Chona Kasinger

Coachella Day One: Crystal Castles, Girl Talk, Morrissey, Paul McCartney, Genghis Tron

I had flown back home from a school language trip to Sevilla, Espana two days before I left for Coachella. I spent the night in Indio before the show was supposed to begin and planned my route for the inevitably sweaty and fun soaked weekend. My path began at Los Campesinos! A Welsh (?) pop/punk indie rock group that I had heard was really good. I ended up going to Joshua Tree National park with my parents, and underestimated the traffic, completely missing LC! (under 21 fans, rejoice, they are playing a secret house show in Seattle in early may!) So I found my buddies, who had VIP passes and eventually ditched me to head there, and got a spot at the Mojave tent I think for Crystal Castles. I had never seen them before. Last show they played in Seattle I think was $10 and sold out. I really wanted to see dd/mm/yyyy. But the past aside. The stage went dark as multi instrumentalist and producer Ethan Kath and a session drummer took the stage; Kath in his standard black hoodie up under a leather jacket. As the 8-bit style, raw electro punk raged out of the speakers, singer Alice Glass emerged. She screeched ferally and all that standard Crystal Castle buzz. Loud and harsh, but danceable. They played a remix of HEALTH, an L.A. noise band that sounded nothing like the original (Crimewave) which was pretty fun. But other than that, their set was of no consequence to me. I went for an 8 dollar sandwich. (Shitty) and a 5 dollar lemonade (equally shitty) and staggered over to the mainstage to grab a good spot to see Morrissey, one of my favorite musicians and lyricists of all time. I found a pretty good spot next to a loud, drunk fan. As the video screens played videos by Shocking Blue and the New York Dolls, the guy next to me kept screaming “MORRISSEEEYYY!!!! COME OUT AND FUCKING PLAY, I LOVE YOUUUU!!!” it started to piss me off, so I decided to initiate conversation with him so he couldn’t yell anymore. We talked about the Smiths. After five minutes, Morrissey and his uniformed band, most sporting his signature haircut, took the stage. “May I serenade you?” he asked, to which the crowd screamed, and he replied “I’ll try.” The band blasted into a more rock, chorded version of the classic Smiths song, “This Charming Man.” I was beyond stoked. As he played a few more of his own songs, he carefully inserted a Smiths song every few. “Girlfriend in a Coma” and others followed. In the middle of a song, he stopped signing and covered his face, eventually leaving the stage. He came back out in a different shirt and said “I can smell burning animal flesh, and I can’t bear it.” He was acting like a prick, so I left. I was disappointed at the sloppy level of care that he put into his songs, songs that mean a lot to me, were just rocked through or half assed. Morrissey is a wonderful musician, but a real asshole.
I walked over to get my spot for Girl Talk, outside of the over flowing tent, about to burst with people. As he took the stage, introducing himself as Gregg Gillis, so did about 50 other people, who stayed on the stage the whole time, dancing and partying. The set began with a remix of “Da Stanky Legg,” a joke/smash hit in most high schools, being played over a sped up “Sweet Child O’ Mine” it ruled. Most people see Gillis as the mashup king, combining 20+ songs in one and making it into a rad dance party, sampling Metallica to T.I. and others. This time he played a good 40 minute set, during which I inched my way up towards the front and danced all over the place. He ended the set by releasing a huge clutch of white balloons, attached to the ceiling on to the crowd, and throwing an inflatable yacht on to the people and hopping in. It was super good vibes and a really positive crowd, down to dance and have a good time. His mashups were super, he seemed really stoked on it and everyone had a good time. If you have a chance, I would suggest that you see Girl Talk. For real.

I went back over to the mainstage for Sir Paul McCartney. He came out on the stage looking confused, and angry, like 80,000 people had just showed up at his house. He laughed and smiled, and addressed the crowd. He began the set with a Wings classic, and moved on to play his own songs, and Beatles songs, much to the pleasure of the mixed age crowd. His band looked like 40 year old + “rock stars” who had too much gear and too much hair gel. The guitars were really distorted too, way too much. But the thing about Paul McCartney, and the thing about the Beatles, is that they are both timeless, bring together a group of music lovers from every generation, which to me is about the most positive good thing he could have done, more so than playing the songs perfectly. It was a lovely experience to see him, and I am glad that I did, but I left around 10:45 to see Genghis Tron. They were setting up their gear in the relatively empty tent. I looked around to see a small crowd of punks, hardcore kids and metalheads, talking, smoking and getting ready for the electronic brutality that they were about to witness. The members of the band finished setting up and headed backstage, looking a little disheveled. They came back 5 minutes later and proclaimed “Genghis Tron vs. Paul McCartney, go!” and blasted into song. Their sound is like taking traditional grindcore and hardcore, and removing the drummer, putting in a drum machine, and adding synths. In the middle of a song, they would slow down, and the guitar would stop, and they’d play pretty stuff on their syunthesizers, which was totally hilarious for me in the pit, watching some of the kids get it, and stop punching dancing and running and start bobbing their heads to the jam, then quick as a flash, jabbing out with their limbs as soon as it got hardcore again.

I had to leave, but they continued to thrash as I left the tent and walked off the grounds.

