Spirit of Noise: Shoegaze

f n o i s e s hs p ior i te o g a z e

f n o i s e s hs p ior i te o g a z e

f n o i s e s hs p ior i te o g a z e

by Jireh F. Datuin

Copyright Š 2014 Jireh F. Datuin All rights reserved. Published in the United States Chronicle Books, San Francisco.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Datuin, Jireh F. Spirit of noise / Jireh F. Datuin - 1st ed.

Includes bibliographical references. isbn 978-3-63902-888-1 (softcover) 1. Resurgence 2. Lessons 3. The Rise and Fall ml159-3785 2014 780.92 - sn10 20140012692 Printed in the United States of America

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resurgence

Why shoegaze and why now? “Because it’s time to be adventurous again-and it’s time to reclaim the music from the term,” says Nathaniel Cramp, the cheerful, bearded promoter of Sonic Cathedral, both a shoegaze club that travels around the uk, and a record label. “It wasn’t very fair,” says Neil Halstead, formerly Slowdive’s shy teenage frontman, and now the leader of country band Mojave 3. “The live shows were far from fey. They were about the energy of the

experience, about sheer volume, and about taking a quantum leap. It’s was about getting excited, getting stoned, but the same time it was about being geekysomething that wasn’t rock’n’roll in any respect.”

So what went wrong? Indie’s dance revolution harmed shoegazing early on, bands from prosperous Thames Valley towns such as Oxford and Reading being easily mockable, and less exciting, next to their druggy and arrogant Madchester rivals. From 1992, grunge started bovver-booting its presence all over pop culture, its pessimistic lyrics and musical sparseness utterly at odds with shoegaze’s lush, languid optimism. “We had no chance after grunge,” says Gardener.

“We were the opposite of greasy smack-takers from America. We were nice boys-and nice boys on the wrong kinds of drugs.”

But 15 years later shoegaze has become hip again.

Cramp thinks the soundtrack to Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation in late 2003-curated by My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields-speeded its return, and his club’s mission is to contextualize shoegaze in terms of its influences and inspirations. “You’ll just as likely hear Syd Barrett and Ladytron as you will Swervedriver and Moose.”

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At the start of summer 2007 a supple, shimmery thread started darning itself through a long line of euphoric-sounding albums. From Maps to Blonde Redhead, Mahogany to Deerhunter, Asobi Seksu to Ulrich Schnauss, you could hear the heady, woozy influence of a style of music that had been a byword for naffness and overindulgence for the past 15 years; a type of music that Richey Edwards of the Manic Street Preachers had said he “hated more than Hitler”.

Names like nu-gaze, stargaze and shoetronica were used to describe it, names that couldn’t quite hide the scene that dared not speak its name. For shoegaze was back-the sound of jangly indie fed through layers of distortion, overdrive and fuzz; of delicate souls turning themselves up to 11. In Summer 2007, bands, clubs, Mercury prize-nominated albums, films, and novels are all proud to claim it as an inspiration.

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“It’s music I know people in Ride T-shirts (fig. 0.1) with fringes will like-although they’re too old to have fringes now, they’ve receded too much-but also music younger people will find exciting too.” He mentions one of Sonic Cathedral’s latest signings, Kyte, a band of boys in their early 20’s who’d never heard shoegaze records until Cramp played them some, and Manchester’s Working for a Nuclear Free City, who came to shoegaze through the ambient music of Brian Eno. James Chapman, the 28-year-old bedroom musician behind Mercury prize-nominated Maps, likes this idea of putting shoegaze into context. He was only dimly aware of it as a child. “To me, shoegaze is just a stage of psychedelic music. I hear late 1980s dance in the music of that time, but also a lot of the late 60s psychedelic folk scene.” These influences were also flagged up by bands at the time: Shields said that dance music was the inspiration for his band’s biggest album, Loveless, while Gardener and Halstead still love the Byrds, the Doors and the Velvet Underground.

Chapman thinks psychedelic music of either the dance or rock kind is always exciting to experience live. “I want to make music and play music that has the same effect on someone as My Bloody Valentine had on me-making people want to join together and escape themselves.”

Ulrich Schnauss, the 29-year-old dj whose dreamy second album Goodbye came out in June, thinks this escapism is vital to shoegaze’s appeal. He comes from the north German outpost of Kiel, a dull town that he saw as the equivalent of Reading, home to Halstead’s Slowdive. “Too much music these days is about how bad these towns are, about everyday life, and all the dull details. Shoegaze is a way out of that-there’s melancholy in it, but lots of heaven there too.” He thinks people connect with dreamy music more in times of world crisis, and points out how psychedelic music has flourished during the wars in Vietnam and Iraq.

“It’s music that offers a much more profound way of trying to cope with a bad world, isn’t it? Offering hope rather than breaking your guitar and shouting ‘fuck you!’”

Andrew Prinz of New York’s Mahogany, who have played to huge crowds in North and South America, believes the romantic nature of the music has universal appeal too.

“All the imagery on the original records was about love-all nature and kissing, subjects that could be really wet. But with these washes of sound, they become really electrified and erotic-and everyone wants to hear music that’s electrified and erotic.”

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0 . 1 fa n w i t h r i d e t - s h i r t

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First-time novelist James Buckley was braver, calling his book Celebrate Myself, after another mocking nme name for the original shoegazers, The Scene That Celebrates Itself. It tells the story of a self-righteous mba student who’s also into shoegaze music. “The business world and shoegaze both attract intelligent idealists,” he says. “And a lot of those bands were university-based.” He has met a lot of Ride fans in the City, and says he sees plenty of men from the trading floors at the back of gigs.

Still, images like these won’t help change the minds of detractors. It doesn’t help that Alan McGee, the man who signed Ride, My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive to Creation, is its most vehement critic. “Bloody nonsense. My Bloody Valentine were my comedy band. Ride were different-they were a rock band, really, a fantastic rock band-but My Bloody Valentine were a joke, my way of seeing how far I could push hype.” Although he said Shields was a genius in the Guardian in 2004, he now says, unconvincingly, that the revival is just people still buying his lies.

