Hey, everyone. Shoethony Gazetano, here, the internet's busiest music nerd, back with a Starter Pack, a recommendation video, basically going into thenoisy, weird, subversive, dark, and sometimes polarizing genre of shoegaze, an underground but highly influential style of music that has been getting a lot of interest lately, especially among the younger crowd, especially on the TikTok platform.

So, I thought, what better time to do a video talking about the genre broadly, make a handful of recommendations and the style so people can get started? Maybe veering outside of the obvious nods to My Bloody Valentine as well as Slowdive, because I feel like those are out there. If you want to go try them out, they're being talked about all the time.

Who better to bring on for this discussion than Kelsie of The Yellow Button, who is a great music commentator in her own right and constantly grinding out new content on her pages? Her and I have decided to do three recommendations each. We have linked down below the records that we're talking about, so you could check them out for yourselves.

Without any further ado, here is that convo.

AF: Alright, here we are with Kelsie, A.K.A. The Yellow Button, a fellow music fan and content creator who's covering a lot of alternative and underground genres on the TikTok platform on a regular basis. Thank you for coming on.

Kelsie: Thank you for having me.

AF: I wanted to get some recommendations from you, make some myself as well for everybody watching in regards to shoegaze, mostly because I see this resurgence of interest in the genre among a lot of young people, but not necessarily a lot of comprehension in terms of what it is. I see that you have average bros asking people on the street on TikTok about what their favorite shoegaze band or song is. They're talking about like, 'Oh, yeah, here's a Beach House song.' It's like, 'Bro, that's not shoegaze.' So, I wanted to ask you, before we make any recommendations or anything, what shoegaze is to you? How do you define it as a genre? When do you know you're listening to a shoegaze artist or song or when you aren't?

Kelsie: I would say to easy, easily put it, it's just a wall of sound and very fuzzy and distorted guitars. I know that there's a lot of bands and artists out there who have that sound, but I think with shoegaze, specifically, it sounds a little bit more dark compared to dream pop where it's more ethereal and light and just very atmospheric, where shoegaze, again, is just gritty, fuzzy, dark, just lots of guitar distortion hitting you in the face.

AF: No, I think that's a pretty very simple, easy to grasp onto piece of criteria for it. That guitar noise and also those very clear stylistic connections to psychedelic music, generally from the '60s and '70s is super important. There's this tendency for even some fans of the genre to not necessarily view shoegaze in the context of psychedelic music broadly when it very much is a psychedelic genre genre of music and see it as its own separate, weird thing to the side when it's not necessarily. But yeah, I would say that thickness, those layers of guitar sounds and noise.

Another essential element of it is there almost has to be this bit of a how do they do it element to the way that it sounds. While the guitar is obviously super central and heavy use of effects and super dense layers of sound and stuff like that. There also needs to be almost this question of, how do they even generate this sound? It's also a little mysterious in that way. If everything is just a little bit too obvious in terms of what you're hearing and how it's generated, it's almost lost at least a little bit of shoegaze appeal in a way. There has to be a bit of a mystery shrouded in an enigma in terms of how it sounds in a way.

Kelsie: Yeah, I agree, because I even think some newer shoegaze bands are doing that as well, where they're incorporating new sounds into shoegaze, which I think is really cool, instead of just being strictly fuzzy guitars, where you're just like, 'Oh, I know what they did for that sound.' It sounds super simple, super plain, but these newer bands are just adding it a bunch of sounds, noise poppy sounds, electronic a little bit here and there. Just adding to it, making it interesting. I agree with that.

AF: Yeah, that's another thing about shoegaze as a concept broadly, because while those very simple and necessary characteristics are there, those checkboxes are there, they're also very malleable. Those basics of guitar fuzz and noise can be applied in a ton of different contexts, which is also partially why I think there is so much confusion around what shoegaze is, because there are bands that are definitely incorporating shoegaze elements into their music, but they're a little more pop-centric. There are bands that are a little more rock-centric. There's a project that I'll talk about in my recommendations that's actually very definitionally in the camp of metal music, but they're still incorporating shoegaze stuff into their sounds.