Chona Kasinger

Coachella Day Two: Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Blitzen Trapper, Bob Mould Band, Fleet Foxes

This morning I didn’t bother to go anywhere before the show, I knew I really wanted to see Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti. I had been enjoying his lo-fi psychedelic pop for a while and was excited to see how it would translate live. Pink has been a part of the L.A. scene for a long time, beginning with super rudimentary bedroom recordings, using his hands, mouth and armpits to make beats. Lately, he has been using more sophisticated equipment, but still maintaining his lo-fi charm. For the last few years, Pink has been touring and playing with Haunted Graffiti, his backing band/project title. A drummer, a guitarist, a bassist and a multi instrumentalist took the stage with him. Pink wore a ripped up shirt and gray jeans, looking bedraggled and strikingly similar to Kurt Cobain, substituting blonde for black hair. He and Haunted Graffiti eased into their set, seemingly warming up. They had an early slot and all of them looked tired, but as the show progressed, they played with more intensity and precision. The music ranged all over the spectrum, but always seemed to be rooted in pop. Often times, the melody could be discerned from layers of reverb and effect driving synthesizers. To their own great amusement, they would take classic Haunted Graffiti songs and speed them up, playing a pop punk style beat underneath. The set progressed in reverse chronological order; at the end, I heard more tracks from House Arrest and The Doldrums, favorites like Among Dreams and For Kate I Wait. I really enjoyed seeing Pink perform, he effectively managed to take his lo-fi styled home recordings and play them in a relevant manner, impressing the crowd (including myself) to enjoy it more than I imagine they expected to. He finished his set with Hardcore Pops are Fun, a poppy jam that crescendos into a jumpy freakout and ends abruptly. Pink reminded me a lot of R. Stevie Moore, “the father of home recording” as well as Seattle’s own T.v. coahran, who played his last show ever with Haunted Graffiti in March.

I didn’t have anyone I particularly wanted to see for a while afterwards, so I meandered over to where Blitzen Trapper was setting up. I’d seen them before, in Seattle a few times, and I really liked their classic take on indie rock. They seem to fuse 70’s rock with modern styled introspective indie music with some country western sensibilities. They took forever to set up, 20+ minutes, looking up at the anxious crowd of mostly older fans. Its no surprise that Blitzen Trapper appeals to the older crowd, their retro sound is true enough for those who were around back in the day, but credible and interesting enough to appeal to the younger demographic. They started. The set this time was far more western oriented than I had ever heard them play before. I was looking forward to hearing “Wild Mountain Nation” which they never played, and instead got to an insight into the newish sound that these Portland guys are going for. The lyrics on several songs were about riding on a horse, or killing men on the border, typical cowboy fare. Singer/guitarist Eric Earley who I believe does most of the songwriting, shared vocal duties a little bit more than I recall he used to. The set was enjoyable, where it was not particularly memorable, I would say that Blitzen Trapper is the ultimate festival band. You payed the ticket price, might as well go see em, it will be nice.

joshc

I caught about half of Bob Mould Band’s set. He had just started playing “Makes No Sense At All,” a Husker Du classic, and a favorite of mine. I stood and watched him for a good 20 minutes, about half of the songs he played were classic Husker Du tunes, mostly from the seminal album “Flip Your Wig.” Mould’s solo music is a little bit more of a dad rock version of Husker Du; his songwriting hasn’t changed much over the years, but he seems to play in the major keys and stick to classic styled chord changes and structure. It certainly wasn’t bad, it didn’t impress or affect me the way that Husker Du did, but what does anyone expect. Paul McCartney, Morrissey and Bob Mould all played to people who fell in love with their original bands, and no matter what anyone says, that’s what they were there for. That’s why I saw all three. I wanted deep down to hear Beatles songs, to hear the Smiths and to hear Husker Du. Its nice to know that I’ve seen Bob Mould, knowing that he is getting up there in years, and it can always be the last time he tours.

I am a very pale, very German boy, from a very pale, very German family. I do not like the heat, or the sun. When I was forced out of my (semi) comfort zone of the shady tents to the outdoor side stage to see Fleet Foxes, I was a little grumpy. Robin Pecknold asked the sound guy, “Is the Public Address system on?” I thought, how uber-pretentious, but then realized that he was just a nerd, playing with words like I enjoy doing. I was in a better mood after slapping myself for being a judgmental prick. Drummer Joshua Tillman hit the drums a few times, awkwardly, as some guys who were passing an enormous joint commented, “This guy sucks. Where’d he learn to drum?” I was tempted to tell them, to just wait. They began their set, playing their standard songs. Of course, Tillman was much better than the guys in front of me had implied. He was slow and rhythmic, never seeming out of place, as sometimes drummers do in folky bands. The sound was really good, everything had been mixed correctly. I noticed that their set hadn’t changed since the last time I saw them, at I think Capitol Hill block party, or something like that. But still, it was a really pretty view of the shaggy guys, with the palm trees and mountains all around, the sun setting in the background. Fleet Foxes’ music is meant for the Pacific Northwest; the harmonies and chords sound temperate and cool, and hearing them in the warm desert seemed a little off, like watching Abe Vigoda play in Washington. The sound didn’t really suit the setting. It was, however, very beautiful as usual, they never missed a note, the harmonies sounded perfect, as they always do. I left about two songs before the end. I was tired.