But the fans don’t agree-they see this music as theirs.

“This music is the opposite of hype,” says Schnauss, vehemently. “It’s about genuine emotion. It’s about standing at a gig or walking around with your headphones on and being completely transported.

It’s about that kind of beauty.” Or as Chapman neatly puts it: “It’s all about music that doesn’t stare at its shoes. It stares at the stars.”

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Shoegaze is also spreading beyond the cd racks. Eric Green, a young film-maker from Los Angeles, is in post-production on a documentary about shoegaze and the music that preceded it called Beautiful Noise, in which he interviews fans of the genre, including Trent Reznor, the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne and Billy Corgan. They were willing to talk, he says, because there wasn’t a shoegaze backlash in America; the music was seen as part of an ongoing heritage of experimental rock, which fed into later genres like space-rock and post-rock. “But I decided not to use the word shoegaze in the film in case it upset anyone,” he admits. “And because someone had said to me, ‘The word “mafia” isn’t in The Godfather, you know.’ So I left it out.”

guilt breather autosleeper falling down something more need (somebody) if you want me pearl treasure april

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normality The name was coined in a review in Sounds of a concert by the newly-formed Moose in which singer Russell Yates read lyrics taped to the floor throughout the gig.

The term was picked up by Food Records boss Andy Ross in 1990, co-opted by the nme, who used it as a reference to the tendency of the bands’ guitarists to stare at their feet—or their effects pedals; seemingly deep in concentration, while playing and keeping with the mood of the music. Melody Maker preferred the more staid term “The Scene That Celebrates Itself,” referring to the habit which the bands had of attending gigs of other shoegaze bands, often in Camden, and often moonlighting in each other’s bands: “The shatteringly loud, droning neo-psychedelia the band performed was dubbed shoegazing by the British press because the bandmembers stared at the stage while they performed.”

The term was often considered pejorative, especially by the English weekly music press who considered the movement as ineffectual, and it was disliked by many of the groups, including Miki Berenyi of Lush, it purported to describe,

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“Shoegazing was originally a slag-off term. My partner, the guitarist of Moose, claims that it was originally leveled at his band. Apparently the journalist was referring to the bank of effects pedals he had strewn across the stage that he had to keep staring at in order to operate. And then it just became a generic term for all those bands that had a big, sweeping, effects-laden sound, but all stood resolutely still on stage.”

Ride’s singer Mark Gardener had a different take on the groups’ static presentation: “We didn’t want to use the stage as a platform for ego, like the big bands of the time did, like u2 and Simple Minds.

We presented ourselves as normal people, as a band who wanted their fans to think they could do that too.”

Shoegaze by no means dominated what the passed for the British ‘indie’ scene—after Madchester/Baggy, other ‘scenes’ managed to hold the attention of the nation’s music-buying public.

i.1 mark gardener of ride & miki berenyi of lush

By 1993, the ‘shoegazer’ had become derogatory, the trademark of a spent-out oh-so-brief epoch of Indie Pop history. Indeed, many bands resisted the application of the tag and in some instances it was merely lazy pigeonholing by the music press. The scene itself and some of the bands that were part of it now enjoy cult status and although its heyday was arguably 1992, it could point to origins a full decade before and influence that pervades to this day.

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1 . 2 di no s aur j r.

1.3 sonic youth

The most commonly cited precursors to shoegaze are Cocteau Twins (fig 1.4), The Jesus and Mary Chain (fig 1.5), and My Bloody Valentine. But common musical threads between the different bands include garage rock, ‘60s psych, and American indie bands like Dinosaur Jr. (fig 1.2) and Sonic Youth (fig 1.3).

The first bands to attract the shoegaze label (Slowdive (fig 1.6), Chapterhouse, Ride, Moose (fig 1.7), Lush and Pale Saints) were largely influenced by My Bloody Valentine, and emerged in the wake of their breakthrough in 1988 with the “You Made Me Realise” single and the album Isn’t Anything.

1 . 4 c o c t e au t w i n s

1.5 the jesus and mary chain

1.7 moose

1.6 slowdive

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wall of sound No rock music subgenre is more closely associated with guitar effects usage than shoegaze. By its nature, shoegaze is a hard thing to penetrate. Suffused with swirling, disorienting, blearily processed guitar, pitch bending, delay, and reverb amassing into a perfect sonic storm somewhere near the crossroads of punk rock and psychedelia, the style coalesced out of a cloud of influences in 1980s England. Common musical elements of shoegazing consist of distortion, droning riffs and a “wall of sound” from noisy guitars. Listening to some of these pioneering pedal maestros—such as My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Swervedriver—is like a masterclass in guitar effects implementation. When asked in a bbc interview of the total amount of pedals (fig 1.1) Kevin Shields’ accumulated he responded, “No, I don’t know. A good 300. It’s sort of various types of distortion really. It shouldn’t work but it really works.”

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i.1 pedal boards, kevin shields

Typically, two distorted rhythm guitars are played together to give an amorphous quality to the sound.

Although lead guitar riffs were often present, they were not the central focus of most shoegazing songs.

Vocals are typically subdued in volume and tone, but a strong sense of melody generally exists underneath the layers of guitars. However, lyrics are not emphasized and vocals are often treated as an additional instrument. While the genres which influenced shoegazing often used drum machines, shoegazing more often features live drumming.

For fans of this dense, droning, and often very melodic music, few bands are placed on a higher pedestal than My Bloody Valentine. mbv’s Loveless is widely

acknowledged as the landmark album of the genre, a masterpiece in the canon of rock music that has yet to be equaled, and an essential blueprint and study guide for aspiring sculptors of guitar noise. This album’s outsized influence has rippled throughout the rock landscape since its 1991 release, showing up most obviously in the music of Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, u2, Nine Inch Nails, Mogwai, and Hum, among countless lesser-known bands.

