recommend me some lost shoegaze classics

Another great band often overlooked is Half-String from Arizona. They put out several discs on IPR. A Fascination With Heights is the strongest in my book, with "Momentum" being my favorite amongst a strong set of songs.

Boston act the Curtain Society were on Bedazzled, their second disc Life Is Long Still is a bargain bin staple and worth the small change for the opener "Mouthwithout" ... perhaps one of my favorite opening riffs of a shoegaze song ever.

Another not mentioned is Alison's Dress (their comp was on Burnt Toast, "Torn is my fave).

I have a shoegaze CD-R I made for myself, if anyone wants a copy just drop me a note. Contains all the above and Ropers, All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors, An April March, Revolver, Belltower and others mentioned above.

How 'bout the first two Straitjacket Fits records, if we're looking to Flying Nun type stuff? The first one especially is great...

You mean Alison's Halo. Since we're out here, Love Spirals Downwards' second album is a 'gazing classic in my book, it's called Ardor.

The Secret Shine compilation CD should be out soon, you won't go wrong with that.

Sugar Plant's most shoegazing album is probably Trance/Mellow, somewhere close to Slowdive's Souvlaki. Their first two albums are more in the Galaxie 500 vein... After After Hours is classic.

double recommendation for Swervedriver's first album.

I would also put in a small shout for Verve's early singles, Gravity Grave, She's a Superstar and All In the Mind. In fact, the whole of the Storm in Heaven album was the tail end of shoegazing-type music for me, and reminds me what a beautiful band they were before they went shit. Although they weren't really shoegazers per se, it fitted in with what I was listening to at the time.

Two of the bigger local labels were Mind Expansion Records & Burnt Hair Records- some of the local acts included Fuxa, Windy & Carl (who run a nice indie record shop in Dearborn - Stormy Records), Miss Bliss, Tomorrowland (more ambient/idm, but in the same local scene), His Name is Alive, Auburn Lull, & Transient Waves (outta Philly but w/ ties to the Michigan scene).

Other related stuff was coming out around the US as well from the likes of Darla Records & Kranky Records, and groups like Hopewell (members of Mercury Rev), Jessamine, Bowery Electric, etc, etc..

bona-fide classic, absolutely! i never tire of this wonderful record, which recreates dreamlike strolls in rainy cities like few others have done. their later garage-mod output is...interesting, but i never listen to it much. are half-string or curtain society anything like toulouse?

I wouldn't have automatically thought of Levitation as shoegazers either, but someone else did upthread (I wouldn't describe them as also-rans either).

i'd call them "indie-rock" but those more genre-centric may refer to them as "slow-core".

still extant bands out here:
Color Wall, from LA
The Jealous Type, from Ann Arbor, MI
The Flashing Astonishers, from i ferget where

oh yeah, and the Dykehouse album, when it finally comes out.

The comp that comes with the new issue is really really good.

Other Medicine-influenced California-based shoegazers of note: The Lassie Foundation.

Apart from them, burn the rest except MBV obviously.

mention of IPR is OTM - an amazing label. everything i buy on that label is a gem of shoegazing or Factory/4AD influenced wonderment.

One of my all-time favourites.

Mogwai
GYBE!
(some) Mercury Rev
Sigur Ros

Do Lorelei count too? Their early singles were pretty shoegazey. And the Moon Seven Times?

Half-String have the right tone but not as many hooks and the singer is slightly more mopey. Curtain Society have the hooks but are more crisp than Toulouse. I definitely recommend Half-String's A Fascination With Heights.

And everyone who praised the Ropers as one of the best groups of all time is unequivocably correct. Don't forget the early singles, handily compiled on the s/t ep. Does anyone here have the Boyracer/Ropers tour split 7" ... I've been dying to hear that song for years.

I have the Whipping Boy album (Heartworm) and consider When We Were Young as one of the great lost singles of all time, but in no way on this earth would I ever have thought of them as shoegazers.

i have that, somewhere in the deep recesses of my vinyl stacks. i'll have a look for it. it's a nice track..

reminds me... guitar "sunkissed" by morr... what if the sneaker pimps did a shoegaze record?
m.

Secret Shine - Toward the Sky:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om-KCC4GRyQ

I love both versions of Never Dream At All, long time fan of the Nightblooms

Maybe more dreamy than shoey, but anilore (Hudson valley/Brooklyn) got back together, reissued their 90s record, and put out 2 new things that keep the original flames alive w much fancier pedal boards

https://anilore.bandcamp.com/album/still-awake

ArchCarrier - I discovered Bizarre's Beautica on a shoegaze forum and I was very fond of it at the time, nice to see it's been reissued but still no CD

Anilore sounds good, new to me

Yes, same here!

On the Secret Shine tip, I've been really loving Dreamscape this week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zNabzf8POw

Truly a very lost classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0cffRUsuxg

I don't think Polar made anything quite as good as Con Dolore's This Sad Movie (I still consider both Polar albums very great) but this is one of my favorite Polar songs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEYL28yFgtE

I could swear the singer had another band going after with tracks on Myspace, she was fantastic

The new Pencey Sloe album strikes me as a future lost shoegaze classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLv0P5dKClA

Okay so wayyyyy back on this thread a few of us were talking about Australia's Gaslight Radio, who had shoegaze in their makeup if not totally that. They've recently put up a best of on Spotify and a slightly older one on Bandcamp -- worth checking out:

https://gaslightradio.bandcamp.com/album/best-of-gaslight-radio-1996-2006

https://open.spotify.com/album/13LPSQCsi5BNXoCQhMFASl

Difference Engine quietly released their shelved 1994 album Flex Lavender on streaming services last year, with no accompanying info and no mention of a forthcoming physical release 🤔. it's less Disco Inferno and more Stereolab (at least on the Margie-sung tracks) than Breadmaker) and veers into trip-hop-gaze on the last track. imo the first six tracks + the intro of 'Sky Hutch' would have made for one of the best EPs of the era. it gets a little more pedestrian after that but it's solid enough throughout

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osSfzmpyEoI