Re: shoegaze music

Is it true that A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS created shoegaze music?
If not, which band did?
Thanks for you input lads

I'd say that shoegaze got its spark in the dour Post-Punk of Joy Division and The Cure, but does that mean that we can trace it to side two of Bowie's "Low?"



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I wouldn't go so far as to call it the first shoegaze song, but surely the Beatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" contributed to the DNA somehow. Maybe side three of Electric Ladyland too.

> ... surely the Beatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" contributed to the DNA somehow.

Come to think of it, when one considers the interpersonal relationships within the Beatles at the time they recorded Abbey Road ... maybe they did deliberately avoid eye contact.

I always figured "shoegaze" to be just a new name for psychedelia.

It's definitely a continuation.

As we all know, the term "shoegazing" came from the performers' penchant for looking down at the floor, though what they were really looking at what their many guitar pedals, not their shoes. So arguably any band that had to look at their surfeit of pedals might qualify, and that's certainly a ton of psych rockers.

Funny you mention "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". Last week I saw Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals) and after the opener that song was played. It sure seemed longer than 7:47, after it ended the band came on - I'm sure that was intentional.

I was and still am a fan of that style of music, you can find snippets of the sound in so many bands though that it is almost impossible to find the origin. Heck even the Stone Roses had some gazing moments, maybe even some of the extended VU jams from way back, some of the Allman Brothers jams to me have the vibe. While I never really cared for them totally, I think My Bloody Valentine has to be right up there as the pioneers of that glide sound. Ride is also awesome. One of the best albums for me was The Verve's first one A Storm in Heaven, it has everything a proper gaze record should - reverb, glide feel, some butch riffs, dreamy vocals. Catherine Wheel, yeah, good band as well. Some great music exists from the era.

I have to believe the first time I heard the term 'shoegaze' was in the early 90s to describe bands like My bloody valentine, Ride, Slowdive, etc. Always thought it was kind of an interesting genre name.

Shoe gaze always involved that dreamy, big wide open guitar sound (and I wouldn't be shocked to learn that sixties psychedelia was a big influence for many shoegaze acts). Pretty different from the sound of AFOS...whose guitarist always came up with great short, exciting guitar parts. That riff in 'space age love song' gets me every time.

But for me, I always think of the 4AD bands of the early-mid 80s, especially groups like Cocteau twins and Dif Juz as having all those "shoegaze" elements in place. Not sure I ever heard them coined that back then, though.

It wasn't until I was much older and wiser that I learned the difference between shoegazing and navel gazing....roughly last year!

I see shoegaze as a modern (at least in the 1990s) form of psychedelia, but in terms of direct influence on the sound, the Cocteau Twins, AR Kane and PSYCHOCANDY-era Jesus & Mary Chain seem like close precursors. My Bloody Valentine took a while to find their sound - they're embarrassed by the singles collected on the album ECSTASY & WINE, and it's out of print by their choice. In turn, it's persisted as an influence on contemporary indie rock and metal (where the sub-genre "blackgaze" emerged.)

Speaking of shoegaze, we have a mini-movement of it going on here in Austin, and while we haven't produced a truly magnificent band yet, we do have some good ones if you love that sound. I'm listening right now to a local band called Grivo (yeah, I know, terrible name) that's on the heavy psych side of it, and the same label (Holodeck) is also releasing the debut by the band Simple Lash, who are on the poppier, more song-oriented side. They're a nice contrast and both are quite good at what they do.

I've heard two bands doing something akin to the style in recent months that I've really liked: Moaning (out of L.A.) and Spirit Award (from Seattle).

I saw Moaning at SXSW this year. Good band. They were really loud.

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Is it true that A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS created shoegaze music?

The Cocteau Twins created it.

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Just look at their shoes.