Though mbv’s primary mastermind, Kevin Shields (fig 1.2), has publicly stated, “Ninety percent of what we do is just a guitar straight into an amp,” specific effects are certainly signature components of the band’s sound, and these effects have thus become standard

issue for the noise-happy guitar bands that followed in the band’s wake and a starting foundation for bands to come.

set in stone

Much of the distinctive, warped sounding guitar tones on Loveless are not derived from a pedal at all, but from Shields’ clever and constant whammy bar manipulations. He discussed his technique in a 1992 Guitar World interview, saying, “It’s a Fender Jaguar or Jazzmaster type of tremolo arm that I’ve got taped up so that the base of the arm barely goes into the body. It’s very loose and you can only bend down with it. I just bend subconsciously, really. It’s reached a point where I no longer think of it as an ‘effect.’ It feels weird not to have it in my hand.”

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i . 2 k e v i n s h i e l d s , g u i ta r i s t, m y b l o o d y va l e n t i n e

wall of sound

Alternate tunings are an essential element of the shoegaze sound that is often overlooked by pedalboard-obsessed gear nerds. Kevin Shields has attributed the bulk of mbv’s massive sound to his unique open tunings and ringing unison strings, which, especially when combined with gobs of distortion and volume, can create a lush, chorus-like effect without ever stepping on a pedal.

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1 . 9 c o c t e au t w i n s,

cico buff

mbv’s use of tremolo added a distinctive pulse to their wash of guitar fuzz, and the primary pedal used to generate this effect was the Boss pn-2 Tremolo/Pan. Shields often had two of them on his pedalboard during the Loveless era, with one going to each of his two amps. According to Shields, “Only Shallow,” the opening song on the album, features both his Marshall and Vox amplifiers facing each other, with a microphone in between. A Boss pn-2 runs into each one, with each tremolo pedal set to a different rate. The resulting track was then doubled, fed into a sampler, and reversed, creating an impossibly dense, undulating throb.

The reverse reverb is one of the most recognizable signature effects of Kevin Shields and company. mbv created this effect with either an Alesis Midiverb ii or a Yamaha spx-90, depending on which one was available at the time, but Shields seemed to prefer the spx-90, as he felt its reverse ‘verb setting interacted better with his playing. Both units are fairly common, affordable rack effects processors that were often found in mid-level studios in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. The secret to recreating the mbv reverse reverb sound is to turn the dry guitar signal completely down in the mix, using only the reverb, and use a fast, punk rock-style downstroke strumming technique. Shields has described the resulting sound as a “totally melted sort of liquid sound.”

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wall of sound

Obviously distortion plays a huge role in creating a seething wall of guitar noise. Old standbys like the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff and ProCo rat are widely used for this purpose and do the job nicely, but reportedly, the pedals used on mbv’s classic albums and tours included a Boss hm-2 Heavy Metal, and two Marshall Guv’nor distortions running into a Marshall jcm800 and a Vox ac30 concurrently.

According to Loveless engineer Alan Moulder, a Roger Mayer Octave Fuzz and Active Fuzz were also used, often together for a squashed, heavily gated fuzz tone.

wall of sound

c hap t er t hr ee

keystone

Before diving into the history of Shoegaze, we’d have to acknowledge the important figures of this genre.

When they first emerged in the early 80s, the Cocteau Twins were compared most often to Siouxsie & The Banshees, but in truth they never sounded like anyone-or anything-else. Taken together, their nine albums, and sixteen eps/singles, sound less like a band and more like an element of nature. Which was very 4ad. Ivo Watts-Russell has always claimed that his aim was to unearth music that was timeless, free of any trend, movement or era and even in their earliest incarnation, the Cocteau Twins (fig 3.1) were true to that remit, firmly charting their own course.

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The band’s name was plucked from an old Simple Minds track, but the foundations were laid some time before, when old school friends Robin and Will saw Liz dancing in a disco. In a stroke of precognitive genius, the boys decided that if Liz could dance that well, then she should be able to sing that well, too. Some time later, Robin’s chance meeting with early 4ad signings The Birthday Party resulted in a tape being sent to Ivo, who was thrilled by what he heard, and encouraged them to record more.

Plans for a debut single were shelved, and the stark, mercurial Garlands appeared instead. Describing it as “haunting,” “spellbound,” “diaphanous,” and discerning a “frosting of sweetness,” the critics wore out their adjective; this was rock music, but it was conjured in the unlikeliest environment from the strangest of material.

They stayed a trio, with a drum machine on board, so preserving their tightly knit, private world. In fact, that world was diminished rather than expanded when, after two eps and a European tour, Will Heggie left, leaving Robin and Liz, by then a couple, to carry on as a duo. The pair recorded the Head Over Heels album and the Sunburst And Snowblind ep in 1983.

On these recordings, Liz could be heard forming her own language—recognizable words emerging and

submerging in a maelstrom of her own, coated and drowned in Robin’s swelling and arousing guitar sounds that would later epitomize their style.

p u s h i n g f o rwa r d Bass player Simon Raymonde, formerly of The Drowning Craze, joined the band at the end of 1983.

A trio again, the band recorded The Spangle Maker ep, which included the majestic “Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops,” their first Top 30 hit. With Simon on board, the band developed bottom end, deeper eddies and currents, but an increased lightness of touch, too. They were evolving with each release, with Liz especially pushing herself further and further. Back in the studio, 1984’s Treasure brought more layers of ornateness, opaqueness and stateliness to the band’s sound. This time, Liz’s songtitles were names: not just ‘Lorelei’ and ‘Pandora,’ but ‘Ivo,’ ‘Persephone’ and ‘Aloysius’ too. Liz, in her naivety, never considered that people might put those titles and the album cover (all lace and shadows) together, and came up with the ‘fey Victoriana’ tag that the trio came to hate.

