Still struggling to get back to some sort of regular posting schedule, but here are a few random news bits ….
- Doves have announced a North American tour in May and June to support their new album, Kingdom Of Rust (out April 7th). They’re playing the Fillmore in S.F. on May 18th, and since I’ve managed to miss them on both of their last two US tours (and any previous tours, of which I am unaware) I really better get my ass to this one.
- The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are also launching a US tour, but since they’re spending half of it camped out in Austin, and the other half on the East Coast — before departing for a lengthy jaunt around Europe — fuck ‘em.
- And this is something I’ve been meaning to post a link to for weeks, but did you know that Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley wrote a Bee Gees record review for Pitchfork? They’ve referred to him as a staff writer a couple times since then, so maybe Pitchfork will be marginally less insufferable for the immediate future.
, that much. No idea why, as it seems to hit all the same right notes that 
had a few years earlier. Maybe I wasn’t just in the mood for lilting Scottish indie pop in ’06? I’ve been listening to it tonight, and yeah, it’s really quite good.
, 
– The first two are my favorite tracks off 
(which had a more Joy Division-like sound) by mistake first, when it was the 
that I was looking for.
, 
– Terribly overplayed thanks to Trainspotting, but I still love this song. There’s a terribly melancholy, detached feel to it which contrasts brilliantly with the intensity of the driving beats.
– Although Snow Patrol has always seemed like the type of band that I’d like, I’ve never gotten that into them — with the exception of this song.
– My original introduction to shoegaze, picked up used for 99¢ my freshman year in college. It wasn’t nearly as great as the follow-up 
(to say nothing of the peerless 
), so I eventually sold this off, but it’ll be nice to have a digital copy around when I’m in the mood.
– Off Swervedriver’s fourth and final album, 
– An early Slowdive EP. eMusic was worthing signing up for if only to pick up all the early shoegaze albums and EP’s that they have (they just added the first two Swervedriver albums, too).
– I would’ve sworn this EP, with its seeming hodge-podge of tracks, was a promotional disc for the band’s second RCA album, 
, but it turns out it that it came out a full year earlier. Two songs off Fire appear here, the punkish “We’re Not Going To Crack” and an alternate (inferior) acoustic take of “There’s A Fire”. The EP’s title track may be the oddest thing I’ve ever heard by the band.
came out in November. I 
– Gala collected Lush’s first three EP’s, Scar, Mad Love, and Sweetness and Light, along with a couple then-new songs. I had this on cassette back in the early 90′s, and liked it much more than their first full-length, 
. I actually downloaded several songs off this when I first signed up with eMusic back in September, so I decided to buy the rest of the album.
.
– Supposedly composed and recorded solo by Michael Feerick before his 20th birthday, this impressive 2005 shoegaze record has a rather muscular, emotionally direct sound, at times hinting at mid-90′s American alt-rock.
– I know Lorelei from a handful of cuts spread between the 
compilations in the mid-90′s. This 1993 EP is more of the same, noisy shoegaze-influenced indie pop.
– Collects two early (1994?) singles by the classic noisy pop band.
– Heavenly transformed into this band after the suicide of Mathew Fletcher. As with every time this gang changes names (which is a fair bit), there’s no radical departure in sound, just some progression in sophistication of craft.
