Dreaming in Stereo for May 30, 2017

After last week's pop-heavy Manc episode, I figured it was time for another shoegaze-heavy episode. I don't know that it quite worked out that way, but I have no regrets. I just discovered Chastity Belt, who open the show, and there's a definite feeling of "how did they sneak by me?" going on with them. The three tracks I've heard so far off the new album are fairly stellar, and looking forward to the full release.

Also discovered a couple of knockout bands from London: Swimming Tapes, who are nice and breezy and eminently catchy, and Night Swimming, who are dense and thick and have a nice, heavy take on the 'gaze (and from what I picked up from the web, only formed last year, and are already sounding like they've put their time in).


Chastity Belt - Different Now - I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone - Sub Pop
The Launderettes - Cold Cold Hearts - Getaway - Wicked Cool Records
Supermoon - Lemonade - single - Other Coast
Swimming Tapes - Set the Fire - Souvenirs EP - Hand in Hive
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Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - A Song of Summer - On Echoing Green - Mexican Summer
Galaxie 500 - Don't Let Our Youth Go to Waste - Today - Aurora Records
Night Swimming - Tusk - Blossom - self-released
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Adorable - Sunshine Smile - Against Perfection - Creation
Ride - Drive Blind - Smile - Sire
Bleach - Trip & Slide - Killing Time - Elektra
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Blonde Redhead - Equus - Misery is a Butterfly - 4AD

 This episode actually began with the Adorable song, and built around that. Back in the mid-late 1990s, when I was full into my first major Britpop phase (coming, as it did, at the tail end of the movement), Adorable was one of those bands I'd heard of, but being in the Midwest could never find anything by. Not even when we'd cross the border and hit up the record stores in Canada, there was never anything to be found. And to be fair, it's not hard to understand why - Canada may have stronger ties to the Empire than down here, but even there you're not going to get a lot of traction as a third-tier Britpop band. Which is too bad, as they were a decent group with some fairly catchy hooks and solid chops. But in a genre that was overflowing with talent (much of which would end up immolating itself in the trappings of success), not everyone could make it to the front of the stage.

It took years for me to finally track them down, and I think the song featured in this episode proves that time wasn't all in vain. It may not be Earth-shattering, but there's always room in the world for a good pop song.