#kevin shields

[spilladabalia]

Kevin Shields & Bilinda Butcher of My Bloody Valentine, photographer unlisted.

[davidhudson]

Happy 61st, Kevin Shields.

[fashionlandscapeblog]

My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything, 1988

[traderrock]

My Bloody Valentine - Glider (EP, 1990).

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

Lost in Translation (2003, Sofia Coppola)

14/06/2024

[offsetnoise]

[yourfavealbumisgender]

Loveless by My Bloody Valentine is Bisexual!

requested by @semimortalslug

[rastronomicals]

6:51 AM EDT September 21, 2024:

Kevin Shields - "City Girl" From the Soundtrack album Lost in Translation (September 9, 2003)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

--

[triacetone]

[tubefed]

sketchbook doodles. pardon my shoegaze

[all-rock-and-roll-is-homosexual]

Select Magazine February 1992/My Bloody Valentine

if you like my scans and want to help out you can do so here I'm currently trying to raise around $100 to buy a better scanner any help is appreciated!

[cherrylng]

Great Guitarists 100 - John Frusciante, Tom Morello, Kurt Cobain, Billie Joe Armstrong, Kevin Shields, and Noel Gallagher [CROSSBEAT (November 2009)]

John Frusciante Rolling Stone magazine has chosen John Mayer, Derek Trucks, and John Frusciante as the three greatest guitarists of our time. The three greatest guitarists of the 1960s, including Eric Clapton, were from the UK, but all three are now American. Mayer and Trucks have a wide circle of friends, including Clapton, but Frusciante is a solitary figure. He has a thriving solo career, but is a martyr to the band. He devotes all his energies to expressing himself within the collective soulmate that is Red Hot Chili Peppers. John's guitar has no clear style. He can create catchy riffs, he can play well-crafted solos, and he's good at backing vocals. He has the versatility to adapt to any situation, but he is at his strongest in the arena of Red Hot Chili Peppers. This is probably due to the inspiration provided by Flea, a bassist with a deep range, and the support of Anthony, a vocalist who can make you listen with sensitivity rather than skill. The band's tone and phrasing are free and uninhibited. This style is supported by his concentration and the technique he has developed since his teenage years. It would be rare to find a boy who woke up listening to Captain Beefheart and practising 15 hours a day to Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix records. -Akihiko Yamamoto

Representative albums "Blood Sugar Sex Magic" (1991), Red Hot Chili Peppers "Stadium Arcadium" (2006, pictured) "Shadows Collide with People" (2004) John Frusciante

Tom Morello Tom Morello's unique guitar playing is like that of a DJ. This is Tom Morello's trademark, but it is not his main focus. His backbone comes from hard rock. Tom was born in 1964. He got into rock with Led Zeppelin and KISS, then experienced punks like The Clash and formed his first band…… This is a typical generation. Tom followed this completely. In fact, in the midst of the heavy metal boom, he even learned to play technical guitar solos. In short, he had a very normal musical background for someone born in the 1960s. However, an encounter with the members of the band that would later form Rage Against the Machine marked a turning point for Tom. He was shocked by the hip-hop-tinged musicality that centred on Zack, and tried and tested it. As a means of countering this, he came up with the idea of replacing Public Enemy and Run DMC's DJ playing with guitars, which led to a series of unique performances. It was a kind of paradigm shift. In other words, instead of being a better guitarist than anyone else, he makes sounds that no one else can make. By changing his way of thinking 180 degrees, Tom Morello made a great leap forward as a guitarist. -Junya Shimofusa

Representative albums "Rage Against The Machine" (1992, photo) Rage Against The Machine "Evil Empire" (1996) "The Battle of Los Angeles" (1999)

Kurt Cobain Buzz Osborne, Greg Sage and Calvin Johnson. When considering Kurt Cobain's guitar style, the influence of these three cannot be ignored. Buzz, as you know, was a fellow senior member of the band and the man who introduced Kurt to the appeal of a slower, heavier sound. Greg led the Wipers in the late 70s and early 80s. Nirvana covered a couple of songs, but more than that, it's worth noting that Greg's psychedelic guitar sound is remarkably similar to Kurt's. And then there's Calvin. Kurt was strongly devoted to that spirit for a time. Kurt's lo-fi sensibility and artistry were developed while living in Olympia (Calvin's home base). Heavy, psychedelic, and lo-fi. Kurt has cleverly incorporated these three keywords of 80s American indie music to form his own style. -Junya Shimofusa

Representative albums "Bleach" (1989), Nirvana "Nevermind" (1991, photo)

