Blonde Redhead is fronted by a Japanese singer who is neither.
But she does exemplify, in her breathy subdued vocals, which blend into the music almost as an ethereal instrument rather than a voice, the characteristic shoegazing style.
And there is no mistaking, in this song, the Kevin Shields-influenced "bent" guitars. Before Loveless that sound didn't exist.
Now Blonde Redhead, as one of the most notable nu-gaze bands, are making the most of it, in a fresh new way.
SIlversun Pickups are perhaps the most notable and most successful of the nu-gaze bands—post-millennium bands influenced by, and carrying on the traditions of, the shoegazing sound with a modern twist.
I had the privilege of seeing the Pickups recently at a local venue, and the show was all I'd hoped it would be. I particularly loved the fact that bass-player Nikki Monninger unironically wore a little black cocktail dress and heels while kicking ass on the bass—a refreshingly post-grunge, post-punk, post feminist move that shows true individualism rather than the relentlessly tattooed-pierced-ugly-punk-alternative look which has become de rigueur and which is every bit as much a uniform as the military uniforms or corporate suits that the "rebels" of alt-music pretend to oppose.
ANYWAY, the Pickups have picked up the mantle of post-shoegazer fuzz and drone, and any number of their songs would do as a sample, but this one is particularly fuzzy and drony, so I chose it to illustrate their continuity with the tradition.
I always think of this song in the same breath as Leave Them All Behind by Ride. In my mind, the two songs are almost inseparable.
Like LTAB, Duel is one of the hardest-rocking songs in the classic shoegazing oeuvre. It kicks serious ass.
Like LATB, this is the only song by this band in my playlist. Fans of Ride and Swervedriver will be horrified, but I basically consider them both One-Hit-Wonder bands. Which is not really fair, because it's not so much that their other songs are weak, but that these two songs—LTAB and Duel—are so goddamn good, so head-and-shoulders above the rest of their work, that they raise the bar. I can't listen to any other Ride or Swervedriver songs without wishing they were LTAB or Duel. I'm sorry.
Like LTAB, Duel relies on a big wall of crunchy guitars for its power, and on pretty harmonies for its hooks.
But unlike LTAB, where the harmonic hook comes in the vocal chorus, in Duel it arrives at 1:33 and 3:14 when the guitars finally relax the minor-chord tension that's been building with a shift into those major-key, Byrds-on-overdrive, jangly power chords. That's the moment.
I've been listening to this song for years without tiring of it.
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Header photo by Phil Steele. All content copyright 2016 Phil Steele.