Sweet 'stache
I don’t think I’ll ever grow out of the shoegaze phase (hey, rhyming!). I realize that some people feel that the term shoegaze is bullshit for one of any of the following reasons:
Reason the first, it sounds super lame. Like people gazing at their shoes? Who gazes at anything? It reeks of pretension. Point made.
Reason number B, it’s too broad. There are so many different bands that are lumped into this category that sound nothing alike. Ride sounded nothing like My Bloody Valentine. Slowdive (holy hell, I haven’t listened to Souvlaki in way too long) don’t sound like Swervedriver. All of these bands, whether you like it or not, have been referred to at some time or another as shoegaze bands.
Ok, so I can only think of two reasons. Still, I’ve always had a massive soft spot for this kind of music as you may or may not have read in previous posts. I’m even going to tag this post as shoegaze. The bands I listed above are legends in my mind. Some of my all time favorite albums fall under this non-category including Souvlaki, A Storm in Heaven by The Verve, Mezcal Head by Swervedriver, Loveless by My Bloody Valentine and anything by Amusement Parks on Fire.
Crawling out from those shadows is California band Fleeting Joys. They had one album that I knew of, Despondent Transponder, and that was excellent. Sure, they wear their MBV influences on their sleeves, but I don’t see how that can be a bad thing. So they use similar guitar tones – big deal. Bands use the same tones all the time. There are only so many to go around.
The point here is that Fleeting Joys released a new album that I was finally able to grab through emusic.com called Occult Radiance and it’s an expansion upon the sound they established on the first record with a lot more experimenting and psychedelic overtones. They wear some different influences here and one that sticks out to me is the Brian Jonestown Massacre. That’s a very good thing.
This isn’t going to be much of an album review, mostly because I don’t feel like re-hashing the same superlatives and descriptive terms that everyone seems to use when they try to review an album. Since I didn’t go to the Pitchfork Overwrought Douchefueled School of Writing nor am I attempting to become the next Rolling Stone star-hander-outer, here is my quick review: this is a really cool album if you like shoegaze music.
Right now, my favorite tune from the album is called A Beautiful End, which confusingly, is the third to last song on the album. Check it out below and grab this album.
