Best Shogaze-esque Releases Of 08!

More and more bands seem to be releasing material influenced by the golden years of Shoegaze these days. Ah, if only I had been older than 5 in 1990...Anyway it has been a pretty exciting year for this revived genre. Last year Jesus And Mary Chain reunited and promised new material while also engaging in awesome tour. This year the dream-pop heavyweights My Bloody Valentine officially reunited and went on tour and are promising new tunes as well! Newer bands like some of the ones I'm about to list are also bringin back the reverb, with some totally awesome jams. So without further ado here is my Top 10 Shoegaze-eque Releases Of 08 list:

10) Grouper - Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill This album is great for spacing out and dreaming about depression. Liz Harris (Grouper) drenches her voice in so much reverb her lyrics are almost unintelligible, but her haunting melodies ring out through the creeping songs of this album. I'd put money down that this album syncs up perfect (Pink Floyd-Wizard of Oz style) with The Blair Witch Project or something. The album is very atmospheric and is better listened to as a whole, yet key tracks include the title track, "Heavy Water/ I'd Rather Be Sleeping," and "Stuck." Sorry no real video for this one but heres a track with a nice image to compliment:


9) Soundpool - Dichotomies & Dreamland This one comes from a lesser known NYC based act. Soundpool have put together a carefully woven album, with lush songs that really wash over you. The band is nothing too original, sounding like a mix between Slowdive and Lush, but the songs still sound fresh. Check this out if your jonesin for some classic Shoegaze with a new-school edge! Plus they've got a cool lo-fi vid!:


8)The Brian Jonestown Massacre - My Bloody Underground Ok, a lot of people might hate me for this pick, but I'm one of the few who actually like this album, or this band for that matter. Anton Newcombe is Brian Jonestown and this album is allll him. The album is a tribute to My Bloody Valentine, The Velvet Underground and Jesus And Mary Chain..and while this sounds like a great idea for a new release the disc does fall a little short. Instead of fusing these influences into some genius psychedelic love child, Newcombe picks them apart making each song on the album different, but direct in its influences. Despite the lack of originality the album still has a Jonestown feel to it, and rocks pretty hard. The bending chords on "Jesus Like Kick Jesus," are some of the best My Bloody Valentine impressions I've ever heard.


7)No Age - Nouns Most peeps would argue this band is more punk than gaze,' but they've still got some hissing distortion and reverberating vox to make them shoegaze-eqsue for me. Yeah, No Age hit a home-run this year with their much more accessible second album. While this release is an easier listen than their last it still has that mind bashing drone to it. Singer/drummer Dean Allen Spunt, maintains a whiny Tom Delong style of singing, but some how it works. The band pumps out crunchy pop songs here, but they're only a hop skip and jump away from some C86 type shit. Also they've gotten kinda big, so I guess their budget increased enough for them to afford a decent video:


6)Crystal Stilts - Alight Of Night There certainly are a lot of bands these days with the word "crystal" in their name, but I guess thats how the ball bounces! Anywho, Crystal Stilts kinda came outta no where this year with this saweet album. This record is almost the male version of Vivian Girls, but at the same time not at all. The band's biggest influence is Jesus And Mary Chain, which is made apparent by the distortion cranked gits, and reverb heavy snares. While its most def a shoegaze album, it still some how has a very new feeling to it. The lead vocalist is able to give the record an interesting sound with his crooning Righteous Brother style vox. Here's the bands most recent vid, shot with a 8mm giving it a nice psyched-out feel for their song "Prismatic Room," which sounds like something off of "69 Love Songs," check it:


5)Vivian Girls - Vivian Girls A couple weeks ago I went with some buds to see Vivian Girls play live. The venue was The Old Blue Lass in London and yes it was just as good as it sounds. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart opened but we missed them, in fact we almost missed the whole show on account of they almost didn't let us in, but eventually they did and we moshed and I crowd surfed and we met Vivian Girls and it was awesome! Anyway their self titled album is almost as good as their live performance, which is saying a lot. Vivian Girls really set themselves apart as they bring back really great 'short-songs' Their whole album runs at a little over 20minutes, yet every second of it is worth 2 listens at least. Back in the day C86 and old school punk bands really coined the beauty of loud, fast, short songs and Vivian Girls have tapped into this. This is a must-check-out band for anyone really wanting to stay hip to the jive these days.


