#shoegaze never dies

[blackmarket-playlists]

PART 11 with forgotten treasures of the shoegaze/dreampop genre and closely related styles. This time there's a deep dive into the 90s...

Artist: The Spiny Anteaters Country: Ottawa, Canada Highlight song: 10 Years Ago (1994) Info: A Kranky Records (Chicago) band

Artist: Snowpony Country: London, England Highlight song: Easy Way Down (1996) Info: Initially formed in 1996 by Katharine Gifford (Moonshake) and Debbie Googe (My Bloody Valentine)

Artist: A.C. Temple Country: Sheffield, England Highlight song: Miss Sky (1989) Info: Active from 1985 to 1991

Artist: Maids Of Gravity Country: California, US Highlight song: Moon Spiders (1995)

Artist: Here Country: Czech Republic Highlight song: For My Star (1993) Info: Three shoegazing albums, a John Peel favourite band

Artist: Toyen Country: Czech Republic Highlight song: Last Free Swans! (1992) Info: Formed in 1989

Artist: Whipped Cream Country: Gothenburg, Sweden Highlight song: Observator Crest (1992) Info: Active from 1989 to mid 1990s

Artist: Snapper Country: Dunedin, New Zealand Highlight song: Gentle Hour (1993) Info: Active from 1989 to 1996. Band of Peter Gutteridge (1961-2014), pioneering the Dunedin sound with The Clean and The Chills

Artist: Llala Farmers Country: Greenwich, England Highlight song: Yellow (1999) Info: Formed in 1997

Artist: Alison’s Halo Country: Arizona, US Highlight song: Dozen (1994) Info: Active from 1992-1998, 2009-today (they’re still on tour, and maybe there will be new songs sometime....)

Playlistcover: Old Magic Pellas (Brazil) – just remastered their brilliant album „Pull My Daisy“ from 1995.

[eggmeralda]

just remembered dreampop. he was literally just a guy

[alien-melissa]

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬 - 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰★

2022年にバンドを結成されたカナダを拠点に活動するシューゲイズバンドThe Neverminds。

儚くドリーミーなシューゲイズサウンドは最新EPではよりヘビィでノイジーに厚みを感じるサウンドへと進化し魅力を増している。

『never mind,the summer 』　『nevermind, the winter 』では夏と冬の別々のコンセプトでリリースし、どちらも儚い青春時代の夢をみているような感覚に......

6/8〜日本ツアーをすることが決定！

来日公演が目前に迫ったThe Nevermindsにインタビューを行った。メンバーそれぞれが答えてくれている。

G - Ginny

V- Vincent

R - Ronan

A - Avi

1.いつから音楽を作り始め、どのようにしてバンドは始まりましたか？

G - バンドを始めるまで、自分で音楽を作ったことはありませんでした。　それまでは、ギターを少し弾くことはあっても、音楽はいつも私の趣味でした。そのおかげで、このバンドにいる間に曲作りについて多くのことを学ぶことができたと思います。

V - 中学生の時に自分で曲を作り始めて、高校生の時にGarageBandでプロデュースを始めたんだ。プロデュースを始めると、ベースやピアノ、ドラムなど他の楽器も独学で覚えた。高校ではバンドのためにたく��んの曲をアレンジした。Logic Proを使ったレコーディングや、様々な楽器のパートを書いたりアレンジしたりする方法を知っていたから、これらの経験はすべてネヴァーミーズで役立ったよ。

R - 9歳か10歳くらいから自分で曲を書き始めて、徐々にミュージシャンになることを真剣に考えるようになったんだ。

A - 去年の9月にバンドに加入して、みんなと一緒に音楽を作る喜びを感じている。6歳からドラムを叩いていて、人生のほとんどを音楽制作に費や���てきたんだ。

2.メンバーが音楽を始めたきっかけは？

G - 僕の両親は昔から音楽が好きで、僕が小学生の時にギターを習い始めた時、父がギターの弾き方を教えてくれたんだ。中学では学校のロックバンドに入り、文化祭で演奏していました。仲の良い友達とバンドを組んだことが学生時代で一番楽しかったし、その頃からずっとバンドを組んで友達と一緒に音楽を作りたいと思っていたんだと思う。だからnevermindsを始めた。

V - 最初に習った楽器は中学の時のウクレレ。それから独学でギターも弾けるようになって、学校で他の友達とジャムを始めたんだ。クラスメイトが給食のテーブルを囲んで、適当な曲を歌ったりジャムったりして、最終的には高校でバンドを作ったんだ。

R 小さい頃、父親がアコースティックギターを持っていて、時々弾いていた。

A - 生まれたときから音楽に夢中だった。

3.ニューEP『nevermind, the winter』のコンセプト、制作、レコーディングについて教えてください。

G 「"nevermind, the winter. "は、1st EP "nevermind, the summer. "の姉妹作／続編にあたります。

夏のEPではノスタルジックでメランコリックな夏と青春をとらえようとしました。一方、冬のEPでは、孤独、孤立、失恋、もう思い出せない夢から覚める感覚など、重い感情についてより語っています。両EPのコンセプトを思いついた後、歌詞のアイデアが続き、アルバムの意図に合うように書きました。曲を完成させた後、EP全体がうまく流れ、一緒にストーリーを作れるように、トラックリストを編集しました。どの曲も同じ本の異なる章として機能しているので、EPを聴いてくれた人たちが、まるで私たちの物語を読んでいるように感じてくれたら嬉しいです。

V - “nevermind, the summer. "について、夏のEPでは

ギターとベースは、ドラム・トラックにオーディオ・インターフェイスを通して同時に録音し、生ドラムは別々に録音した。ギターとベースのパートは、フェンダーのツイン・リバーブとアンペグのBAを使って、DIとマイクの両方で個別に録音した。今回、ドラムのレコーディングに導入した新しいテクニックは、ルームマイクを使ったことだ。全体的に、よりユニークなトーンやエフェクトを実現するためにマイクの配置を変えてみたり、新しいギター・ペダルをたくさん試してみたりした。

また、"hunt me "のイントロや "dusk "のエンディングで聴ける音を作るために、ギターにバイオリンの弓を使った。ヴォーカルはShure SM7Bを使って録音した。Shure SM7Bは遮音されていない部屋で使うのに適したマイクで、私のタウンハウスのベッドルームですべてを録音したので、私たちにとっては完璧だった。

でも、このEPのレコーディングでは、大音量で長時間録音したため、近隣から騒音の苦情を何度も受けたよ。

4. 周りのシーンをどう感じていますか？

他のバンドとのつながりはありますか？

V - トロントのバンド・シーンにはとても刺激を受けている。White Rabbit、Poor You、Brotherなど、トロントの様々なインディー・バンドと共演したことがある。これらのバンドは、単に知り合いだからというだけでなく、本物で、個人的で、心に響くような、生々しく素晴らしい音楽を作っているので、大ファンなんだ。彼らのようなバンドは、国際的にもっと注目されるべきだと思う

