Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on its evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
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Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
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Avoid long drawn out arguments. This should be a place to relax, not to waste your time needlessly.
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Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
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Please do not spam at the top level. If you have a lot to post each day, try and post them all together in one top level comment
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Try keep things light. If you are bringing in deep stuff, try not to go overboard.
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Things that are clearly on-topic for this board should be posted as a separate post and not here (except if you are new and still getting the feel of this place)
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If you find people violating these rules, deport them rather than start a argument here.
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Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evoloving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.
This turned into a really nice thread, and I'm going to check into Kitchens of Distinction. Obviously I've never heard of them. 😁
My shoegaze starts and ends with My Bloody Valentine and a little Slowdive. That's probably like saying my basketball knowledge is entirely Michael Jordan, but I do like what I've heard. More would be nice.
And R.E.M. is top-tier in the one of those bands I know a little about, but know I should know more category. Random, little known tracks of theirs pop up and, when they do, the majority of the time I think "damn fine tune".
A couple other bands that I feel this way about, that I feel have a similar vibe: Guided by Voices, Third Eye Blind and, I suspect the most talented of them, a the B-52s.
Thanks for the tunes. 😃
Kitchens of Distinction is shoegaze with rather shimmering guitars. Their album "Strange Free World" is good, but while "Death of Cool" has perfected their unique shoegaze appeal, while it has some fantastic songs, that one has more gay crap. If you want the KoD sound but without the gay stuff, I definitely recommend Airiel. In an interview, the guitarist flat out admitted that he wants to make KoD-style guitar music to get chicks. If you're up for 10 minutes of fantastic guitar in a sentimental love song by Airiel, listen to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4zM49AcfLg
For Christian shoegaze, the first two Starflyer 59 albums, Silver and Gold, fit the bill, but are a bit on the heavier guitar sound rather than the warm fuzzy sound.
The first two albums by Russian band Pinkshinyultrablast are fantastic (plus the EP leading up to those), but unfortunately they went full-on dance music and got boring. From the Philippines came a phenomenal shoegaze band called Moscow Olympics that matched New Order-style basslines with Pet Shop Boys-style vocals. They released one incredible album in which each song just got better and better than the first, and then the band just disappeared. I even tried reaching out to fans in the Philippines and nobody there knows what happened to them. Sad.
For the original shoegaze scene, a lot of the bands were all friends with each other. Lush, Chaapterhouse, Pale Saints and Moose all got along with each other, which gave the shoegaze scene the moniker "the scene that celebrates itself." Shoegaze was a bit of a derogatory term initially, but has since then become far more appreciated for its impact on music.
The few Third Eye Blind songs I like. I've never heard of Guided by Voices, guess I'll explore a new artist. I love almost every genre but it's something about B 52s I don't like. Years ago saw them open for Sugarland and I sat the entire time. Totally out of character for me I'll be the only middle aged woman standing and acting a fool at a concert. Strangely my husband the classic rock/Hank Jr fan likes them.
Awesome! 👏👏👏
A couple of months ago I picked up the "And I Feel Fine: The Best of R.E.M." album which covers their IRS Records days, before they signed on with Time Warner and got boring and mainstream. One of my favorite bands in high school.
Driver 8! Probably my favorite.
That's the only REM song I know. Might have to listen to them. I don't know why but didn't get into them. I loved The Romantics and years ago found an album in good condition. Still listen to them when I want to go back to 81-85, my high school years. By 85 I was either into old classic rock, little bit of 80s country and a little bit of pop.
I believe that Michael Stype is gay, but that never influenced his lyrics at all. He kept that out of his songwriting, fortunately. R.E.M. did some rather exceptional neo-Country songs that are great. I had many of their albums on audio cassette, but never replaced them with CDs. This "best of" album is the only CD of theirs I own, and it has all my favorites, plus some I hadn't heard of before.
Fun times!