Category: Shoegaze

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Vigo, Spain’s Linda Guilala Releases a “120 Minutes” MTV-like Visual for “Accidente”

Linda Guilala is a  Vigo, Spain-based shoegazer trio — currently founding members Ivan (drums) and Eva (keys, vocals) and newest member Mari (bass) — that can trace its origins back to 2005 when its founding members’ previous band Juniper Moon broke up. And although, Eva had only been with the band for only a handful of live shows, Eva and Ivan decided to continue onward.

(In 2006, the duo along with Daylight’s and Matilda’s Ignacio Espumado (bass) recorded their self-produced debut demo. Some of the band’s first singles received airplay on Juan de Pablos’ influential RN3 Radio 3 show Flor de Pasion. Perhaps as a result of airplay on Jaun de Pablos’ show, they started to receive airplay on a number of Spanish indie music radio programs including RN3 Radio 3’s Disco Grande, UPV-Scanner FM’s Toxicosmos, Onda Madrid’s Plastico Elastico and ContemPOPranea Fesitval’s Augstin Fuentes’ Canal Extremadura Radio show La Merienda, which featured the band as a band of the week.

The band has received airplay on radio stations in Mexico, Italy, Germany, Sweden, the UK and others — with the band being named an artist of the week on British radio station Radio Nowhere and their material landing on the label’s Best of 2006 polls. And adding to a growing profile, the band has been featured on a number of label’s international shoegazer compilations including Mexican label Molécula Records’ Granada, Vol. 2, American label Valiant Death Records’ YAY 4 Cuteness, Singapore label Fruit Records’ Twee like me!, a CD compilation for the comic book Kid Houdini, as well as compilations on Italian label My Honey Records, Argentinian label Superclima Records and Peruvian label Ya estas ya Records’ Christina Rosenvinge’s tribute. 

2007 saw the release of the act’s sophomore demo, which received attention from a number of blogs and e-zines  — and they made their live debut at that year’s Elefant Records party at Galileo Galilei with labelmates CORAZÓN and DJ Polar. Shortly, after that show, their debut demo was named the second best demo of the previous year on Julio Ruiz’s RN3 Radio 3 show Disco Grande. They also played the Flor de Pasion party at Madrid’s Siroco, the Plastidepop Festival in Zaragoza and at Rome’s Circolo degli Artisti. Adding to a big 2007, the band contributed to Jabalina Records fifth edition of the Teoría y práctica melódica compilation, dedicated to the Olympic games featuring Pumuky, La estrella de David, Souvenir, Polar, Flow, Travolta and Apenino.  

2009 saw the release of the Spanish act’s self-recorded full-length debut Bucles infinitos through Elefant Records, an effort that’s influenced by My Bloody Valentine, Ride, The Wedding Present and Pale Saints among others. MySpace chose the album as their album of the month — and Radio Nowhere named them as an artist of the week for the week of November 23rd. The band supported the album with a Spanish tour and appearances at Indietracks Festival and a MySpace party at Primavera Sound Festival. 

2011’s Paranormal EP was self-recorded and mixed at the band’s Kaiju Studios in their hometown in Vigo. The four song EP thematically touched upon fantasy, harry and the paranormal while remaining true to the band’s punk, noise and shoegazer spirit. Alba played bass and guitar for a few songs on the EP and for live shows. 

2012 saw the band contributing the unedited song “Morir ahogada” to the Wiaiwya Records compilation It’s the taking part that counts dedicated to that year’s London Olympic Games. For a period of time, the members of Linda Guilala produced material for acts like Axolotes Mexicanos, When Nalda Became Punk, Los Bonsais and others at their studio in Vigo — and they’ve played as the live band for Marco Meril’s Apenino. 2014 saw the release of the six song Xeristar EP, an effort that featured The Blows’ and The Cobras’ Bruno Mosquera (guitar) and continued a run of material influenced by Ride and My Bloody Valentine — but also drawing from Los Planetas, Spiritualized, The Charlottes, Lush and Beach House. 

The members of Linda Guilala contributed a cover of “Carlos Baila” for Elefant Records’ 2014 compilation Homenaje a Family (Un Soplo en el Corazón de Elephant). The band also played at Los Conciertos de Radio 3 for Spanish TV network TVE2. The band also embarked some extensive touring across Spain with The Primitives that also included festival stops in Berlin and Cologne. The band also wrote a new theme song for Disco Grande, Girando Otra Vez (Disco Grande), hypnotic bit of spacey psychedelia featuring the band relating the mane of the radio show, which has been on the air over 35 years. 

