel like when I die and go to the afterlife, this is going to be the narrator that tells me all of the mistakes I made.
Love your channel! Been waiting on this one for a while! I saw Cocteau Twins on their Four Calendar Cafe tour in the States. The opening band was called The Veldt. They were an American band that had a shoegaze / soulful approach to their music. Have you heard of Sarah Records? They had a few less known shoegaze acts like Secret Shine.
Very thorough and very well done. Glad to see someone finally mention AR Kane. Now if only people remember to talk about the Veldt as well
What an amazingly well done video, will be combing through the rest of this channels videos. So many bands discovered I never even knew about
Dig's first album was a great shoegaze album. I still find Catherine Wheel's early stuff to be the pinnacle of this genre...and Curve took it into a sexy, beat-driven ecstacy.
I’m literally copy and pasting all these amazing comments so I can go and listen to your recommendations…. I was 12 in 1990 but by 14 I was getting into it but I missed out on the beginning. Thanks 🙏 for my new listening wish list
@@lorrenaelliott161 I've got tonnes of Shoegaze/Dream Pop recommendations. Check out "Fall" by Sway, "Pretty Police" by See Through Dresses, "Gamma" by Slush, Year Zero's "Oceania, I Will Return", Isobella's "Kidnap Someone And Make Them Happy", Project Skyward's "Strange Synchronicities". Also the bands Air Formation and Buddha on the Moon. Plenty more if you want them.
@@chrisdavie8163 looks like I have some new sPotify playlists to curate THANK YOU SO MUCH!! Gonna start with Buddha on the moon… I’m a Buddhist, seems like a good sign lol 😆
@@lorrenaelliott161 Let me know what you think :P
Would love to see dream pop as well! That and shoegaze have always seemed quite similar to me, would be interested in seeing the differences between the two.
24:43 ....sounds like "When the Levee Breaks" to me.
Fantastic documentary / summation of one of my favorite music genres. Mazzy Star does it for me.
Love Mazzy Star but they're much more dream pop than shoegaze. The distinction between those two genres can get a little fuzzy, true, but I think in Mazzy Star's case a clear line can be drawn and say that they're on one side of it. That said I do fucking love them and So Tonight That I Might See is one of the best albums of any genre ever produced.
@@chriswhinery925 Wrong. Hope literally sings with her head down looking at her shoes. Thus the orgin of the term Shoe Gaze. She is the posterchild of that music genre.
@@bbtb785 Is that all it takes to be shoegaze is just to stare at your feet/shoes? lmao, not much of a genre.
Around the release of Loveless I attended a My Bloody Valentine concert at Reading Universdity Students Union,and 30 years later it still rates as the loudest concert I have ever attended...the air was cottage cheese,and even the gaps in between songs was deafening...it took my ears 3 days to recover and someone who worked at the venue told me later they had done a pre concert sound check which lasted over two hours...it took them that long to just turn everything up to 11! I'd add this instead of whingeing about any band missing from this documentary.
Great Post man . Longed to see Chapterhouse featured too. out of the pile i'd say Adam Franklin and the SwerveDriver guys are producing their best signature sounds Still. Liz's voice still blows you away when she features on someone's song despite what she may think of it . More than ever ,now I wish Miki would do something with Ulrich Schnauss or/and i wish Bob Mould would cover Lush's cover of Abba's song Hey Helen . Sigh ~ ⌚
Mate, you should create a playlist on your Spotify profile for each of these episodes. So many great songs to catch up with.
I went from "Oh look, a ton of bands that I like" to "Oh shit, I can't write down all these others".
PS: I'm gonna leave a non-english speaking band's shoegaze album fro those who want to discover; 1992 "Dynamo" by "Soda Stereo".
That's a solid band. Also really dig Caifanes and Heroes Del Silencio.
Holy shit, con este video veo las similitudes de Shoegazing en Soda Stereo y Heroes del Silencio.