R- トロントのシューゲイザー・シーンは、かなり小さいとはいえ、今でもかなり素晴らしいと思う。例えば、Luster Dustと一緒にプレイできたことは信じられないことだと思う。

A - 地元トロントのシューゲイザー／オルタナティヴ・ロック・シーンにいるバンドたちに会うのが大好きなんだ。Luster Dustのようなバンドに触発されて、自分たちのライブ・サウンドをもっと頑張ろうと思うようになったよ。

G- トロントのシーンで好きなバンドはもうみんな答えてくれたから、私は別のことを話すと、私たちは最近、"loveless collective "という音楽とアートの集団を作りました。このコレクティブは、トロント内外のシューゲイザー／ドリームポップバンドとつながり、彼らを巻き込んだショーやイベントを企画するために作りました。自分たちの音楽を発表する場を持つことで、シューゲイザー・シーンがもっと活性化する手助けをするのが私の目標です。

5.よく聴く日本のアーティストはいますか？

G - 日本のシューゲイザーバンドが大好きで、揺らぎ、my dead girlfriend、Tokyo Shoegazer、宇宙ネコ子、きのこ帝国、For Tracy Hydeなど。ボーカロイドのシューゲイザーも大好きで、mikgazerは史上最高のシューゲイザー・アルバムだと思います。シューゲイザー・シーン以外では、ヨルシカとEveも大好き。

V - 日本のアーティストで好きなのは、杉山清貴と山下達郎。日本の80年代シティポップ時代の音楽が大好きです。

R -15歳か16歳くらいのときに二藤一花にハマって、今でも時々彼の曲を聴いているんだ。

A-いや、でもツアーが終わったら変わってくれるといいな。

6.来日して楽しみにしていることは？

G- 日本にいる間に大阪と名古屋を訪れる予定です。　　　旅行したり、街を探索したり、そこの食べ物を楽しんだりするのがとても楽しみです。他のバンドがいろんなライブハウスで演奏するのを見るのも楽しみ。みんなにとって素晴らしい経験になると思います。

7.これからの夢や現在の目標は何ですか？

G - ツアーに出ることは僕らの最大の目標のひとつだったから、キャリアの早い段階でそれが実現できて本当に感謝している。もうひとつの目標は、もっと音楽を作って、シューゲイザー・シーンでもっと多くのアーティストとつながって、ミュージシャンとしてもっとうまくなることだね。

----------------------------------------------------

G - Ginny V - Vincent R - Ronan A - Avi

1. When did you start creating music and how has that led to the neverminds it exists today?

G - I had never really made my own music until right before we started the band. Before that, music was always just a hobby for me even though I played guitar a little bit. I think I'm learning so much about songwriting while being in this band because of that

V - I started writing my own songs in middle school and began producing in high school on GarageBand. When I began producing, I taught myself other instruments such as bass, piano and drums. I would also arrange a bunch of songs for my band in high school. All of these experiences would help me in the neverminds as I knew how to use Logic Pro to record our music as well as write/arrange various instrument parts for our songs.

R - I started writing my own stuff when I was about 9 or 10 and slowly got more and more serious about being a musician.

A - I joined the band last September and have had the pleasure of creating music with everyone. I’ve been playing drums since I was 6 and making music most of my life.

2. How did the members first get into music?

G - My parents always loved music and my dad taught me how to play guitar when I first started learning guitar in elementary school. I joined a school rock band in middle school and played at school festivals. Being in the band with my close friends was the most fun part of my school years and I think since then I always wanted to be in a band and make music together with friends. That’s why I started the neverminds in the first place.

V - The first instrument I learned was the ukulele in middle school. I then taught myself how to play guitar as well and started to jam with my other friends at school. Our classmates would gather around the lunch table and we would sing and jam out to random songs and eventually we created a band in high school.

R - when i was a little kid my dad had an acoustic guitar that he sometimes played and i just wanted to play super bad

A - I’ve been into music since birth.

3. Please tell me about the concept, production and recording of the new EP “nevermind, the winter”?

G - “nevermind, the winter.” is a sister/sequel album to our first ep “nevermind, the summer.” In the summer ep, we tried to capture a nostalgic and melancholic summer and adolescence while the winter ep talks more about heavy emotions - loneliness, isolation, heartbreak and the feeling of waking up from a dream you can’t remember anymore. After coming up with these concepts for both EPs, the ideas for the lyrics followed and were written to fit the intention of the album. After we finished our songs, we carefully curated the tracklist so that the whole EP could flow well and create stories together. Every track works as different chapters of the same book, and I hope people who listen to our EP can feel as though they are reading our story.

V - For “nevermind, the summer.” " guitars and bass were recorded simultaneously straight into an audio interface over a drum track while live drums were recorded separately, however, for the new EP we experimented with more complex recording techniques and overdubbing to have more creative control over our sound. We recorded all guitar and bass parts individually through both DI and microphone using a Fender twin reverb and an Ampeg BA. A new technique we implemented for recording drums this time was using a room mic. Overall, we played around a lot with different mic placements to achieve more unique tones and effects as well as experimented with a lot of new guitar pedals. We also implemented the use of a violin bow on the guitar to create the sound that can be heard in the intro of “haunt me” and the ending of “dusk”. Vocals were recorded using a Shure SM7B which is a good microphone to be used in untreated rooms which was perfect for us since we recorded everything in my townhouse bedroom. However, we got several noise complaints from neighbours during the recording of this EP because of the long hours of recording very loud sounds.

4. how do you feel about the scenes around you? Do you have any connections with other bands?

V - I am very inspired by the band scene in Toronto. We have played with various toronto indie bands such as White Rabbit, Poor You and Brother. These are all bands who I am a big fan of not just because they are our acquaintances but because they make raw and amazing music that feels genuine, personal and heartfelt. I think bands like them need more attention internationally.

R - I think the shoegaze scene in Toronto, even if it’s pretty small, is still pretty great. I think it’s incredible that we’ve gotten to play with Luster Dust, for example.

A - I’ve loved meeting some of the bands in the local Toronto shoegaze/alternative rock scene. Bands such as Luster Dust have really inspired us to work harder on our live sound.

G - Everyone already answered my favourite bands in the Toronto scene so I want to talk about something different. We recently made a music and art collective called ‘loveless collective’. We made this collective to connect with shoegaze/dreampop bands in and out of Toronto and organize shows/events involving them. Our goal is to help the shoegaze scene become more active by having a platform to showcase their music.

5. Are there any Japanese artists you listen to?

G - I love Japanese shoegaze bands, such as Yuragi, my dead girlfriend, Tokyo Shoegazer, Uchuu Nekoko, kinokoteikoku, For Tracy Hyde and so on. I also love Vocaloid shoegaze, I think mikgazer is the best shoegaze album of all time. Apart from shoegaze scene, I also love Yorushika and Eve.

V - Some of my favourite Japanese artists are Kiyotaka Sugiyama and Tatsuro Yamashita. I love music from the 80s city pop era of Japan.