Jandy Stone

Coachella Day Three pt 1: Vivian Girls, No Age, Fucked Up, The Murder City Devils, X, My Bloody Valentine

The third day of Coachella I knew was going to be the best. Some of my favorite bands EVER were playing. I woke up early and paid too much for breakfast. I got to Coachella round 1PM. Vivian Girls had started their set. This band has received an ungodly amount of good press from the “indie” circuit (i.e. Pitchfork) There are praised for their surf-rock meets girl group sound meets Greg Sage ghost writing for Black Tambourine. That’s what I think they sound like; Greg Sage ghost writing songs for Black Tambourine. Singer/guitar player Cassie “Ramone” carelessly strummed her way through their set, oddly enough, without any effect pedals that I could see, creating a sound of almost two guitars with only a Squier strat knockoff and a S.I.R. rented amp. That, to me, was the most compelling part of their set. The sound was “dream-like” as Pitchfork so often describes it, but it didn’t have the hardness that drew me to the Wipers, nor the beautiful simplicity of Black Tambourine. Vivian Girls shoegazy take on punk rock has either gone way over my head, or as I suspect, through one ear and out the other. While they were not in any way bad, their set in the extremely hot California desert failed to compel me or interest me in any great or significant way. A highlight, however, was the three way instrument swap that occurred during their last song, as the guitar was thrown down, causing reverb and feedback to fill the tent as the guitarist nabbed the bass, and the bass play took an extra drum stick to keep rhythm while the drummer went for the guitar. They pulled it of perfectly, although Finally Punk kind of beat them to the gimmick, switching their instruments for each song. It is worth checking out Vivian Girls on myspace (or at show (although you just missed them at Neumo’s with Abe Vigoda.) I stuck around, No Age began to set their gear up.

I had the pleasure of seeing No Age play a house show last July, and it was one of the best highlights of my summer. The L.A. band’s sophomore LP, Nouns defined my summer last year, with its punk hopefuls and pop melodies; surrounded by darkness and noise that gave off the feeling of being alive in the summer time. Songs like “Sleeper Hold” and “Eraser” dominated my iPod, filling me with sunny bliss. The two dudes in No Age are skateboarders, they have a half pipe in their house. It only suited the record to be played while cruising Broadway and Madison Park in sun on a skateboard, feeling the wind and the heat. Live, their sound translates better than I initially would have assumed. Drummer Dean Spunt controls samples from his drum kit, while guitarist Randy Randall re creates all of the noise and loops manually. His amplifier and equipment set up is impossibly complicated; but he manages to get it all set up in about 20 minutes, while Spunt tests each microphone. They walk off stage, then back on, and start their set. As the sun shines in through the back of the tent, their music hits me harder. Although this time No Age was more sloppy, but I really felt their punk energy, as well as the vibe that initially brought me into them in the heat of the sweaty tent, being thrown around by punks and festival goers of a wide variation of ages. Their sound is unmistakably noisy, drawing a distinct comparison to Sonic Youth especially in the sense of not sacrificing the pop aesthetic of the song for noise, only using the drone and feed back to push the point into the brain of the listener. The crowd was super stoked, it was early in the day, they were hot but hydrated, and seeing No Age rip through songs mostly from Nouns but occasionally playing older tracks off of the noisier, more punk, less pop Weirdo Rippers. I love Dean Spunt’s voice; its high and powerful without straining too much. He kind of sounds like a million California skate punks singing along to the Adolescents or Dr. Know. To me, No Age represent the youngest of the punk crowd, almost never having grown up themselves. As their set cascaded to a close, Randall threw up a No Age themed piñata like a baseball and swung with his guitar. The result was fantastic. The piñata’s head blew off and it flew into the audience. They walked off stage, and I went to get a $4 coke before Fucked Up.

Rasmin

Coachella Day Three pt. 2: The Murder City Devils, X, My Bloody Valentine

After seeing Fucked Up, I was bruised and exhausted, but I my favorite band of the entire festival was yet to play. The Murder City Devils have been a favorite of mine since I was in the 7th grade. I waited 4 years to see them play in February at the Showbox. I thought that that show would be my last chance to see them, EVER. But no! I am standing in a tent, panting, surrounded by strangers, waiting for the Murder City Devils to take the stage. Spencer Moody is a really nice guy, he runs a junk shop on Olive called the Anne Bonny, and is generally friendly and supportive. His lyrics, however, are rough and tough, rock n roll clichés that somehow surpass cliché-dom, and almost come off as nerdy. You see Spencer in a polo, a sun hat and big goofy glasses take the stage. If you weren’t expecting it, it would be so funny and odd to see the 6 older musicians rip through such a cut throat set. On “18 Wheels,” the lyrics describe leaving a loved one, like a trucker, which I guess means for a long time, then asks if that lover will be there when he gets back. But the Devils transcend any level of criticism, rising from the Eastside suburbs in the 90s, the played since they were teenagers, first in places like Redmond’s Old Firehouse teen center, eventually signing to Sub Pop and selling out the Showbox. This band had a serious impact on me as an angsty pre-teen on Vashon Island, as they are still relevant to me now. They started the set, and the sparse crowd suddenly rushed forward, and like 1000 other people poured into the tent it seemed. If you aren’t familiar with the Devils, they play a garagey style of punk rock with almost poetic lyrics about garage punk rock things. They ripped through their set with the intensity that I knew they would, especially on classics like “I Want A Lot Now (So Come On)” and “I Drink the Wine.” The latter was the first real song I ever learned to play on guitar. There was a lot of moshing and crowd surfing, to the degree that I wouldn’t have expected. Three guys in luchador masks were punching people and being assholes, but other than that, it was super positive and fun for the nostalgic group of older music fans, as well as the younger kids, who found relevance and meaning in the Devils long after they broke up. I STILL stayed in that tent. X was up next.

