Slowdive: A shoegazing masterstroke |
July 17th, 2005
contributed by |
There are numerous songs I wish to post about knowing that I must reference the legendary British shoegaze band Slowdive. I take for granted that everyone into dark music, specifically dark and dreamy music holds the three albums Slowdive released as absolutely sacred. But the fact is the band broke up many years ago and despite being named as a major influence to hundreds of bands (Opeth named an album after a Slowdive EP — ‘Morningrise’), new comers may have never actually heard any of their magical songs.
Slowdive released three albums in the early 1990s, “Just for a Day“, “Souvlaki” and “Pygmalion“. “Just for a Day” being the most dreary, ethereal, melancholic and dreamy, “Souvlaki” perhaps bit a bit more accessible to the masses and “Pygmalion” being beautiful yet vastly experimental and bizarre. I love all three, but choose “Just for a Day’ as my personal favorite — it’s perhaps the most intensely beautiful downer music I’ve ever heard. The music is like a soundtrack for a slow motion dream — hence why many people refer to Slowdive as “dream pop”, or “shoegaze”.
A brief glance at user comments on Amazon.com or across the web pretty much sum up how incredibly important this album is for people: “A Shoegazing Masterstroke”, “The Mothership of Blissed Out Music Movement”, “A shoegazing milestone and an essential album”, etc. In the early 90s, Slowdive were literally worshiped by the Indie music media and rightfully so. Slowdive mastered the art of using a guitar and keyboard so drenched in effects that the effects themselves become as important as the notes being played. They embody the definition of post-rock: “using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, using guitars as facilitators of timbres and textures rather than riffs and powerchords.” (taken from Wikipedia).
Members of Slowdive went onto form Mojave 3, which I don’t find even remotely as satisfying as anything created under the name Slowdive. The goal of Mojave 3 is entirely different than Slowdive, so that’s not so surprising.
I could go on and on about how important a band Slowdive is to me, how they have been a big life influence on me and so on.. but I won’t. If you’ve never heard them, I’ll leave the exploring up to you.
Ballad of Sister Sue (Download)
Slowdive (Artist)
Purchase CD
July 17th, 2005
at 9:59 pm
I had not heard these, sounds great. Will look into them more…remind me a lot of sigur ros, a band I like a lot.
July 18th, 2005
at 12:33 pm
perfection: this is my favorite album by them too. now, i want to leave the office and just load my playlist and strap the headphones on (with the drapes sealed)
July 18th, 2005
at 5:29 pm
slowdiveslowdiveslowdiveslowdiveslowdive.
the kings of shoegaze. I recently heard an interview on
NPR with this director who worships slowdive who recently did
this film called ” The Mysterious Skin” which opens with a slowdive song. I think he refered to movie as “the slowdive movie”. Sounds interesting.
July 19th, 2005
at 2:04 pm
Hell yeah, I will need to check out that movie. I just checked the trailer here:
http://www.apple.com...
It’s obvious they use Slowdive all over this movie.. looks like a good one too.
July 24th, 2005
at 3:48 pm
i saw that movie at a film fest a few months ago up here in boston and it was decent enough, but i think i ultimately threw it into the ‘another child molestation adventure’ category. greg araki, the director, makes use of music (and musicians) in lots of his movies, such as perry farrel’s severed head in the produce section of the quickie mart in ‘the doom generation’… or was that margaret cho’s head? i can’t remember.
April 13th, 2006
at 12:50 am
I personally like the fact he blew up Shannon Doherty ;) I think his best flick was Splendor.. that’s my 2 cents. For anyone who likes Slowdive (or wants to) you can also check out Monster Movie, which is Cristian Saville’s (former Slowdive member) band. I’ll throw it up sometime on my blog when i get a chance, or send it to this one, whichever :)
April 14th, 2006
at 8:25 pm
Mysterious Skin was a really creepy, disturbing movie with an amazing soundtrack. It kind of ruined some songs for me though… something about seeing a kid be molested to my favorite Ride song just doesn’t sit right with me.
January 2nd, 2007
at 10:51 am
cheers for the blog jesse. just for a day is really something special, a rare jewel and a timeless record. i hope there will be more bands to come in the rock.metal scene who will keep the slowdiving legacy flowing.
June 16th, 2007
at 6:51 pm
‘Souvlaki’ was always my favorite Slowdive record, but recently I find myself always reaching for ‘Just for a Day.’ It really doesn’t get old, not matter how many spins I give it. I think ‘Celia’s Dream’ is the most beautiful rock song ever written. Slowdive… I only wish that they had put out more records! They’ve totally muscled their way up my all-time favorite list. I just can’t get enough… I need to find some of the demos and EPs.