R - when i was about 15 or 16 i got really into ichika nito and i still listen to his stuff from time to time

A - No, but I hope that will change after the tour.

6. What are you looking forward to doing when you come to Japan?

G - We are visiting Osaka and Nagoya while we are there. We are very excited to travel and explore the city, and enjoy the food there. We are also looking forward to watching other bands play at different live houses. I feel like it will be a great experience for all of us.

7. What are your current/dream goals for the upcoming?

G - Going on a tour was one of our biggest goals, so we’re really grateful that we get to that so early in our career. Another goal would be to make more music, connect with more artists in the shoegaze scene and become better as musicians.

The Neverminds

Instagram@thenvrminds ←

X @thenvrmindsband←

[a-milestone]

Music is very important to me. It's always been an escape, something to share, something to process strong feelings, to study to, to workout, to rock out when I played bass. And what's really nice to see is that when I first got into music, I was a heavy metal enthusiast. As I've gotten, my tastes have changed but I still get huge enjoyment from the music I love. So I thought I'd put 10 albums that I'll never stop listening to.

1) Metallica Black Album - first CD I ever bought, Enter Sandman was first song I learnt on bass and Nothing Else Matters is my favourite song of all time.

2) Killswitch Engage - As Daylight Dies. Howard as vocalist was a game changer and this album is really his own. Still Beats Your Name is a quintessential metalcore track.

3) Misery Signals - Of Malice and the Magnum Heart. Raw, energetic, rich with melody and powerful screams. My go to album if I need to focus.

4) Teenage Wrist - Earth is a Black Hole. I got quite into Shoegaze bands and Teenage Wrist are very chill. Yellowbelly regularly features in my yearly Spotify summaries.

5) Alexisonfire - Old Crows/Young Cardinals. This is a great album, really feel their sound matured in this album and great tracks feature. Personally recommend The Northern.

6) The Ills - To Wish Impossible Things. I love instrumental music. The Ills are a Slovak band and this is my favourite album. A Milestone (my Tumblr name) is my favourite trick, alongside Ventriloquists.

7) Gunship - Dark all Day. Synth music! With an excellent cover of Time after Time. Vocals are great, very sci fi and dystopian. It's a great album

8) Emarosa - Peach Club. This album features some great post rock and jazz fused together which creates great melodies. Funky and catchy lyrics, it's a great summer album

9) Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks. This band holds a special place in my heart, being a shared album between me and my first love. All albums are good and I had a hard time choosing but this stands out for me.

10) Brand New - The Devil and the God are Raging Inside Me. 2000s post rock/ early hardcore was a great scene and Brand new was incredible. You Won't Know and Jesus Christ are two of my fave tracks of all time

[dallonwrites]

UNTIL HEAVEN - WIP INTRO

matthew lejune / @dallonwrites / ocean vuong / mary ruefle

He knows that his headache is quietly growing vicious and he should take off his headphones, but now they’re singing about Heaven and Las Vegas – two places he has never been – and he knows that at some point, still unknown to him, his father died, and maybe that means he’s now stuck in Heaven or Las Vegas or somewhere in between. Or maybe that means he’ll just be everywhere, in the rain on Felix’s face and the ache behind his eyelids, and that’s how it’ll stay.

Genre: Adult Literary Fiction, novella (please god stay a novella)

Setting: San Francisco/New York, December 1990/January 1991

Vibe: shoegaze & dream pop, warm lighting, ginger flavor, a city skyline at night, going to church for the first time in years, feeling too old and also like you were born yesterday, disposable camera photos, the passing of time, stuff rabbit toy from your childhood, the hallway at a family gathering, planetariums, cold air on your face, retro christmas decor, realising you were once a child and that child deserved so much better

Deals With: parental grief when your parent was a piece of shit, Christian trauma, queerness in relationships, adulthood as you progress through your 20s, healing + building your own life after a traumatic childhood and what happens when that is disrupted

Soundtrack Essentials: The Cure - Plainsong / Mazzy Star - Be My Angel / Cocteau Twins - Cherry-Coloured Funk / Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas / Beach House - The Hours / Jeff Buckley - Dream Brother / Tamino - Cinnamon

Synopsis: When Felix's father dies suddenly it's a week before Christmas, he and Beau had just begun experimenting with an open relationship, and he refuses to interrupt his life to mourn a man who doesn't deserve it. But when he can't stop his body from grieving, and his sister is growing obsessive over the morbid details, and at work he's teaching children that remind him of himself, an opportunity to impulsively leave sees Felix spend an insomniatic month in New York: diners at 3am, trips at the club, a birthday spent in a planetarium, one night stands to tell his boyfriend about in the morning, and a dangerously intense relationship with an enigmatic man who wants to know everything about his father.

This is another piece in my personal project/emotional support series and follows Revelations, Revelations and Lover Boy. If you know me you know Dorothy and Felix are my annoying children who I love so dearly and this novella is paired with a future novella that follows Dorothy during the same time. Fun fact! I only returned to writing because I wanted to explore Felix more and now I have an entire world that dominates my brain and it's all his fault! So this novella is kind of like a love letter to him. I also literally only created this so I could have a project that was soundtracked by historic Cocteau Twins' album Heaven or Las Vegas. Currently drafting because it won't leave my mind

The answering machine beeps awake -- and then, Beau's mother, reminding them that they're in charge of dessert tomorrow --and then, Beau's coworker wishing them both a Happy Holidays, a Stacy who Felix has never met -- and then his sister, sarcastic but loving, This is me calling so you know I made it home alive, just like you asked -- and then surprisingly, Goldie, Hi Felix, even though school broke up weeks ago, So I know it's Christmas, but I wanted to let you know that I talked with Joey's father and it sounds like he's doing much better at home already. He's even excited to come back to your class! And his father sounds super proud and optimistic about his progress and by the end of the last message he’s on the floor, back to fridge and elbows on his knees, face in his hands. And he lets out a shaky, snivelled breath that makes him push his palms harder against his eyes, against the wetness because he can’t cry, not over this, not when there’s still Christmas presents to wrap and last minute laundry so stop crying, get up, put on your new Mazzy Star record and get on with it. He straightens his back, holds his head up, takes a few deep breaths that feel more like gasping for air and also like pulling barbed wire out of his throat, gazes at the slants of streetlight on his living room wall. He can’t cry, not over this and not here, not in the home he’s worked so hard to make so warm. So he sits with himself, wipes his own eyes and holds himself in his own arms; when he feels calm enough, or trusts himself to be, he leans forward so he can open the fridge and reach in for the last ginger ale, cold in his hand and warm down his throat. Just him and the hum of an empty apartment.

[babyyarlert]

Jett Hirano

Full name: Jett Hirano (he/him)

Japanese American

• Trans man, bisexual

• Age: 26 (Oct 20)

• Signs: Libra𖤓, Aquarius☾, Pisces↑

• Personality: blunt, he’ll say it as it is every time, he’s soft spoken but don’t confuse that for weakness, smart asf and quick to read almost any situation, can be extremely closed off and secretive especially when it comes to his background and family history, hard headed at times, closed book, trusting people is hard :(, looooves cats 🐱

• Height: 5’7 or 170cm

• Eyes: dark brown

• Hair: black

Occupation

• Professional graphic artist and digital illustrator

Family/Background

• Born and raised in a small town west of Mt. Komorebi and in the outskirts of Senbamachi, Jett Hirano grew up an only child in a lower-class, dysfunctional family.