2016’s sophomore album Psiconautica was recorded and mixed at the band’s Kaiju Studios and the 20 song album is a concept album that thematically focuses on the mind expanding experience of hallucinogenic drugs and of the chemicals that regulate our experiences. Sonically, the album draws from Spiritualized’s Medication, Spacemen 3’s Walkin’ With Jesus and Los Planetas’ Neuevas Sensaciones — and it features a guest spot from Apenino’s Marco Meril. The album received praise from Italy’s Waves For Masses, Brazil’s The Blog That Celebrates Itself, France’s Indie Rock Blog, Germany’s Platten Vor Gericht, America’s Sounds Better With Reverb, DKFM and Allmusic, the UK’s Louder Than War and Shoegazer Live 9, as well as Spanish media outlets like Disco Grandem El Caleidoscopio Musical, Ultrasónica, Fantastic Plastic Mag, Mondo Sonoro Galicia and La Merienda  with a number of them naming the album as one of the best albums of that year. Songs off the album also received airplay on a number of national and international radio shows, including BBC Radio 6’s Steve Lamacq and Gideon Coe. 

Despite having a breakthrough year, the band wen through a major lineup change: Bruno left the band and was played by Visceral Eyes’ Mari, who played guitar for live shows. But since then, the band has been busy releasing new material, contributing to a number of compilations and playing sets across the international festival circuit. 

Recently the Spanish shoegazers contributed to Emotional Response Records’ Typical Girls vinyl compilation series, a compilation that focuses on the best of a contemporary crop of all-female and female-led bands in the underground, post-punk, punk, hardcore, garage, dream pop and shoegaze scenes. Volume five of the series features tracks from 16 bands across the globe including Australia’s Empat Lima, the US’ Color TV, Table Sugar Whip, Mr. Wrong, Patsy Rats, Kamala and the Karnivores, Latitude, and Drama, Germany’s The Inserts, Scotland’s Vital Idles, England’s SNOB and Child’s Pose, as well as the aforementioned Linda Guilala. 

“Accidente” the Spanish shoegazers contribution to the compilation is the first official recorded output with Mari playing guitar — but interestingly enough, it continues a run hazy and noisy shoegaze centered around heavily distorted power chords, propulsive drumming, droning synths, Eva’s ethereal vocals and a rousingly anthemic hook. Sonically, the track manages to recall My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus and Mary Chain and others. And as a result it brings back memories of 120 Minutes-era MTV. Fittingly, the recently released video was filmed in different industrial locations in Vigo including a car scrapyard, a shipyard and in Coto Wagner, a huge abandoned platform over the sea that was once used to ship iron to the Nazis and to the UK — and at points using kaleidoscopic and trippy filters. As the band notes, they love the beauty inside those sort of creepy and decrepit places. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Mexican Shoegazers Mint Field Release a Gorgeous Visual for Meditative New Single “Natural”

With the release of their debut EP Primeras Salidas, acclaimed shoegazer act Mint Field — initially founded in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico by Estrella del Sol Sanchez and Amor Amezcua — quickly received international attention that landed them sets across the North American festival circuit, including Coachella and SXSW, as well as sets at venues across both the States and their native Mexico. Interestingly, their Christopher Koltay-produced full-length debut, 2018’s Pasar De Las Luces found the then-duo establishing a clearer sense of what they wanted to do sonically, as a result of having the tools to do so. Drawing from dream pop, krautock, stoner rock and shoegaze, the material was imbued with sorrow and nostalgia. 

Since the release of their full-length debut, there’s been a number of massive changes with the band’s universe. The band relocated to Mexico City and upon moving to the Mexican capital, the band has gone through a massive lineup change: Amor Amezcua  left the band, and the band has expanded into a trio with the addition of Sebastian Neyra and the band’s newest member, Ulrika Spacek’s Callum Brown. Additionally, the band recently signed to Los Angeles-based post punk label Felte Records — and to celebrate the occasion, the band released a new single, “Natural.”

Recorded at London-based Wilton Way Studio, the Syd Kemp-produced track “Natural” finds the newly constituted trio collaborating with Vanishing Twin’s Cathy Lucas and Nathan Pigott. And while continuing a run of ethereal and dreamy material, centered around contemplative lyrical content, “Natural” finds the band expanding upon their sonic palette with the addition of strings and saxophone, which strike me as being subtle nods to 60s psych rock and Dark Side of the Moon-era Pink Floyd but with some industrial clang and clatter. “‘Natural’ is a song about speaking words and how the fluency of words is very important to our subconscious, as well as being self-aware,” the band explains in press notes. 

