Nirvana
- Thread starter RaverDrew
- Start date
inflatable jesus
I used to be carried in the arms of cheerleaders
It was the same for me. I was 13 and started hanging around with some older people that were much more 'in to' music than I was. Somebody gave me a tape with Bleach on one side and Incesticide on the other and it was like nothing I had ever heard before.
It's easy to overstate these things but their music set me on a path to becoming who I am today. I'll always have a huge soft spot for them.
It's easy to overstate these things but their music set me on a path to becoming who I am today. I'll always have a huge soft spot for them.
RenegadeDog said:
well, that's pushing it
but it is a strong contender..exosculate
a stagger with a beat
I really liked Nirvana but always thought The Pixies and Sonic Youth were better bands.
nino_savatte
No pasaran!
Swervedriver were better.
oh come one, Swervedriver made one good single - their debut - and then it was downhill all the way!
nino_savatte
No pasaran!
Dubversion said:
Er, dunno about that. I quite like most of their stuff.
I suppose the point I was trying to make was that Nirvana took shoegazing, repackaged it as grunge and sold it back to us.
nino_savatte said:
sorry, but that's twaddle.
Nirvana had nothing to do with shoegazing, and i think you need to check your dates - Nirvana had released Bleach and a bunch of single before Swervedriver released their first album. If Nirvana repackaged anything, it was Black Sabbath, Husker Du and garage rock.
In fact, Swervedriver were hardly shoegazing either - there's very little in common between them and say, Slowdive, save the Thames Valley.
nick1181 said:
Yeh, McGee signed them based on listening to a .. Mustang Ford demo on a US roadtrip, which makes sense. But the rest of em - the Pale Fountains, Ride, Slowdive, they were just mimsy fools who'd found an effects box.
nino_savatte
No pasaran!
Dubversion said:sorry, but that's twaddle.
Nirvana had nothing to do with shoegazing, and i think you need to check your dates - Nirvana had released Bleach and a bunch of single before Swervedriver released their first album. If Nirvana repackaged anything, it was Black Sabbath, Husker Du and garage rock.
In fact, Swervedriver were hardly shoegazing either - there's very little in common between them and say, Slowdive, save the Thames Valley.
Shoegazing was a generic term/pejorative coined by the music press, who were then, obsessed with rave music. But the origins of shoegazing lie with bands like The Who, The Byrds, The Jesus and Mary Chain and the Cocteau Twins. But, iirc, Swervedriver were lumped in with grunge bands, if they weren't being tagged with the shoegazing label. Isn't shoegazing a repackaging of other styles and genres? There are even themes taken from the Velvet Underground (Candy and Jesus for instance).
Take your point about shoegazing though: Catherine Wheel were called "shoegazers" early on but didn't have much in common sonically with shoegazers such as The Pale Saints for instance.
I think it is time for a reappraisal of shoegazing.
Garage rock is an interesting label too: some of the bands labelled "garage" like The Outsiders, The Human Beinz and Captain Beefheart didn't have anything in common with Syndicate of Sound or ? and the Mysterions but they're all on Nuggets...weird.
Dubversion said:
The first time I saw Chapterhouse - which was like their third gig, they were a nasty acidic little punk band - and really good. They also had the biggest concentration of beautiful young girls in their audience that I'd ever seen in my life.
It all went a bit blousy after that though... and got blousier and blousier - eventually they twigged and tried to harden up their image, but by then it was too late. The entire genre was roundly pilloried by NME + MM, who were after all, their main cause for existence.
In defence of Slowdive, misc Chapterhousen etc, they did eventually morph into Mojave 3, who are fucking excellent. If you like that sort of thing.
I don't listen to them much anymore, if at all. Unplugged is my favourite, although it's forever bound up with him toppin himself now. i do remember being a bit struck by the setlist, when he did it. Seemed (at the time) like he knew he was gonna do it. I didn't join in the whole big weepin thing at the time, but i was gutted that he'd done it.
In utero is a fine album, as is bleach, and nevermind...I think I'd be proud as fuck to leave those 3 albums behind meself
In utero is a fine album, as is bleach, and nevermind...I think I'd be proud as fuck to leave those 3 albums behind meself
futha said:
They were more than inspirational, they were pivotal.
The immediate parents of the shoegazing thing were:
Sonic Youth
My Bloody Valentine
Loop
Spaceman 3
The House of Love
and in the case of Swervedriver, Dinosaur Junior. The long shadow of The Jesus and Mary Jane was never far away either, though I don't think these were a direct influence exactly.
All of these have roots elsewhere of course - notably The Velvet Underground, MC5 etc.
The dominant "scenes" immediately prior to this were Grebo (Gaye Bikers, PWEI etc) and C86 (early Primals, Sarah records etc.).
I can remember being utterly disgusted by all of this when it first came out - basically because the rest of us were busting ourselves to do something new and original, and this new wave of bands turned up and swept the board - and all they were doing was a join-the-dots progression of what had happened in the immediate past. It was really fucking predictable and everyone loved it. For a while.
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
My opinion is that grunge and shoegazing were the final nail in the coffin for interesting rock music. The 90s was all about ditching guitars and getting out the samplers and drum machines for me. Remember the NME cover with LFO smashing up guitars? That held a lot of resonance for me, and still does to an absurd and unreasonable extent.
"all the bands are selling their guitars and buying turntables
all the bands are selling their turntables and buying guitars"
all the bands are selling their turntables and buying guitars"
nick1181 said:
Freudian slip?
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
hehe that's true but these bands make such dog's dinners, that I ignore them mostly. I know where my loyalties lie nowDubversion said:
For me, MBV are the best band mentioned on this thread so far. "Loveless" is a timeless masterpiece.
I'm amazed Dub remembers my Greg Dulli preferences so vividly. Thanks mate. I think I like "1965" because it was the first Afghan Whigs album I came across so it's stuck with me. Agreed the Twilight Singers are great too, although i haven't got their second album yet.
stavros said:
a Whigs fan is a person deserving of the UTMOST respect.
Tort said:
ah, but they were fucking brilliant at Reading 91. when most people were too fucking stupid to go and see them (they were sandwiched between Silverfish and Chapterhouse).
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