• He lost his mother at a young age due to an accident. As far back as he could remember, his parents often argued and fought, with his father frequently physically assaulting his mother.

• Jett’s father spent most of his days high on hard drugs or piss drunk. He often would get so intoxicated he’d destroy things and beat him or his mother till they would bruise. And when he sobered up he’d never recall any of his own actions. After the man would pass out, Jett would crawl into his mother’s bed, crying as she soothed him to sleep while holding back her own tears.

• His father was unemployed for most of Jett's childhood, leaving his mother to work three different jobs to support their broken household.

• Jett struggled with body dysmorphia, feeling uncomfortable in his own body in as early as age four and even more so when he hit puberty. Fortunately, his father was never sober long enough to notice when he would cut his own hair short in the bathroom using dull craft scissors or pull excessively at the worn down thrifted clothes his mom would buy in order to try and hide his changing body.

• After his mother died, his father was incarcerated and he faced another devastating blow when he lost his left arm. it felt like his world had spun on its own axis.

• His life had changed so drastically almost overnight. Then he was taken in by a man who claimed to be an old friend of his father’s… 👀

• ??? 👀 (more info may include spoilers)

Friends

• Current best friend is his cousin, Bonnie Hirano, whom he tells everything. Well… almost everything 👀

• Childhood best friend and ex, Kai Hensdale. Jett moved away during their early teenage years and they fell out of love.

Relationship

• Currently single

• Only ever dated one person seriously and has had casual flings since

• Won’t admit it but has a fear of relationship commitment

Hobbies

• Drawing dark and explicit art, reading, watching anime and horror movies

• Secret love for cooking

• Snowboarding and skateboarding

Random facts

• Uses a specific brand of baby soap and refuses to use anything else because the smell reminds him of the happiest moments of his life.

• Likes Star Wars, seinen anime and mangas

• Music: Heavy metal, classic rock, punk rock, shoegaze

• Wears a key around his neck everywhere he goes. What does it open? 👀

• Needs glasses

• Lost his left arm in a traumatic childhood accident 👀

• Hates seafood and has a mild allergy to kiwi fruit

• Has training in several Japanese martial arts 👀

• Can’t fall asleep without cuddling something (ex. a stuffed animal, a pillow etc)

Notes:

• 👀 = important plot points that will be or is addressed more in depth in the book

[omegaremix]

Dede, 2000.

I met Dede at the turn of the millennium through the channels of community college’s media wing. He wasn’t just as enthusiastic about music as I was, he was part of a two-piece synthpop outfit which I won’t mention. He stood out as he was into Depeche Mode, New Order, Joy Division, darkwave, brit-pop, and industrial. Two out of six to me wasn’t bad and I was alien to the others, but we became quick friends along with the other writers who also were musicians themselves. Long story short: he had summer backyard parties, held performances which I (was forced to be) frequented, and even went as far as getting me a job at his pool place, simply because he was really awesome.

As an up-and-coming local musician, Dede always poured it on me to hear this, hear that, hear what he’s into at this moment, at this minute, and this lifetime. Coming from Port Jefferson, he was raised on the Music Den where they sold the best in obscure and underground titles and the town population wore their trendy shoegaze, indie, and brit-pop medals with pride and discrimination. So it was no surprise he would offer me a free mixtape because he eminated awesome. He was the ultimate tastemaker who believed he knew what’s best for everyone that came into contact with him. In other words, he was center of the universe.

Outside our time as friends, it was a heavy rotation of post-performance diner nights amidst never-ending drama with the community-college demographic. Cock-blocking by friends ensued. An interest who severely burned me and played a great game with her friends against me ended up in one of my classes. Not good. All was not lost in a still-burning hell. I kept in touch with a New Jersey girl over chat rooms during the dawn of “the internet” who sympathized with all I was going through, which was the only thing I wanted to look forward to. So it wasn’t a total flush. 

Perhaps Dede’s mixtape was one of the only few good things I have from an era of uncertainly, unease, and awkwardness. At the time I was very heavily into DHR, The Prodigy, Underworld, Autechre, and started getting into noise. Dede’s tape is a reflection of polarizing musical tastes between us; a mix of what was happening around him, his personal favorites, and how one new-wave brit-pop band endured the decades while never shaking off the Eighties tags forever with them. A mixtape where Covenant’s “Tour De Force” (1999) was his voicemail music, Apoptygma Berzerk’s “Eclipse” was played tirelessly on WUSB, and Eminem, Moby, and Robbie Williams enjoyed endless spins on radio and television.

Dede’s mixtape:

Apoptygma Berzerk “Eclipse”

Robbie Williams “Millenium”

Covenant “Tour De Force”

Wolfsheim “Lovesong”

Moby “Honey”

The Cure “Maybe Someday”

OMD “Tesla Girls”

Pet Shop Boys “Radiophonic”

Apoptygma Berzerk “Love Never Dies”

Eminem “Bad Meets Evil”

Radiohead “Karma Police”

Pet Shop Boys vs. Village People “New York City Boy”

Pet Shop Boys “The Ghost Of Myself”

[eyepool]

The L.A. band julie, whom I’ve been crushing on musically for a few months, just released their debut album. Pitchfork's now given it an 8.2 rating, which is a pretty big deal. They deserve it; the album does not disappoint.

My take: julie are the best of the new wave of shoegaze/noise-rock revivalists. The Pitchfork review makes much of the Sonic Youth influence, but there’s also a lot of Nirvana, My Bloody Valentine and the Swirlies. Maybe some Breeders and Drop Nineteens too. But reducing bands to their influences is dumb — if you’re making this sort of music, they’re just the water you’re swimming in, like the Beatles and Stones were for 1970s bands.

(I loved shoegaze so much in the late 80s / early 90s; it was like all these bands were sprouting up who were making music just for me. The scene never completely died out, but it was a niche within a niche for years. It’s exciting to be discovering so many great new rock bands again, and me well into my old-fart era.)

Anyway, Pitchfork's Matthew Schnipper sez:

It seems that in a generation (or two) since the heyday of their preferred breed of experimental rock music, julie have mastered the task of making songs that feel sprawling and massive, but which in reality bloom and dissolve in short order. …

Across the album’s 10 songs, julie have honed their sound, alternating between crunch and jangle, all with great clarity. They’ve generally benefited from a bright mixing job and a sharper fidelity recording. Elizabeth’s bass is up front for many tracks, not providing a counterpoint to Pourzand’s guitar shred so much as a contrapuntal bludgeoning. Across the entire album, Lee plays the drums with the rage of a gorilla pounding its chest.