joshc

I am ashamed to admit it, but I know almost nothing about X. I know that they are a female fronted, classic L.A. punk band. That’s it. I didn’t know what to expect from the show. Singer Exene Cervenka was wearing a granny dress, which is what a woman next to me told me she would do. I heard that she had been doing that forever, since the 70s and the bands inception. I figured that since most punks around then were tearing up clothes to make a statement, she surpassed all of them by wearing thrift store dresses and putting no effort into it. Their sound is classic, first-wave punk rock, with a lot of rock and roll and rockabilly influence, especially in the guitar. Guitarist Billy Zoom is 61 years old, and looks it. All of the solos that he played during X songs were without looking at the neck of the guitar, perfectly executed blue licks and rock solos. He wore big Ray Bans the whole time, craning his neck every 30 seconds, tilting his head, and grinning, making eye contact with a member of the audience. He posed for pictures like this, smiling and tilting his head. He seemed like a zombie. The crowd was about 80% people my parents age, stoked and singing along. The 20% that remained were people my ages, doing the same, except slamming and trying to crowdsurf. The experience was so surreal; seeing the longetivity of punk music, and how old the first punks are now. X ruled. Totally. They seem to tour every few years, usually doing two nights at the Showbox. Its worth it to go check them out, if that’s your jam.

BAM! I had a migraine like that. A mix of 139085 dollar food and the $20 in my pocket being GONE, grass pollen, and thrashing all day hit me like a truck. I wasn’t ready to give up yet. My Bloody Valentine were next. I was actually so stoked to see them. But my head hurt a lot. They took the stage. It was probably the loudest thing I’ve ever heard, ever. But damn was is beautiful, one of the prettiest things I’d ever heard. They played “When You Sleep” second. I know its clichéd but that is my favorite MBV song. They played it perfectly, beautifully. The guitars swirled around through the speakers, driven by the constant picking and the throbbing bass. It was like they had 4 guitarists, each managed to play two parts a piece, ripping through the noisy reverby mess. It was like stumbling into a dream with the 30,000 other people watching them. They stood perfectly still on stage, playing constantly, hardly speaking between songs. In my delusion, I wrote on my leg, “this is beautiful and loud and red.” Some other stuff too, but it washed on in the shower. I have no recollection of writing it. I saw the people around me in awe, no one spoke, just stared at the stage. Guitarist Bilinda Butcher was wearing all red, and her guitar was red. She looked beautiful. Kevin Shields had messy long grey hair, and he never moved. Everyone around me was fixated on the almost religious experience of seeing My Bloody Valentine. It was a super powerful set. They played a good 45 minutes to an hour, at the last song hitting their effects and strumming. They created the loudest; most penetrating wall of sound that I think possibly could have been created. It lasted for about 20 minutes. My head throbbed. I wanted to see the Cure and Throbbing Gristle, but I couldn’t. I went back to my hotel and threw up. Good weekend.

Mick Orlosky

Mick Orlosky

Ben Funkhouser is a former KEXP programming intern turned weekly columnist. He his column, Oh, Messy Life, will focus strictly on the all-ages music in Seattle. He also is the booking assistant at the Vera Project and writes for Public Access Media.

review by Philip LaRose
photos by Jim Bennett

Monday night I had the great fortune to be at the WaMu Theater to see My Bloody Valentine in one of their few North American appearances this year since reuniting in 2007. Opening for MBV were Brightblack Morning Light and Kurt Heasley.

Brightblack Morning Light began their set by crafting slow, moody soundscapes on the ambient side, suggesting perhaps the darkness of the outdoors before morning light breaks. These were musical pieces rather than songs: long, slow jams and apparently wordless vocals without a definite tune but still melodic, with the drums adding a bit of that undefined “world music” quality. As their set progressed, they began to feel a little more upbeat and groovy, more of a funk/soul type of electronica, as if they’d moved indoors to a late-night club with people dancing and couples kissing at tables in shadowy corners. Although the band did not interact with the audience and were definitely laid back in contrast to the expected sonic intensity of My Bloody Valentine, they did build up energy in the room through their set and got people grooving along. One thing I noted with interest was the acoustics of the space: while there was clearly a lot of talking going on in the audience, the music covered it well without being overwhelmingly loud. I really enjoyed Brightblack Morning Light and will be looking out for more from them.

In contrast, Kurt Heasley left me puzzled and ultimately disinterested. I’ll admit to being largely unfamiliar with him and his work, but I knew that as the leader of Lilys, he was no stranger to the shoegazing genre and his presence on the bill was understandable. However, his set consisted of him sitting onstage with a 12-string acoustic guitar and singing nice, simple, midtempo folk-pop songs. This in my opinion totally dissipated the energy that Brightblack Morning Light had built up through their set. Furthermore, nothing about his performance stood out from any other random dude with a guitar playing folk songs. At another venue with a different line-up, he might have been captivating, but to me he was a totally weird choice for this show and at best ought to have been the first opening act, allowing Brightblack Morning Light’s expansive grooves to lead in to My Bloody Valentine.

Not that My Bloody Valentine really needed anyone to build up the excitement and energy in the audience before their set. The band (deliberately or not) teased the audience by delaying their entrance after the house lights came down, prompting such cheering and clapping in anticipation that I thought people would storm the stage. Finally they came out and, with strobe lights providing the visual equivalent of their distorted guitar sound, launched into the trippy guitar sways of “I Only Said” and appeased the crowd with a set drawing mostly from their two albums, Isn’t Anything and Loveless, and the EP You Made Me Realise.