4) Beach House - Devotion Well, you know when we hit number 4 we're gettin into the nitty gritty shit! I had no doubt in my mind that these upcoming bands had to be in the top 4, but it was difficult to decide which order they would be placed in. Anyway, Beach House came out at number 4, but not cuz they don't deserve a higher spot, its just how the cards were dealt this time! Beach House is a wonderful band and I was fortunate enough to see them as well this fall. Beach House is different from every other band on this countdown, because A they shy away from live drumming and B they enlist the help of an organ on nearly every jam. Yes, Devotion is musical gold and if you don't own it you should get it right now. Victoria's dreamy operatic voice soars above the blissy organ/guitar fuzz and creates a warm yet dissonant feeling to the music. While it is sometimes swallowed by the organ tones, the guitar work on this record has been masterfully crafted as well. Plucks and slides give Beach House's sound a welcome a touch of country too. I've already posted their most recent video on the blog earlier, so here's another. This is "Gila," one uh the best tracks on "Devotion":


3)Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours Lemme tell ya, when I first heard this album I could not stop bumpin it. Nearly every track on here is money, and its the only album I've listed that you can sorta dance to, without feeling miserable. Yeah, Cut Copy blew up outta Australia with club-ready electro beats and cascading walls of synth. This band knows how to make a pop song, but they also know how to create incredibly lush melodies as well. A lot of this album is produced so well that ambiance is sometimes allowed to seep through the cracks of the blinking disco dance floor. Cut Copy are a combination of a plethora of sounds, but all of them originate in the 80s. They might be the least shoegazey band on here but they still got it in em.


2) M83 - Saturdays=Youth What's interesting about this choice is that normally M83 is the most relevant shogaze band around, but then Anthony Gonzalez hit us with this release and it threw everybody off. Yeah, Saturdays=Youth is probably Anthony's least shogaze-esque album, but it still contains the right stuff. No instead of being primarily dreamy synth pop this album is a salute to all things 80s. Gonzalez sites Simple Minds, Kate Bush and John Hughes films as his biggest influences and they all seem completely plausible the second you press play. This album is crafted in such away that it puts the 80s on a golden pedestal, putting to shame any ironic mockery that may have previously been derived from a mere utterance of the word "80s." But where is the shoegaze you ask? Ah, its there..for instance a female vocalist is utilized quite a bit on this record and she sounds an awful lot like the Cocteau Twins, who were godfathers of shoegaze back in dizzay. And then of course there's the fact that everything has been drenched in reverb... Check out this terrific video for one of the hottest tracks on the LP, "Kim & Jessie":


1) Deerhunter - Microcastle/ Weird Era Cont. Dun dun dunnnn..well you knew it was commin, numero uno. Yes, I guess this a pretty obvious choice as I've been cooing about this band for the past three months of this blog's existence. To be honest though, this band deserve all praise they receive. In fact I would label this album best of 08 and not just Best Shoegaze album of 08, but alas we are on a Shoegaze list, so I'll get to it. Microcastle is the perfect follow up to Cryptograms the bands last album, yet this album is much more accessible. Singer Bradford Cox flaunts his careful skill at lyric writing here, while guitarist Lockett Pundit demonstrates his precision with chord progressions. There is little to be said about this record because it is so good, you need to just give it a listen. On top of this goodness, if you purchase the album it comes with a bonus disc! And no, its not just a b-sides and singles bonus disc, its like a whole nother album. Recently I've been listening to this bonus disc (Weird Era Cont.) more than Microcastle, but they're both equally great. What is so stupendous about this act is that they actually take they're influences and create something new with them. This album sounds completely original and so 2008, while some of the other records on this list could be mistaken for another album from another decade. Cox's sites influences from all over the board including My Bloody Valentine, Martha and The Vandellas and Lil Wayne. His cornucopia of tastes shine through on the record with tracks that surprise the listener and make you crave for more. Often I find myself turning the record all the way up, just so I can hear the different layers and levels of this album. Check out this LP if you haven't already, here's one of my fav tracks live in Brooklyn.:


(Thanks for readin all this garbage.)