Song(s) of the Day # 2,345 Gold Cage

In the early 1990's a group of young bands emerged, in London and the South East of England mostly, who made some waves in Indie circles and were grouped together, not innacurately by the British music press as a scene. Namely as The Scene That Celebrates Itself  or more often as Shoegazers, because of their tendency to do just that from behind floppy fringes in ill lit venues on the British indie circuit. Partly because they were quite shy for the most part, but also because they needed to gaze at their shoes at their effects pedals which sourced their guitar drenched, atmospheric reverb and waft it across the dank clubs they invariably played in.

Very few of the bands made any kind of real commercial or critical breakthrough at the time. My Bloody Valentine and Ride were probably the two that did. The rest; Slowdive, Chapterhouse, Moose, Lush, and others, were actually rather reviled at the time for the most part. As effete, characterless drips who couldn't for the life of them fight their way out of a paper bag. Almost thirty years on, it seems, The Scene That Celebrates Itself  has well and truly had the last laugh.

Take LA trio's debut album, Social Crutch, released a couple of months back, as they latest evidence of this. They take all the introspective qualities of this genre and recreate it to an incredibly accurate and impressive degree. It's a record that's a reminder that there will always be a generation experiencing these glorious, self-indulgent and immersed years between 15 and 19 and that the experience doesn't change much, despite the passing of the years and even decades, and this stuff will always continue to appeal.

Shoegaze has continued to endure as a sound and sensibility, by contrast with Goth or Rockabilly for exmaple, which few would have anticipated at the time. The reasons for this probably go beyond the sound itself but that is surely at the heart of the appeal of this kind of spell to so many young bands, particularly American ones. Add early Cure and Spiritualised to the list I made earlier, even Coldplay's Yellow, which pops up on a couple of occasions,  and you've made your way to the heart of what Gold Cage do on Social Crutch. This isn't a groundbreaking record by any means, but it is a loving and skillfully rendered one.