Tag: shoegaze

julie - my anti-aircraft friend
Vinyl

Julie: My Anti-Aircraft Friend (2024)

I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way…especially if you’re teaching them by way of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. That’s what I hear when I listen to julie, a trio out of Los Angeles who have taken the gospels according to Moore and Shields to heart, and crafted in My Anti-Aircraft Friend a fun and vibrant debut full-length that works for what it is: a catchy and frazzled indie rock gem, slightly flawed and wearing its influences in each facet of its cut, but sincere and earnest in how it goes about it.

Continue reading “Julie: My Anti-Aircraft Friend (2024)”
Unknown's avatarChrisLeave a comment
golomb - the beat goes on
Vinyl

Golomb: The Beat Goes On (2025)

At this point I can’t remember what turned me on to Golomb, the trio out of Columbus, OH that somehow manages to sound like Kevin Shields was behind the boards for The Beat Goes On, the band’s sophomore LP. It’s a new release, although you’d be more than forgiven for thinking this came out alongside albums by The Breeders and Velocity Girl in the 90s; it has that exact vibe: loose and grungy with fuzz, doubled vocals, and a real knack to carve out sweet melodic hooks underneath the shoegaze heavy distortions. It’s not without a few missteps, but even those missteps add to the album’s overall charm.

Continue reading “Golomb: The Beat Goes On (2025)”
Unknown's avatarChrisLeave a comment
letting up despite great faults - reveries
Vinyl

Letting Up Despite Great Faults: Reveries (2024)

Dream pop is a tricky thing for me. It’s like 80s hair metal in that, when done just right, brings me instantly back to a point in time – in this case the early 90s when said hair metal was being replaced by all these jangly, spirited concise songs we all called “alternative” because it was the alternative to what FM was playing. Letting Up Despite Great Faults was a huge shot to the head when I first discovered them with IV, their 2022 return after an eight year absence. Everything I love about that record returns in Reveries, a beautifully crafted spiderweb of an album, ethereal and delicate and bound to stick to you when you walk into it. I happily did.

Continue reading “Letting Up Despite Great Faults: Reveries (2024)”
Unknown's avatarChris1 Comment
letting up despite great faults - iv
Vinyl

Letting Up Despite Great Faults: IV (2022)

Sometimes you hear a song and you just know. That time was a little over two weeks ago, and I was – as per usual – listening to Henry Rollins spin music on KCRW (episode 676 to be exact). The first notes immediately brought college in the early 90s, discovering this whole world of jangly chords and reverb that would soon replace (for a time) all the hair metal and screaming I grew up with. The song was “She Spins” from IV, the latest album from shoegaze/indie pop band Letting Up Despite Great Faults. Their first proper album in eight years, it reaches back to a time where I was constantly thrown off balance by all the new sensory input a kid experiencing the new worldview college away from home offers, and it does it with a forward thrust that completely leans into the style without feeling like a dated retread.

Continue reading “Letting Up Despite Great Faults: IV (2022)”
Unknown's avatarChris1 Comment