You could actually apply in a super wide variety of ways across a lot of different genres. It's to the point where it's like, shoegaze is almost like as a concept, it almost transcends genre. It's almost like an element, an esthetic creative style that you can apply to a lot of different styles of music and it becomes this almost like chameleon type aspect that you can work into a lot of different sounds and ideas, music style-wise, I guess.

Alright, let's start getting into our recommendations.

Drop Nineteens - Delaware

AF: The first one that we have on the list, you decided to go with Drop Nineteens, this debut album from this, at the time, Boston-based project that dropped back in the '90s. What made you go with this record in terms of just a shoegaze recommendation? How does it fit in the genre for you and what draws you to it?

Kelsie: I picked this one because it was one of the first American shoegaze-ish bands that went overlooked at that time. They had a very short run at the time. They came out with their debut album, Delaware. Then after that, they came out with another new album that didn't do too well. Then half of their band just left, and they all broke up. It was such a huge part in the shoegaze scene in America at the time. Even though grunge and Britpop were overtaking the music scenes at the time, they came out with Delaware, and then they ended up touring over in Europe just because they came out with Delaware.

They got signed with Caroline Records back at the time, which they were with Smashing Pumpkins, and they had Idaho and Primus as well. Just a lot of those bigger, grunge-y types of sounds. But with Delaware, there are hints of grunge and maybe a little bit of alternative, maybe a little bit of emo in the album as well. It isn't strictly shoegaze. Their demos before Delaware were just very shoegaze-y, very UK shoegaze-inspired. But when they signed to Caroline Records, I feel like they wanted them to go in more of a mainstream way. So they did, again, more grunge, a little bit more alternative in the album.

Delaware isn't solely a shoegaze album at the end of the day. It has some acoustic tracks. There's screamo track in there as well. A little bit of a screamo track, which I thought was crazy for 1992, but I really enjoyed it. I just feel like it's a very overlooked album for the time, I will say.

AF: Everything that you're saying about this record is pretty crazy for 1992. It's also important to mention for everybody who's younger and doesn't quite understand or appreciate music culture pre-Internet, just how significant regionality was to success in the music industry and music appeal. Because, yeah, as you say, over here, it would make sense for a band like this to have maybe somewhat of a cross over some appeal with a group like Smashing Pumpkins at that time. But in the '90s, in America, as far as mainstream stuff goes, Smashing Pumpkins was about as shoegazey and spacy as it got.

It's important to note that shoegaze as an institution was very much a UK thing in terms of not only the bands that were leading the charge on it and the most popular, but also the groups that influenced the genre the most heavily, be that Jesus and Mary Chain, be that My Bloody Valentine, be that Cocteau Twin, so on and so forth. It was very much a UK thing. I thought it was interesting that you brought this record up because I didn't even know there were that many bands that went as hard as this into the shoegaze genre, but were American, and we're super early on. We're catching on to it years and years and years later. So this is a really interesting choice for the recommendation list. And again, the number of genres going on throughout this record is pretty crazy, too.

Kelsie: Yeah. It really is just because they ended up signing with Caroline Records that they got all this attention. And it's also funny because they have a Madonna cover song on their album, which is people thought it it was a bad idea, maybe a mistake, but I feel like it worked well. They put their own twist on it. It's very shoegaze-y, but it can be a little cheesy just having a cover on a debut album.

But it works. I think it works.

AF: It can be. It can be.

Ride - Going Blank Again

AF: This is their second full-length LP. Their debut, I think, is a lot dreamier if what you hear on here is not necessarily your thing. But I think this record speaks to some of the stuff I was saying earlier in terms of like, shoegaze his connections to just like the psychedelic rock and old-school psychedelic music in general, a lot of the riffs, and especially a lot of the vocal harmonies, which across this record are super bright a lot of the time. They're straight out of that '60s psychedelic era, but still across the record, there's a lot of density, there's a lot of distortion, there's a lot of guitar noise. There are some surreal, strange elements to the sonics of this record that are pretty important to note, important to shoegaze in general.