Billie Joe Armstrong How many kids picked up a guitar at the sight of Billie Joe playing his battered Stratocaster? His guitar playing, with its simple combination of power chord strumming, arguably played the same role in the 90s as Johnny Ramone's. Despite being labelled as mellowcore at the time of their debut, there is not much hardcore influence in Green Day's sound, including their guitar playing. Rather, there is a strong influence from 60s British beat and 70s UK punk. After establishing his own style with 'Dookie', from 'Warning' he began to use acoustic guitars to great effect. It is interesting to note that, despite having listened to hard rock and heavy metal before punk, there is almost no trace of that influence in his music today. -Tomoo Yamaguchi

Representative albums "Dookie" (1994, photo), Green Day "Warning" (2000)

Kevin Shields After original members Dave and Tina left the band, My Bloody Valentine became a twin-vocal band with Bilinda, who joined the band midway through. On the Rage label they were still playing an anorak-like guitar sound influenced by The Jesus and Mary Chain, but after moving to Creation they quickly evolved. Kevin's noisy and inebriated guitar sound had a huge influence on the so-called 'shoegazers' that followed. While his followers used a lot of delays and reverbs, the original used almost no spatial effectors. They created "fluctuations in space and time" by holding the tremolo arm, strumming chords and applying reverse reverb. The sound, which no one had ever heard at the time, even led to numerous speculations, such as "Could he be controlling the number of tape revolutions?" -Takanori Kuroda

Representative albums "Isn't Anything" (1988) My Bloody Valentine "Loveless" (1991, photo)

Noel Gallagher Noel Gallagher is a well-known big mouth. His off-the-cuff remarks are often controversial. As the man who runs the biggest band on the UK scene, he probably has to be that bold. However, when it comes to his guitar playing, his personality is anything but bold. A fear of mistuning is evident. The guitar playing on the album, as well as live, is very collective. He never misses a note, as if he were following a musical score. Even the guitar solos, which are a guitarist's greatest showpiece, are almost exactly the same as on the album. In any case, he doesn't take any risks. In other words, you can see through his surprisingly naïve mind. In a rock world still infested with gymnastic machismo, this is a rare individuality. The band's music has the air of a big-boned, but in fact it is very sensitive. This sense of mismatch is Noel's greatest individuality. -Junya Shimofusa

Representative albums "Definitely Maybe" (1994, photo) Oasis "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" (1995)

[jt1674]

[dansandoa]

[lovejustforaday]

Shoegaze Classics - Loveless

Loveless - My Bloody Valentine (1991)

Main Genres - Shoegaze, Noise Pop, Dream Pop

A decent sampling of: Experimental Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Alternative Dance

DUT DUT DUT DUT VREW VREW VREW VREW VREW VREW VREW

Well, if you knew anything about shoegaze going into this series, you knew that this review was going to be inevitable.

Today I take on the most truly revered shoegaze band, and probably one of the most legendary indie bands of all time. God help me, I'm going to do my best, so here goes nothing. Let's talk about My Bloody Valentine and Loveless.

The Band

My Bloody Valentine is an awesome band. Plain and simple. The name is awesome, the sound is awesome, their public persona is awesome. Just, lots of awesomeness.

Okay, I can probably do better than that. Hmmm... Okay wait, stay with me here.

My Bloody Valentine were originally an unlikely, little-known post-punk band from the 80s, that somehow went on to being one of the most important and influential bands of the 90s whilst only having dropped one record for the entire aforementioned decade.

After a series of lineup changes that coincided with a search for the bands' sonic identity, the true My Bloody Valentine lineup solidified as Kevin Shields, the madman musical genius leader of the crew on guitars and vocals, Bilinda Butcher, a feathery soft-spoken punk on guitar and vocals, Colm Ó Cíosóig as the animated, flappy-haired drummer, and Debbie Googe as the badass butch bassist (BBB) who was originally from the anarchist punk scene.

I've been trying to consistently use the term "British Isles" to describe the epicenter of the initial first wave of shoegaze. I wanted to be careful not to just say "Britain" or the U.K., because that would be somewhat revisionist.

Proto-shoegazers A.R. Kane may have formed in London, but other "proto" bands like Jesus and Mary Chain and Cocteau Twins were from Scotland. As for the band most credited with the true inception of shoegaze by its strictest definition, that would be My Bloody Valentine, hailing from Ireland, folks who often (for very good reason) don't take too kindly to being described as "British". That being said, Debbie and Bilinda are English.

I won't waste too much time going into the history of the band for this review, mostly because this is already gonna be a long one and I've got so many things to say about the record itself. So I'll give you the sparknotes version.

Like most early shoegazers, My Bloody Valentine dropped a few EPs before their first full-length LP, albeit in some completely different genres. C86 style Jangle Pop, Post-Punk, and frigging Psychobilly of all things apparently?