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3 . 1 c o c t e au t w i n s

1983

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head over heels

1983

sunburst and snowblinds

1984

t h e s pang l e m ak e r e p

1984

treasure

1985

aikea-guinea ep

1985

tiny dynamine ep

1985

echoes in a s h a l l o w b ay e p

1988

blue bell knoll

1990

h e av e n a n d l a s v e g a s

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s ta r s a n d t o p s o i l

Despite this sort of misinterpretation, the music continued along its own resolute path, through three eps in 1985: Aikea-Guinea, Tiny Dynamine and Echoes In A Shallow Bay. Each one signalled a move towards an increasingly abstract ‘floating’ sound-a move that culminated in Robin and Liz (minus Simon) recording the largely acoustic, non-percussive Victorialand. The Cocteaus re-emerged 12 months later with Blue Bell Knoll, which was warmer and lusher than ever, but more concentrated and concise, too.

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This progression was even more marked with 1990’s Heaven Or Las Vegas, an audible release of tension and a surge of unfettered love that is many people’s favourite Cocteaus album. Heaven Or Las Vegas was also the last record the Cocteau Twins made for 4ad.

They’d been part of the family for years, helping to define what the press used to call the “4ad sound,” and it’s almost always the way that family members must at some point leave the nest. The die was cast, and they departed for Fontana, releasing two more albums (Four Calendar Café, and Milk And Kisses) before disbanding in 1996. Four years later, the 4ad retrospective Stars And Topsoil served as a reminder of the trio’s uniquely bewitching music.

3.2 liz, will, and robin

4ad records

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In 1979 a brand new record label was launched.

Called Axis records, it was set up by Ivo Watts Russell (fig 3.3) and Peter Kent and released four singles in 1980 before changing its name to 4ad. The label soon finds itself releasing the very first single by Northampton Goth types Bauhaus. Dark Entries, a Bowie influenced racket, does not too bad at all actually, well enough in fact for Beggars Banquet boss Martin Mills to loan the new label £1000 to relaunch as 4ad.

makes sense that the only existing documentary on the label spotlights 23 Envelope, (fig 3.5) 4ad’s in house designer Vaughan Oliver and photographer Nigel Grierson. There’s complementary music and videos (not made by 23e), and Cocteau Twins, Colourbox and 4ad founder Ivo Watts-Russell are also interviewed. Apart from Ivo, everyone seems shy, nervous of the camera and of explaining themselves.

Oliver offers his maxim, from French photographer Robert Doisneau:

Early signings to the label fulfilled the dark atmospheric sound it became famous for. Bands including Rema Rema, In Camera and the aforementioned Bauhaus get the label off to a grand start before Bela Legusi’s Dead storms to the top of the Indie Charts. Australia’s Birthday Party soon jump aboard and the early 80s indie scene swiftly finds itself dominated by the dark skeletal sound of 4ad.

“To suggest is to create; to describe is to destroy.”

The signing of The Cocteau Twins in 1982 and the following releases by the like of Dead Can Dance and 4ad supergroup This Mortal Coil only add to the label’s identity-namely weird haircuts and heavily treated ethereal guitars all over the shop that go on for what seems like forever…as far in fact as the late 80s.

4ad’s artwork is as worshipped as the music, so it

It’s noticeable that neither of the groups appear enamoured with Oliver’s domineering approach, though almost every 4ad artist agrees that, without him, their artwork would have been immeasurably worse.

1985-1989 By 1985 the 4ad label had established itself as one of the leading independent record companies on the planet. With the likes of the Cocteaus, Dead Can Dance and This Mortal Coil the label had become massively influential. The Cocteau Twins were a permanent fixture at the top of the indie charts.

3 . 3 i v o wa t t s - r u s s e l l

3 . 4 4 a d l o g o d e s i g n e d b y o l i v e r va u g h a n

3.2 throwing muses

3.3 pixies

3.4 the breeders

3.5 23envelope

1990-1994 With the success of the Throwing Muses and the Pixies (fig 3.3), the early 90s was a time to rejoice for 4ad Lush had been signed directly after a show they had performed at the Camden Falcon in London, and the heavy guitar onslaught of the new 4ad sound continued. The label had shaken off the ethereal tag that once weighed around its neck and was purposely

looking for the hottest new heavy guitar bands around. The search for a new Pixies became urgent following the release of the band’s fourth and final lp Trompe Le Monde in 1991, as the record became the band’s last. Internal tensions and a massive hatred of constant touring led to the band breaking up in the very same year and two years later, Frank Black would reappear with his debut solo record as would Kim Deal as part of The Breeders (fig 3.4) with one of the greatest singles of the 90s, “Cannonball.”

Other notable new artists emerging from the 4ad stables between 1990 and 94 included Heidi Berry, San Francisco’s Red House Painters and Belly, who had grown around former Throwing Muse Tanya Donnelly. The band’s single Feed The Tree became an enormous hit in both the us and the uk, and the album Star became one of the label’s biggest sellers ever.

The period between 1990 and 1994 found 4ad at the very heart of the alternative music scene both commercially and critically, a place it would struggle to maintain over the following years.

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In 1987, Throwing Muses (fig 3.2), a four piece band from Boston in the usa were signed to the 4ad, beginning one of the most vital phases in the label’s history. Moving outside of the moody and ethereal sound that had become synonymous with the label, the likes of Throwing Muses and the Pixies took 4ad into a whole new direction-college rock. 1988’s Surfer Rosa found 4ad in the position of having on it’s roster the biggest alternative rock band of the time. Oddly enough, soon after jacking in college, The Pixies sent a demo to 4ad head honcho Ivo Watts Russell which was shockingly nearly rejected.

By the close of the decade though, Frank Black and his chums had taken the label to a whole new level.

The greatest fact about this period in 4ad’s history though-Pump Up The Volume by marrs was released on 4ad.