Now, My Bloody Valentine have a reputation for being a very loud band, and in fact the band posted warnings about the sound levels and provided free earplugs for the show. I took a pair of plugs and wore them, but as the show progressed I felt that while the music was clearly loud, it was not notably more so than other shows I’d been to, not the loudest ever for sure. I also felt at first that what I was hearing was like listening to the album over bad speakers: although the music is supposed to be full of distortion and feedback, it’s carefully crafted to incorporate those sonic elements, and some of that was getting lost, as I thought, in the acoustics of the live setting. When they started playing “Soon,” my immediate reaction was disappointment as it sounded flat and lifeless, like I was missing a lot; then I paused, pulled out my earplugs, and discovered yes indeed I was missing a lot, as it sprang into glorious distorted life. That was when I formulated the “Shoegazer’s Dilemma”: how do you balance the desire for high levels of distortion, feedback, and volume as an integral part of the music against the necessary protection of wearing earplugs, which filter out a lot of those elements? Kevin Shields and company chose to keep the volume and the earplugs as their answer, and at that point I thought it meant they were a better studio band than live band, as so much of the nuance and craft of their music was being lost to the earplugs. Still, when “Soon” ended, even though it had been within tolerable levels for me, I figured I’d better put the earplugs back in, just in case.

And then, a couple songs later, they came to the finale, “You Made Me Realise”.

The song began innocently enough, just another one of their great tunes. At some predetermined point, they broke from playing a tune into sheer sonic apocalypse. Melody, harmony, all elements of music vanished in a sudden onslaught of overwhelming distorted-guitar noise, supported by thunderous bass and drums, at levels far beyond what had come before. This was noise to rattle your bones, noise to stop your breathing, noise to burst your heart but keep it beating nonetheless, and now I understood that their reputation for being loud was in fact understated, not exaggerated. It felt much like riding the outside of a Saturn V rocket blasting off for the moon, or standing on the rim of a volcano as the lava surges to the skies. And it went on… and on… and on, nearly twenty minutes of standing there and trying to relax, breathe deeply, and absorb a sound too big for the body. It was awesome, not in the casual sense of being really good but in the original sense of inspiring the deepest reverence, wonder, and fear. All my doubts about My Bloody Valentine as a live band were purged, as this experience could never be captured in a recording. Finally, as suddenly as they had begun, they broke back into a short melodic coda, the end of “You Made Me Realise”, still with echoes of the apocalypse, and the concert was over. It was a performance I will not soon forget, and made me all the more eager to hear the long-awaited new music from My Bloody Valentine.

Last month when Asobi Seksu visited KEXP, I mentioned on Facebook that I was watching their in-studio performance. One of my friends responded by asking not, “Who is Asobi Seksu?”, but rather, “What is shoegazing?” — a question that I thought perhaps many people would have. Hence the first in this series of articles, Know Your Subgenres.

Like many subgenres of rock, shoegazing originated as a label slapped by the music press on a small group of bands who happened to develop a similar sound at the same time. In this case, the bands were based in London and the Thames Valley region of England, and the label was a slightly derisive reference to their performance style, as the guitarists tended to stand motionless and stare down at their effects pedals. Although not the first to be called shoegazers, My Bloody Valentine built upon the influential style of the Cocteau Twins and The Jesus and Mary Chain to create the seminal shoegazing sound. The label was first applied to a band called Moose, following in My Bloody Valentine’s footsteps, and then extended back to My Bloody Valentine and associated acts. Other prominent bands from this era associated with shoegazing included Ride, Lush, and Slowdive.

The bands had good reason to focus on the effects pedals, as the shoegazing style uses distortion, delay, and echo on the guitar parts to create a shimmering wall of sound. Vocals tend to be subsumed into the mix as well, used as part of the overall soundscape, and the lyrics though present are usually unintelligible and almost irrelevant. However, the music is not wispy and ambient but rather heavy and driving, often with a strong melodic line running beneath the guitar washes. “Only Shallow,” from the defining album Loveless by My Bloody Valentine, amply demonstrates this style.

The first heyday of shoegazing was in the late ‘80s to mid-‘90s; as many of the founding shoegazers broke up, the explosion of grunge in the U.S. and Britpop in the U.K. overwhelmed the style’s presence in the music scene. However, no good musical style is ever completely forgotten, and today a new set of bands continue to take inspiration from the sounds of 20 years ago. Among these bands are Airiel, Film School, and the aforementioned Asobi Seksu. Although Asobi Seksu’s latest album, Hush, has moved more toward an open dreampop sound, the shoegazing influence can be clearly heard in such songs as “Red Sea” from their 2006 release, Citrus.

Not all the original shoegazers are gone, either. In fact, My Bloody Valentine reunited in 2007, and are playing this Monday evening at the WaMu Theater in Seattle at 8 PM (doors at 6:30). You can read our interview with Kevin Shields in which he discusses the reunion here. Also by coincidence, Asobi Seksu will be in town, so if you missed when they were here last month, you can catch them this Tuesday at Neumos, opening for Yann Tiersen (doors at 8 PM).

interview by Janice Headley
photos by David Bartholow (for Gorilla vs Bear)

One of the most highly anticipated releases of the 90’s was the follow-up to My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, an album most people regard as the pinnacle of the shoegaze movement. (And which inspired the name of a certain local record label!)