Y si, afanaba lindo Cerati
@@Ardakapalasan sssshh, más respeto
@早坂愛 Yo me enamoré del shoegaze y el dreampop gracias a él. Y sin dudas me enamoré muchísimo más de su música.
Great video! Loop is another great shoegaze band not talked about on here. I think the 13th floor elevators also had a big influence on shoegaze, the clip of Spacemen 3 on here (rollercoaster) is actually a 13th floor song. Most Spacemen 3 songs were actually modified versions of other bands songs. One band I think was proto shoegaze is the Japanese band Les Rallizes Denudes, check em out!
rhondafeldman loop is a good call
Thanks for putting this all together, Sir. This genre and it's history have become bear and dear to me
I could never tire of hearing the Velvet Underground, MBV, Spacemen 3, JMC and the Cure.
“Has anyone heard the new Ride single? It’s got a good beat!”
That's you, that is.
Andy Bells recent solo stuff is sublime!
great video! i would like to add the brazilian band from the 60's Os Mutantes... although many music fans probably already know them, i think they don't get the recognition they deserve for being one of the most creative musicians of their time. pioneers of a psychedelic sound with a dreamy footprint mixed with more traditional brazilian sounds. their entire discography is incredible, but i would like to recommend "o relógio" and "dia 36"
Don't forget, they were also one of the most important members of the countercultural revolutionary movement, tropicalia led by some of the best musicians in Brazil and possibly the world, Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso. They had to be some of the bravest people in the world to use music against a US backed right wing military dictatorship. It was sad what happened to the movement but it already left it's mark on Brazilian music which changed the country.
@@lenini056 that's right! it's just a little sad that while Caetano and Gil are adored as the great artists that they are here in Brazil most people only know Rita Lee's solo work while the work of Os Mutantes as a group ends up only reaching a niche audience. not to mention the solo work of other members such as Arnaldo Baptista, who has brilliant albums that are practically forgotten. i really love them, they were a big part of my introduction to a world of experimental music when i was a teenager. so cool to see that people from other countries are interested in them... thanks for commenting :)
Such a long time coming. I was patient because I knew we would get this video one day...today is that day 🙏🏾
ill be coming back to this video for new bands/songs for a long time to come, top notch vid but so many are here. think you
No one ever mentions The Chameleons in these videos. I think they're one of the most underrated bands in shoegaze/dream pop.
They are more like post punk or goth imo. Strange times though is pretty much dream pop.
@@archer60x43 That's sort of where "shoegaze" really started. MBV was technically a goth band. Cocteau twins, the cure, loop, telescopes, spacemen, Mary chain, bunneymen, chameleons imo where some of the most important precursors of the later MBV sound all influenced by the VU.
@@hurkamur1 The cure, bunny men, banshees and mary chain didnt start as goth, they were all post punk bands (mary chain were more just a punk band than post punk on there first and best album). There was punk. then post punk , then you had multiple genres that came out of post punk, one of them was Goth. In the UK indie scene of the 80's you can find shoegazey elements in nearly every band, same with the indie bands that they influenced in the 90's, but that doesnt mean every band was a shoegaze band or big influencers in the genre, bands like the chameleons are very important in there own right but they were never a real shoegaze band. A more pure shoegaze sound had been formed by other bands by the time the chameleons were putting out music with some minimal shoegaze influences.
@@karebushmarebu233 Where did I say all of those bands were goth? I said MBV was a goth band, and started as such. The cure, and the banshees were post punk turned "goth" while the bunneymen and Mary chain were never "goth" bands. Along with Bauhaus, the cure and Siouxsie & the Banshees basically defined the genre. While I agree bands like the chameleons, bunneymen, don't really fit the bill, they were important precursors. While one could argue specifically spacemen 3, loop, the Cocteau twins , and mary chain (to a lesser extent) made "shoegaze" records before MBV did.
@@hurkamur1 yeah, a person isn’t safe anywhere these days is a cool goth/post punk song. It contains a really shoegazey guitar sound.