The first shoegaze record

sometimes siouxsie and the banshees are flirting with shoegazing too! but the frontier is thin between all this sub genres: dream pop, shoegazing and gothic!

 

Big Star - Sister Lovers (third album)

 

Good call on Spacemen 3 and I do think that the Velvet Underground's influence was important ("I Heard Her Call My Name" for the noisy parts, "Pale Blue Eyes" for the quieter tunes, for examples).

I see that generational warfare has broken out since I last visited so let me say that while I most definitely do not consider The Beatles a shoegaze band, a lot of the Class of 1990 bands here weren't shy about their '60's influences. I even saw Ride cover "Tomorrow Never Knows" live!

Other boomer classics that I'd include amidst the usual Slowdive and Ride tunes on mixtapes were The Stones' "2000 Light Years from Home" and Pink Floyd's "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun". They worked, I swear.

 

It wasn't until Slowdive that the word "shoegaze" was even being used.

 

Kitchens Of Distinction formed in 1985, and had pretty much set the shoegaze template by the time of their 2nd single in 1988:

 

Just for those in doubt. From wiki.

'Shoegazing (or shoegaze, initially known as "dream pop")is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock that emerged in the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. It is characterized by its ethereal-sounding mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volume. The term shoegazing was coined by the British music press to describe the stage presence of a wave of neo-psychedelic groups who stood still during live performances in a detached, introspective, non-confrontational state with their heads down. This was because the heavy use of effects pedals meant the performers were often looking down at the readouts on their pedals during concerts'.

'The term originated in a concert review in Sounds for the newly formed band Moose in which singer Russell Yates read lyrics taped to the floor throughout the gig'

So though the style started earlier the term dates from 1990.

 

Exactly - I think they have a case because they were (to my memory at least) one of the first bands to have been described as "shoegaze" from their first release. A lot of the posts here were clearly strong influences on the sound but the term wasn't there.

I still think Ride - they were the leaders of the "movement" such as it was and inspired a lot of people to invest in some pedals. Including me, as it happens.

 

There we are. 1991 then, late '90 at the earliest.

 

I don’t think that’s correct however if you have a link to back it up I would be willing to read it.

 

BTW - it was never known as "dream pop" in the UK. That was a US term.

 

Funny thing is that Ride is a pretty dynamic live band.

I'd say that MBV were the leaders of the movement if I had to pick an act but, hey, I don't! Some amazing bands came out of that period and I think that a majority of it has held up extremely well.

 

Not quite. I definitely recall Melody Maker referring to "dreampop" bands, but that tended to be Disco Inferno, Bark Psychosis, O.rang and the like.

 

I see that term used a lot to describe The Sundays or Mazzy Star, neither of whom I'd consider shoegaze but I do think that their sounds are compatible with it. It's best not to think about where the line is.

 

Isn't Anything pretty much hits it, although it definitely wasn't called shoegazing until later.

Spacemen 3 is a pretty good call, although as much as I like Sound of Confusion it's still a second rate Stooges' first album...and that's a complement.

I saw a lot of the bands around that time, but MBV at the Town and Country 1991 was something else.

 

I would say My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything.

 

“Dreampop” was actually coined by AR Kane to describe what they were doing, and was used interchangeably with “shoegaze” for a short time.

 

"I have never heard of 'shoegaze music' before today, and I've certainly never actually listened to any of it, but I am exercising my constitutional right to blather on about the Beatles rather than engage with the topic at hand."

 

Side 2 of Pink Floyd's 'Piper at the Gates of Dawn".

Starts with a loud, layered guitar instrumental, followed by three hazy psychedelic pop songs and closing with an eccentric mind trip.

 

Just because I feel like mentioning unheralded shoegaze pioneers The Monkees for a second time, here's MBV's live demolition of "Mary Mary".

 

And while we're here, here's Chapterhouse doing The Beatles' "Rain":

 

Well, strap me to a tree and call me Brenda, I missed that completely at the time.

 

"Almost as soon as it was given a name, shoegaze – so called because of the bands’ tendency to look down at the floor during live shows – became what Goswell describes with a tone of faux self-pity, “the genre of ridicule”. Slowdive’s introspective stage presence was rebranded as self-indulgent and superior, and they were dismissed as middle-class musicians with nothing to say."

The unlikely renaissance of Slowdive: ‘Shoegaze became the genre of ridicule’

 

The term was first used in a review about a live set that Moose played.
It's funny, because by the time Moose released their debut album ("...xyz", 1992), they'd already moved-on from the 'gazey" sound of their first three EPs that preceded it.
I always respected Moose a little extra for not being content to just stagnate.

 

Shoegaze always sounded to me only like a louder and noisier version of psychedelia. As such, I do think its roots are really in the 1960s. I'm not sure that a genre that's played more loudly and with more sustain is really differentiated enough from psychedelia that it deserves its own category.

Although a lot of Shoegaze bands cite Dinosaur jr's guitar playing as an influence, Shoegaze bands sound more like the Byrds to me than Dinosaur jr.

 

They surely were not the first shoegaze band but Galaxy 500 certainly were a root node of that style.