Simultaneously, what makes it stand out to me is, again, those old-school psych influences are there. For a shoegaze album, generally, and this is the case with a lot of noise rock and noise pop albums that deal in that genre, too. But this is a super aggressive record as well. The riffs are hitting hard. You can bump around and head bang to some of these riffs, and the drums are super aggressive, too. The drums are just pounding and the fills are crazy. It's just got a lot of drive. It's got a lot of push to it, which I feel like is interesting for a band playing with that sound at the time.

A lot of those earlier shoegaze artists and some of the most biggest influences in the genre tend to be a little laid back and chill. It's very much a genre that's meant to lull you a little bit, and you're overtaken by the sounds, which is usually why the vocals are so lazy and hidden and buried in the mix and everything like that. But this is still giving you that thickness, still giving you those sonics, but it's very energetic. It's very in your face. It's got a lot of punch to it.

Kelsie: I do, yeah. That album, I think it's a great album. I do want to ask you, though, I know some people You want to say that ride or Britpop influenced? Would you say so, or would you go against and be like, No, they're just shoegaze?

AF: I think there's some crossover. I think it's a multi-genre album, and I think there's some crossover there because, I mean, Britpop is also hugely influenced by psychedelic pop and psychedelic rock at the time. It's almost like a reduction of a lot of the songwriting elements of that genre of music and some of the Mod stuff during that time, too, and stripping away the stuff that's subversive and sonically weird and just giving you those simple songs and anthems and ballads and stuff like that. There's definitely some crossover there stylistically.

Undeniably Ride, especially on this record, does bring you those thick, those heavy, those distorted, those weird, those warped guitars, maybe not to the degree that you get in My Bloody Valentine. But that's, again, I think the beauty of the shoegaze appeal in the genre. You can have it a little bit. You can have it maybe a little bit as as a touch, as a side dish. You can incorporate it a million different ways. That's, again, part of the appeal and interest of it.

Feeble Little Horse - Girl with Fish

AF: Next on the list here, you grabbed a record that has also been a recent favorite of mine, and I think also speaks to this fact that shoegaze as a concept and as a sound is so versatile because there are a lot of things going on on this very short record, but the new Feeble Little Horse album you recommended, what made you grab this project as a recommendation?

Kelsie: I actually put it on my albums of the year for 2023 this past year. Nice. And it just caught my attention so much because they do so much within this album that isn't just strictly shoegaze and isn't strictly noise pop. They have a very big fun, ethereal approach.

AF: It's not strictly anything. It's a lot of stuff.

Kelsie: Yeah, and I feel like people would be like, This isn't shoegaze. But again, it has the little sprinkle of shoegaze in their album because even their previous albums were a little bit more shoegaze-inspired. But this one is all over the place where it's more ethereal, they have very welcoming vocals that are highlighted, where in shoegaze sometimes, the vocals get drowned out. You don't know what they're saying. You can't understand them. It's just like that's on the back burner, where with Fever Little Horse, it's like the vocals are up here, and then you have just the instruments hanging in the background, adding more of a fun atmosphere to the album.

I just thought it was a lot of fun. They throw in a lot of different sounds. They have some acoustic in there. They have some glitchy synth, electronic type of sounds in there, too. I just think it's a lot of fun because they have a good balance between having the fuzzy, distorted guitars and then, again, just really pretty in ethereal vocals, which you could say might be dream pop as well. It's not just strictly shoegaze. It's a whole lot of everything.

One funny thing I did think about while listening to this album is, for me, I feel like this is twee in 2024. It's very cutesy. It's very fun and approachable and just makes you feel really happy when you're listening to it, when sometimes shoegaze doesn't make you feel that way. But the Feeble Little Horse, this album just makes me feel very just like twee in 2024.

