Category: Shoegaze

Song of the Day (Covers): Lush – Outdoor Miner

Post author By Tom Ray
Post date August 19, 2020
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Day 15. Wire’s Colin Newman described the Lush version of their excellent Outdoor Miner as having “much confidence on show, plus they get the chorus right!” This is integral when you consider other covers of he same tune, like the one by Flying Saucer Attack. As much as I love it, the chorus sounds melodically miles away from this version or the original. He went on “It’s actually very satisfying to hear someone do a decent cover of a song you’ve written (and distressing to hear a bad one!).”

No blind spots in the leopard’s eyes
Can only help to jeopardize
The lives of lambs, the shepherd cries
An outdoor life for a silverfish
Eternal dust less ticklish
Than the clean room, a houseguest’s wish
He lies on his side, is he trying to hide?
In fact it’s the earth, which he’s known since birth
He lies on his side, is he trying to hide?
In fact it’s the earth, which he’s known since birth
Face worker, a serpentine miner
A roof falls, an under-liner
Of leaf structure, the egg timer
He lies on his side, is he trying to hide?
In fact it’s the earth, which he’s known since birth
He lies on his side, is he trying to hide?
In fact it’s the earth, which he’s known since birth
He lies on his side, is he trying to hide? (he lies on his side)
In fact it’s the earth, which he’s known since birth (is he trying to hide?)
He lies on his side, is he trying to hide? (he lies on his side)
In fact it’s the earth, which he’s known since birth (is he trying to hide?)
He lies on his side, is he trying to hide? (he lies on his side)
In fact it’s the earth, which he’s known since birth (is he trying to hide?)

Looking for some great music? Why not check out the Song of the Day (Covers) Spotify playlist?

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Tags Lush

Dream Pop Indie Rock Shoegaze Song of the Day

Song of the Day (Covers): Dum Dum Girls – There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

Post author By Tom Ray
Post date August 11, 2020
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Day 8. Where the original, by The Smiths, is a masterclass in jangly, smart Indie Pop, this version, by US Noise Pop band Dum Dum Girls (their name a double homage to the Vaselines album Dum Dum & Iggy Pop’s Dum Dum Boys) is pitched somewhere between the fuzzy rawness of Garage Rock & the immersive soundscaping of Shoegaze. It seems to work particularly well & the song is rounded off by this great fan-made video of the band on tour in Europe.

Take me out tonight
Where there’s music and there’s people
And they’re young and alive
Driving in your car
I never never want to go home
Because I haven’t got one
Anymore
Take me out tonight
Because I want to see people and I
Want to see life
Driving in your car
Oh, please don’t drop me home
Because it’s not my home, it’s their
Home, and I’m welcome no more
And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten-ton truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well, the pleasure – the privilege is mine
Take me out tonight
Take me anywhere, I don’t care
I don’t care, I don’t care
And in the darkened underpass
I thought oh God, my chance has come at last
(but then a strange fear gripped me and I
Just couldn’t ask)
Take me out tonight
Oh, take me anywhere, I don’t care
I don’t care, I don’t care
Driving in your car
I never never want to go home
Because I haven’t got one, da…
Oh, I haven’t got one
And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten-ton truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well, the pleasure – the privilege is mine
Oh, there is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out

Looking for some great music? Why not check out the Song of the Day (Covers) Spotify playlist.

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Tags Dum Dum Girls

Funk Indie Rock Shoegaze Song of the Day

Song of the Day (BLM): The Veldt – Until You’re Forever

Post author By Tom Ray
Post date June 15, 2020
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Day 12. I’m a big fan of subverting expectations & stereotypes so I’m pleased to present to you, The Veldt. The Veldt are a black Shoegaze band from the initial wave of that genre. Singer Daniel Chavis recalls how his band were viewed as “difficult to work with” as a result of them not playing “typical black music.”

The Veldt play a unique blend of soulful Shoegaze. Walls of sound akin to My Bloody Valentine shroud moody soul vocals & a funk inspired rhythm section. Until You’re Forever, in my opinion, seems to have echoes of the “Madchester” sound to it. Possibly as a result of combining Indie Pop melodicism with upbeat dance-like rhythms & synthesiser textures.

Initially released in 1994, this version is from 2019 & is just as vital & energetic as the album version.

My apologies but, for the first time, I was unable to find the lyrics to this tune to reproduce here.

Looking for some great music? Why not check out the Song of the Day (BLM) Spotify playlist.

[spotify

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Tags The Veldt

Indie Rock Shoegaze

Seventeen Years Old And Berlin Wall – No Paradise

Post author By Tom Ray
Post date June 12, 2020
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Japanese Shoegazers, Seventeen Years Old And Berlin Wall, release new single No Paradise today.

It’s a marked departure from the huge wall of sound productions of their previous work. No Paradise sees a much cleaner, Dream Pop orientated sound. Ultra-melodic guitars pick out pretty melodies over understated synth pads. The drumming is downbeat & natural. Vocals still occupy the reverb-drenched midrange that you’d expect of a band with roots in Shoegaze, dreamy vocal melodies behaving as another layer of lush, comfort blanket-like instrumentation. There’s an almost twee feel to the melodic simplicity used here.

If you’re unfamiliar with Seventeen Years Old And Berlin Wall’s earlier work, check out the great video for their 2017 single Prism (at the bottom of this post). You’ll hear why No Paradise is such a departure, production wise, from their earlier work. I actually like the gentler sound palate used here. It still creates a huge, cavernous warmth which almost seems to envelop the listener.

There is a theory that Shoegaze & Dream Pop’s popularity lays in their warm, surrounding qualities. The emotions of comfort & safety which this gives the listener is thought to be womblike.

No Paradise is out today in all of the usual places.