But almost 18 years have passed with no follow up. Enigmatic frontman Kevin Shields kept busy with remix projects, and playing with artists like Patti Smith and Primal Scream. Then last year, shoegazers across the world lifted their heads with joy as the band reconvened and began playing shows again, including a performance at Coachella earlier this month.

This Monday, My Bloody Valentine are returning to Seattle after 17 years, playing the WaMu Theater. I had a chance to chat with Kevin Shields about reuniting after all these years, the next album, and the horrors of “fake jazz” and Peter Gabriel-style suits.

KEXP: We’re so lucky that Seattle was chosen to be one of the cities to see you. Why did you choose Seattle?

Kevin: We obviously intended to play there. When we played last time, basically, what it was, we played with Dinosaur [Jr.] in ‘92 in America, we kinda supported them. And then we came back in the summer, and played with Buffalo Tom and Babes in Toyland.

KEXP: I know you’re very good friends with Dinosaur Jr. Was it inspiring to see them reunite and go back on the road and create new music?

Kevin: Well, especially since they were so good. That’s what was inspiring. Bands getting back together again, I mean, like most people, you feel a little cynical, do y’know what I mean?

It hasn’t been the case recently. In the past when bands would reform, it’d be kinda like a slightly crap version, and all the guys would be wearing suits, kinda like Peter Gabriel-style? Like, they all did in the 80’s? Everyone wore a dark suit and they’d all be very polite and kind of grown up, y’know, and they were only our age back then.

I saw The Stooges, and that was really great. And Dinosaur Jr. were amazing. And that was what was inspiring, the fact that they could be just as good as they were before, or better even, in some ways. So, um, that’s what we wanted to do. We just wanted to make sure that we were at least a bit better than we were before, but certainly never worse. We haven’t been, we know that. I don’t think anyone’s dared to say we were actually better in the past. I think it’s impossible because we didn’t have the right equipment so it’s absolutely not as good as it is now, do y’know what I mean?

KEXP: You’ve played some shows already, in London, a couple of New York shows, All Tomorrow’s Parties. Do you remember the first show you played, when you got back together with everyone after so many years? What was it like stepping back on stage again?

Kevin: What we did was, we rehearsed for about seven weeks beforehand. And we were working about six days a week, getting everything together. And then our first reunion gig. We didn’t think of it like that, we thought of it as a “continuation gig.” It was at the ICA [ed. note: the Institute of Contemporary Art in London], and there was no gap, it was just like, one day, we were in the rehearsal room, the next day, we were playing a gig. It all felt a little surreal because in the whole seven weeks, we hadn’t actually managed to play the whole set in order. We just couldn’t. We have a huge dysfunctional quality. The day before our first gig, it took us five hours to play all the songs. And then on the day of the gig, we played a gig. It was kinda great in that way, because everyone was going, “What’s going to happen? Are we just going to get up on stage and be some horrible mess?” And somehow, we just did it. I wouldn’t say “magical,” but it felt really good, y’know. We just realized that there’s something else going on, when we actually play, there’s kind of an energy that’s just there. We can’t make it up, we just have to get up. I know it sounds silly, or corny, but we actually have to be up in front of an audience to play at a certain level. We’re the worst band in the world at rehearsing. We don’t like rehearsing.

KEXP: Well, but seven weeks of rehearsing. That’s dedication!

Kevin: Yeah, but a lot of it was just buying equipment, and just getting all the equipment together. Just basically getting the sound together. ‘Cause what we didn’t do, is we didn’t re-create what we did on the last [tour]. Say, we went from the last gig we played in ‘92 to the first gig we played last year, we didn’t have the same equipment. We basically changed our equipment; we had better amps, and better everything. So, it was a lot of experimenting, to get it right. Last time around, when we played, we didn’t have the right equipment, and it wasn’t particularly enjoyable. That’s what we were up to in those seven weeks. Basically, the ATP people lent us all the money to the gigs that we were doing in advance, so we could buy all the equipment, and uh, that’s what we did. We just [laughs] spent a fortune on equipment, I mean, it’s not like we’re that high tech, but we just felt like, “Let’s do it right.”

David Bartholow

KEXP: It sounds the way you want it to sound.

Kevin: Yeah. So basically what we achieved is what we were trying to achieve back in ‘92, but we achieved it now. We’ll play a bunch of gigs more, there’s not many. We’re playing none in Britain, playing a few places in Europe we didn’t play, and then America. The gigs that we do this summer are the last time we’ll play the set like this ever again. We had already intended by now to have new music, and new songs, but circumstances have meant that we couldn’t get together, so we’re just playing the same set as last year, pretty much. But the thing is, that by the end of August, that’ll be it. We’re just gonna draw a line under everything and that’ll be the end of that era… with a 16-year gap in the middle.

KEXP: So, I guess a lot is being made of the fact that the shows tend to be loud.

Kevin: Yep, yep. We do give free earplugs.

KEXP: That’s actually very generous!

Kevin: Yeah, well, to be honest, it doesn’t seem very fair to somebody, especially if they’re in the front, and they can’t quickly get away from where they are — not very nice to, y’know, hurt anyone. And the thing is, we’re not that loud most of the gig. Most of the gig is in fact, decibel-wise, pretty standard.

It’s just, it sounds pretty loud because the sound of the music has so much distortion. When you play it at that volume, it does tend to sound louder than stuff that’s cleaner, at the same volume.