The band really found their sound, and pioneered the definitive collective traits of shoegaze in 1988, signing with Creation Records and dropping the EP You Made Me Realize and, later that year, their debut full-length Isn't Anything which, depending on who you ask, is the first true shoegaze LP (Though a very little known post-punk band named A Primary Industry may have something to say about that).

Shoegaze was invented with the propagation of a new world of sonic timbres discovered through the usage of guitar pedals, and My Bloody Valentine in particular really loved their pedals. On top of those pedals, the band laid a lot of distortion and harsh volumes.

Likeswise, My Bloody Valentine has pretty much always been just as much a noise pop band like their contemporaries The Jesus And Mary Chain. The two scenes overlapped a lot during the first wave (just like dream pop and neo-psychedelia), and some even describe the shoegaze formula as essentially being dream pop + noise pop = shoegaze. Personally I think this is a reductionist definition when there are many shoegaze bands that don't fit nicely into either of those other categories. But I digress.

Isn't Anything was the record that launched a thousand (shoegaze) ships. It's certainly a bit more overtly post-punk in its foundations, and rougher around the edges than what would come next. But I also really do love this record. "You Never Should" and "No More Sorry" in particular are two of my favourite My Bloody Valentine songs.

What came next, however, is a whole different beast entirely.

The Record

I'll start with the disclaimer that everything I could possibly say about Loveless is probably already a cliche by now.

Insanely fuzzy and warm. Layers upon layers of sound that demonstrates a level of musical precision and perfectionism that almost doesn't seem human. Reinvented the guitar like virtually no other record before or since. Oddly arousing and potentially even sapphic if you read into the lyrics (tbf Debbie is a confirmed gay indie icon). Sounds exactly like the neon shades of magenta displayed on the cover art.

2023 is frankly a little bit late to be writing a review about this heavily celebrated 1991 record. Others have already written entire dissertations about this revolutionary LP. I don't promise this is going to be the most definitive and thoughtful review of this record, nor am I anywhere close to being the first or last indie nerd to ever champion and fanboy over this goddamn masterpiece of its genre, but I do wanna talk about how I myself personally experience Loveless.

Funny enough, my favourite memory of listening to this record (which I've been loving since 2015) was actually when I was dog-sitting for a friend's mom at her house in 2018 during the early autumn. The dog herself even seemed to wanna dance with me while I was spinning in little circles to the rhythms of "Soon". I think that's the season when I enjoy this record most - probably a mix of the coolness and crispness of the autumn breeze, and wearing the same kind of cozy sweaters that the My Bloody Valentine members are wearing in like half of their 90s photoshoots.

Okay, enough chitter chatter. Let's get into it.

"Only Shallow" is one of the most iconic album openers of all time, period. Instantly overpowers the listener with those first few overblown snare stabs before exploding into a pounding noise pop delirium of screeching banshee guitars. Letting up only slightly for the verses, where Bilinda Butcher describes something sweet, soft, and warm, in a brazen contrast to the blustering razor guitars that are unleashed after each verse. This track most perfectly encapsulates a pervasive trend across the rest of the album, wherein the sonic mosaic of textures can be described paradoxically as both cushiony and razor-sharp at the same time.

Lyrics and their delivery will continue from this point on to be every bit as textural and vague as the music itself, creating abstract entities that are transient and androgynous. Indeed, I struggled a lot on my first few listens to discern which tracks were being sung by Bilinda and which were Kevin or the both of them. Bilinda recalls that she would often take naps in the studio when they were recording Loveless and would do her vocal tracks soon after being awoken, which lends itself to her very tranquilized delivery in which I feel like I can picture the drowsy bags under her eyes in some of these songs. Likewise, most of this entire album is best appreciated in a half-awake mental state, even more so than other dream pop / shoegaze records.

"Loomer" is the dark underbelly of Loveless, like listening through the old floorboards of a basement ceiling to sounds of the band playing a live house show in the living room upstairs. It's a grainy, gloomy bed of sound that feels as though it could be physically slept on if desired.

I have no idea how many actual layers of track recordings went into the concoction of the heavily experimental "To Here Knows When", but it feels like hundreds. This song is a whirring helicopter blade of thousands of little sounds, scattering everywhere until it creates a thick, opaque, sparkling lilac mist that obscures the upbeat melody that's utterly buried in the fog of noisy drones and distortion. The mastering sounds as though you're listening to all of this happen through a small tubular opening in a giant glass wall, as if all of the tonal anarchy is happening from the other side, perhaps in another dimension. For a bonus observation, this one in particular sounds even more unreal and transcendental when you're tired as fuck on an early morning bus ride after a night of zero sleep (Don't ask me).

