Film School: Shoegaze me in to the new year
Maybe it’s just me, but dark indie pop or shoegazer guitar fuzz sounding music isn’t as depressing as some might say. Perhaps it’s my four years of studying philosophy and determining that existentialism, while depressing to some, is quite enlightening to others. It’s the dark sensibilities and the reality of life that come together for me on certain shoegazer albums and Film School have achieved this quite handedly I may add.
Why I’m just learning about Film School, I don’t know. Perhaps it’s because I don’t read blogs like Bradley’s Almanac enough during the day.
They came out with their sophomore album back in September of this year and hail from San Francisco. According to Brad, it would seem that this band should have either faded away after their first album or shouldn’t have followed up with such an impressive showing. Their gear was stolen in 2006 and went through a major line-up change (3 out of 5 members replaced). Two events that would cause nightmares for any startup band and a second to think about not only their bands direction but their own direction as well.
The first two songs on Hideout, “Lectric” and “Two Kinds“, set the tone for the guitar fuzz heavy and droned out synth sound that the entire album exhumes. I noticed in particular that the synths seemed to be set on Horns as they barrel through some sections of each song.
The third track, “Dear Me“, is a guitar heavy song that includes a strong build up to the chorus.
“Oh, never ending thoughts of you. Time can make it seem alright. why can’t I get you out of view. I follow you now. I follow you.“
A majority of the songs follow a pretty typical shoegazer anthem - a wild and crazy girl or guy gets lodged in to the consciousness of the ever so dramatic indie artist and he/she tries and tries to get them out of their head but every attempt lulls them further in to depression.
On a few occasions, when the vocalist is going with a drone approach, there are comparisons to The Magentic Fields’ Stephen Merritt. Especially at the beginning of “Sick Hipster Nursed by Suicide Girl”. I Googled Film School and Stephen Merritt to see if there were any influences mentioned by the band before but just came up with a bunch of searches that talk about Stephen’s alma mater, NYU film school.
But it’s clear their influences come from such indie shoegazer icons like The Magnetic Fields and My Bloody Valentine.
While I make all these references to shoegazer, I do it only to relate their sound to other bands you’re probably familiar with. However, in big scribble on my notepad I say, “i bet this is a great live show!” In other words, I wouldn’t expect a whole lot of gazing at shoes going on. And according to their myspace page, they don’t want you staring down either as they describe their shows as “loud and dynamic and energetic (no staring at shoes).“
I highly recommend you pick up Hideout today. As for their debut release, I’ve only heard great things about it but have yet to personally hear it for myself. So why don’t you pick it up and tell me what you think.
Happy New Year people.
Download: “Lectric”
Download more MP3’s over at Bradley’s Almanac, including all songs from their live set here in Cambridge, MA back in October (HERE)
Purchase Hideout: Beggars Group (HERE); Amazon (US)
Visit Film School on Myspace (HERE)
Visit their official website (HERE)
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