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November 28, 2006
Sounds like My Bloody Valentine...?
Yesterday I whined and complained about too many "sounds like My Bloody Valentine" descriptions with regards to noisy rock bands. I culled a short list of blog posts with the text "..sounds like My bloody Valentine.." written in the post.
You knew this was coming:
-On Boris - Sounds like My Bloody Valentine covering "Sister Ray." [Tim's Store Picks]
-On Sigur Ros - “Myrkur” from Von sounds like a My Bloody Valentine song. [Mog]
-On Asobi Seksu - Sounds like My Bloody Valentine fronted by a J-Pop Hipster Star. [Bohemian Playboy]
-On HTRK - The whole ep sounds like My Bloody Valentine if they'd have been elegant but deadly dominatrixes, hooking up with Chris & Cosey for a candlelit dungeon-set 'collaboration'. [20 Jazz Funk Greats]
-On Serena Maneesh - (neo-shoegaze -- sounds like My Bloody Valentine meets 60s Garage Rock) [Sgt. Politeness]
-More Serena - My Bloody Valentine gets tossed around a lot in the unoriginal reviews of this album. [Genius Trainwreck]
-On Kashmir - Featured on the new album are Lou Reed and David Bowie himself singing on "The Cynic" which sounds like a My Bloody Valentine song. [Palms Out Sound
-On Broadcast - Broadcast sounds like My Bloody Valentine crossed with the good Stereolab songs. [Sound of Crickets Chirping]
-On a song in the works that I'm actually looking forward to hearing someday - I'm making bilan a song about my favorite friday the 13th movie (part 8 - jason takes manhattan) and it sounds like my bloody valentine producing the soundtrack to the NES classic "mega man 3". [Duk]
-On Arcade Fire (dear lord) - 'Rebellion (Lies)' sounds like the Pixies to my ears. The rest of it sounds like My Bloody Valentine (so good! so good!) [hehehe!]. [I've Lived on a Dirt Road all my Life]
-On Autolux - kinda sounds like my bloody valentine. [Door Spirit]
I am Pot, you are kettle. We both black.
-On Dalek - If we want to be facile, think My Bloody Valentine meets the Def Jux crew. [Merry Swankster]
-On Serena Maneesh - Noisier AND sweeter than My Bloody Valentine, though not usually at the same time. [Merry Swankster]
Posted by Merry Swankster at November 28, 2006 03:05 PM
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Comments
When I was editing Pitchfork, I never allowed writers to make this comparison. It's my biggest pet peeve in all of music criticism. The list of bands that deserve/have earned the mention is very short:
1.Swirlies
2. ...there's probably one other out there somewhere.
Please make this list as long and comprehensive as you can.
Posted by: Chris Ott at November 28, 2006 05:05 PM
swirlies for sure, and then you have these guys: www.myspace.com/fleetingjoys
Posted by: michael at November 28, 2006 10:08 PM
There are some bands that sound like My Bloody Valentine, but those are shoegaze bands that actually do sound like MBV. Boris doesn't sound like My Bloody Valentine. I don't know what Broadcast album the other reviewer was listening to, but it certainly doesn't sound like My Bloody Valentine. Stereolab: sure. My Bloody Valentine: no.
Referencing My Bloody Valentine is an easy copout for people who don't know enough or can't use the beauty of the english language to actually describe the band's sound.
Posted by: Ace at November 29, 2006 11:29 AM
To be fair, Sereena Maneesh clearly has one move, MBV, and not even a headfake to go along with it. It may be lazy to write that they sound like them, but Sereena are what they are.
Posted by: freetz at November 29, 2006 05:51 PM
you're all missing something here. try michael lückner's band guitar. listen to almost anything from 'sunkissed' or the track 'sakura coming' from their newest album 'tokyo'. about as loveless as you get.
Posted by: horse badorties at November 30, 2006 04:14 PM
I reviewed Guitar's Sunkissed for Pitchfork, so, I wouldn't say I'm missing anything. It's a DSP cut-and-paste thing with a J-Pop singer. "House Full of Time" and "Sakura" both stand in as the best shoegaze we've heard since the '90s, but it's loop music, he just uses guitar tracks instead of clicks and bleeps. Guitar and Manual are the two best newgaze bands we've gotten.
Posted by: Chris Ott at November 30, 2006 08:08 PM
