my bloody valentine, the quartet of Bilinda Butcher, Kevin Shields, Deb Googe and Colm Ó Cíosóig, are widely revered as one of the most ground-breaking and influential groups of the past forty years. During an era in which guitar bands denoted, at best, a retro-classicism, not only did my bloody valentine sound unlike any of their contemporaries, the band achieved the rare feat of sounding like the future.
my bloody valentine, the quartet of Bilinda Butcher, Kevin Shields, Deb Googe and Colm Ó Cíosóig, are widely revered as one of the most ground-breaking and influential groups of the past forty years. During an era in which guitar bands denoted, at best, a retro-classicism, not only did my bloody valentine sound unlike any of their contemporaries, the band achieved the rare feat of sounding like the future.
my bloody valentine, the quartet of Bilinda Butcher, Kevin Shields, Deb Googe and Colm Ó Cíosóig, are widely revered as one of the most ground-breaking and influential groups of the past forty years. During an era in which guitar bands denoted, at best, a retro-classicism, not only did my bloody valentine sound unlike any of their contemporaries, the band achieved the rare feat of sounding like the future.
my bloody valentine, the quartet of Bilinda Butcher, Kevin Shields, Deb Googe and Colm Ó Cíosóig, are widely revered as one of the most ground-breaking and influential groups of the past forty years. During an era in which guitar bands denoted, at best, a retro-classicism, not only did my bloody valentine sound unlike any of their contemporaries, the band achieved the rare feat of sounding like the future.
Even though My Bloody Valentine promised late in 2012 that they would release new music in the near future, when M B V arrived in the middle of a February weekend in 2013, it was hard to believe it actually existed – and not just because demand for the album kept crashing the band's website. For years, a follow-up to their 1991 masterpiece Loveless seemed impossible, and perhaps even unnecessary. What could live up to Kevin Shields' notorious perfectionism, never mind the expectations of rabid fans (some of whom weren't even alive when Loveless was released)? With a title that evoked years of scrawling initials on mixtapes and playlists, M B V answered those worries with a set of songs that felt immediately familiar.
Veteran sonic visionaries Brian Eno and Kevin Shields, two giants of perspective-altering modern music production, teamed up for a single called “Only Once Away My Son” last year. They’ve just followed it with a new one called “The Weight Of History,” which was released Saturday as a Record Store Day exclusive with the prior track as its B-side.
Likened to Sonic Youth, Swervedriver, and – unbelievably – My Bloody Valentine, My Vitriol is both elastic and kaleidoscopic as they take their particular screeching rock choruses to something distinctly American. Sure they'd prefer to mine the hoary vaults of Soundgarden before Suede and if this isn't so much a creative cul-de-sac, it's at least a reminder that mascara-lined university invective backed by a churning backwash of feedback and stage splits can sound like the wave of the future when released against the otherwise anemic music culture of its day…
The first collection to present this decade's musical creation and evolution, Whatever includes radio regulars and chart-toppers such as Boyz II Men, Aaliyah, En Vogue, Collective Soul, Spin Doctors, Joan Osborne, Duran Duran, Hanson, Jewel, Kris Kross, Sarah McLachlan and more. Whatever also rocks back to Lollapalooza's early pioneers Primus with 'My Name Is Mud', Babes In Toyland's 'Sweet 69', Luscious Jackson's hit 'Naked Eye', Dinosaur Jr.'s 'Start Choppin', and The Flaming Lips' single 'She Don't Use Jelly'.
A collection of ambient breakbeat and soundtrack-influenced rock, Offbeat is an appropriately titled left-field venture of the Red Hot + Blue benefit series. Included are tracks from "alternative" acts like Soul Coughing, My Bloody Valentine, Spookey Ruben, Barry Adamson and Laika, plus more dancefloor-oriented producers like Skylab, DJ Krush, Meat Beat Manifesto, Moby, DJ Spooky and others. As can usually be counted on, this edition in the Red Hot series is a must for fans of the music, and an easy recommendation as an important starting point for neophytes.