Directed by their friends Daniela Solis and Maria Ramirez, the recently released video for “Natural” was shot in late February, just before the COVID-19 shut downs. Featuring sequences shot both inside and outside, the video reveals gorgeous, almost painterly  contrasts between light and shadow. “The idea was to capture the movement of light and how time elapses,” the band says. “It was recorded in an empty house, which belongs to the grandmother of the two directors. Visually we were aiming for pleasing and matte colors. It was all natural with no post production effects.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Know Releases a Wistful and Nostalgic Visual for Swooning “Someday Maybe”

Los Angeles-based dream pop/shoegaze duo The Know, married couple and collaborators Daniel Knowles and Jennifer Farmer, can trace their origins to late 2018, when Knowles suggested to Farmer that instead of traveling home for the holidays — the UK and Texas respectively — that they stay put in Los Angeles and try to write music together, just the two of them. And the material they would write would be their gift to themselves. 

Over a couple of weeks, they isolated themselves in their home studio with no real plan but they shared a mutual love of Beach House, Julee Cruise, ye ye, The Jesus and Mary Chain, 60s girl groups, Patsy Cline and The National. Interestingly, the first batch of material they wrote together, was their debut single “143.” Inspired by Tom Waits‘ “(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night,” “143” found the duo meshing the autobiographical with the fantastic: focusing on the hazy half-remembered recollections of a wild night out paired with an instrumental arrangement that seemed indebted to Beach House and 60s girl groups. 

Their second single “Hold Me Like You Know Me,” a personal account of the intense feelings of loneliness and isolation that the band’s Farmer felt over the past year, received favorably comparisons to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound production. 

Both of those singles will be included on the duo’s forthcoming debut EP, wearetheknow. Slated for a May 18, 2020 release, the EP finds the duo fully embracing a DIY ethos: the EP was produced, mixed and mastered by the band’s Knowles with Farmer handling the band’s visual side, including their videos and visual content. And as a result, the duo ensure that they have complete creative control over what they do. Thematically, the EP delves into the duo’s personal lives with the material touching upon their relationship and their experiences  — paired with a kaleidoscopic soundscape. 

Interestingly, the EP’s third and latest single “Someday Maybe” finds the duo continuing  a run of material that thematically is based on their personal experiences — while sonically meshing Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound with The Stone Roses and others. In other words, swooning melodies with layers upon layers of swirling and buzzing guitars, and pedal effects. As the duo explains the song “is about the potential you feel when you first meet someone you connect deeply with.” 

Directed by the band’s Jennifer Farmer, the recently released video stars Los Angeles music scene personality Howard Mordoh as The LA Rocker, along with the members of The Know as themselves, Kris Correa, Lauren Womack, Skylar Francise and Colin Coleman — and is set at barbecue/backyard party.  Of course, the video has me dreaming of the day that we all can get together at a party, drink tons of cheap beer, dance and listen to music all day and night. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Birmingham AL’s Wray Releases a Brooding Visual for Shimmering and Cinematic “Jogging/Neon Forming”

Wray is a critically applauded Birmingham, AL-based indie trio — David Bown (bass, vocals), David Swatzell (guitar, vocals) and Blake Wimberly (drums)  — that can trace its origins to its members’ shared decade-plus history in Birmingham’s indie and underground scenes. Interestingly, with the act’s first two albums — 2014’s self-titled debut and 2016’s Lynn Bridges and Wray co-produced sophomore album Hypatia, the Birmingham-based trio received praise from the likes of The New York Times and Mojo for their adventurous, genre-defying sound and approach. Adding to a growing profile, they’ve also made appearances on MTVu and Daytrotter. 

Slated for a June 5, 2020 release through their longtime label home Communicating Vessels Records, the band’s long-awaited, self-produced dual record Stream of Youth/Blank World thematically is an exploration of personal dichotomies: hope and pessimism, wildness and composure, joy and pain. Recorded at Communicating Vessels Birmingham area studio, the band experimented, wrote, revised and recorded the material at their own pace. Sonically, the material further establishes the band’s reputation for crafting a shimmering New Wave-like take on shoegaze that seems indebted to NEU!, Faust, Can, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, and even The Cure. 

“Jogging/Neon Forming,” Stream of Youth/Blank World’s brooding and cinematic latest single is a perfect example of the sound that has won them acclaim: centered around a motorik groove, shimmering synth arpeggios, plaintive vocals and a rousingly anthemic hook, the song feels like an ethereal yet lingering fever dream. At its core is an achingly wistful nostalgia for a past that we simply can’t get back — and considering the current state of the world, the song’s overall feel and vibe feels powerfully relevant. 