AF: Yeah. Newer artists and bands like this, what I feel like has gotten lost in translation with albums like that Ride record getting buried a little bit in the shoegaze canon, obviously it's not an album that gets brought up super often when it comes to general shoegaze conversations. It's like that guitar noise and that thickness, that bliss that often comes with a lot of the biggest bands in the genre. It has to come hand in hand with, again, that slowness, that syrupy vibe, and it needs to be super chilled out. Whereas I think some of these newer artists are like, No, we can do this, but it can be cute, it can be active, it can be peppy, it could be weird, it could be funny. That's definitely the case with the Feeble Little Horse record because there are some very thick, scuzzy, noisy, very dense little songs on there, but it plays within the context of some noise pop stuff, some twee stuff, some acoustic stuff. It's a little cheeky, it's playful, it's got a lot of attitude to it. It's short. It's peppy. It's got a lot of character. If you're looking for a shoegaze album that isn't necessarily super slow and has a lot of versatility to it, you're definitely going to want to try this out.

Alvvays - Blue Rev

AF: Next on the list, I grabbed the new Alvvays record, Blue Rev. Personally, I think I liked the songs, and I thought just the songwriting, generally, was a little catchier on their last album. But I'm still drawn to this album because I think just the way they were experimenting with sound on this record was just so fresh and so cool. It feels very, very squarely, very, very directly couched within shoegaze as a style, as a concept. This is undeniably a true blue shoegaze album in terms of how they treat the guitars, how they treat the sonics, how they treat the production. But it's so vibrant, it's so bright, and the noises they generate with, obviously, the advancements in production technology and effects and so on and so forth allows them so much more sonic creativity than I think some of the originators of the genre had back in the day. As a result, I just think it sounds new. I think it sounds fresh.

As far as bands keeping Shoegaze alive today or putting out records that are doing that, Alvvays accomplish that with this record because, again, just the sounds, the layers, it's pretty much everything that I would want out of a record in this genre. It's noisy, it's wild, it's dense. And there is, again, that element of, 'How did they do it?' These are some wild-ass crazy sounds that are being generated all over this album.

Is this a record that's done anything for you personally as a fan of the genre?

Kelsie: I would say it's opened me up to always being Shoegaze, because when I think of always, I just think of like, cutesy surf rock, just like indie, go with the flow. But then this record, it was very heavily shoegaze influenced, and it was a change hearing it from them, but they did it really well.

AF: For sure. Their past records were definitely spacy, and they're definitely a band that has toyed with dream pop and stuff like that. But yeah, on this album, they really very boldly went into that direction and gave you all of that strange, weird guitar experimentation and pulled it off really well, in my opinion. Pulled it off really well.

Kelsie: I agree.

Ringo Death Starr - Colour Trip

AF: Next on the list, you grabbed this Ringo Death Starr record, their debut from back in 2011. They're still active in putting out records, I think, as recently as 2020, when their latest came out, if I remember correctly. But what drew you to Colour Trip? Why did you pick this one out?

Kelsie: It's a little bit more of a poppier, youthful My Bloody Valentine. I feel like this album, it really gets compared to My Bloody Valentine and everything that they have because it does. It sounds like it's little sister, just more poppy, with an updated, youthful, just care-free go with the flow sound. It has that also ethereal hypnotic feel to it that every other shoegaze album does. But this one, it just sounds a little bit more crisp, a lot more clear.

When I listen to it, I feel like I'm 16 years old and I'm in a little indie rom-com because it just has a very cutesy, again, playful approach to shoegaze. Sometimes shoegaze, back in this 2010s era, went a little bit more darker, and they went in the opposite direction. It was a little bit more lighter and fun. The lyrics, they're so cheeky and so just cutesy and silly. I wrote one of them down. One of the lyrics is, 'We're falling apart again / She took my card again.' Then later within the song, they say, 'She took my cardigan.' It's just silly. They were just having fun with it.