And the kind of distortion that we use, it’s not classic rock distortion, or heavy metal distortion, it’s super-rich harmonic distortion, so it has a kind-of psycho-acoustic affect that sounds loud. But it does get loud at the end. And it does get right up to 120 decibels, even though apparently some people think it’s 132, but that’s the difference between C-rated and A-rated… that’s a different story… technical issue… The point is, we do get really loud.

And, at that point, if your ears are bothering you a bit, absolutely use ear plugs. I do! Not on stage, unfortunately.

KEXP: I was going to ask you about that actually! I’ve seen pictures from your previous shows, and it didn’t look like you were wearing earplugs!

Kevin: What we were wearing were in-ear monitors. That’s kinda even worse. It’s weird, it cuts the sound down, but then everything that goes into your mic goes into your ear. And it was a bit harsh. I have to admit, I felt pretty deaf at the end of the tour. But my hearing’s okay, it just took a while to come back.

KEXP: I had read, both you and Bilinda had kind of…

Kevin: We all do.

KEXP: Tinitus?

Kevin: Yeah, me and Bilinda and Colm. And various hearing damage. Y’know, that’s part of the…

KEXP: Work hazard?

Kevin: Well, a lot of them were mostly accidents. Y’know, hearing damage is accumulative, right? But, Bilinda’s particular problem happened years before we were even that loud, and it was a monitor that virtually exploded in her face. It was some technical thing and the guy didn’t know what he was doing. It suddenly came on at full possible volume, and the spike literally ripped her eardrum apart. It literally ripped it. Like bleeding ripped. And it never really healed properly. And that caused her to be partially deaf in that ear.

And the ringing in my ear came from being in the studio. The trouble with hearing damage is you can’t really locate what brought you to the edge. Like, it could be five years of minor damage that brings you right to the point where you do something a little bit more extreme, like, “Shit, I damaged my hearing.” Which tends to happen.

But, you know, we’re all right! I want to have decent hearing when I’m old… I do. And it’s like, for my age, I do have some damage and stuff, but it’s still relative. I often see guys at building sites, and you see the noise they’re making and they don’t have hearing protection. You’re just like, “That’s going to hurt you…” and people, in factories… so, it’s a bit tough sometimes, but it’s nothing, to be honest with you, compared to what’s out there.

KEXP: When you put it that way, clearly! So, you guys have been in the studio recently, working on your new album. Now, from what I understand, this is kind of material you guys started working on back in ‘96, and that you’re now finishing?

Kevin: Yep, basically, when Colm & Debbie left the band, I started to make a record. And that was made in ‘96 and ‘97. Then the plug was pulled financially, and there was no more money for engineers, or anything, so, basically, I stopped. Went and played with Primal Scream for fun, but also as a sort-of semi-job for a long time. I was a live touring member of the band, and did a lot of work mixing with them.

And then, when I was remastering [Loveless] in 2006, I found a big pile of CD’s in a box, and I had listened to them, and I was like, actually that material is an awful lot better than rare tracks we’re putting on the compilation… y’know, for the re-issued stuff… so, I was kinda like, I really should finish it somehow, but quickly, as opposed to spending loads of time, ’cause if I spent loads of time, it would do my head in. So, that’s what I tried to do. And didn’t quite succeed this year, again. So, I’m gonna have another go in June or July. But it has to have a certain kind of momentum, cause what happened was, y’know, I’d sit there, and I’d spend a couple of days on a track, and I’d just be, “This is so finished in my head, I can’t really get some of the energy to actually physically finish it,” because I’ve heard the finished version in my head for about, oh, ten years. ‘Cause, all it is is like, the vocals, y’know, I always have them, I’ll never forget the melodies, and the overdub parts… all those basic bits are in my head, so, I know what they should be, more or less, towards about 80%. ‘Cause it never turns out exactly the way you imagine it.

But basically, I think I’ll get it finished in the summer. I mean, we’ll certainly finish and put it out, one way or the other. I just don’t wanna spend torturous amounts of time on it, because it would just damage it, do y’know what I mean? That’s what I’m mostly looking forward to is, this is why I really hope, desperately that I finish it up in June or July, because when we finish the gigs in August, that’s when I wanna draw a line under everything, and say, “Okay, that’s it, the past is finished, finally.” Of course, we’ll play old songs again, sure. But not in the way we are now, which is just all old songs from whatever decade it was. It’s kinda like, it’s been good, and it’s been especially great to do it, because we got to do it the way we always wanted to do it. So, that’s been really great. It’s a pity we’re not gonna get to some parts of the world that we wanted to.

David Bartholow

KEXP: Next album.

Kevin: Well, yeah, but that’ll be different. The band will change, the lineup’s gonna change and everything.

KEXP: The lineup’s gonna change?

Kevin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, basically, this is literally it, do y’know what I mean? When we finish with this… I mean, everyone else will still be in the band, but it’ll expand. It’s always been in the cards for that to happen.

KEXP: Really?

Kevin: Yeah, we tried it before in the past. We had people play live with us and stuff. On the Loveless tour even, we had a flute player.

KEXP: That’s right, I had heard about that!

Kevin: Yep. So, it’s always kinda there, y’know, the idea to do something, we just didn’t want to do it, obviously now, because we’re just playing old songs, but when we do new stuff, I don’t know what’s going to happen. All I know is that everyone will be there. But there will be some other people, too. Probably. All I know is that I don’t want to have any kind of limits on anything. We’re doing what we’re doing now, and then when we finish this, I just wanna strip it all down again and see what happens. But it’s not like we’re gonna be messing around and spending forever, because we’re going to be playing ATP in England in December, so, in a way, we’ll be aiming for that, to basically play new material for that. But we’ll see. That’s the plan. Most of my plans never come true. But that is what the plan is.

