A lot of people like shoegaze.  Even this lady.

The Jesus and Mary Chain – Psycho Candy – Something’s Wrong – 1985 (Scotland)

In fact, she has my favorite shoegaze album of all time in her super awesome hands.  I imagine this lady is super awesome.  The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psycho Candy is such an awesome shoegaze album because it was before shoegaze.  It wasn’t trying to be shoegaze.  It was proto-shoegaze like The Velvet Underground’s All Tomorrow’s Parties and Ocean was proto-shoegaze.  Unlike later shoegaze–the stuff after My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless–The Jesus and Mary Chain didn’t forget to not be boring and one dimensional.  You might be saying, well, isn’t shoegaze supposed to be like a wash of sound, like an ocean drone of fuzziness that feels good under an overcast and the influence?  Yes, that’s true, but it’s no excuse not to be interesting and dynamic.  Now I will cease to write the word shoegaze for the rest of the post.

Loop – Heaven’s End – Straight To Your Heart – 1987 (England)

Spacemen 3 – Transparent Radiation – Starship – 1987 (England)

Sonic Boom – Spectrum – Help Me Please – 1990 (England)

My Bloody Valentine – Loveless – To Here Knows When – 1991 (Ireland)

Lilys – In The Presence of Nothing – Elizabeth Colour Wheel – 1992 (United States)

Spectrum – Soul Kiss (Glide Devine) – How You Satisfy Me – 1992 (England)

Flying Saucer Attack – Flying Saucer Attack – My Dreaming Hill – 1993 (England)

The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Methodrone – She’s Gone – 1995 (United States)

Bowery Electric – Monsters, Robots and Bug Men (Disc 1) – Slow Thrills – 1996 (United States)

Bardo Pond – Lapsed – Pick My Brain – 1997 (United States)

Glifted – Under and In – Is There Any Always – 2002 (United States, Champaign, IL!)

Skywave – Synthstatic – Angela’s an Angel – 2003 (United States)

Deerhunter – Microcastle – Neither of Us, Uncertainly – 2008 (United States)

The Cult of Dom Keller – The Cult of Dom Keller – The Goat Skin Dream – 2009 (United States)

Chelsea Wolfe – The Grime and the Glow – Moses – 2010 (United States)

Ekin Fil – Language – Waves Roar – 2012 (Turkey, Istanbul)

Motes – Feel the Summer’s Heat EP – Glimmer – 2012 (United States, Urbana, IL!)