I would definitely file it under shoegaze. I suppose my entry into The Boo Radleys was Giant Steps, which I wouldn’t call 100% shoegaze, but a combination of that, and dub, and Beatles and psychedelia. And after that they became a bit more straight laced BritPop. But the earlier stuff is certainly more shoegaze. I think they get overlooked in those discussions since they experimented with different sounds through their career. One of my favourite bands, perhaps.
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These guys are so fucking good it’s ridiculous
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I keep forgetting the hidden gems
Some lovely stuff in this thread!
No mention of School of Seven Bells here yet, so here’s my suggestion:
A more modern take on the shoegaze/dreampop thing (actually, maybe not so modern now - it was over 10 years ago!). Worth exploring all of their albums - nice mix of electronics and guitars. They were fantastic live as well, such a sad ending to the band.
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Ahhhhh YES School of Seven Bells!!!
Saw them right before it ended 
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A lot of people will rightly suggest Slowdive which if you’re looking for a synthier version of, then the Blue Skied An’ Clear compilation on Morr Music is pretty essential…
Yeah, I always thought the comparisons between the two were pretty superficial. Female fronted rock bands with some synths… but Curve had broke up (the first time) before Garbage had even released their first song. Plus, Curve were your usual indie band whereas Garbage well already well established in the industry with Butch being involved with Nirvana and Shirley being in Goodbye Mr Mackenzie. But, I totally remember when I first heard Curve on a free tape on NME (or Melody Maker) and it was Turkey Crossing - Cuckoo went on to be the soundtrack to my last year of secondary school along with Underworld’s Dubnobass… ahhh good times!!
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This not well known band was probably the pinnacle of shoegaze psychedelia.
This recording doesn’t really do it justice, but until Robbie Dwyer posts cassette recordings this is all we got.
I love these threads which are like archaeologists trying to piece together my former CD collection
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Swervedriver.
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My observation was merely pointing out how Curve-sounding Garbage is.
I don’t think however the comparison is superficial. Garbage’s vocals, rhythms and production are pretty much identical to that of Curve’s.
But as we’ve seen from this thread, influencing and ripping off are sometimes almost impossible to determine.
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Glad someone mentioned Bardo Pond.
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Guess there’s some overlap!
Just found an old interview (1993-4) posted on a Curve fan site. This part is interesting:
"Do Curve surround themselves with a trustworthy gang?
There’s Alan (Moulder), Flood and Steve Osborne. That’s our team, and we work with them all the time. On the next album we might want to work with Butch Vig. The only reason we thought of him was because Alan worked with him on the Smashing Pumpkins album and Alan said he’s absolutely fantastic – he’s exactly like us. He wants to work with techno bands – he’s just talking about rock bands that use Akai. By the way, he doesn’t know this. We’ve just decided."
http://curve-online.co.uk/faq/17.php
- What do Curve think of Garbage?
“…the only reasons they get comparisons to us is because they’re modern. And we’re modern. We don’t sound retro. We never sounded retro and neither do Garbage.”
(Dean Garcia : New Musical Express interview, September 1996)“We can see bits of Garbage in what we’ve done, just like we see bits of Sonic Youth or the Valentines or really any band that was doing something supposedly outside the norm. In a way it’s very flattering to be tied in with Butch Vig, not just because he’s a brilliant human being but because he’s a brilliant producer and he’s worked on some of our favourite records. But eventually Garbage are a pop band and Curve were never a pop band.”
(Toni Halliday : Volume interview, December 1996)“In comparison to what we were doing before, we were a totally hardcore, underground band from day one and Garbage were never that, ever. To me, they’re a bunch of quite clever producers who’ve managed to create this sound that’s acceptable to the masses.”
(Toni Halliday : Pavement interview, 1998)“We liked some of the first album and a few from the second, but that’s it… Butch has made some brilliant albums… Garbage, what can we say, could do better.”
(Curve : September 2002)
I’m sure Vig was influenced by Moulder.
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Yeah, for sure the whole world how different bands influence each other is murky and hard to define. I don’t think either is fundamentally better or worse - rather a case of what someone might prefer. I didn’t mean superficial in a pejorative way - just that I think the two bands vary quite a bit especially when you consider how ‘pop’ Garbage are at times and how polished they are - when Curve could be quite the opposite at times - no value judgemend in that. But then, I guess it depends on frame of reference… they’re defnitely more similar to each other than either is to Half Man Half Biscuit.
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Kitchens of Distinction is probably the most influential band for what we do, as they do seem to carry a bit of The Chameleons and Echo & the Bunnymen in their DNA but all the while taking effects pedals to dizzying heights.
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One of my all time favourites.
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Broken Dog
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In a shoegaze thread, there’s bound to be 
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…a place to bury strangers was pretty much the very last live gig of a truu guitar band i ever saw…
and one of them is also a fx pedal developer and runs the brand “death by audio”…
they’re famous for their very special and cranked up dirty approach…
stuff like this for example…
much to shoegaze here for real…
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Yeah they were FANTASTIC, especially live.
I’m not sure I ever heard guitars sound so good
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