Shoegaze – 3hive

December 26, 2019December 26, 2019

Todd’s Favorites of 2019

2019 was another great year for music, below are my top ten favorite albums 2019:

Business of Dreams – Ripe For Anarchy [Slumberland]
Select Level – S/T [Wax Thématique]
Pinch Points – Moving Parts [Roolette/Six Tonnes De Chair]
Oh Sees – Face Stabber [Castle Face]
Modern Nature – How To Live [Bella Union]
Cherry Glazerr – Stuffed & Ready [Secretly Canadian]
Trampoline Team – S/T [Hozac]
Cold Showers – Motionless [Dais]
Czarface – The Odd Czar Against Us! [Silver Age]
Altin Gün – Gece [ATO]

Also for your aural pleasure (and my own), I have attached a handy-dandy playlist of some my favorite songs from 2019…

August 20, 2019August 20, 2019

Dublin-based duo, Submotile, destroy speakers with their debut album Ghosts Fade on Skylines. Their brand of shoegazey noise-rock pummels your ears (in a good way) and is sure to satisfy any fans of bands like Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. Check out “Eastern Sky Sundown” below (I suggest cranking it up), it’s amazing that a band of only two can create music this loud.

Ghosts Fade on Skylines is available on CD and digitally via Submotile’s Bandcamp page. It’s a shame this hasn’t been pressed to vinyl. Someone should get on that.

July 16, 2019July 16, 2019

Grow Rich

Grow Rich is the one man band project of Jakarta’s Abdur Rahim Latada. His latest EP, Frantic Semantic, is 4 tracks of heavy fuzz meets jangly guitars laid over the top of pounding drum beats, it’s like hardcore shoegaze. Check out EP opener “Bounce Back” (below) for a taste.

Frantic Semantic is available now via Abdur’s Bandcamp page, it’s definitely worth the $5. Enjoy.

May 20, 2019May 20, 2019

Slow Pulp

Slow Pulp’s recently self-released sophomore EP, Big Day, is a solid 10 minutes of dream-pop meets shoegaze goodness that ends way sooner then it should. Give the standout “High” a spin below, for a taste. Big Day is available now via their Bandcamp page. Be sure to catch them on tour as well. Enjoy.

May 16, 2019May 16, 2019

Shady Bug

St. Louis four-piece, Shady Bug, pack quite the punch on their sophomore release Lemon Lime (out now via Exploding In Sound Records). The band’s formula throughout Lemon Lime is lull you into a groove with jangly guitar melodies that float around singer/guitarist Hannah Rainey’s vocals before unexpectedly punching you in the mouth with a brass knuckled fist of blistering distortion. Each song has you waiting for that punch to happen and it’s so good when it does.

Check out “Whining” below for a taste, you’ll be glad that you did, just remember to duck. Enjoy.

January 1, 2019January 2, 2019

Sam’s Faves of 2018

It’s time for my annual blog post…

Without further ado, my favorite albums of 2018:

Khruangbin Con Todo El Mundo (Dead Oceans)
Durand Jones & the Indications self-titled (Dead Oceans)
Bodega Endless Scroll (What’s Your Rupture?)
Jean Grae & Quelle Chris Everything’s Fine (Mello Music Group)
Janelle Monae Dirty Computer (Bad Boy)
Altin Gun On (Bongo Joe)
Smokescreens Used to Yesterday (Slumberland)
Idles Joy As an Act of Resistance (Partisan)
Low Double Negative (Sub Pop)
Cut Chemist Die Cut (A Stable Sound)

I encourage you to enjoy these on vinyl (link will go here as soon as I get off my butt and update the online store).

And because 2018 offered so much more music than can fit neatly in a Top 10 list, here are my 23 favorite songs of the past year…

December 30, 2018December 30, 2018

Olden Yolk

Olden Yolk, I have done you wrong. Your debut, self-titled, album has been my favorite album of 2018 since it landed on my front porch back in February. I started this post (back in February) to tell the world all about your psychedelic, sometimes shoegazey, all the time rock ‘n’ roll goodness, but I could not find the words to describe the greatness of your 10 song masterpiece. I apologize.

