Surely you can't want more jingly jangly indie nonsense? You do? OK, here are London based indie popsters Moose.
I hate copying willy-nilly from Wikipedia, but apparently, and I have no way of verifying this either way,
"Moose have been credited by some as being the first band to be called "shoegazers" which was inspired by an early gig of theirs at which [singer and guitarist] Russell Yates read lyrics taped to the floor."Can this be true? Surely someone like Ride would have been the first shoegazers? Moose as the first shoegazers? It's the first I've heard of it!
I've got a load of old NMEs somewhere, I'll try and check at Christmas, but in the meantime, if you can prove this bold claim then please let me know! (This bit of typing is getting very exclamation mark-heavy, for which I apologise).
So, the band were possibly instrumental in the popularity of shoegazing, produced a load of cracking tunes in the early 90s, never achieved the fame they probably deserved, disappeared, reappeared to try their luck again around the millenium and promptly disappeared again. This is a running theme for bands on here.
There's a really nice little fansite here (which, by the way, would be a leading exponent of shoegazing as a style of web design, if such a thing existed. Take a look at it and you'll see what I mean. That site is the most shoegazingest website I've seen in ages).
And to keep you going and remind you of the alleged first ever shoegazers, from 1991's Reprise EP, have a listen to Moose - Last Night I Fell Again, it's rather good.
(Right click, 'Save as...' to download)
(And now, if you can imagine me wandering off, shaking my head and muttering "first ever shoegazers, I just don't know...", the illusion is complete).
all I remember about them is that the Melody Maker loved them, and loved their name. Then, after two weeks when they decided they didn't like them anymore, they revealed that the singer's surnmae was Moose, so it wasn't really all that profound anyway. I always had them down as second wave of shoegaze, with Chapterhouse et al. They shared a cover of the melody maker with Chapterhouse and OCS (when they were bundled in with shoegazers), which was way after GBA by ride.
ReplyDelete1000 yard stare. That was another name the maker liked, while hating the band. Spitfire as well probably.
I'm not certain about all that above. 'Moose' was one band member's nickname as far as I recall, rather than any surname.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the shoegaze thing goes, I don't know how you're interpreting it, but it isn't being suggested that they were the first of the shoegazing bands so much as they were the subject of the first review to use the label 'shoegazers'. Wikipedia seems to suggest that it was cos Russell from Moose was reading the lyrics from a sheet of paper on the floor, but my very hazy memory of the review (Melody Maker, rather than NME I vaguely recall) is that it actually due to them not making eye contact with the audience combined with the fact that they spent a lot of time looking down at their guitar effects pedals and also because bands of that type liked to hang their fringes downwards to cover their eyes (again avoiding having to look at the audience).
I LOVE Moose and we've posted loads of stuff from Honey Bee up on Lonesome over the years. In fact, I think you might have prompted another post!
ReplyDeleteCheers
Beth
can I be sad and say that I was at what I think was Moose's first concert supporting lush at the old trout in windsor? I think one or more of moose was going out with lush. They did look at their shoes, or more pecisely the chord charts next to the song titles on the setlist.
ReplyDeleteNot sure about Shoegazing, but I'm fairly sure the band inspired Melody maker's "The scene that celebrates itself" because they featured Tim Gane of Stereolab for a while (I think that's him in that tv show broadcast from the Marquee hosted by Gary Crowley, um can't remember what it was called, got it on video somewhere) and teamed up with Lush for that charity flexi thing. First time I saw them was supporting House of Love at the T&C. First band on was The Cranberries...
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