recommend me some lost shoegaze classics

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.

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