Lav's Music Corner

Review by Lavender: Deafheaven are a once-divisive black metal band who made a huge splash in the first half of the 2010s by delivering a style of the notoriously insular genre that heavily incorporated elements of shoegaze and post-rock. That netted them tons and tons of critical acclaim, primarily centered around their 2013 masterpiece Sunbather, but also found them hit with some ultimately overblown backlash for their genre-bending approach to black metal. In the years since, they've spread those ambitions out even further with their previous album, 2021's Infinite Granite , shedding metal off almost entirely and focusing on dreamier indie rock and shoegaze. A year later, frontman George Clarke made heavy contributions to Alto Arc, an extremely experimental side project with a bizarre Mad Libs-style roster of contributors that I enjoyed a genuinely shocking amount. But now the band is back in full force, combining throttling black metal with expansive post-rock and dreamy la...

I love shoegaze and that's no secret. So in addition to some of the shoegaze records I've already covered from 2024, I wanted to hone in and catch up with a few I missed.  my anti-aircraft friend  - julie LA-based shoegaze outfit julie didn't start out 2024 as one of my most anticipated new bands. But after a few singles where they seemed to drown themselves even more in vintage shoegaze and noise pop styles that I've long found irresistible, I started to look forward to their debut album my anti-aircraft friend  more and more. While a song like last year's "catalogue" surely helped, it was their best song to date "clairbourne practice" that really sold me on the band. Even as parts of it feel like classic shoegaze worship it's one spoonful of Slowdive and one spoonful of My Bloody Valentine. Splitting that difference perfectly is what brings the band to their most interesting points.  That contrast pops on deep cuts like "tenebrist...

Review by Lav: DIIV are a shoegaze outfit from Brooklyn that have been active for over a decade now. After falling in love with their debut album Oshin  I wasn't crazy about their second record. Thankfully in 2019 their third album arrived and I was much more fond of it. Given the full 5 years that have passed since then I was excited to hear yet another new rendition of the bands shoegaze sound. On Frog In Boiling Water,  the band gets expansive in a way that raises the stakes and drama of their sound even without having to get harsher. Frog  may not be the band's most compelling release yet, but its embrace of a slower more spacious brand of shoegaze is nonetheless well done.  Five different songs, a full half of the record's tracklist, were released as singles before it dropped. For the most part, they're a pretty good bunch and they make up most of the first half of the record. The title track Frog In Boiling Water  may be my favorite of the bunch serving up...

Slowdive is one of the most legendary shoegaze bands of all time. The group's 1993 sophomore album Souvlaki  is seen by many as the definitive album in the genre and considered one of shoegaze's "big three" alongside Ride's Nowhere  and My Bloody Valentine's Loveless . The band returned in 2017 after a 22 year hiatus with their 4th album, the self-titled Slowdive . The project was met with heaps of critical acclaim and now 6 years later they've returned with a 5th album. Review by Lav:  I love shoegaze, that's no secret. But even among the many shoegaze acts I covet Slowdive stands above them all. That obviously has a lot to do with their pioneering work across their first three albums painting dreamy layered motifs of sonic bliss on one song after another. But the band is no longer just a legacy act. In 2017 they returned with a stroke of absolute beauty on their comeback album Slowdive . The project featured creativity and beauty far beyond what you...

Beach Fossils are a New York dream pop band who have been going for well over a decade now. Their 2010 self-titled debut is seen by many as an influential release in the development of the lo-fi beachy sounds of indie music in the decade following. Bunny  is the band's 4th record and comes after a long 6-year gap in studio material. Review by Lav: I've always enjoyed Beach Fossils' music and I was pretty excited for this record following the first two singles. I had a vision of what the record would be like going into it but my biggest question was whether it would drown in a haze of sameness or if the songs would work together to be more than the sum of their parts. Turns out it's the latter, I like the record even if none of the deep cuts wowed me as much as I might have hoped.  There are some songs on this record like Tough Love , (Just Like The) Setting Sun , and the closer Waterfall  that fail to completely distinguish themselves. Thankfully the tracks are all vary...

Alvvays are a Canadian indie pop and dream pop band who have been around for almost a decade now but Blue Rev  is just their 3rd album. The five years since their sophomore record Antisocialites  hasn't dissuaded fans from generating a lot of hype for their new project, which predicted a shift to heavier shoegaze-inspired sounds across its 5 singles.  Review by Lav: I've always been a big fan of Alvvays since I first heard Archie, Marry Me  on some indie blog years ago. While I can't say they've ever been one of my favorite bands even within their genre niche, you can always expect consistently enjoyable songwriting and execution from the band. Both of those pretty much continue onto Blue Rev  which isn't rewriting the book on anything, but it still solid.  The album had 5 singles and the first two serve as the opening stretch of the record. Pharmacist  opens with a perfect meeting of the band's typically sweet sound and catchy refrains with more shoeg...

