by version sound » Fri May 14, 2021 4:05 pm
There is a distinction to be made between what one band does and how other bands imitate it. People have been calling the Velvet Underground and The Stooges The Godfathers of punk for decades, but they were NOT punk bands. The same is true for MBV. They did something (along with many other bands, like the JAMC, Cocteau Twins, the Birthday Party, AR Kane, and Sonic Youth to name a few) that was very influential on subsequent generations of bands. The British music press invented a subgenre to sell papers. MBV were no more part of that scene than Spacemen 3 or Cocteau Twins (who were more traditionally “shoegazey” and did it before MBV). As Kevin pointed out, just putting a shit ton of effects on guitars has never really been what they were about. Listen to the first wave shoegaze bands. While MBV was a clear influence, they definitely weren’t the only influence, and what those bands were doing only vaguely sounded like an actual MBV record. Later, people did more accurate rip-offs, but those bands are pretty uninteresting, IMO. If I want to hear MBV, I listen to MBV, not a band that came 20 years later and used the internet to figure out exactly what effects they were using, then just straight ripped them off.
“Go fuck a football”
- vinylgirl