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there is no day blue flower thread of light throwing back the apple baby maker h u n t e d hair shoes ordeal shell

pale saints

in ribbons 1992

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the rise and fall

c hap t er f o ur

the scene When Elizabeth Fraser added her unique vocals to Robin Guthrie’s swirling drone guitar in 1982, they could never have imagined that a full decade later the charts, the indie chart in any case, would be full of acts borrowing directly from a track on their Garlands album. The Cocteau Twins’ style would turn out to be highly influential on a number of bands that were either part of the shoegazing set (Lush, Pale Saints, Moose) or influenced it themselves (My Bloody Valentine). Robin Guthrie pursued a contract with Ivo Watts- Russell’s London-based 4ad purely on the strength of it being the label the Birthday Party was signed to. Ostensibly a duo as the name would suggest, bass duties were initially taken on by Will Heggie, only for him to leave the group before 1983’s Head Over Heels. Simon Raymonde completed the line-up in time for Treasure (1984).

beginnings

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The Thames Valley area of Southeastern England is as unremarkable as any anodyne provincial hinterland.

The cities of Reading and Oxford in the counties of Oxfordshire and Berkshire nestle as urban centres in otherwise sleepy English countryside. However, many of the key protagonists in the shoegazing movement found this as their base when starting out in the music industry, The Face even talked of a ‘Thames Valley scene’. Chapterhouse formed in Reading in 1987 and became early leading lights of the scene after support slots with Spacemen 3, after which the group signed to Dedicated, with their early ‘Free Fall’ and ‘Sunburst’ eps being well received by the press and public alike.

Also that year, The Pale Saints and The Telescopes formed, albeit outside of the Thames Valley. The Pale Saints were formed in Leeds, Yorkshire in 1987 and again attracted critical acclaim for their Barging Into the Presence of God ep. The Telescopes on the other hand hailed from Burton-upon-Trent in the Midlands and quickly put out a track on a shared flexidisc with Loop (who also shared some influences with the scene but were never really part of the milieu). With Stephen Lawrie and Joanne Doran forming the core of the operation (although others would come and go), the band adopted the styles of the Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine for their first album, Taste which was released in 1989.

1988 might now rank in history as the year of Acid House but it also saw the formation of Thames Valley stalwarts Ride (fig. 4.1) and Thousand Yard Stare, as well as Lush and the Boo Radleys in London and Liverpool respectively. The release of My Bloody Valentine’s Isn’t Anything lp heralded the arrival of the shoegazing style that year also, proving there was more to life than the D Mob and ‘We Call It Acieeed!’ A landmark album in its own right, tracks such as ‘Feed Me With Your Kiss’ showed the rest of the world how lush yet tightly formed textural soundscapes could be crafted.

going somewhere Hailing from the cathedral city of Oxford, Ride consisted of Mark Gardener, Andy Bell, Loz Colbert and Steve Queralt, a photogenic quartet of wellscrubbed middle class art students (which could go some way towards explaining the subsequent backlash against the scene). Taking their cue from the wall of sound provided by My Bloody Valentine, Ride were (to quote self-styled indie ‘guru’ Steve Lamacq) like “the House of Love with chainsaws,” hinting at their use of heavy feedback guitar. A series of promising eps (later released as Smile) caught the attention of the press and created a fanbase quite rapidly.

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4.1 ride in concert

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4 . 2 t h e pal e s ai n t s

4.6 swervedriver

4.5 slowdive

4 . 4 m y b l o o d y va l e n t i n e

The Nowhere lp, released in 1990 at the height of ‘Madchester,’ represented a commercial success peaking at 14 in the uk charts and scoring Alan McGee’s Creation label with a second shoegazer hit. According to an interview in the sorely missed Deadline Magazine, Ride were, along with My Bloody Valentine, the “parents” of the shoegazing scene.

Ipswich quartet Bleach formed in 1989 and became the latest addition to the shoegazing set, albeit to a consistently minor extent. Another Thames Valley

Swervedriver (fig. 4.6), formed in 1990, were actually based in London but hailed from Oxford originally so their Thames Valley status is questionable. However, given that it was Ride who brought the band to the attention of Alan McGee they probably had every reason to be thankful. Their tunes had a discernable rockier edge to them than any of their more ethereal or feedback-drenched contemporaries.

53

the scene

The third band referenced in this triumvirate was London’s Lush (only just Southeast) formed around the nucleus of the songwriting partnership of fanzine editor Miki Berenyi and dhss clerical assistant Emma Anderson, the singers’ good looks often providing a distraction from the music in the press. The band brought an ethereal quality to the shoegazing milieu, evidenced on their early recordings following support slots with the likes of Loop and their signing to 4ad (alongside the Pale Saints (fig 4.2), who by now had former Lush member Meriel Barham on the payroll) on the recommendation of Cocteau Twin Robin Guthrie. Bassist Steve Rippon left during the recording of their debut album Spooky, to be replaced

by Phil King, formerly of Felt and Alan McGee’s own shortlived band Biff Bang Pow.

shoegazer act, Slowdive (fig 4.5) also formed that same year in Chapterhouse’s Reading, gravitating around the axis of Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell.

The band signed to Creation Records and began to generate favourable press as part of what was now recognized as the shoegaze movement. The band were quintessential Thames Valley shoegazers but remained outside the triumvirate of My Bloody Valentine (fig. 4.4), Ride and Lush, these bands enjoying critical acclaim whatever the mood of the media. Quite possibly, Slowdive were the first to experience the anti-shoegazer backlash, although this did come later than during this period. However, their cover of Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra’s “Some Velvet Morning” topples Creation labelmates Primal Scream’s recent version.

the scene

54

London’s Revolver however, employed a more melodic sound, although their inclusion in the shoegazing set was definitely suspect and questionable (by that token, Blur were shoegazers) and the band had wider pretentions of being taken seriously as artists in their own right. The strength of the singer Matt Flint’s songwriting on their Hut (a division of Virgin) records was weak and they should be regarded as a lightweight indie pop trio in the same vein as much of the other dross that hung around the indie charts during that era.

Labelmates and fellow Londoners Moose made shoegazing a virtue and themselves media targets as a result, abandoning the style for jangle-pop shortly after. Catherine Wheel (fig. 4.7) formed in the staunchly un-shoegazer Great Yarmouth the same year and quickly revealed themselves as bandwagonjumpers latching on to whatever scene would get them a record deal.

