Feb 042013
 

In case you missed it, My Bloody Valentine released the much-anticipated follow up to their 1991 (yeah, 1991 as in 22 years ago) album Loveless, on February 2nd via their website and they broke the Internet. Prior to this, lead singer Kevin Shields hinted at the idea of an album being released, but never gave any specifics. Perhaps in an attempt to coax the Dublin-based band into releasing the album, a group of Japanese shoegaze bands released a tribute to the iconic 90s album and titled it Yellow Loveless. Continue reading »

Apr 132012
 

Last summer, jazz trio Bad Bad Not Good showed the world another side of the depth and darkness of the music of Tyler the Creator and Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All with their Goblin medley. Now, the guys have returned with a new mixtape that attacks on all genre fronts. Continue reading »

Aug 222011
 

My Bloody Valentine. Acoustic. It’s hard to hold those two concepts in your brain at the same time; the shoegaze pioneers’ 1991 opus, Loveless, is so fuzzy with distorted guitars that it’s hard to even hear lyrics. Yet, somehow, Cat’s Eyes, the side project of The Horrors’ Faris Badwan and multi-instrumentalist Rachel Zeffira, have combined the two for an art performance tonight in London. Continue reading »

Aug 012011
 

Alabama band Quality Strangers didn’t exist a few months ago. At least, not on the Internet they didn’t. Since they appeared on Bandcamp at the end of June, though, they’ve already released two albums and an EP. That’s either an impressive pace or the mark of a group that’s been holding out on us. They list among their influences My Bloody Valentine, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and heterosexuality, which give you an idea where they’re coming from (well, maybe not that last one). Continue reading »

Jun 212011
 

Ohio indie rockers Lovedrug have recently released a slew of cover songs to preface their new album Best of I AM LOVEDRUG. The album will feature a wide range of covers of the likes of Third Eye Blind, Fleetwood Mac, Def Leppard and then some. Check out a few preview tracks.

A band has to be either quite confident in their credibility or have an uncanny ability to laugh at themselves  to take on a song by Darren Hayes, Savage Garden frontman. When it comes to a Savage Garden cover there’s only one direction a band can take it: up, and that is where Lovedrug goes with it. They take it up into the clouds and far beyond what one might consider the realm of possibility when it came to this song. Lovedrug unmasked the potential in “Insatiable” and managed to distort it into a techno-indie song with ironic panache. Continue reading »

Oct 082010
 

My Bloody Valentine’s “When You Sleep” is a beautiful, shimmering example of shoegaze. Heavy on distorted guitars, co-ed vocals, and just generally sweeping beauty, it is a lovely little pop song that so many shoegaze bands of today try to emulate without success. It’s probably smart, then, that Memoryhouse didn’t try to imitate it when they covered it for Yours Truly. Instead, they adapted it to their own style, consistent with gems of theirs like “Lately” and “Minor White.” It takes the heavily distorted guitar riff from the original and turns it into a beautiful piano ballad.

Memoryhouse also slow down the tempo considerably. The guitar still makes an entrance, but serves as the rhythm section while Denise Nouvion’s dreamy vocals float perfectly on top. Its dreamy, hazy feel may be in line with the original, but not much else is, and that’s just fine. Check out the video below.

Edit 10/15: MP3 download added below. Continue reading »