STREAMING MADNESS: SPOTIFY’S “SHOEGAZE NOW” PLAYLIST
JOHN GOES ‘GAZING
We aren’t deep shoegaze heads over here at John’s Music Blog, but it’s hard not to be fascinated by the trajectory the genre has taken since the pandemic. When it comes to this Zoomer shoegaze shit, Eli Enis wrote a piece for Stereogum last year that felt pretty definitive, and recently wrote another one for Nina about the merging of the genre with more digital-native rap styles. What I have learned: Contemporary shoegaze is both big-tent and hyperniche; it concurrently bends to the smooth logic of TikTok and mutates into new modes. Sometimes it feels like all guitar music has been swallowed into the style. Sometimes new shoegaze doesn’t use guitars at all. Crazy!
I have no clue if Spotify’s “Shoegaze Now” playlist offers a coherent overview of the genre, but it is likely influencing how it is perceived by casual listeners. Why I have decided to “investigate” it right now is anyone’s guess. I’m not someone with a horse in this race. I sadly remain curious about contemporary music, though, and I wanted to check in with a story in progress, a story that starts with aloof British people staring at their effects pedals and runs into our digitally mediated present. But that’s not my story to tell. I’m excited for Eli’s upcoming book. (Working on this intro alerted me to the fact that the writer already did a similar blog post last May. What can I say? The guy owns his beat.) Recently, I listened to the first ten songs on the playlist.
junodream “Dream Untitled (On and On)”
Let’s start with a passage from the British band junodream’s one sheet: “We play space rock, and we write about alienation in the 21st century. But don’t worry, our songs are somewhere in the middle of sad and uplifting.” I first heard the term space rock before I heard the term shoegaze, if you can believe that. I was reading about the Detroit band Grimble Grumble in an issue of Milk magazine. It was the late 1990s and I was in middle school. I’m not sure if “Dream Untitled (On and On)” is, strictly speaking, space rock or shoegaze. Please… Sound off in the comments.
Cold Gawd “Malibu Beach House”
Cold Gawd is not the name of a SoundCloud rapper from 2016. Cold Gawd is the name of a shoegaze band from a town that is beloved by multiple generations of comedy writers: Rancho Cucamonga, California. The band hits like an index fund of contemporary shoegaze. It’s heavy enough. It jangles enough. I’m not sure if this is music I can be excited about.
More than a lot of their peers, julie’s sound contains certain Sonic Youth influences, which comes through in the music only sometimes. Even as they point outward, these bands can’t help but stay detached. (I’m intrigued by the newest generation of post-hardcore bands, the type documented by YouTubers like Hotstuff Productions. Lately, I’ve been seeing more white belts.)
I’m not sure if I have the ‘gaze head language to perfectly pinpoint what wylie hopkins is going for. To my sanded ears, “See” is groovy dream pop with dialed, almost crooning vocals—still washy, still sitting cutty in the mix. My friend Alex has a theory that the Lost in Translation soundtrack has done for shoegaze what the O Brother, where art thou? soundtrack did for Chuckleberry Americana. It’s not like he doesn’t have a point.
Winter “shaniatwainlovestory (They Are Gutting a Body of Water Remix)”
I saw They Are Gutting a Body of Water play earlier in the year. There was something undeniably screamo about their live presentation. They rocked on the floor in a circle. The singer had his back to the crowd. But during tuning breaks they played not ambient or drone… They played high-energy rave tracks. Cumulatively, the band transmitted a somewhat confusing feeling; their set had all of the hallmarks of the kind of pan-genre DIY rock I grew up with, though the thing driving the show—the band’s music itself—was woozy and sludgy. I’m used to fast music and slow interludes. It’s a matter of temperature. Regardless: Inspiring band.
While listening to “Void in Blue,” I combed a Reddit thread inquiring as to why Glare is so popular. Some say TikTok. Others point to the Spotify algorithm. One deleted user: “If it was 1987 bands like this would be trying to sound like Dokken. It was 1992 they’d be trying to sound like Pearl Jam. If it was 1999 they’d be trying to sound like Korn.” Bands like Nothing and Whirr have seemingly thrown down a template that many have borrowed from. I wouldn’t be the person to tell you if this brand of shoegaze has reached critical mass or if there is another wave about to rock its way onto the stages of festivals sponsored by Monster Energy Drink.
They Are Gutting a Body of Water (Feat. Sword II) “ana orint”
More TAGABOW, as the kids say, and the first and only song on the playlist that has previously been posted to John’s Music Blog. The Julia’s War Recordings axis of East Coast shoegaze has some shit for a blogger like me—an aging millennial hipster who cut their teeth surfing paper rad dot org—to glom onto. It’s not all active rock stomp (not that there’s anything wrong with that). There’s hat tips to jungle and trip hop and a dirtstyle energy, both sonically and visually.
“Bishop” has the trappings of contemporary drop-tuned shoegaze and comes with a coda that reminds me of the Japanese post-hardcore band Envy, of all things. Or maybe Mogwai. I don’t know. It’s interesting that “Shoegaze Now” has gone light on the kind of genre-bending tracks that have been pushing shoegaze into strange places lately. Or at least the first ten songs of the playlist. Again: I don’t know. I do know that The Deftones have quite a bit to answer for.
Arches is from Hong Kong, and “Hate” sounds like a tune that a kid in a contemporary movie set in 1999 might have on in their headphones. They are walking through the rain. They are wearing baggy jeans. There are some unnecessary vaporwave-inspired aesthetic choices happening.
RIP Swirl, Alias Error “I Found You Out”
The last song on the list is also the song that I might like the most. When that breakbeat hits? It’s a wrap! That’s my genre damage: I can’t deal with the neverending barrage of heavy shoegaze, but I can deal with almost anything that has a damn breakbeat attached to it. There is no way to defend myself here. Sometimes taste feels predestined, and other times it feels like a setting on a hair dryer.