Fronted by Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson’s cousin Rob, the band actually triggered a record label feeding frenzy following an inclusion on indie guru and veteran dj John Peel’s show, but although the likes of Brian Eno’s Opal and Alan McGee’s Creation were clamouring for their signatures, the band elected to

join the recently resuscitated major Fontana.On the strength of their songs during that era (mainly ‘indie lite’ material), it is hard to see why this could be the case.

raise the bar In 1991, Loveless by My Bloody Valentine became the industry standard for shoegazers and provided its zenith in terms of artistic credibility. Beset by problems emanating from periods of lethargy and perfectionism in the studio, the album attracted publicity merely on the strength of the delay of its release, although a decade on the wait appears to have been worth it as it is frequently voted as a ‘classic album’. Adorable were formed in the Midlands city of Coventry that year, when shoegazing had become an indie institution in the likes of the nme and Melody Maker. Fronted by an outspoken singer, they became another Creation shoegazer act in 1992.

Curve’s frontwoman Toni Halliday had originally been discovered by Eurythmic Dave Stewart but she turned her post (brief ) solo career towards the duo she formed with Dean Garcia in London in 1991.

Halliday’s vocal style and nme pin-up status ensured that in addition to a strong songwriting partnership, the group became firm shoegaze favourites.

55

the scene

4 . 7 c at h e r i n e w h e e l

4.8 lush,

sweetness and light

golden era

the scene

58

The period 1992-1993 can be seen as something of a golden age of shoegazing as the bulk of bands’ key offerings were released in this period (many in March 1992 for some reason). The backlash was confined to the music press and sales continued as long as the bands managed to keep their fans (a later lesson for the likes of Ride). Loveless may be shoegaze’s platonic ideal, but it can also be overwhelming to inner ears that aren’t accustomed to that level of sonic vertigo.

Ride’s second album, 1992’s Going Blank Again, hits the sweet spot at the center of pop accessibility, conventional songwriting, and galaxy-sized swathes of noise. In a way, it almost picks up where The Cure’s Disintegration—a large influence on shoegaze—leaves off, steeping pristine jangle in deep pools of echo and melancholy. The disc’s eight-minute opener, “Leave Them All Behind,” is a practically a gateway to shoegaze unto itself; from its tremolo-laden intro to its pterodactyl-cry guitar, the song showcases everything otherworldly and breathtaking about shoegaze. At the same time, the album as a whole hints at the broader palette of textures and influences that Ride was soon to incorporate.

Spooky by Lush had the distinction of being produced

by Cocteau Twin Robin Guthrie, an early champion of the band who had cemented their deal with the 4ad label. As a debut (their previous offering Scar was

actually a mini-lp), the record showed strong promise, vacillating between ethereal melodies and feedbackunderwritten tunes, all raised higher by Guthrie’s sonic overview. Thousand Yard Stare’s Hands On was the Stephen Street (famous for his work with The Smiths) produced effort which demonstrated good intention but suffered immeasurably from idiosyncrasy and inconsistency-some tracks being more irritating jangle-pop whereas others such as the overtly codshoegazer ‘Comeuppance’ suggested the band couldn’t be bothered. Nice guys possibly, but they just didn’t cut it.

re-invent

The Boo Radleys were sometimes referred to as shoegazers by the music press but in most instances the tag was misapplied-save for ‘Lazy Day’ and ‘Does This Hurt’ from their Everything’s Alright Forever album of that year. Ride’s Going Blank Again (fig. 4.8) added even more fans to their already considerable fanbase, representing a more honed approach to songwriting and a more melodic direction than their earlier feedback-fests, with a discernable 1960s guitar pop influence.

59

the scene

4 . 8 r i d e ’s

going blank again

the scene 60

61

the scene

4.9 lush on the cover of

nme

( o c t. 1 9 9 0 )

The Telescopes’ eponymous album was standard shoegazer fare, making the transition from Mary Chain and mbv noise-merchants to a more archetypical Creation band.

The first chinks in the armour were revealed when Revolver, Bleach, Chapterhouse and Thousand Yard Stare split due to the poor reception of their work by a now hostile media, with American labels such as SubPop being flavour of the month in sixth form common rooms and university student unions the land over. That year saw latecomers Adorable release their debut Against Perfection, but the band were by now trying to pass themselves off as a Creation act rather than as shoegazers. Lush’s Split album, the follow up to the year before Spooky, was released to a mixed

63

the scene

Other notable albums of that year were In Ribbons by the Pale Saints, the excellent Doppelganger by Curve, Bleach’s Killing Time, the atrocious Ferment from Catherine Wheel and Baby’s Angry by Revolver, and Moose’s only album to receive any discernable level of coverage xyz. Madchester band The Charlatans followed up their 1990 baggy debut Some Friendly with a downbeat offering, the distinctly shoegazerflavoured ‘difficult second album’ between 10th and 11th, on Beggar’s Banquet offshoot Situation Two.

reception, causing Miki Berenyi to contemplate a new direction for the band. Slowdive’s Souvlaki bore some shoegazer traits but again the emphasis was upon passing themselves off as a serious English indie band, embarking upon a disastrous us tour-the shoegazer project laying in ruins…

event flyers for bands such as swervedriver, cocteau twins, ride, slowdive, the telsecopes, throwing muses and my bloody valentine.

decline

the scene

66

The coining of the term “The Scene That Celebrates Itself ” was in many ways the beginning of the end for the first wave of Shoegaze bands. The bands became perceived by critics as over-privileged, self-indulgent and middle-class. This perception was in sharp contrast with those bands who formed the wave of newly-commercialised grunge music which was making its way across the Atlantic, and those bands who formed the foundation of Britpop, such as Pulp, Oasis, Blur and Suede. Britpop also offered intelligible lyrics, often about the trials and tribulations of working-class life; this was a stark contrast to the “vocals as an instrument” approach of the shoegazers, which often prized the melodic contribution of vocals over their lyrical depth. Lush’s final album was an abrupt shift from shoegazing to Britpop, which alienated many fans; the 1996 suicide of their drummer signaled Lush’s dissolution. Nothing has surfaced from My Bloody Valentine since Loveless, aside from their 2008 reunion tour. Plans for a new album have been confirmed, with frontman Kevin Shields explaining their silence by noting, “I never could be bothered to make another record unless I was really excited by it.”