"When You Sleep" is probably My Bloody Valentine's most acclaimed and influential song. That de-tuned, icy, fluorescent glowing pop melody motif is seriously addictive, and it sounds almost deranged. The heavily compressed drumming provides the propulsion needed for a track that feels like its intensely vibrating every last quark of matter in its audible vicinity. I really have to remind myself that these crazy sounds are being made by guitars with effect pedals, and not with synthesizers (or, as the meme goes, vacuum cleaners).

The record really crunches in on those guitar textures with "Come In Alone" a track that you'll be hearing echoing in the back of your mind long after its finished (note: this record is NOT recommended to those especially prone to having tinnitus). This track is like all of the blood rushing to your head when you would hang upside down from the monkey bars as a kid. It feels intoxicating in the best way.

The band takes an unsuspecting turn for gut-punching emotions on "Sometimes", likely the only song with a more or less discernible lyrical theming on the record, about sharing intimacy with another person and the insurmountable fear of isolation from someone you love. The timbral effects are applied minimally on this song, but the dozens of recorded guitar tracks drone in a wondrous hum that resonates with the vibrations of a lonely soul. Usually, I'd say this is my favourite My Bloody Valentine song, though "To Here Knows When" and "Only Shallow" occasionally compete for the number 1 spot as well.

"Blown a Wish" is cool, dreamy shoegaze that fizzles and melts in your mouth like an ice cream soda. Pure pleasure is the best way I could describe its sensation, with all of its rippling, neck-tingling guitar effects that dance in and out of the foreground. Alternatively, this is like being high on helium and having so many butterflies in your stomach that you actually start to feel like you're levitating in a luscious trance. Delicious song.

The record closes with its poppiest and most accessible number "Soon", a mix of comparatively light shoegaze psychedelia and alternative dance beats that sounds enormously sexy. Evokes psychoactive substances, gently swaying hips, and grassy fields filled with buzzing fireflies. A very stylish way to end the record and solidify My Bloody Valentine's status as indie music legends.

What Came After That?

Loveless was a certified gold commercial success, about on par with the success of Ride's Going Blank Again, but it was also purportedly so expensive to make that it bankrupted the Creation Records label (serves you bastards right for making Oasis happen) and caused the band to be dropped.

I honestly kind of laugh to myself whenever I think of Alan McGee's pompous ass looking at the numbers and having a panic attack, almost as much as I laugh when I remember how Catherine Wheel gave him a big fat "NOPE!" to being signed after he pestered them. Have I mentioned I really don't like Creation Records ways of doing things?

*seething* ANYWAY, My Bloody Valentine basically disappeared for the rest of the 90s. Members moved on to different projects.

And then, after years of teasing a third record, the band's self-titled mbv was finally dropped in 2013. This one seems to divide fans a lot more than their other records; it wasn't as universally received as the Slowdive comeback record a few years later. This one is arguably more experimental than Loveless, and there's even a couple of tracks with some DnB influence. I think all things considered, it's a pretty great comeback record. I think many folks were probably expecting a Loveless 2, and it probably helps that I didn't even listen to this band before the new record came out, so I had no expectations built over years for this record.

There is allegedly a fourth record (and possibly fifth) LP in the works, but Shields has been teasing at it for years now, and its sort of becoming a running joke in the shoegaze community that we're gonna be waiting another five or ten years.

But hey, good work takes time. After making a record like Loveless, I personally think you've earned the right as an artist to afford yourself all the time in the world. I certainly wouldn't know how the hell to follow upon something that masterfully crafted, and some bands probably wouldn't even try to.

But besides all that, Loveless speaks for itself. It is a singular album experience. Nothing really sounds anything quite like it, to the point that newbies often getting into shoegaze for the first time with this record often lament the fact that the scene is not full of other records sounding just like this. It's for this reason precisely that, if you are totally new to shoegaze, I don't recommend this as a starting point. A lot of other great shoegaze records are unfairly compared to this record a whole fucking lot, and it can have a spoiling effect for some folks. But not every shoegaze band should sound like My Bloody Valentine, or have a Loveless in their discography.

But, at the same time, holy crap this is one of the coolest records of all time and if you haven't already heard it by now then you're doing yourself a huge disservice by not listening to this some time in the next week at the latest. Loveless is something that every fan of music should experience at least once, and there's only a handful of albums that I could confidently make that statement for.

So, yeah. Go listen. (✿ ᵔ ᴗ ᵔ )y

10/10

Highlights: "Sometimes", "To Here Knows When", "Only Shallow", "When You Sleep", "Blown A Wish", "Soon", "Come In Alone", "Loomer", "I Only Said"the