As much as I love this record, it would be naive to not admit that this type of thing has been done before. The tortured punch of Unwound, the sour rage of Hole, the distorted sass of Jesus and Mary Chain, and, of course, the everything of Sonic Youth. Right now, this sound has legs, and julie find themselves playing alongside a group of young bands who’ve similarly been entranced by the music of the ’90s. But Julie are just better than their peers. They’ve figured out how to absorb their influences while iterating their way into innovation. On each song, julie sound more like themselves: burrowing, burrowing, burrowing, each song digging deeper into the soil.

All this is true. And yet, the album doesn’t even include their IMHO best song, “Pg. 4 A Picture of Three Hedges”:

[the-90s-music-colosseum]

btw grunge anons etc who are looking on, this is why britpop never dies. it's not about the music. it's about the drama.

Grunge anons, hip-hop anons, funk anons, shoegaze anons, metal anons... Bring on the drama. Prove your worth.

[groovesnjams]

48 / 50

"Missus Morality" by bar italia

MG:

I’d like to posit that what I’ll call “good old fashioned indie” is now a form of classic rock, and if we wanted to, we could think about Bar Italia as the sort of Greta Van Fleet to, like, Sonic Youth’s Led Zeppelin, but I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t be so cynical about it, even if that would provide the coolly disaffected trio behind “Missus Morality” some kind of perverse kick. This band clearly gets off on being dismissed, diminished, and misunderstood, that’s why they do dumb stuff like pretend not to know they’re named after a Pulp song or give ironic pull quotes that they insist are sincere. I don’t know if I believe they’re really so unbothered by everything dogging them (they do have a dedicated cult following, particularly here in the USA, which I’m sure does much to take the edge off) but I love the performance of dead-eyed, uncaring sophistication. “Missus Morality” is a send up to the wiry, autumnal guitars of Modest Mouse and the Euro-chic vocals of Laetitia Sadier and it wrenches tears from a stone even if we’re all too effete for something as pedestrian as human emotion.

DV:

Personally I feel extremely negative about the current classic rock revival, but I can't deny that there's some appeal to seeing the cycle repeat itself from the last time around, down to the dumb band names and the obvious influences. bar italia bring some shoegaze to the mix, which is weirdly enjoyable in the way it teaches me that I am actually interested in listening to shoegaze in 2023. I can hear Souvlaki-era Slowdive in their guitar tone, if not the vocals, a trace of the true self remaining and remade. Irony has never really died, where rock is concerned, but every few years someone finds a new way to sell it - postmodernism or pastiche or disaffection or whatever, and endless rebirth of the push to sincerity's pull. Maybe everything's just a pose, but what's wrong with that?

[saintknightley]

phyla!

one aspect about them i love

I love how emotionally driven she is and all the good and bad consequences of that. She can be impulsive due to this and has a temper, but also the positive, optimistic... Line about how emotions make you stronger how this ties into her love of those close to her and how she would do anything to protect them. Also her self-doubt/fears about never living up to her legacy.

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

hmm. i think some people do tend to have a surface level understanding of her like they only know her as that lesbian character LOL but for this... i think there's a lot to her that is connected to her family, like i guess people do acknowledge her Father Issues but her Mommy Issues as well are really important... how Elysius was created for a purpose (evil) and then she created Phyla for the Purpose of living up to her father, being better than her brother... lots of stuff going on, cycles and connections.

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character

I think she'd like shoegaze music a lot LOL... IDK how much of a chance in her life she got to relax but she'd be into music scenes... I like that she loves to cook this is canon but it's sweet to me.

one character i love seeing them interact with

Heather obviously :) I do like how how their relationship helped Heather with her huge ego LOL they really do truly care for each other so much... how Phyla is inspired by her to be a better hero when lots of people are like :| to Heather... really see each other's good side.

ALSO I loveeee Phyla and Adam's friendship it's sooo sweet to me. He is her uncle for real. I want them to chat again so bad. The fact she did sacrifice her life and ultimately died to try save him... wah.

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

Adam as above. But also I NEED 616 Phyla to interact with Teddy so bad... I want the siblings in general to chat. Try to bond more with Genis in a healthier way, connect with their half-sibling. Legacy stuff.

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character

Related to above... I think at some point Phyla, Teddy and Genis should get together and listen to those memoirs Mar-Vell recorded before his death... hm :(

[77pupu33pipo]

i think dotstokyo was the peak idol group ever..

so imagine. you are a shoegaze performance group called ・・・・・・・・・. you are idols. you all perform anonymously and hide half of your face in all promotion materials. during lives you usually wear white dresses and black blindfolds and go around in circles like you're performing some kind of ritual. you release a single cd titled... "CD". the cd consists of 3 songs that are a genius mix of shoegaze, dream pop and classic idol j-pop specifically catered to the idol-loving, shoegaze-enjoying creature (me), and a single instrumental shoegaze ambience track broken into 4 parts used as interludes between the 3 vocal tracks. so you have ambience track intro part 1, song 1, ambience track interlude part 2 and so on. All of that counts up to 22 minutes of alt idol audio cocaine. But the cd is 72 minutes long. so what takes up the remaining 50 minutes? the last part of the ambience track of course, which is 50 MINUTES OF NOISE WALL. to me this is absolutely incredible. hope their legacy never dies, and def hope for more shoegaze idol projects because dotstokyo was just chefs kiss, Points is one of the albums ever

[human-antithesis]

Warning - The Strength To Dream (December 1999) Country: United Kingdom Genre: Doom Metal

Lineup: Patrick Walker - Vocals, Guitars Marcus Hatfield - Bass Stuart Springthorpe - Drums

Tracklist:

The Return - 11:40

The Face That Never Dies - 07:13

Something Hurts - 07:48

How Can It Happen? - 10:10

The Strength To Dream - 13:31

[female-malice]

Hello queen. I've been lurking your blog and it seems you are an emo music enjoyer and by the calculations of you age, you were at the time some of it peaked. Would you mind talking about how was emo in the USA when you listened to it? Help a woman with a music podcast

Hi!!!

So, I will say I hit middle school right when mall emo took off. 2006.

As an adult, I now know it didn't just spring up out of nowhere. The genre started in the late 90s. Texas is the Reason, the one album wonders from New York, developed the layered emo guitar sound in 1996. 

Both emo and pop punk have whiny lyrics. It's the guitar style that makes emo a unique genre.

The DNA of emo is post-hardcore. "Post" in rock genres is just a fancy word for "artsy, melodic, and long." Hardcore punk is 90 second songs of macho screaming with terrible guitarists, heavy distortion peddles, and virtuoso drummers. If you want to make that artsy, melodic, and long, you've got your work cut out for you. Emo brought in the clean picked reverb guitar found in post-rock and shoegaze. Marrying two opposite sounds is what makes emo compelling. The transition between noisy distorted power chords and gentle clean picking, that's emo.

But, okay, I didn't know any of this emo science when I was 11 😂

Before I discovered emo, I listened to a lot of pop punk and nu metal. That's what my older brothers listened to. Avril Lavigne, Green Day, Blink 182, Linkin Park, Alien Ant Farm. 