KEXP: So, I know that with Loveless, you pretty much did all the instruments yourself, with some exceptions here and there. Is that kind-of how you’re approaching the next album?

Kevin: Kind of, yep.

KEXP: So, what about when you start doing new material?

Kevin: I don’t know. To be honest, I learned things playing with Primal Scream. There’s especially a period in that band, that was very enjoyable. And, what was interesting was, everybody in the band could play at a similar level, and sometimes what would happen is at the end of songs, it’d go into these extended… they’re not “jams”… ’cause y’know, jamming is more like, something rotten about jamming, I don’t know why, it can be really cool, y’know what I mean, as well… it can also be awful… but they were essentially that. It was just improvised pieces. And, I’d like to get some more of that in. Best part of twenty years of ideas I never really got to do anything with… So, that’s the only good thing about this, is that, um, I’ve got a head start, cause I’ve got tons of ideas that I haven’t used. That’s the only good thing about messing up so badly, y’know, is that you’ve got that at least.

KEXP: So many people out there are eagerly waiting to hear these new ideas! So, I know it’s been a while since the last album, but you have been busy in the studio, doing remixes for Primal Scream, Yo La Tengo, the Go! Team. Is that something you enjoy and would continue doing?

Kevin: It was interesting. It had a path to it. The first kind-of remix that I did was Primal Scream, and that was the best one I think I ever did. I had an approach doing remixes, which is I would only use the material that was on the tape, and I would just re-arrange it and re-process it and re-make it, but I wouldn’t add anything particularly. And I kinda stuck to that. And it was particularly enjoyable, I think, for the people in the bands to hear it, because they would recognize what happened. But for the general public, I think it was just a bit moderately interesting. And um, I don’t do that anymore. I wouldn’t say I wouldn’t do it ever again, but uh, I’ve got no plans to or anything like that.

Yeah, it was an interesting thing to do for a while. I think the last one was The Go! Team. And again, that was me being really selfish, because basically, there’s something about them I think is really cool, and basically what I did was I took two of their tracks and made it into one track.

And it’s not that different, it sounds like The Go! Team, largely. I kinda acted like I was in the band, and y’know I was just really enjoying the process, like how they make their records, and I just kind-of joined in. But that’s the last thing I did.

KEXP: One of the other projects that you did recently, that I don’t think a lot of US fans know about, because it only ran in the UK, was your collaboration with Patti Smith.

Kevin: Yeah, that was really interesting. Yeah, we did two or three gigs, and they were totally improvised, in the sense that, the first one we did, we talked for three hours about it, we connected, and then she made me very aware of what was going on, and I got the book and she explained everything to me… and then we just did it. Y’know, that was it, we just played live for an hour and recorded it, and that’s the record. And then we did it again. But that was so chaotic, we didn’t release that. Um, cause I really went nuts, basically, for lack of a better word, and it was just too, too crazy, but it was very interesting. We’re gonna do something with that someday, but not release it in its pure form. And then the third one we did, it’s just in its pure form where I restrained myself a bit. We released those two as a double-CD, the first one and the third one.

We never practiced or anything, we just did it. And that was what was cool about it. It’s cool to be in front of an audience for an hour, and basically improvise, but it’s not pure improvisation because Patti had the essence, but she would totally… 50% of what she would do was totally improvised, off the top of her head. She just used the book as, y’know, she just allowed herself to get into the spirit of it… because it was her purpose, it was for Robert Mapplethorpe, and it was just a really good, interesting thing to do. And I’m definitely going to work with her again, in some fashion. Definitely.

KEXP: You had never really done anything like that before, had you?

Kevin: No, no. I’d never improvised before, and it was melodic improvisation, as opposed to what Patti calls “fake jazz” improvisation, which she doesn’t like… Y’know, which is basically rock guys trying to be jazz guys, do y’know what I mean? And trying to do that kinda thing that jazz people do, except for… it’s not, it’s not good. We didn’t do that. It was basically emotion and melody and sound was the improvisation, but not kinda going, “oodlyoodlyoodlyoodlyoodly…” y’know what I mean, kinda weird noodly kind-of like, you play so many weird notes it doesn’t really matter, do y’know what I mean? I just prepared a bunch of guitars, with different tunings, and I just kinda knew, “Alright, these are roughly the kinds of chords that work with these tunings,” and that was just making it up, and on the recordings, you can hear me totally fucking up sometimes.

The improbable has happened: Kevin Shields, the erstwhile frontman for My Bloody Valentine, has announced the band has regrouped and is readying a release for before the end of the year.

In a multi-part interview at Soft Focus, Shields confirms the reunion speculation that diehard fans have been talking about for months.

Says he:

Specifics of the release(s) remain sketchy, as MBV currently has no contract with any label. However, the band has announced the first three dates of their reunion tour: The Roundhouse in London on June 20th, The Apollo in Manchester on June 28th, and the Barrowland in Glasgow on July 2nd. Tickets can be purchased at See Tickets starting this Friday. English readers: that vibe you’re sensing is jealousy.

Any further reporting delves into rumor, but talk continues regarding further dates for the band, including a dare-to-dream headlining slot at Coachella. Will it happen? Who knows? Who thought even this much was possible?