Created by Barbara Baron, the recently released video for “Jogging/Neon Forming” was hot on a grainy VHS-like tape and features a lonely woman in a laundromat and briefly in a park — and throughout there’s a sense of loss. 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Lightning Bug Releases Hazy Visuals for Ethereal and Soaring “The Onely Ones”

Led by songwriter Audrey King and featuring multi-instrumentalist Kevin Copeland and producer Logan Miley, Brooklyn-based shoegazer act Lightning Bug is grounded in a tight-knit friendship and an intuitive musical bond which heavily influences their sound — a mix of rapturous shoegaze, longing balladry and ambient soundscapes. While their recorded output has revealed a sonic eclecticism, their material is centered around a magnetic sense of cohesion. Lyrically, their work documents Kang’s relationship with her humanity and feelings, detailing memories fraught with joy and heartache, and the seemingly unending cycle of tension and release that comes as one develops self-trust. 

With the release of their first two albums, 2015’s Floaters, which landed on NME’s best debut albums of 2015 list and last year’s October Song, the Brooklyn-based shoegazer act has developed a reputation for being one of the genre’s newest buzzworthy acts. Building upon a rising profile, the act recently signed to Fat Possum Records, who will re-issue October Song on vinyl on April 24, 2020 — and to celebrate the occasion, the band released a previously unreleased single “The Onely Ones.” Recorded during the October Song sessions, the lush and atmospheric song is centered around a soaring hook, ethereal vocals, twinkling instrumentation and thumping beats — and manages to evoke a hazy and difficult to define and intense emotion that’s a mix of joy and anguish.  Unsurprisingly, the recently released video for “The Onely Ones” is shot in a hazy black and white that nods at 120 Minutes era MTV — while capturing a fleeting and temporal moment

“You know when you experience a sudden extreme of emotion? Not quite anguish, not quite joy, but some unutterable mixture of both. This song is my attempt to express that,” King says in press notes of the song and accompanying video.

The video for ‘The Onely Ones’ seeks to represent the fleeting impressions that stream behind the membrane of immediate reality. It attempts to remind how there is, shimmering within each person, an entire universe as intangible and as infinite as time.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

With the release of last year’s full-length debut Grass Stains and Novocaine, the San Francisco-based shoegazers Seablite — currently featuring Lauren, Galine, Jen and Andy — quickly received national attention: the album placed highly on a number of that year’s Best-Of Lists, including landing at #36 on Good Morning America‘s Top 50 Albums of the Year list.

Building upon a growing profile, the band will be releasing Grass Stains and Novocaine‘s highly-anticipated follow-up, the 4 song 10 inch EP High Rise Mannequins. Recorded by Alicia Vanden Heuvel in San Francisco, the new batch of material slated for a February 21, 2020 release through Emotional Response Records reportedly captures the band growing as songwriters and musicians. 

“Pretend” the EP’s first single finds the Bay Area-based quartet’s sound drawing equally from fuzz pop, jangle pop, shoegaze and 60s bubblegum pop in a way that recalls The Smiths, La Sera and Phil Spector-era girl groups but with a bit of garage rock grit and grime, and a huge, anthemic hook.

‘”Pretend’ is one of our oldest songs from our first EP and we wanted to renew it with our current lineup,” the band says in an emailed statement. “We recorded it as part of a 4-song EP in July of 2019 with Alicia Vanden Heuvel at her very own Speakeasy Studios in San Francisco. Most folks are familiar with Alicia from her work in The Aislers Set and Poundsign, but she’s also been producing bands such as The Mantles, Personal and the Pizzas, and countless others in her studio for years. She uses a giant 2” tape machine that was originally used to record all of the sounds on the movie The Abyss, so there’s some vibes in that thing for sure.  Alicia has a very special ear and production style, it was amazing to collaborate with and bounce ideas off of her. Every time we finished a mix, we’d go out to Alicia’s car and blast the songs while sitting in her driveway, then run up into her house and crank the songs on her stereo and AB it. The EP recording experience felt natural, more like a hangout session where we happened to also be working on a record.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Over the past couple of years, I’ve managed to write a bit about JOVM Matthew Messore, who’s an Orlando, FL-born and-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. best known as the creative mastermind behind the rapidly rising bedroom recording project Cathedral Bells. Since the release of 2018’s self-titled EP, which received support from David Dean Burkhart and praise from The Line of Best Fit, Messore has released a handful of singles from his highly-anticipated Cathedral Bells full-length debut Velvet Spirit, which is slated for a March 6, 2020 release through Good Eye Records.