I made friends with this girl, K, on the first day of middle school. She showed me My Chemical Romance. And a week into our friendship, in October 2006, The Black Parade came out. I immediately illegally downloaded the entire album. One mp3 at a time. 

My fashion sense was already Avril Lavigne and Tank Girl. I had all my brothers' hand-me-downs. In my attempt to turn those hand-me-downs into Avril Lavigne, I was accidentally dressing emo. I'd come to school wearing what I thought was Avril, but everyone would ask me "are you emo?" And I'd just say yes. 

I wasn't really sure what emo was. I knew MCR was emo, but that was just a band I put on my ipod nano. I wasn't a band, I was a 12 year old. So how could I be emo? But people kept calling me emo. So I decided to lean into it 😂

We had some wacky costume spirit day in 6th grade. And I came to school like this:

All black with the red tie and makeup. But my hair was brown and not black. And that bothered me so so so much. I remember some 8th graders laughed at me in the girls' bathroom. This only fueled my growing emo convictions.

K died her hair black and it did not look good at all. But I was still jealous. 

I asked my parents if I could see the Black Parade tour live with K in Spring 2007. They said no. I remember K made this little stuffed Gerard Way doll. It looked awesome, like official merch, but she made it herself. Her plan was to somehow give it to Gerard at the concert. Instead she told me she got knocked around in the mosh pit and the doll got torn. If I was there, I could've helped her throw that doll on stage. I wish my parents understood that.

Around that time, I also got into the Used and bought a Panic! at the Disco album.

Towards the end of 6th grade, I befriended other emo and emo-adjacent girls at my school. Emo-adjacent mostly meant scene kids and ravers. We'd all hang out together. But we'd never be caught dead with someone who wore Abercrombie and listened to Taylor Swift. It wasn't personal, it was political.

One of my new emo friends, A, had her hair died black and it actually looked really good. Her step-mom was a Hot Topic manager, so her hair and outfits were always incredible. A was tall and gorgeous and sad. I was in love with her, and she was in love with Davey Havok. She had his exact haircut. And she had me help her pierce her lip in the girls' bathroom. 

At the end of my 6th grade year, Paramore happened. I bought the album immediately. I was 100% sold. Emo was the future.

That summer, I went to the mall. I went to Hot Topic. I bought an AFI album, a Taking Back Sunday album, and a studded belt. I went to Zumiez and got some checkered vans. I went full mall emo. I printed out Pon and Zi and anime death angels and taped them to my school journals. 

I set up my myspace page. I browsed MCRmy.com and MCR forums on Gaia Online. On the emo internet, I learned that the MCR fandom and Fall Out Boy fandom were bitter enemies. I'd already sworn my allegiance to MCR. From that point on, I regarded FOB as second rate. I made it my mission to remind everyone that Pete Wentz was a fugly manslut. 

I read My Immortal while Tara was still publishing it. I never got around to reading MCR fanfiction, but K told me all about Frerard. I watched plenty of emo AMVs, but I always came back to this classic. Sorry about the language but it was 2007 and I was raised on South Park. So it was par for the course back then.

Here's what you need to understand about the first wave of mall emo in 2006-2008: Yes, the part about emo girls cutting themselves is true. But I now know that girls were doing that regardless of what their hobbies were. It's just that in the emo subculture, we'd talk about it and laugh about it. Maybe that's sick, but that's how we were. The first rule of emo was to always make fun of yourself. We were always making fun of the genre and the bands and the fashion we loved. We were always calling each other emo as an insult. And when someone else called us emo as an insult, we'd embrace it and laugh and play it up. 

Initially, the mall emo subculture was completely irreverent. Nothing was sacred, least of all the subculture itself. Mall emo changed into something more sensitive later. But initially, we were mean and negative and having a great time. Emo musicians were mostly male. The mall emo subculture was mostly female. And we spent all our time disparaging the whiny men writing our favorite lyrics. 

The scene and raver subcultures objectified girls, but the emo subculture was all about girls objectifying boys. Mall emo and myspace were the beginning of e-boys. And the more sick and miserable the e-boy looked, the better. I didn't really get it, but my straight female friends sure did. They'd collect miserable little shrimpy boys who had crushes on them. They'd let the shrimpy boys follow them around. Then they'd dare them to kiss each other, and post pictures of it on myspace. And we'd laugh at them and they'd laugh at themselves.

So when I'd watch MCR concert videos and see shrimpy Frank kiss Gerard, I knew the context. All of it was ironic self-objectification for their female audience. The guys who engaged in gay e-boy behavior were always straight. And we all knew they were straight. And that's what made it a show. That's what attracted the teenyboppers. 

Despite headlining the biggest festivals in the world, Thursday was nowhere on my radar. They weren't on any of my friends' radars either. I mean, we knew about them because they were friends with MCR. Geoff Rickly produced MCR's first album. But none of us got into them. Something about Thursday made them completely immune to teenyboppers. Perhaps it's because Geoff's lyrics were about real life and real politics that we were too young to understand. Perhaps it's because they didn't perform in costumes. Maybe it's because Thursday never kissed each other on stage. 

Back then, Frank Iero was being crazy on stage and wearing makeup and kissing Gerard. And he was a superstar with a rabid following. And he was completely straight and engaged to the love of his life. 

Meanwhile, Steve Pedulla, Thursday's guitarist, was doing year-round global tours with five men he'd known for a decade. And none of those men knew he was gay. It's not like you could actually be an out gay musician in the post-hardcore scene. 

Ironically, the genre-defining emo guitar sound was developed by the Texas is the Reason guitarist, Norman Brannon. And Norman Brannon is a gay man. 

Both Steve and Norman have since come out. If you want to learn more about that, I highly recommend this podcast with Geoff, Steve, and Norman. 

Thursday's massive success paved the way for mall emo. But Thursday themselves never made inroads with the mall crowd. They were a bit too real for us.

Back to my 2007 teenybopper era.

In seventh grade, my mom let me go to a local emo show at a DIY venue. I don't remember any of the names of those little bands, but I remember adding the band members on Myspace. They were all 17 year old dudes. But as my middle school friends liked to say, "age is just a number!" 😬 The scene and raver girls in my posse were pretty sus. But we had some fun times together. We watched a lot of horror movies. We started campaigns to try to get our school to play emo songs at school dances. We were finally victorious and got them to play HelloGoodbye.

And then, after that school dance, everyone in the school was listening to HelloGoodbye.

And then MetroStation happened. And everyone in the school was listening to MetroStation. And Shake It got in the next school dance without any campaigning on our part. Hey There Delilah did too.

Suddenly, everyone was listening to mall emo. Suddenly, girls who wore Abercrombie were putting Christofer Drew posters in their bedrooms.

What had we done!?

Our subculture was no longer a subculture. It was mainstream pop culture. Suddenly, we were no longer weird.