c hap t er f iv e

celebrate Shoegaze has been in the spotlight for much of the past decade, with bands like Deerhunter and m83 incorporating many of its stylistic elements. And bands like Ride, My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver and Chapterhouse have all embarked on reunion tours in recent years. In the upcoming years we will see more interesting shoegaze activity. With that in mind, and with a loose definition of a boundary free genre at the spirit of this exercise, let’s take a run through the history of shoegaze and pick through a few of the greatest records that were born of piss, vinegar, reverb, and romanticism.

celebrate

74

c o c t e au t w i n s h e a d ov er h eel s 1 9 8 3 Head Over Heels was striking upon a dreamy, hazy, syrupy, otherworldly sound that would grow to become their own. Here, Fraser’s whoops and sighs and Guthrie’s dynamic, non-rock approach to a kind of ambient guitar maximalism proved hugely influential; the Cocteaus’ swirling studio sonics minting a blueprint for shoegazers future.

75

celebrate

the jesus and mary chain psychoc andy 1985 The brash, bratty, nasty-sounding classic-pop crash of the immortal Psychocandy has little in common with much of the wafting, ethereal, dreamscape sound on this list. Except for one key thing: distortion. Lots and lots of distortion. Dragged doo-wop vocals and r&b back-beats through a strident, discordant veil of hellacious noise, it marked one of the great introductions of a singular sound ever.

celebrate

76

ride nowhere 1990 Though Nowhere—whose cover art is one of the most striking, instantly-recognizable single images in recorded music history—has its banks of dewy guitars and moments of wispy, introspective languor, it’s largely a direct rock record, with sharp hooks and nary a mumbled vocal. An album alternately forceful and beautiful, Nowhere was a first statement Ride would never top.

77

celebrate

chap terhouse whirlpool 1991 From its title to its curled-up-cat cover art, the debut lp is an album of circular sound: repeating guitar patterns turning pirouettes of whitewashed noise. With three guitars and banks of effects pedals, Chapterhouse created a guitar sound that felt spinning; their dosed-up set-up sending strums into eternal circles of trailing feedback and delay. The band then applied this dizzying sound to four-minute pop-songs, delivered with the genre’s requisite fey mumbles and unintelligible incantations. On its release, Whirlpool found a lukewarm reception; the band themselves were, after all, generally maligned.

But years have been kind to Chapterhouse: 20+ years on, this sounds like classic, vintage shoegaze.

celebrate

78

m y b l o o d y va l e n t i n e l o v e l e s s 1 9 9 1 Shoegaze’s undoubted magnum opus is Loveless, an lp whose renown, mythical reputation, and sphere of influence grows perennially. The second record for My Bloody Valentine is singular and strink, its massive clouds of otherworldly ‘fluff on the needle’ whitenoise creating a sound both ethereal and intimate.

With nary a note out of place, it flirts with perfection.

79

celebrate

pal e s ai n t s i n ri b b o n s 1 9 9 2 The second record for the Leeds-born band was their first since adopting original Lush vocalist Meriel Barham into the fold, and across its sweet songs she and Masters swoon and croon through kissing fogs of Graeme Naysmith’s blanketing guitar, which is treated with an array of cottony, cloudy, foggy whitenoise effects. It’s a brilliant, beautiful record that, in hindsight, seems strangely underappreciated.

celebrate

80

lush spooky 1992 Lush were a London outfit built around the chiming, dewy guitars and dueling angelic voices of Emma Anderson and Miki Berenyi. The pair were no shoegaze wallflowers either; possessed with pop smarts and pure pipes, they delivered a debut disc of heady, dizzying beauty. Produced by Robin Guthrie, the debt to Cocteau Twins was enormous, but it didn’t dent the quality of Spooky one iota. By their third album, 1996’s Lovelife, Lush had unfortunately morphed into a cheeky, kooky, retro-toned Brit-pop band, which, in hindsight, tarnished a little of luster off their first longplayer. But listening to Spooky, years removed, sounds like traveling back in time, to the heart of the shoegaze revolution.

81

celebrate

verve verve ep 1992 Known simply, at the start, as Verve (before legal threats from the jazz label required a ‘The’), the quintet played slowed-down, spaced-out psychedelia built on layers of trailing, silvery guitar. It keeps closer to the narcotic gospel of Spiritualized than the white-noise bluster of My Bloody Valentine, but there’s a shoegazer spirit in their strung-out jams.

The 11-minute closer “Feel,” in particular, trails out in a miasma of washed-out effects piled up to lysergic highs. Here, the drugs do work.

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82

l ily s in t he presen ce of n ot hin g 1992 Shoegaze was a strictly regional thing at first, but its influence swiftly spread and the genre had its first worthy American chapter. Lilys play a kind of scrappy indie-pop informed by drugged-out 1960s psychedelia, yet blasted with the white-noise effects of shoegaze. “Elizabeth Colour Wheel� sounds like seven-minutes of languid jangle taken to with a beltsander, for example. The lp is undoubtedly a minor landmark and a required listening for any shoegaze obsessive.

83

celebrate

slowdive souvl aki 1993 Slowdive’s second record, Souvlaki, has been heralded as their masterwork. Boasting a pair of Brian Eno collaborations and an intensely-cinematic sound, they plunge into a kind of woozy, headspinning dreamworld that threatens to engulf the listener. Two decades on, you wonder how anyone ever heard it as anything less than majestic.

bibl io g raphy

All the information in this book was acquired through the web-a great platform due to its easy access. Though many websites include mass amounts of information, there is the inevitable presence of misinformation. This bibliography is organized by chapter with their corresponding sources.

resurgence Rogers, Jude. “Diamond Gazers.” The Guardian. N.p., 26 July 2007. Web. 29 Sept. 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/jul/27/popandrock>. page 4-5 Cocteau Twins “Iceblink Luck” music video

bibliography

88

page 17 Lush “Sweetness and Light” music video

chapter one: normality Heller, Jason. “Where to Start with the Enigmatic Music Known as Shoegaze.” A.V. Club. N.p., 13 Sept. 2013.

