NIGHTMARE AIR is a rock band from Los Angeles, California, fronted by the dynastic duo of Dave Dupuis (guitar, vocals) and Swaan Miller (bass, vocals). As Nightmare Air, Dupuis, a veteran of L.A. shoegazers Film School (Beggars Banquet) and Miller, whose stark early-2000s acoustic album on Important Records melted hearts and faces everywhere, meticulously layer indie boy-girl harmonies, psych noise loops, fuzz-ripped bass and howling rock power into a fresh, upbeat sound all their own. With Detroit-raised heavy hitter Jimmy Lucido on drums, Nightmare Air put on a live show that’s earned them heaps of praise at home — “possibly one of L.A.’s loudest band” awesomely epic layered sounds In their many combined years of touring, these road veterans have supported heavyweights from Smashing Pumpkins to The Jesus and Mary Chain, Swervedriver to TV on the Radio. The summer and fall of 2012 saw Nightmare Air on an ambitious 3 ½ month world tour across the US, UK, and Europe playing festivals alongside The Buzzcocks, The Crocodiles, The Duke Spirit, Ice Age… as well over 40 club dates of there own. Also in 2012 in their hometown the band held support slots for Sonic Youth member Lee Ranaldo, UK legends The Wedding Present, as well as The Cult at their SXSW showcase. On the heals of the band’s 2010 EP Nightmare Air were chosen to headline four nights of Toronto’s Canadian Music Week, earning spins on the BBC and holding Top 10 status on college and indie radio in the US, Canada and the UK. Nightmare Air have recently completed their debut studio full-length coming out in early 2013 on Saint Marie Records worldwide with exception to Vinyl Junkie releasing the album in Japan. The record was mixed by Dave Schiffman (Nine Inch Nails, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Mars Volta) with mastering by Howie Weinberg (Nirvana, Sonic Youth, The White Stripes). The album, still untitled and as-yet-unreleased, has already gotten its first kick of momentum — landing the track “Escape” featured on Under the Radar’s sampler CD and in Filter Magazines “Discovering the Undiscovered”
Posts Tagged ‘Shoegaze’
NIGHTMARE AIR – ” Icy Daggers “
Posted: March 10, 2015 in MUSICTags: Film School, Los Angeles, Nightmare Air, Shoegaze, Swaan Miller
STELLARSCOPE – ” This Will End Tonight “
Posted: March 5, 2015 in MUSICTags: Revolution The Shoegaze Revival, Shoegaze, Stellarscope, The End Is Near I'm Not Prepared
For fans of Wavves, A Place To Bury Strangers, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Ramones and Manhattan Love Suicides.
Philadelphia’s Stellarscope are a staple of the shoegaze and alternative rock scene, constantly on a mission of creating new and exciting music. Their music is dark and emotive but with pop sensibility. Stellarscope’s energetic live performances has garnered the band accolades from peers, as well as fans. With multiple releases under their belts, they continue to march forward and evolve with the times. Their music has appeared in many compilations and tribute albums, Their latest album “The End is Near, I’m Not Prepared’ was released in March 2014 on Patetico Recordings. Their focus on the new album was to create more sonically-charged fast-paced postpunk indiepop shoegaze anthems, which would appeal to a broader audience, with a tongue-in-cheek attitude. The track This will End Tonight from the album “The End Is Near. I’m Not Prepared” is also featured in ‘REVOLUTION – The Shoegaze Revival’ forthcoming coming global compilation from “Ear to Ear Records” featuring the bands Stella Diana, Duelectrum [Sinewave Label], Thud [Border Series], Sharesprings [Heyho! Records], Ummagma [Emerald & Doreen Recordings], Sounds of Sputnik, Trementina [Vinyl Junkie Recordings], //orangenoise, JAGUWAR [Pinmusik – Pretty in Noise Netlabel], and Lights That Change.
