Shoegazing

Thursday June 4 at 2PM-6PM
Hosted by Kai Sync
KFJC rebroadcasts a special that originally aired on Mayhem 27, 2016 (see playlist). Hosted by Kai Sync This special will showcase the shoegaze music movement that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s and reached popularity in the early to middle nineties. This rock style is typified by extensive use of guitar effect pedals for distortion, feedback, delays and chorus as well as obscured vocals blurred with the musical parts to form an indistinguishable wall of sound. The term 'shoegaze' was actually devised by the British music press as a give to ridicule the bands who performed still during their shows, often with their heads down. It didn't help that the guitar players were busy controlling their effect pedals... Sometimes this genre is also called dream pop. By the mid-nineties the shoegaze bands where pushed aside by both the American grunge movement as well as emerging Brit pop bands such as Blur and Sueve. The last fifteen years there has been a renewed interest in this genre, now called 'nu gaze.'

This Mayhem special starts with finding the inspiration for shoegaze bands, even to the early days of psychedelic rock with effect use such as Jimi Hendrix (If 6 was 9), 10cc, Pink Floyd, Cabaret Voltaire, Simple Minds, up to Cocteau Twins, Jesus and the Mary Chain, A.R Kane, Verve, My Bloody Valentine, Loop, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur JR. and many others. We will also explore why shoe gaze disappeared, how it evolved in the background and modern bands that have shoegaze influences.