Henry’s Dress | hearmoretunes.com

Shoegaze (and here), aka The Scene That Celebrates Itself is that lovely droney sound I associate with My Bloody Valentine and Loveless. Faded in the UK when BritPop swept in, but lives on, particularly in the US. Recent shoegaze goes under the ungainly nugaze moniker.

Reading the blogs, San Francisco looks like a hot bed of shoegazey goodness. Bands I recognise from previous mix’s such as Film School, Tamaryn (a kiwi), Young Prisms, Weekend, The Soft Moon, Whirr (formerly Whirl), LSD and the Search for God, Collider, Girls, oOoOO, Henry’s Dress and The Brian Jonestown Massacre count / counted SF as their home. San Fran shoegazers even have their own website and ran three Cool Waves Festivals.

Here is a mix with shoegaze tinged tunes.

True Widow (and here). Sometimes I wonder whether I should keep up my Emusic subscription. I hear a band I like, head over to Emusic to download the album only to find that the band isn’t there, or the label isn’t available in NZ. Bandcamp is only a click away and there the music is only a few dollars or is free. Emusic came through with this slowcore band (although they term their art stonegaze). Thick sounding guitars chug chug chug in languid jangly style. Excellent.

Mood Rings wistful. Their EP is free here.

Pia Fraus – Estonian shoegaze, yeah!

Milk Music Grungy Dinosaur jnr. / Wipers influenced band that has put out a series of 12 inch singles. Thick grungy tunes. Great. From Washington.

Reading Rainbow, LoFi duo from Philadelphia. Wistful.

A Grave with No Name. I thought this was an established band of muso’s, but it’s a solo effort from a London guy who calls up other musicians as necessary. Great base line. Nice mug shot boys.

Henry’s Dress (and here and interview) – defunct band from the 1990’s and Peel favourites

Siesta on Sunday are from 毛呂山町 so I am guessing that they are Japanese. Their tunes are free here. This song is fab, ultimate shoegaze. Not so enamoured of the tunes when the singer is nearer the top of the mix.

Colleen Green her tunes free here.

Las Robertas Costa Rican all girl band, garage sound with some northern soul.

Wooden Shjips No intro required. Psychedelia with a Krautrock bent.

Whirl / Whirr

Nearly all tracks up now. Made some changes… pushed some tracks into the next LoFi mix.

#a-grave-with-no-name, #a-place-to-bury-strangers, #belong, #ceremony, #colleen-green, #frankie-rose-and-the-outs, #henrys-dress, #las-robertas, #milk-music, #mood-rings, #pia-fraus, #reading-rainbow, #royal-hideouts, #secret-colours, #siestaonsunday, #true-widow, #whirl, #wooden-shjips

What do Girls, Little Girls and Women have in common? Well, apart from being impossible to google, they are all bands with no female members. Mountain Men is a 4 piece female band that makes sweet Appalachian tunes. With this gender bending going down, its difficult to reliably put together a mix of female bands. Of course a mix focusing on bands with female members suggests that such bands have a sound that stands apart from bands with a gender mix. But what sound?

Weeeeeeeeeeeell that’s a difficult question that I can’t begin to answer. I can say that having a female singer is probably a good start, but then so do many bands. I also believe that I can generally tell that a band has a woman drummer , but that doesn’t always work, i.e. Comanechi whose Akiko Matsuura (more) moonlights as the drummer for Big Pink. I doubt that an all male band would sing about their pussy (as Comanechi did) or a song entitled Nestle in my Boobies (a great song from the Coathangers).

Without delving any deeper I present this mix of bands that seem to fit the bill. The Screaming Females headline of course, Marissa Paternoster (more) is a force of nature, a 21st century Iggy Pop and a bloody brilliant guitarist. There is a Thunder Power track, I particularly like Kacynna Tompsett‘s voice, and tracks from Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast and Kristen Gundred aka Dee Dee of Dum Dum Girls

First up, Chin Chin with a bangles-esque stomper.

#best-coast, #butterglory, #chemical-peel, #chin-chin, #dum-dum-girls, #follow-that-bird, #henrys-dress, #pegasvs, #pia-fraus, #reading-rainbow, #screaming-females, #sourpatch, #swirlies, #the-doane-givvaschittz, #thunder-power, #wax-idols

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Tag Archives: Henry’s Dress

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