I think it was compared to My Bloody Valentine so much, but I do think it's just a very cute little album that I think Gen Z is sleeping on as well because everyone is drawn towards My Bloody Valentine. They should try out Ringo Death Starr because even though it was from 2011, it's an album that went missed at the time well. They had a few hits on there that I think "Kaleidoscope" was the biggest one on that album, but it's just such a cute album. It's since doing some research for this video, it's become one of my favorite albums I've listened to in the past month. It's just very catchy. I loved throwing it on. Just, again, feel happy. A happier shoegaze album.

AF: Yeah, the guitar noise on this one is definitely pretty aggressive and borders on noise rock on some tracks, and the drums and the riffs are very driving, very punchy. It's a very energetic record. I would say, actually, I would even compare it a little bit to a band like A Place to Bury Strangers a little bit. But if you pulled out the gothier, darker, moodier elements of their sound, and just, again, as you say, made it a little lighter, made it a little more fun, brought it more of an upbeat attitude, but still that thickness and that noise and the vocals being buried as well a little bit in the mix. It's all there.

Kelsie: And they're also compared to The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Jesus and Mary Chain a little bit, too. So if anyone likes those groups. I can see the Jesus and Mary Chain comparison.

AF: Yeah. Now I can see that.

Jesu - Jesu

AF: Okay, last recommendation on the list. I grabbed this Jesu record also out of the UK, Justin Broderick, songwriter, guitarist, guy who's been involved in a lot of different bands over the years, a very influential and ground-breaking bands, in fact. One of the best and earliest of them being Napalm Death. But then quickly before the band blew up, he went on to do some other things, and eventually down the road, this band, this project, this record dropped around 2004.

As I was alluding to earlier, it does bring in elements of shoegaze. You have those thick, noisy guitars. There's a density there. There's a psychedelic quality to it as well. He's very clearly influenced by the likes of My Bloody Valentine But the riffs, the guitar distortion, the guitar timbers and tones are very much coming from metal music, from doom metal music. And it just brings a super unique angle to shoegaze as a genre and a concept. It shows you how malleable it is as a sound and as an idea and how it can be applied in a very wide variety of contexts that you can still pull it off, still know it when you hear it in a way, when you catch it on this record, but simultaneously, this is undeniably a metal album, undeniably an album very squarely in doom metal, but it's still a shoegaze thing.

Kelsie: I know. I was very surprised when you picked this one because I listened to it and I was like, Oh, this is a lot heavier and darker than you would think for Shoegaze. But there are lots of shoegaze elements throughout the whole album, too.

AF: Yeah, it does still work in that world and work in that context. So, Again, it's part of what makes the genre exciting, and I think continues to help it persist as an institution in underground and alternative music, because there's always something new and different happening within it. It may not be the most active and popular style of music out there, but it's ever-changing, and it's always lurking in the background as an influence and cropping up at different times and on different albums and in different ways in different contexts. It's always being reborn a new every 10 years in some way. Be it in a record like this where you're hearing more metal elements or in some of those newer groups that we were talking about earlier that are bringing elements of electronics now and stuff like that, and finding ways to apply that to the shoegaze sound.

As of right now, as a fan of the genre, are you still excited to see do you see what is coming for it down the pipe? Do you still feel like there are new ideas cropping up in the genre here and there? And do you feel like this new found interest in it among the normie crowd, do you feel like it's good for the genre? Do you feel like it's adding to it more than it's taking away?

Kelsie: I would say it's half and half. Some of them are just sounding exactly like every other shoegaze band you've had. But then we have bands like Fevered Little Horse, where they're taking it and just running with it and making something that you wouldn't even think would be possible within shoegaze. I think more bands just need to experiment more because, again, bands like Feeble Little Horse or They Are Gutting a Body of Water just make me really excited for shoegaze and what's coming out of shoegaze. They're experimenting, adding more sounds, making it more fun, but also still gritty, fuzzy still with your usual shoegaze sound.

AF: Alright. Well, Kelsey, thank you for coming through. I appreciate you bringing some recommendations and your thoughts, your expertise on the genre.

Kelsie: Thank you so much for having me.