Hello World, if you have not acquainted yourself with New York-based Olden Yolk, now is the time to do it. Their debut album is a solid slab of psych-rock/psych-folk/psych-pop, mingled with just enough fuzz and gaze to make it stand out above all the rest. Give “Vital Sign” and “Takes One To Know One” for a spin below to see what I mean. Olden Yolk is available now via Trouble In Mind Records. I highly, highly recommend it.

February 27, 2018

Droopies

Philadelphia 3-piece, Droopies, are the definition of the term power-trio. Their sophomore release Responsible People is packed with in-your-face hooks as they bounce between shoegazey punk rock and jangly psych-pop, with one common denominator: fuzz and lots of it. These guys get pretty big sound for there just being three of them.

Responsible People is out now digitally via Droopies Bandcamp page and on a limited cassette release through Funny / Not Funny Records. Give “Gone Wrong” (below) a spin, then go get your hands on a copy of this bad boy. Enjoy.

January 2, 2018January 2, 2018

Favorite Releases of 2017 (Sam’s List)

Better late than never – my auditory loves of 2017, in rough order…

Thundercat Drunk (Brainfeeder)
Intoxicating, weird, vulnerable, and soooooo damn funky. My Album of the Year if I had to pick one.

Slowdive Slowdive (Dead Oceans)
The comeback album of our collective dreams.

Trementina 810 (Burger)
If this hadn’t been The Year of Slowdive’s Triumphant Return, I’d like to think this gorgeous offering of dreamy shoegaze from Chile’s Trementina would’ve been the talk of the town.

The xx I See You (Young Turks)
Now that producer Jamie Smith, aka Jamie xx, is getting his due as the driving force behind The xx juggernaut, I might be able to stop raving about him. But why stop now?

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings Soul of a Woman (Daptone)
What a force. What a voice. What a loss.

Big Thief Capacity (Saddle Creek)
This album has quietly slipped on to a bunch of Best of 2017 lists because it is just that: a quiet album of incredible strength.

Grandaddy Last Place (30th Century Records)
“Even still the rockers are…”

Mountain Goats Goths (Merge)
A wonderfully engaging concept/tribute album – whether you are, were, or have ever loved a goth.

Boris Dear (Sargent House)
Rumored to be a farewell letter to their fans, it’s a welcome return to the nuanced take on sludge/drone/doom metal that first lured me in almost 20 years ago.

Fazerdaze Morningside (Flying Nun)
Nearly perfect bedroom pop.

Moses Sumney Aromanticism (Jagjaguwar)
All the feels.

Molly Burch Please Be Mine (Captured Tracks)
A sparse, timeless album that allows nothing to interfere with the purity of Molly’s hypnotic voice.

Doug Tuttle Peace Potato (Trouble in Mind)
Hypnotic psych pop with enough ragged edges to keep you awake.

Homeboy Sandman Veins (Stones Throw)
Based on record sales in the “>3hive Co-op Shop, not everyone agrees – but I think he’s one of the best, most versatile MCs around.

Waxahatchee Out in the Storm (Merge)
Katie Crutchfield finds her sound and voice amidst the rubble of a failed relationship.

Honorable mentions: Iron & Wine Beast Epic [buy vinyl], Protomartyr Relatives in Descent, LCD Soundsystem american dream [buy vinyl], Destroyer ken [buy vinyl], Open Mike Eagle Brick Body Kids Still Daydream, The Courtneys II [buy vinyl], King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard Murder of the Universe [buy vinyl], Jonwayne Rap Album Two, Priests Nothing Feels Natural, Robyn Hitchcock Robyn Hitchcock [buy vinyl]