By the end of 7th grade, everyone was listening to The Academy Is and 3OH!3. The careful guitar layering was almost completely gone from pop emo. All that remained was the whiny vocals. But by that point, I was listening to industrial goth and visual kei. I had moved on to new subcultures.

After a few years away from it all, I met an MCR fan in high school in 2011. She encouraged my to get back into it and give Danger Days a listen. She was still heavily involved in the mall emo scene, but that scene had changed. She was nice, but she was a lot more serious and sensitive about it all. She didn't make fun of herself. She didn't disparage and objectify shrimpy men, she just dated them. She wasn't like my 2007 crew. In the summer before our senior year, she changed her name, started testosterone, and left for a different school.

In college, my friends and I compared notes on our different emo adventures in 2006-2008. My college friends were more into the singing aspect of emo. Anthony Green and Claudio Sanchez were belting in a way that only Hayley Williams could rival. In fact, Anthony Green's countertenor range went so high, he had to have two bands. Saosin is the radio-friendly band where he sings in a normal tenor range. Circa Survive is the band where he basically only sings in his upper octave. Claudio Sanchez is the Coheed and Cambria singer. That band is its own subculture with its own fictional metaverse and massive comic book series. I can tell Gerard Way and Ray Toro did everything possible to turn MCR into Coheed. I'm glad that Frank kept them from going too far in that direction.

A few years ago, I saw Frank Iero and Geoff Rickly live. It was awesome.

[crumbledpaperandfullwastebaskets]

Sugar For The Pill

I am feeling warm and angry.

There is no valid reason to feel angry, but I feel overwhelmed with emotions that do not want to leave my body. Those little worries and minor annoyances and the 'could have beens' carousel in my head way too closely, and I cannot find the brakes. I find myself grasping onto art, sound bathing, dream pop, and shoegazing my way into healthy feelings, and then the warmth and angry just come back. I do not want to feel warm and angry, and I think it all ties to one knotted, to a single thread in this lumpy, lovely, balled-up mess. I made myself  rightfully so, and to no one's actual fault, it's gone, and from this knot, untangling and feeling all at once is far more challenging than I anticipated.

I felt love. I loved. And I miss it.

So, I signed myself back into the dating apps again. These applications and, for the most part, the people on them and their lack of morality, respect, unsolicited nudes truly turn me off. These messages and people and their actions are when I get mad. I went from holding someone while they slept to being sexually harassed, let down, and it all just seems artificial. What I had wasn't fake. I had anticipation, eagerness, wanting, the bursting of light in my chest when I saw him. I felt safe, protected, honored. I want to experience these emotions again. I tell myself I am over what happened, which may be accurate. Still, I can't deny the authenticity of my feelings and how it made me hungry for these types of emotions, that warm, eye connecting connection with someone once again.

One of my favorite authors, Anis Nin, connects love in constellations in a language I can understand. It's raw, and it's not this heart-shaped prettiness that exists. Some of the lines hit a cord too profoundly.

"Anxiety is love's greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic." - Anais Nin

"Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors, and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings." - Anais Nin.

"I don't really want to become normal, average, standard. I want merely to gain in strength, in the courage to live out my life more fully, enjoy more, experience more. I want to develop even more original and more unconventional traits." - Anais Nin.

All I know now is I have a fever to create. This explains my heat, as I write this, the anger. Without this passion, this journal wouldn't exist, the songs I am making wouldn't exist. It's a dangerous thing when the one thing compelling you to write is the one thing you do not want to feel. I suppose dreams and legends all started with a form of anger.  I guess until it passes, I will continue to write.  

[tiesandtea]

THE LONDON SUEDE - interview with Simon Gilbert (1997)

Interview Featuring Drummer Simon Gilbert, Who Is Actually a Nice Guy Unspoiled by Success

By Daiv Whaley, MOO Mag. Archived here.

One of MOO's many mottos: "When you can't interview the main member of the band, grab the drummer. He's always starved for attention." Daiv Whaley talks with The London Suede’s beatmaster Simon Gilbert.

MOO: Alright, so Suede has returned to the airwaves after a two-year absence with Coming Up. What's different about this one? Simon: Well, it's a lot more direct and easier to listen to than, certainly, Dog Man Star; a lot more rhythm-based ... MOO: Which is great for a drummer! Simon: Oh yeah, it's great for me -- we spent about six weeks just doing the drum tracks; we took a lot more time than we normally do. Plus, it's got a lot of keyboards on it cuz we've got a new keyboard player, Neil, who's my cousin. MOO: Um ... was that a riddle? Or an interview question? I don't know who your cousin is -- I'm supposed to be asking the questions! Simon: No, Neil is my cousin.

Hugely entertaining, 20/10. Full interview under the cut.

When British upstarts-with-attitude Suede first burst onto the fertile London music scene in the early 90s, they were note only performing and recording a statement against the tranced and lethargic shoegazer scene (remember My Bloody Valentine, all you mod listeners?), but also fueling frontman Brett Anderson's love-affair with all things glam-rockish; i.e. Bowie, T-Rex, leather posturings, androgyny, ass-shaking audience flirtation, and potent pop rock. Melody Maker, the "Big Ben" of English music culture, even named them "best new band" of 1992. Then, they changed their name to the London Suede due to technicalities, got all arty on Dog Man Star, and performed a submarine dive from public view as Oasis and Brit-pop rose to the surface of the toilet ... er ... the pond of the microcosm which is the British rock scene, though several critics credit Suede as being the forerunners of Brit-pop, anyway. Now it's 1997, and the London Suede have risen again to deliver their third full release, Coming Up. Whether the "coming up" refers to Suede's bank account figures or a vomitous reaction from their fans at their new sound is a subject MOO's Daiv Whaley tries to discover, oh-so-politely, as he chats with drummer Simon Gilbert, all the way from the gray shores of England.

MOO: Alright, so Suede has returned to the airwaves after a two-year absence with Coming Up. What's different about this one?

Simon: Well, it's a lot more direct and easier to listen to than, certainly, Dog Man Star; a lot more rhythm-based ...

MOO: Which is great for a drummer!

Simon: Oh yeah, it's great for me -- we spent about six weeks just doing the drum tracks; we took a lot more time than we normally do. Plus, it's got a lot of keyboards on it cuz we've got a new keyboard player, Neil, who's my cousin.

MOO: Um ... was that a riddle? Or an interview question? I don't know who your cousin is -- I'm supposed to be asking the questions!

Simon: No, Neil is my cousin.

MOO: Oh, sorry.

Simon: So, we have some very good pop songs on it -- there's going to be five singles, and we could have done seven or eight, to be honest. It's just a much more accessible album, and it's opening people's ears who haven't been listening to Suede before, particularly in Europe and Britain. We're selling a lot more records than we ever have before.

MOO: That's riffing.

Simon: Yes, it is riffing.

MOO: So then, is Suede a pop band or a rock band?

Simon: We're a prock band!

MOO: My fave songs on your discs are always the audio-experimenia ones, like "Dandy's Speeding," "Introducing the Band" or "Moving" ...

