stamps Jen's "Goth Forever" visa into perpetuity

You'd be the best passport control officer ever down at the Goth INS.

The shoegaze era?

Heh. It's a whole genre of British rock from the early 90s, notable for (a) it's thick, swirling (rather psychedelic) guitar textures and (b) the tendency of the bands to be anti-charismatic. That is - they stood on stage and stared at their shoes while they played all the effects pedals on their guitars.

You'd be the best passport control officer ever down at the Goth INS.

Awwww. Come on to my house and we'll drink tasty things and critique gothy videos for style and execution.

And also because it really ought to be against the law not to have "Under the Milky Way" as a part of your music library.

I have two songs by The Church in my possession; yet "Under The Milky Way" is not one of them. This is ok, because it is in my brother's possession, and will thus be mine once I return to Melbourne. (PS: I am right in taking them to be Australian, not British, right?)

The Church? Goth?

I love Lush, MBV, The Church and Ride. But I don't have any of the mentioned albums. What was I doing in the early '90s that I don't own those? Oh yeah, mostly leaching off my friends' record collections.

"Black Metalic" and "Crank" are the only Catherine Wheel songs that comes to mind, but I loves them both dearly....

And also because it really ought to be against the law not to have "Under the Milky Way" as a part of your music library.

Truer words were never spoken.

PJ Harvey & Bjork & Tori Amos

Some magazine did a story on all three back in the mid '90s. The three of them were annoyed that the magazine saw fit to lump them together, as they all felt their music had little in common other than being made by "weird chicks" or somesuch.

The Church? Goth?

Not really, but...fellow travelers? Moody? Ethereal?

The three of them were annoyed that the magazine saw fit to lump them together, as they all felt their music had little in common other than being made by "weird chicks" or somesuch.

Yeah, but I bet you a silver dollar they all have each other's records.

The Church? Goth?

By association. A huge majority of goths (n = all my friends in the Boston goth scene) love the Church.

Not really, but...fellow travelers? Moody? Ethereal?

I can dig that.

A huge majority of goths (n = all my friends in the Boston goth scene) love the Church.

I like a lot of goth music. I never actually became a goth, nor, for that matter, a hippie or a punk - despite having some leanings toward all three. I never became anything, as far as sub-cultural identity goes. Never got any piercings or tatoos either.

These are the ramblings of someone who's stayed up past his bedtime....

La la la, I'm seeing Voltaire tonight!

I hope you know that you are a bitch. IJS.

Not really, but...fellow travelers? Moody? Ethereal?

Also, oddly, the Moody Blues are fairly respected. Weird, that.

Spooky - Lush

Lush were ace - more goth-pop than shoegazey. Imagine a power pop Cocteau Twins. They came out of the C86 scene (Jo from Huggy Bear was in an early line up) and were always that bit less posh and more sexy than the real shoegazers. I prefer Scar to Spooky

Isn't Anything - MBV

Would be in my top 5 all time albums. The followup, Loveless, gets all the props, because it's a vanishing point for that mode of rock music, but Isn't Anything is an awesome collection of off-kilter noisy pop. Again, not shoegazey themselves - the shoegazing bands were inspired by this album.

Blurred Crusade - The Church

Goth band. Certainly never considered part of the Scene

Nowhere - Ride

Now you're talking. Along with the first Chapterhouse and slowdive albums, and the slightly rockier Swervedriver, Ride were the shoegazing scene. If you listen to it back to back with MBV this sounds weak as fuck, but on its own it's gorgeous. It has a couple of my favourite ever songs on - Vapor Trail and the on I can't be arsed to AMG which begins "she knew she was able to fly/because when she came down/she had dust on her hands from the sky". As Jon implies, the first 2 EPs, when they were rougher and more garagey, are what made their name. Like a Daydream has one of the best intros in rock history.

Ferment - Catherine Wheel

As whover said, Black Metallic is the Catherine Wheel track everyone recalls.

Wake Up - Boo Radleys

Now this isn't shogazey at all - it's just a brilliant, brilliant pop album. they should have been oasis. Giant Steps is also a stunning Boo Radleys album. I've always regretted not seeing them, which was for the absurd reason that my high school band was called Boo Radley and i was narked that they used the same name.

The key point about shoegazing was that they (oh, who am I kidding - we) were the generation between the big dance music waves in the UK. After the madchester thing, a group of posh home counties bands picked up on the variuos 1986-8 guitar rock extremists (dinosaur Jr, Vaselines, Loop, Spaceman 3, Sonic Youth, House of Love and most of all MBV...) and made polite poppy versions of the sound. it only lasted about a year, because Primal Scream came back with the Screamadelica singles and everyone started taking e and pretending they'd always preferred acid house...

Aside from ride, the key bands I remember were slowdive, chapterhouse, swervedriver, 1000 yard stare, Moose, and (although at that time seen as kind of pathetic also-ran hangovers from baggy) Blur.