MANHATTAN LOVE SUICIDES - 'Keep It Coming'

Hot on the heels of the recent '"Kick It Back EP", MANHATTAN LOVE SUICIDES are prepping the "Keep It Coming ep" for release on October 5 (UK). And this time, the shoegazer-loving quartet has made a video for the title track. The video, just like all of their music, seems as though it were created in the early 90's, calling to mind late night editions of 120 Minutes circa 1991.

Keep It Coming tracklist:

1. KEEP IT COMING
2. THINKING IS KILLING ME (New 7" Version)
3. HEAD OVER HEELS
4. SITTING TARGET

Manhattan Love Suicides - Keep It Coming (music video)


'Keep It Coming' will be available through Lost Music Records.

MANHATTAN LOVE SUICIDES - "The Kicked In EP"

The British shoegaze quartet THE MANHATTAN LOVE SUICIDES have just released "The Kicked In EP" for the new single 'Kick It Back'. If you are unfamiliar with these guys, they describe their sound quite perfectly on Myspace: "For anyone who loves fuzzed up guitar assaults, feedback, hit and run gigs, female vocals, melodic pop, ear splitting minimalist noise and hates a hell of a lot of other things..." Doesn't that make you wanna run out and buy their stuff right now?

The tracklist for "The Kicked In EP":

1. KICK IT BACK (New 7" Version)
2. CRACKED OPEN
3. YOU'LL NEVER GET THAT GUY
4. WAY OUT OF REACH

You can buy the EP as well as the self-titled debut album now on Magic Marker Records.

STRAWBERRY WHIPLASH

In the wake of my current obsession with THE MANHATTAN LOVE SUICIDES, here comes another gem of a fuzz-guitar, JAMC-inspired band STRAWBERRY WHIPLASH from Glasgow. SKATTERBRAIN has a couple tracks for you to download. Be kind to him, he's pretty awesome.

Strawberry Whiplash on Myspace

On the Topic of Shoegazer

With the mind-altering news that JESUS & MARY CHAIN will be headlining Coachella this year, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at bands on the current scene whose sound is directly influenced by the seminal band and/or the movement they came from.

The sound actually dates back to the 60's with THE VELVET UNDERGROUND. Many years later, 1984 to be exact, a new band exploded with a fresh new sound that drew elements of The Underground's heroin-tinged guitar noise. That band was Jesus & Mary Chain. But ultimately, the genre's most defining album didn't come out until 1991, when MY BLOODY VALENTINE's 'Loveless' was released.

Over the last decade, a whole crop of bands have found a niche in reviving the 'shoegazer' sound - ultimately fuzzy electric guitars, lots of drone, a melancholy voice and a hint of Spector-era melody - including, but not limited to BRMC, RAVEONETTES, AUTOLUX and THE KILLS. EDITORS and INTERPOL also incorporate the sound, but draw more heavily from the post-punk goth hues of JOY DIVISION and ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN.

More recently, a new wave of bands have come onto the scene, solidifying the power of JAMC's defining sound.

THE RADIO DEPT. - recently made famous by Sofia Copola's MARIE ANTIONETTE soundtrack, are as shoegazer as it gets today.

ASOBI SEKSU - at times this NY based band sounds like THE CRANBERRIES modernized, but their overall tone is one of dream-pop, a genre basically spawned by shoegazer, culminating in bands like GALAXIE 500 and COCTEAU TWINS in the early 90's.

SERENA MANEESH - Sweden has a thing for shoegazer right now. These guys probably hit the sound most on the mark as of late. Playing their CD is like stepping back in time to 1991.

DEERHUNTER - an Atlanta band that I discussed previously. Just today one of their songs came on and I thought it was CHAPTERHOUSE for a second.

THE MANHATTAN LOVE SUICIDES - their Myspace page lists a who's who of shoegazer bands as influences, and from the sound of their song 'Skulls', I can see why.