Longwave - The Strangest Things
RCA-2003

I'm horrible at these things, but here goes. The moment I heard these guys, it clicked. There it is...Basslines, drums and with washed out ebows.. Lots and lots of color and layers, with melody. These guys are sometimes referred to as shoegaze which actually sorta meant something worthwhile back in 2003. I'm reminded of Autolux's Future Perfect as well, meaning this is around the time this genre started to kinda wake up again. I should say, these guys don't sound like Autolux though. That's for another day. Anyway, this album is on RCA and that sorta makes sense. There isn't anything too challenging or deep about this record, and its pretty accessible. That might turn some people off, but to me I don't mind that at all sometimes. I gave this lp to a buddy of mine for xmas about 6 years ago and i've missed it dearly, so I've had to buy it again. Funny thing about it as I'm pretty sure it was never pressed for sale. I originally got my copy free with a purchase of the cd. This was 2003 when that shit happened. Never would today. Anyway, enjoy.

A few highlights-

Wake me when its over-




Everywhere you turn-




Exit-

@Boombat, I remember this band getting a ton of praise by the Big Takeover when they just had a few small time indie releases out. I was later surprised to see them get signed to a major and the whole thing with a big name producer. Never got into them though. I saw them open for Swervedriver in 2007 or 2008 and thought they were horrible. Not trying to be a dick, but they were just bad. The singer kept doing this high warbly thing to accent certain words and the gimmick wore off really fast. Overall they just came off as forced. I'm sure some people in the crowd were into their thing, but I didn't like them at all.

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LionsMouth
@Boombat, I remember this band getting a ton of praise by the Big Takeover when they just had a few small time indie releases out. I was later surprised to see them get signed to a major and the whole thing with a big name producer. Never got into them though. I saw them open for Swervedriver in 2007 or 2008 and thought they were horrible. Not trying to be a dick, but they were just bad. The singer kept doing this high warbly thing to accent certain words and the gimmick wore off really fast. Overall they just came off as forced. I'm sure some people in the crowd were into their thing, but I didn't like them at all.

I suspect it's not a concern, but don't worry about coming off as a dick, that kinda response does not bother me for a single second. I'm the last person to get bent out of shape about that kind of shit. Now that that's out of the way, that sucks. I will say I did not like anything they did after this album. Just couldn't get into it. I suspect that tour included a lot of their last 2 albums which came out in 2005/2008. I did see them live in 2003 and they were good. Not amazing, but not bad. It sounds like the singer picked up some bad habits since I had seen them. They pretty much disappeared after you saw them and I can't say I was too surprised based on where they were going... Glad they put out this album though.

@Boombat, yeah, I'm sure they played whatever was recent material at the time, just like most bands. Maybe I just caught them on a really bad night as well. I should probably go back and check out their first two records at some point. I tend to be a sucker for guitar atmospherics even when I'm not 100% in love with the singer's voice. I mean, look at the first two Smashing Pumpkins records. I love those albums but I would never say Corgan is a great singer or my favorite type of singer or anything like that...

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LionsMouth
@Boombat, yeah, I'm sure they played whatever was recent material at the time, just like most bands. Maybe I just caught them on a really bad night as well. I should probably go back and check out their first two records at some point. I tend to be a sucker for guitar atmospherics even when I'm not 100% in love with the singer's voice. I mean, look at the first two Smashing Pumpkins records. I love those albums but I would never say Corgan is a great singer or my favorite type of singer or anything like that...

Perfect example, very much not a S.P. fan, but those first 2 albums are a bit special.