UMMAGMA – ” Ummagma Collection “
Posted: March 2, 2015 in MUSICTags: Shoegaze, Ummagma, Whitehorse, Yukon
Ummagma is a Canadian-Ukrainian duo delivering an eclectic yet harmonious potpourri of sublime resonance, beats and rhythm. McLarnon’s delicate airy gossamer-like vocals are often compared to Liz Fraser (Cocteau Twins) with glimmers of Stereolab, The Sundays, Curve, Nathalie Merchant and Slowdive. Kretov’s spellbinding potion of guitar, vocals, synths, beats, programming & effects create impeccable soundscapes with elements of Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Bill Nelson and Brian Eno to help the listener take flight.
2014 brings various collaborations, remixes and releases for Ummagma, involving Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins), Malcolm Holmes (Orchestral Maneouvres in the Dark), Sounds of Sputnik (Moscow), Lights That Change, Graingerboy, and Graham Bonnar (Swervedriver/ Brian Jonestown Massacre).
Ummagma began in 2003 when Alexx Kretov (Ukraine) and Shauna McLarnon (Canada) met in Moscow. Ummagma debuted with 2 LPs (‘Antigravity’ and ‘Ummagma’) in 2012, released the “Split” EP on Som Non-Label in May 2014 and the “Rotation/Live and Let Die” single on Germany’s Emerald & Doreen Recordings in December 2013, followed by the ‘Lama’ LP in late May 2014.
Alcest’s “Shelter” is the sound of a band that has undergone a decisive and inevitable metamorphosis. In all these cases, extreme metal was the chrysalis or catalyst; what emerged wasn’t the same as what came before. Opeth style death metal for bucolic prog, Neither came as a total surprise, and neither does “Shelter”. Alcest have been slowly turning away from the corrosive, ambient metal of their early work—a sound that’s influenced many, most notably the similar Deafheaven—toward an unbroken dreamscape of shoegaze. “Shelter” marks that clean break. The French outfit’s fourth full-length album is a statement of soft-spoken apostasy that’s unflinching in its resolve.
“Shelter” is the fourth studio album by French shoegazing band Alcest. It was released on January 17th, 2014 via Prophecy Productions. The album’s name is related to the album’s overall concept of shelter.
The record is about the concept of shelter as a safe place that allows everybody to escape reality for an instant, to reunite with what we really are, deep down. Neige’s own shelter turned out to be the sea, as well as the tracks of this album, all inspired by and dedicated to it.
The FAUNS – ” Lights “
Posted: February 7, 2015 in MUSICTags: Alison Garner, Bristol, Lights, Miheal Savage, Shoegaze, The Fauns
Album ‘Lights’ by The Fauns are a dream pop/shoegaze band that formed in 2007 in Bristol, England. They released their self-titled debut album in 2009. They followed this up with a second album Lights.
The Fauns sophomore album “Lights” through Invada Records came out December 2013. The Bristolian five piece have just finished touring with French synthwave act College on his rare UK live dates last month-, having previously played alongside the likes of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Anika, The Telescopes, Savages and Ulrich Schnauss in the past couple of years Lights is the successor to The Fauns’ self-titled debut album (put out through their own Laser Ghost Recordings label, which, released in 2009 with no promotional muscle, went on to pick up radio support from 6Music’s Steve Lamacq and shift over five thousand copies purely by word of mouth. The organic success of The Fauns also garnered a valuable champion of the band in the form of Hollywood soundtrack composer Clint Mansell, (Moon, Black Swan, Requiem For A Dream) who remixed the album cut Fragile for a limited edition Record Store Day 12 , all 1000 copies of which sold out in under a day. Produced by the band’s own Michael Savage and engineered by well-respected Bristol figures Jim Barr and Tim Allen, Lights pits the barely-there vocals of front-woman Alison Garner (Hyetal) against guitar work which is by alternate turns both all-consuming and intimate. Whilst the shoegaze-indebted elements of the band’s sound still shimmer as brightly as they did on The Fauns, “Lights” finds them imbued with new purpose- see the instrumental squalls which punctuate album stand-out Seven Hours , or the interlocking guitar figures of 4AM , resonating with the atmospheric tendencies of the XX.