Web. 26 Sept. 2014. <http://www.avclub.com/article/where-to-start-with-the-enigmatic-music-knownas-s-84889>.

Stevens, Andrew. “leave them all behind-‘shoegazing’ and british indie music in the 1990s.” 3am Magazine. N.p., 2003. Web. 24 Sept. 2014. <http://www.3ammagazine.com/musicarchives/2003/jan/ shoegazing.html>. page 14-15 Cocteau Twins “Iceblink Luck” music video

chapter two: wall of sound Heller, Jason. “Where to Start with the Enigmatic Music Known as Shoegaze.” A.V. Club. N.p., 13 Sept. 2013.

Web. 26 Sept. 2014. <http://www.avclub.com/article/where-to-start-with-the-enigmatic-music-knownas-s-84889>.

Wolfert, Jamie. “Essential Effects for Shoegaze.” Tone Report. N.p., 28 July 2014. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. <http:// tonereport.com/blogs/tone-tips/essential-effects-for-shoegaze>.

chapter three: keystone 4ad. “Cocteau Twins.” 4ad. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2014. <http://4ad.com/artists/cocteautwins>.

Collins, Andrew. “Andrew Collins’ Guide to 4ad.” bbc news. bbc n.d. Web. 01 Oct. 2014. <http://www.bbc. co.uk/6music/events/1980/guide.shtml>. page 36-37 marrs “Pump Up the Volume” music video page 42-43 The Breeders “Cannonball” music video

chapter four: the scene

page 50-51 “Pale Saints Half-Life Rememberd Live, Brixton 1991” video page 56-57 Lush “Sweetness and Light” music video page 60-61 “Ride Live @ Brixton Academy, London-27th March 1992” video page 68-71 Catherine Wheel “I Want to Touch You” music video

chapter five: celebrate Carew, Anthony. “The 10 Best Shoegaze Albums Ever Made.” About. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. <http:// altmusic.about.com/od/top10lists/tp/Shoegaze-Albums. page 72-73 Lush “Sweetness and Light” music video page 84-87 “Lush - Providence, RI 03-22-1992 (full show)”

bibliography

Stevens, Andrew. “leave them all behind-‘shoegazing’ and british indie music in the 1990s.” 3am Magazine. N.p., 2003. Web. 24 Sept. 2014. <http://www.3ammagazine.com/musicarchives/2003/jan/ shoegazing.html>.

89

index

#

4AD 28, 32, 34, 38-41, 54 23Envelope Oliver Vaughan 38 Ivo Watts-Russell 28, 32, 38, 40 Peter Kent 38 90

a

index

Adorable 54, 63

b

baggy 16, 62 Bleach 52, 62 Brian Eno 8, 54, 83 britpop 66

c

Camden 15, 41 Catherine Wheel 54, 63 Chapterhouse 12, 18, 48, 53, 63, 73, 77 Cocteau Twins 18-19, 26, 29-35, 38, 53, 58, 64, 72, 80 Coventry 54 Creation Records 11, 53-54, 63

d

Dinosaur Jr. 18

e

Eric Green 16 ethereal 38, 41, 53, 58, 75, 78

g

grunge 7, 66 guitar effects alternate tunings 23 distortion 7, 21, 23, 27, 29, 75 pedal 15-16, 21-23, 27, 77 reverse reverb 27 tremolo 27, 58

i

indie 7, 16, 18, 38, 48, 54, 61, 82 Ipswich 53

l

Leeds 48, 79 Lilys 82 London 41, 47-48, 53-54, 80 Loop 48, 53 Lost in Translation 7

Lush 16-18, 48, 53, 56, 58, 63, 68, 79, 80 Miki Berenyi 16, 53, 63, 80 Spooky 53, 58, 80

m

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Madchesterâ&#x20AC;? 7, 16, 53, 63 Manchester 8 Maps 7-8 MARRS 41 Melody Maker 15, 54, Meriel Barham 53, 79 Moose 7, 15-16, 18-19, 47, 54, 63 Russell Yates 15 My Bloody Valentine 7-8, 11, 18, 21-23, 47-48, 53-54, 64, 68, 78, 81 MBV 22-23, 27 Kevin Shields 7, 21-23, 27, 66

n

Neil Halstead 7, 53 NME 11, 15, 32, 54, 62 nu-gaze 7

o

Oxford 7, 48, 53

p Pale Saints 18, 44, 47-48, 52-53, 63, 74 Pixies 40-41 psychedelia 15, 21, 81-82

The Telescopes 48, 63-64 Thousand Yard Stare 49, 58, 63 Throwing Muses 40-41, 64

v

Verve 81

r

s

Slowdive 7-8,11, 19, 52-53, 63-64, 83 Sonic Cathedral 7-8 Nathaniel Cramp 8 Sonic Youth 18 Swervedriver 7, 21, 52-53, 64, 73

t

Thames Valley 7, 48-49, 53 The Boo Radleys 54, 69 The Jesus and Mary Chain 19, 48, 63-64, 75

91

index

Reading 7-8, 48, 53, reunion 66, 71 Revolver 54, 63 Ride 8-9, 11, 16, 18, 21, 48-49, 53, 58-59, 73, 75-76

col ophon

ADOBE CASLON was designed by Carol Twombly, based on the pages of William Caslon in 1722. It was used on the Declaration of Independance and was revived during the British Arts and Crafts Movements of 1840s and 1880s.

BODONI is a transitional typeface originally designed by Giambattisa Bodoni in 1798. The unbracketed serifs and even geometric styling has made this a popular font for title fonts and logos.

designed by published by

Jireh F. Datuin Chronicle Books, San Francisco