The JOVM mainstay begins 2020 with “Disconnected,” the latest single off his forthcoming debut, and much like its predecessors, the new single continues to cement the sound that has won the attention of the blogosphere, including this site: centered around Messore’s ethereal vocals, delicately shimmering and reverb-drenched guitars and a motorik groove, “Disconnected” is a shoegazer-like take on New Wave that recalls early 4AD Records and others but while possessing a swooning urgency.

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Austin-based shoegaze/dream pop act ThunderStars, comprised of longtime Margot & the Nuclear So and Sos multi-instrumentalist Erik Klang (vocals, guitar), Sven Bjorkman (drums) and Omar Richardson (bass) can trace their origins back to when Bjorkman posted a random thought about a creating a band named ThunderStars, a term coined by his toddler daughter, during a stress-fueled trip to the hospital. And while marking Klang’s return to music, the band has had a art-out-of-chaos theme hanging over them since their inception back in 2018.

After their second-ever live show, Omar Richardson was assault by a vagrant outside of the venue, which resulted in a severe concussion and a subsequent trip to the ER. The incident was covered extensively by Austin-bass news outlets — and as a result the band’s profile rose unexpectedly. Additionally, their early demos were well received publicly with the band receiving radio and podcast airplay, as well as show bookings with a number of national touring acts.

Building upon a growing profile, the Austin-based shoegazers’ latest effort Number Stations is slated for a Friday release through Mariel Recording Company. Interestingly, the album’s latest single is the slow-burning and shimmering “Not That Far.” Centered around Klang’s plaintive vocals, shimmering and reverb-drenched guitars, the track manages to recall 4AD-era shoegaze, as it possesses an ethereal and feverish quality.

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Blackwater Holylight Releases a Gorgeous and Feverish Visual for Doom-laden “Jizz Witch”

Led by founding member Allison “Sunny” Faris (vocals, bass), the acclaimed Portland, OR-based heavy psych act Blackwater Holylight can trace its origins to when Faris’ previous band split up. And at the time, Faris started the band as a way to experiment with what her own version of heavy should and could be both sonically and emotionally — while celebrating vulnerability in all of its forms. Secondly, Faris, who was frequently the only woman in many of her bands, desperately wanted to see how it was to work exclusively with women. 

Blackwater Holylight released their critically applauded self-titled, full-length debut last year, and as a result of extensive touring to support it, the band has managed to hone their sound and identity — with their sound evolving to the point that their live show has become about the slow build.  Interestingly enough, as a heavy band, the Portland-based JOVM mainstays sonically and structurally manage to do something unlike any of their peers in the scene: their material generally isn’t anchored to riffs, but rather riffs come and go in rippling and undulating waves that surface through meditative and entrancing songs, while focusing on building tension and intrigue. 

The band released their sophomore album Veils of Winter last October through RidingEasy Records, and the album finds the band with a different lineup — Faris (bass, vocals), Laura Hopkins (guitar/vocals) and Sarah McKenna (synths) along with the band’s newest members Mikayla Mayhew (guitar) Eliese Dorsay (drums). And perhaps s a result of their new lineup, their sound and writing process has changed dramatically. “The process of this album was vastly different from our first record,” Faris says in press notes. “One, because we recorded it over the course of a few weeks, whereas the first record was over the course of about a year. And two, this album was a true collaboration between the five of us. Each of us had extremely equal parts in writing and producing, we all bounced ideas off each together, and we all had a say in what was going on during every part of the process.”

“One of our favorite things about this album is that because it was so collaborative, we didn’t compartmentalize ourselves into one vibe.” Faris continues. “It’s heavy, psychedelic, pop, shoegaze, doom, grunge, melodic and more. The whole process was extremely organic and natural for us, we were just being ourselves.”

Now, as you may recall over the course of last year, I wrote about two of the album’s previously released singles — the one part doom metal, one part shoegazer “Motorcycle” and the nuanced, yet more straightforward shoegazer-like “Death Realms.” The album’s latest single “Jizz Witch” is an ominous track that further cements the band’s reputation for crafting a doom metal take on shoegaze — or better yet a shoegazer take on doom metal. In any case much like its predecessors, it’s a slow-burning and nuanced dirge that you can simultaneously light incense to and sway and headbang. 

Directed by Phoenix Wolfe, the recently released video is a gorgeously shot yet surreal and symbolic fever dream that features powerful women.