Sorry, busy (I mean lazy) week this week.
Moccasin was (is?) a shoegaze/space rock/psychedelic rock band from Denver. I happened upon this back in 2007 or so and it hasn't left my heavy rotation as of yet. Their music features most of the hallmarks of shoegaze, pedal driven guitars, a dense, lush wall of sound and subdued, dreamy vocals, but Moccasin does so without sounding derivative. The rhythm section adds a certain heaviness to their sound and a times there's a moody, dark quality to the tracks on Last Leaf. But, playing yin to Moccasin's moody yang, there are plenty of hooks, riffs and catchy sing-along choruses. For me, much of the appeal of this album is the number of different ways you can listen to it, depending on your mood. You can strap on headphones and focus on the guitar textures (like I'm doing right now), put it on while cooking and groove along to the rhythm section or even sing along while driving around with your windows down.
As you probably surmised based on the first sentence, Moccasin's current status is uncertain. Back in 2009 they posted a few tracks on their myspace from an upcoming album and that was the last they were heard from. I'm still holding out hope, because if said album is anywhere near as good as Last Leaf it's sure to find a spot among my all time favorites. If you're a fan of early 90's shoegaze, newer shoegaze bands like The Helio Sequence, psychedelic rock or even the space rock stylings of Cave In on Jupiter you'll likely dig this. So, yeah, just listen to it.
Moccasin on last.fm
Get it here. Guess what Blaine? It's a .zip!
Gems: All of them. This album is a 10 in my book, no weak links.
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