PINKSHINYULTRABLAST – ” Umi “
Posted: January 30, 2015 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSICTags: Everything Else Matters, Pinkshinyultrablast, Shoegaze, St Petersburg
Pinkshinyultrablast are a five piece from Russia’s St Petersburg whose artistic whim was to create something radically different from the “totally boring” local indie scene that surrounded them at home. If you carry any dreary, grey-stained stereotypes of what Russian rock is, prepare to have your imagination cremated by the euphoric and latitudinous shoegaze blend of their debut album, “Everything Else Matters”, which anchors itself somewhere between Cocteau Twins-ian atmosphere and the melodic glitter of a Polica record.
Inspired by a classic Astrobrite album that “researched spaces between ambient, heavy guitar and pop music”, the band preach their mantra via the juxtaposition of lead singer Lyubov’s tender female vocals against pure and epic waves of lush instrumentation. However, the real pay off comes from band member Rustam, whose contribution – labelled as “synths and electronics” – gives the entire thing the kind of kaleidoscopic melancholy that comes across like Andrew Weatherall mulling life over on a summer afternoon.
PINKSHINYULTRABLAST – ” Holy Forest “
Posted: January 29, 2015 in MUSICTags: Everything Else Matters, Pinkshinyultrablast, Russian, Shoegaze, St Petersburg
Happy release day! This limited second pressing is selling fast:
Pinkshinyultrablast, are a five-piece band from Saint-Petersburg in Russia, and set to release their debut album ‘Everything Else Matters’ in January 2015.
Hailing from a city more synonymous with the State Conservatory rather than a gang of shoegaze addicts, they’ve been compared to Lush. But this is no mere throwback tribute – due to their sharp, icy electronics and ability to subvert the genre, bringing something new to the table. They possess not only the spirit of late 80s/early 90s British bands like Ride, but also machine-made sounds of the same era from Sabres Of Paradise or Global Communication, not to mention wider vibrations like Cluster, Popul Vuh, Terry Riley and Philip Glass.
Disdain for a stagnant scene can often be a driving force of creativity; the band say of St Petersburg that, “we realised the local indie scene was totally boring and wanted to play something radically different”. That vision has been realised – this is an album brimming with playful melody and finely-crafted songwriting. Imagine the scope of a Caribou record, fronted by Elizabeth Fraser , The band take their name from an Astrobrite album, an act who were, according to the band, instrumental in how they “researched spaces between ambient, heavy guitar and pop music” .The spaces are what stand out, the production creates a dream-like affair, while space to breathe and reflect on the beauty of the music is accommodated. There is a sparseness to the album that in turn gives spaciousness, even expansiveness.
Shoegaze band Airiel, from Chicago, It’s loud. It’s pretty and you can dance to it. Airiel began as the solo project of Mr. Jeremy Wrenn back in 1997. After taking on a few more members and relocating to Chicago, Airiel really began to hit their stride upon releasing a series of excellent four song EPs, entitled Winks and Kisses, via Clairecords. Gaining them many fans and consistently being top sellers at Clairecords, Winks and Kisses marked Airiel’s official arrival to the world of modern shoegaze; by then, everyone knew who Airiel was. Since then, Airiel has gone on to release more great material, garner critical acclaim as a live act,
BOOM SAID THUNDER – ” Carnivore ” and ” Summer Twin “
Posted: January 22, 2015 in MUSICTags: Boom said thunder, Brooklyn, Psych-Rock, Shoegaze
a young noise-rock trio named Boom Said Thunder is leading a charge as one of the best new local bands of 2015. Boom Said Thunder released a furiously beautiful full-length record in 2013, then trotted off to Brooklyn for some sonic soul-searching and to pursue some things outside the realm of music
Come January 23rd, the band is back in their hometown for a show at Great Scott in Allston. with the fantastic and upstart shoegaze/psych project Burial Sound And they come armed with two new blistering tracks, “Summer Twin” and “Carnivore,” which you can listen
We’re not exactly sure what the future holds for Boom Said Thunder, but that’s not important. These two fuzzed-out noise rock jams should keep us going through the winter periods of this month.
The Fat Angel Sings 