the CMYK of Shoegaze

My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, Lush, Jesus & Mary Chain. These four could define a coordinate system on which most Shoegaze artists that came after could be placed (even though J&MC and some would argue CT are not Shoegaze artists).

Canyons - Barrie

I'll say a lot about Barrie in future posts. I actually don't know much about the band. But they changed my life with this song. It's down-tempo with a mind blowing synergy between the groove and the vocal. And the bass line I've never heard the like of before and may never hear again. A revelation. The best piece of pop music I've heard in at least 30 years, possibly my whole life. I would love to kick back to it with a drink in my hand in perpetuity at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

Hold On - Roosevelt

These guys perfect the funk/disco-rooted dance rhythm track almost too well. Every ingredient for an amazing groove is right here, expertly packaged and delivered.

Walking With a Ghost - Tegan and Sara

From 2004. This song is a terrific, hooky piece of simple, tight rock (written by them, mostly Sara, according to Wikipedia). The guitar and keyboard lines sounds strikingly Cars like. Perfectly produced. I assume it is self-produced b/c I couldn't find a production credit.

Link to my current playlist

Here it is. Currenly 109 songs. Most are from the past few years but it goes back to the mid 2000s. About half are songs I heard first on WFUV and the rest are songs I found on Youtube walks.

A song series

These three songs seem to me to carry a musical idea forward, from the early 80s to the late 80s to the near-present: Quarterflash - Harden My Heart (1981); written by Quarterflash guitarist Marv Ross Alannah Myles - Black Velvet (1989); songwriters: Christopher Ward and David Tyson Lissie - When I'm Alone (2010); songwriters: Lissie, Jim Irvin, and Julian Emery

Black Box - Ride On Time

The last link at onandbeyondsongs was to this song by Black Box but the link broke. Here is an updated link.

On Songs is back

Checking in after more than 4 years. I still exist. The blog that onsongs moved to, onandbeyondsongs, is still there, but I can't find the account I used for that blog. So I'm coming back to this one, which I can access. No need to go through history. Things have been OK here. I've been keeping up with music thanks to the eclectic sounds of WFUV and keeping up with shoegaze/dreampop thanks to the most excellent internet radio station in the universe: DKFM. I have a new playlist of favorites and if I can find the time, I'll talk about them here. Up All Night by Beck from his album Colors (2017) is one of my recent favorites. Beck knows how to put a pop song together and in this album he has crafted some pretty flawless dance-rhythm tracks.