It's technically not even March yet and I already have like 50 albums from this year that I want to review but haven't had the time for one reason or another. Hopefully I can really dig in on these rapid fire reviews and covering new albums as they come out and we're starting here with a few experimental rock records I've been listening to and hearing people talk about online.  The Overload  - Yard Act Yard Act is a band I first heard about last year when some of the numerous singles they dropped in the lead up to this debut album started spreading in post-punk circles. Because of how much of a renaissance the genre has been going through particularly in Britain right now, I've sort of kept my ear to the ground with the style. What separates Yard Act is apparently pretty quickly with their lead singers distinctive snarl and their off kilter style of songwriting and performing which serves as set-up for those overtly political messages. The most enjoyable part of the...

Deafheaven are a San Francisco based experimental rock band. In 2013 their sophomore album Sunbather  became a breakout success receiving massive critical acclaim for the bands fusion of black metal and shoegaze, fittingly referred to as Blackgaze. In records since then the band worked to expand into realms of post-rock as well, but the trio of singles leading up to  Infinite Granite  projected a shift into full on shoegaze sounds. Review By Lav: I know I start about 60% of reviews on this channel with the phrase "I love "artist"". But I love Deafheaven. Sunbather  completely blew me away when I first heard it and I was still on the hook for both of the bands follow-up records. 2018's Ordinary Corrupt Human Love  was my first opportunity to review the band and I was thrilled to absolutely love the record. It's fusion of blistering black metal, dramatic post-rock and hazy shoegaze totally blew me away once again. I had a feeling that the band would continue ...

Amusement Parks On Fire are a British rock band who dabbled in the realms of shoegaze and noise rock during the 2000's. After a long hiatus the band returned in 2018 with a new EP and series of live shows, before leading up to the release of Ad Archaea , their 4th album overall and first in 11 years. Review By Lav: Amusement Parks On Fire are a personal passion of mine. They come from a time in the 2000's where shoegaze and experimental rock bands in general never really got the credit they deserve and they're one of many bands from that era I consider to be extremely underrated. The bands 2004 self-titled album is a huge favorite of mine and I was excited to see what elements of their sound the band would maintain with over a decade having passed since their previous studio album. With no singles I wasn't really sure what to expect but the band is holding tight to their layered rock sound and proves a few times throughout Ad Archaea  that they still do it well.  The re...

Beachy Head is a new super grous project bringing together members of Slowdive (and Slowdive infused super-group The Soft Cavalry) with members of The Flaming Lips and Casket Girls. The collaboration was announced just last month though it received three singles. The debut album is slim with just 8 tracks under 30 minutes but has plenty of promise and poise among its ranks to deliver something special.  Review By Lav: It's no secret I'm a big fan of shoegaze, it's also no secret I'm a huge fan of Slowdive. Pretty much everything Slowdive vocalist Rachel Goswell has ever done from Minor Victories to Mojave 3, The Soft Cavalry and even her solo material I've found to be enjoyable at minimum. Continuing my likeliness to to enjoy mostly everything she touches I dove into Beachy Head  excited about what she may be offering. Ultimately the record doesn't do a whole lot with its short runtime, delivering wiry, dreamy shoegaze reminiscent of the original projects of its...

Parannoul is an anonymous Korean artist who began attracting tons of attention in online music circles in the month after this record came out. While it is technically his 2nd record it is the first many have heard of his lo-fi bedroom blend of shoegaze and indie music sounds with classic emo lyricism.  Review By Lav: This record has become the first real underground darling of 2021 so far when it first emerged about a month ago with no real press or attention to speak of. Since then I've seen it emerge on music sites and be discussed by indie fans and I was hoping to wait until the record was released on streaming services to talk about it. Unfortunately it looks like that isn't going to happen any time soon so I figured I should go ahead and jump on the bandwagon and talk about the record. While that phraseology may make it seem like this was some kind of chore or obligation I assure you it isn't, To See The Next Part Of The Dream  is easily one of the best records I'...

Jesu is the solo project of British musician and genre blender Justin Broadrick. It followed his pioneering experimental metal band Godflesh and took things in a different direction combining droning guitars with more conventional songwriting and lead vocals.  Review By Lavender: While I'm too young to have been able to appreciate Godflesh in their heyday I have spent a lot of time indulging with Jesu over the past decade plus. Whether it was with great albums like Conqueror  and Jesu , the pair of wonderful collaborative albums Justin made with Sun Kil Moon or the Before  EP he released this year that is still one of my favorite short form projects of 2020, I really enjoy the music of Jesu. While this is technically the 6th Jesu album the catalog runs extensively beyond this and would take far too long for me to unpack every part of it but what I will say is that as far as recent memory goes, Justin is on a hot streak ad Terminus  mostly keeps that up.  The re...