Whirl- Distressor (2010)

One of my favorites from last year, Whirl is a shoegaze band from California. I didn't know much about Whirl (other than the fact that they're excellent) before reading up on them to do this post. It turns out the guitarist from Whirl is also in Deafheaven, the black metal/shoegaze/post-rock band whose album Roads to Judah I posted a while back. Not really surprising as one band is straight-up shoegaze and the other has serious shoegaze proclivities, but awesome nonetheless. If I had to compare Whirl to any band from the late-80's/early-90's shoegaze scene it would be Ride. Like Ride, Whirl cultivates a swirling, kaleidoscopic wall of guitar. Of the 6 tracks on this EP (excluding the intro track), half are perfectly executed, slow-moving shoegaze. However, the other three tracks are where Whirl are at their best, in my opinion. The tracks "Blue" and "Meaningless" are more up-tempo, sounding like catchy-as-shit indie rock with wall of sound guitars. "Child" pairs the meandering shoegaze Whirl excels at with a heavy riff that reminds me quite a bit of My Bloody Valentine.

Beware, this album is extremely habit-forming. 

Whirl on last.fm



Get it here.

Gems: Leave, Blue, Meaningless, Child

White Moth- White Moth (2010)

Posted per Jake's request. R. Loren from Sailors With Wax Wings newest project. What the fuck is this? Shoegaze? Black metal? Electronica? Wait, Shelby Cinca (Frodus) is on this album? And Dälek? And Colin Marston (Krallice/Behold...The Arctopus/Gorguts/Dysrhythmia)? And John Gossard (Weakling/Asunder)?

More when I get closer to figuring out exactly what the hell it is I'm listening to right now (or never if I can't).

White Moth on last.fm



Get it here.

Moccasin- Last Leaf (2006)

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.

Deafheaven- Roads To Judah (2011) METAL ALERT

I ignored this for a few weeks, even after it had made its way on to a number of reputable blogs. The reason being it was released by Deathwish (Jake Bannon from Converge's label) and other than the Converge and Trap Them releases, I haven't cared much for Deathwish's output over the past few years. How to describe this...post-black metal? No, plenty of blast beats, tremolo picking and harsh black metal vocals. Blackgaze might be more accurate. I'm not usually a big fan of genre-mashing, most of the time it doesn't work. However, black metal and shoegaze seems like a pretty natural combination as both often feature wall-of-sound like guitar work. Anyway, this is pretty awesome. An interesting combination of straight black metal drumming, tremolo picked black metal riffs with dreamy shoegaze undertones and quiet post-rock buildups that break into blast beats and straight forward black metal riffs. Interesting.

Deafheaven on last.fm



Get it here.

Gems: Violet, Unrequited, Tunnel of Trees.

Crocodiles Double Dose

Two dudes from The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower playing fuzzy, synthed-out, incredibly catchy, sometimes noisy, pop songs about death. Reminiscent of The Jesus and Mary Chain. Summer of Hate was a decent debut, but Sleep Forever was one of my favorite albums of last year. Both are worth having.

Also, they're playing at the Red Palace in DC on the 25th of April. Zeke and I will be there, let me know if you're interested.

Crocodiles- Sleep Forever (2010)

Here
Gems: All of them. "When the peasants with their pitchforks come, I'm gonna spit blood down on everyone" from Mirrors is one of the greatest sing-along choruses I've ever heard.

Crocodiles- Summer of Hate (2009)

Here.

Gems: I Wanna Kill, Soft Skull (In My Room)