Tag Archives: Shoegaze

Best New Band of 2011 Band of the Day (4.21.11) Slowness

22 Apr

SF based and ready to gaze - Slowness


Band of the Day (4.21.11) Slowness

Okay okay okay okay….if you read NBD every day you’ve noticed that I’ve been dormant. Well I apologize. My MacBook died. Literally. Photos, music, documents, all locked away behind my hibernating Mac. It was my good friends at Keane Mac repair that 7xed my Mac and brought NBD back to life. So happy today and so happy that I met a place that does something well! Cheers to you my friends!

Coincidently, I’ve been waiting almost a week to post about our new favorite Arizona Turk derived obsession….SLOWNESS! Yes it explains my posting strategy for April, but their music was well worth the wait. You know we love the local music scene in SF, but we’ve never put limits on our posts. We just find it fun to feature bands from our own music backyard, this market for some reason took a shit in the 90’s and 00’s and it’s just now having it’s moment…again. Drone rock can be fun, the shoegaze theme hasn’t really worn thin, but it’s the hipster version of a jam bands. It’s just darker arenas, less patchouli, and heavier distortion. We like to stick our nose down to our shoes to the Phishes of the world, but let’s be honest if you give them an amp and hair in their face you have Phish goes shoegaze. That being said Slowness takes the best of the genre and delivers a perfect EP. Harmonies, wailing whining guitars and eerie vocals. I liken their sound to one of our faves The Raveonettes, even Autoluxie a bit. Really a great band and I’d expect to hear Geoffrey Scott, Julie Lynn and Scott Putnam bouncing around the country and on the festival circuit very very soon.

We’re back, we have a new hard drive and we’re ready to rule the world.
Vitals
Hometown: SF, CA, USA
Members: Geoffrey Scott: guitars, vocals, loops Julie Lynn: bass, keys, vocals Scott Putnam: drums, vocals
Sonic Soulmates: My Bloody Valentine, The Raveonettes, Autolux
Trackables:
“Slowboat”

“Black & White”

Follow Slowness:
MySpace
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Band of the Day (3.29.11) Iroha

29 Mar

Birmingham's Iroha brings supergroup melancholy shoegaze to our ears.


Band of the Day (3.29.11) Iroha

I’ve always been a big fan of shoegaze, mostly the moody kind that fits a rough day. Jesu was a perfect mix of power chord shoegaze filled with walls of electric guitars, slow beauty that is accompanied by slowly paced beats.
Former members of Final, Jesu, Godflesh and Napalm Death have created something melancholic and surprisingly good be it that came from such a mix of metal heads. See we all knew those rock dudes had broken hearts. Hear the brilliant tracks from their new record now….hell stream the whole thing below. Thank you to the Arizona Turk…we’re missing your music. Send some more brother.

Vitals:
Hometown: Birmingham, Midlands, United Kingdom
Members: Andy Swan, Nic Bullen, Justin Broadrick,
Sonic Soulmates: No Joy, New Order
Trackables:
“Last Day of Summer (Jesu Remix)”

“Eternal”

Stream the Album for Free

Follow:
MySpace
Facebook

Band of the Day 3.7.11 – Slovak Republic

7 Mar

Shoegazer from Houston - As good as they come!


Band of the Day 3.7.11 – Slovak Republic

I’m sitting on a flight to NY on Virgin America with my headphones on listening to a bunch of new bands. Great stuff coming for this week. I’m in a particularly dreamy mood, writing a business plan and thinking about emotional stuff. iTunes was in a weird mood on the flight and my shuffle played three shoegaze tracks in a row. The first two sounded the same, then Slovak Republic played and I couldn’t help but stop working to discover the track. I put the entire album on and I was impressed. Slow moody shoegaze tracks, coupled with melodic self harmonies, then blasted with drums and soft pianos. My favorite track “Alexandria” is amazing. Digging into the band, I see that they recently changed their name from Slovak Girl to Slovak Republic…okay…I am 50% Slovakian so that does help in today’s selection and an extra bonus point for the name change. Derek Lang leads this self produced, unsigned dreamy band. Czech out their two tracks below, then head over to BandCamp to grab the album.

Vitals:
Hometown: Houston, TX
Members: Derek Lang
Sonic Soulmates: Tamryn, Smashing Pumpkins (Without the Corgan whine), Mathemagic
Must hear tracks:
“The Netherlands”

“Alexandria”

Grab their new album Summer Pills @ BandCamp

Follow Slovak Republic:
MySpace
Facebook

Band of the Day (9.16.10) Twin Sister

16 Sep

BOD (9.16.10) Twin Sister

Andrea Estella leads the Twin Sister sound. It’s almost a fantastic update on St. Etienne, but minus the Parisian snootiness and whole lot of NY attitude. It’s shoegazing, but you don’t get lost in a wall of sound, it has that St. Etienne kindness that keeps each track moving along melodically. I equate the music to a nice smooth train ride with your head out the window on a warm spring evening. Estella’s voice is unique, but there are times where I say, oh she sounds like….I think you’ll enjoy the music and the Long Island natives deserve your love. PLEASE LISTEN TO “LADY DAYDREAM” !!!!! It’s quite possibly the single of the year.

Band:
Andrea Estella
Bryan Ujueta
Eric Cardona
Gabel D’Amico
Udbhav Gupta sitting in a tree.

Hear:
“Lady Daydream” – This could be the single of the year. I love everything about this song!!!!!

Download —> Twin Sister – “Lady Daydream”

“Phenomenons”

“The Other Side of Your Face”

Download a Free Daytrotter Session – Don’t know about Daytrotter, well you do now!!!

Follow:
MySpace
Facebook
Twin Sister Official Site

Band of the Day (9.6.10) Broken Water

6 Sep

BOD (9.6.10) Broken Water

Holy shat these guys are fantastic. I’m not the biggest garage rock, fuzzed out, dirty guy. But if you’ve been reading NBD long enough, you’ll notice that if the band is great, they’ll get their due. Broken Water is Nirvana meets shoegaze. They’re Olympia’s finest new specimen of whir, fuzz and dirty, amplified guitars coupled with echoed vocals. They’re not some PacNoWest rip-off band. They’re inventive and super cool. Super cool in the way they weave in and out of the heavy. They use the reverb as a way to spray emotion on you, but they pull back to the clean guitars and Abigail’s vocals just in time to prevent a complete overload. It’s a great threesome organization and they are well deserving of the props. Thank you to Arizona Turk for turning me onto these guys.

Band:
They formed in 2008 and seem to be residing in several bands up in the Olympia area. SISTERS, Oly’s Congratualtions, etc.

kanako-drums/vocals
abigail-bass/vocals
jon-guitar/vocals

Hear:
“Memory” – It’s Nirvana guitar riffs, Cobain stylings, but I would compare this track most to Dinosaur Jr. F’n love it.

“Dead Light” – It’s dark and haunting, but not droney. It’s got enough grit and grime to make you feel dirty, but Abigail’s vocals clean you up to show to the parents.

Follow:
MySpace

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