slowdive into the weekend

Share

Back when I was in college and I needed a nice midday nap, I'd pull the shades and pop Slowdive's Just For A Day into the ol' CD player. The swirling guitars and ethereal vocals were my rainforest sound machine, closing out the world and carrying me away to blissful sleep. Who knew that nearly 20 years later my dorm room lullaby would be hailed as a shoegaze classic.

Slowdive — and shoegaze for that matter — wasn't around for long. Just For A Day got its US release in '92, and Souvlaki followed in '94.

By the time Pygmalion was released in '95, Neil Halstead was walking away from the shoegaze sound and the British press had moved on to Britpop.


At the time, Slowdive were considered pale imitators of My Bloody Valentine and the whole scene was viewed with derision. Now that shoegaze has regained some favor, history is kinder to the likes of Lush and Ride, and Slowdive are given the respect they deserve as a definitive example of the genre.

Check out this live clip from '91, at the height of the scene, complete with a shoegaze makeout session:




And here's a perfect way to sum it all up. A fan-made video for "Souvlaki Space Station" created with images from the Hubble Telescope site:





Happy Friday...