Simon: That's one of the first tunes we ever recorded! We don't play it live anymore -- the drum bit's too fast for me nowadays.

MOO: Well, those types of songs really seem to distance you from the more plebeian, predictable, 90s-modrock types of bands. Are those kinds of songs written with that type of production in mind?

Simon: Well, "Introducing the Band" certainly was -- it was one of the last tracks we recorded for Dog Man Star, and after we heard it, we just thought, "What was that?" But it was intentional to make it a bit weird.

MOO: Did Brian Eno approach the band about doing an incredibly long version of the tune ...

Simon: That incredibly long, incredibly boring version? No, we approached him for some bizarre reason, I don't know why. I'm not criticizing the bloke -- he does amazing work, but at the end of the day, all we were left with was the reverb; he took everything else out but the echo ... I was expecting a little bit more of the original version -- I bet there's not one person in the fucking country who's played the whole thing all the way through. I know I haven't!

MOO: Yuk yuk. Your former guitarist and co-songwriter Bernard Butler ...

Simon: Bernard Buttocks!

MOO: ... exited Suede after recording Dog Man Star and has been replaced by the very young Richard Oakes. What, is he 19 now?

Simon: No, he's actually 20 now and getting up in the double digits!

MOO: This is the first disc he's done with Suede. Was he up to the task?

Simon: More so than we'd ever expected, to be honest. We did a few demos before the album and after three or four, it was just no problem with him at all. Easy peasey! For someone so young and so inexperienced, I don't know how he did it, but he did.

MOO: Did you just say "easy peasey"? Never mind, what about this new keyboardist? Some cynics say that when a guitar band takes on a keyboardist, the band's death knell has begun, and now your own cousin, Neil Codling, is an official Suedester. "Codling," what a great last name.

Simon: Yeah, Codling, like in "molly codling." Have you heard that expression?

MOO: Yes, I studied English literature, with a minor in advanced cybernetic design.

Simon: Hmmnn. But about those cynics, they're wrong, at least in Suede's case -- Neil has done nothing but improve upon what we can do and the limits we can reach on our albums. Also, live, our sound is so much fuller. And we can still fuckin' rock out as well. Now, if we got a brass section, that might kill a band.

MOO: I've heard that Bowie is a fan? Has the band had any dealings with him as of yet?

Simon: Yes, he is. Um, we played with him last summer, in Spain, in the Pyrenees Mountains. He requested we play and we opened for him and he watched the whole gig from the sidestage, which was a bit nerve-racking. But yes, he's a big fan and he's fifty years old now.

MOO: Rockstar, painter, actor and Suede fan ... What more can you ask?

Simon: Not very much!

MOO: Speaking of playing live, you guys toured America for Dog Man Star -- how would you say a US audience compares to a British crowd?

Simon: Well, it really depends. I couldn't really generalize that much, because in L.A. or someplace like San Francisco, they're probably wilder than a British audience, but then you look at some place in Texas ... they sort of spit on us, they don't really like us there. It's a bit different in America, but there are some parts of it where it feels like you could be in London.

MOO: So, I take it while you're almost worshipped in Britain, America really hasn't caught on yet?

Simon: Hasn't caught on yet ... we're not saying we're giving up on it at all, but we're just playing it by ear. I believe that's the expression for it. We're gonna come over and do 10 dates and see how the album is received, but there's no real point in banging your head against a brick wall. If America on the whole doesn't get it, then fair enough, but I really hope they do, cuz it's a great album, a lot more America-friendly as well.

MOO: I've read Brett describe the band as being "political." I know Suede had been involved in the animal rights movement, and gay rights, and freedom issues. Do you find American music to be more or less politically-motivated on the whole than British stuff?

Simon: Well, I'd say that quote was probably taken out of context ... We're a political band in a human sense, not in a government politics kind of way. Yeah, we'll stand up in the House of Parliament and say, "This is wrong and blah blah blah," and we'll protest like that, but in the songs, there's no political manifesto of any kind -- it's purely human "politics" in our music. As for American bands, I really can't say ... I'm very stuck in the 60s and 70s in terms of music, and I don't really ask myself if this or that band is American or British, but rather, are they good or bad bands?

MOO: There's been a bit of a buzz in the US over the Brit-pop scene -- particularly Oasis and Blur. Where does Suede seem to fit into that whole genre, anyway?

Simon: Blur? They're shitty. Oasis is actually pretty good. Suede doesn't really fit into that scene at all; it was lucky we were away when it sort of kicked-off, and luckily we weren't lumped into that whole thing, cuz now the scene is dead, there's no such thing as Brit-pop anymore in England, and when a scene dies off, all the bands die off with it. So America, don't bother with it. It's really just the media sticking another tag on some scene -- it's useless crap, really.

MOO: Okay, how about the whole androgyny/bisexuality slant of a lot of Suede's songs -- if it's not just image-mongering to get attention ...

Simon: No, it's not.

MOO: So, why is Suede so revelatory about their sexual preferences?

Simon: Because the people we hang around with ... we hang around with each other, we're all friends, and the other people who come from lots of different areas of society, and at the end of the day everyone's aware of sexuality and the different types of sexuality, and consequently Brett writes about the people we hang around with and the way we live. It's just about being open and honest, really.

MOO: Right -- skinstorms together and all that.

Simon: Exactly; singing about things that other people don't sing about -- we don't sing about birds and flowers and the sky and things like that.

MOO: Speaking about singing -- there's lots of stories and rumors about your Brett Anderson. He seems like a real character.

Simon: All the stories are probably true!

MOO: Considering he'll probably never see this interview, what do you have to say about Mr. Anderson?

Simon: About Mr. Anderson? He's become one of my best friends; he's perceived as being aloof and stuff like that, but at the end of the day, he's one of the most genuine people I know. He's a lovely bloke, that's my honest opinion, and make sure he doesn't see that or I'll become really embarrassed.

MOO: Last question. Before '92, critics and clubs seemed to hate you. Then, you end up on the cover of Melody Maker, your disc goes to number one and beats out Depeche Mode, and you're big-time rock stars. What happened?

Simon: Well, that Melody Maker cover did help, let's be honest.

MOO: The power of the press!

Simon: Yeah. But even before that ... I don't know what happened. We played at this place called the Falcon in Camden, which is a famous sort of indie hangout. We played there one weekend to, like, eight people. Then the next weekend we played there again and the place was packed. All these stars came down there, people like Morrissey, and things just started to happen. I really don't know what happened -- I think people really got bored with the scene at the time, there was a lot of techno and shoegazey stuff going on and the indie scene was boring. We kind of laid that stuff to rest when we got going. There were people who I think were bored with not seeing real entertainers up on stage, and we were a band that was entertaining, which might have been why people didn't like us at the time -- they were so used to seeing the shoegazing stuff going on.

MOO: Yeah, let's look at our sneakers for an hour and play guitars!

Simon: Right, how entertaining is that? Might as well just sit at home and listen to their records.

MOO: And the rest is history, as they say.

Simon: Yeah, something like that.