This I think was organized by Cory. He put together this event. It was at Chop Shop. I can't recall the name of the event. The pictures I have here are from various other events, but the bands I go on about here I saw in one night. The reason why the pics are from other nights is because I could not find the right memory card. Well I did find it eventually but I just did not want to change pics. Stargazer Lilies! Yeah, and I do have two of theirs, yeah Door To The Sun. Spacey and intense and mysterious and even kind of creepy and haunting. I had to let this one take it slow. Its possible I bought this one on blind faith after We Are The Dreamers.
I remember now, they played. Both of these LP's took some time to find a place. For a while Dreamers had me with just one song. Now more of that CD is impacting with each track, and so is Door. That one's kicking ass all over the fucking solar system. Each song floats in space under its own engine. They don't take traction in obvious ways. They rarely seem to go faster than a gentle, if weird and jagged glide. Stargazer Lilies are not for everyone. They are dreamy, space-psychedelic, shoegaze. This is for the pre-inclined. Kim Field's voice is a hypnotic whisper. It holds you. This is shoegaze .....not if you're new, in fact go to the fucking couch, they rolling blunts over there. Stargazer Lilies are for shoegaze fans that are way far gone into their addiction. If you are a goth and you go see them, leave your industrial friend at home. For goths....this is where a lot of our happy music goes to chill, the trippy psyche end of it. I know I saw them with The Casket Girls first and then with Pale Dian. And during the course of those tours I got the two LP's. Door and Dreamers are the best! True, deep appreciation came with time and I'm glad I saw them when I did. 
Summer's Gone feels almost acoustic as it is distant from the very thing it is named for, summer. Bananarama did this song Cruel Summer. And it becomes this summer 80's iconic song. Your whole summer could have been one long shitty hell, you put this track on and somehow you become instantly nostalgic for it.....Hmm, anyway somehow I thought that thread was going somewhere.....I don't fucking know. I'd rather have lyrics for me to read and be fucking sure, .....I'm back on Lilies...but I do feel that longing from Summer's Gone. And that lone guitar, every instrument feels like its by itself, and Kim's voice each seem to have her own fucking green room with you. They have a new LP to release, called Lost and I look forward to listening and seeing more of Stargazer Lilies. I did not begin with the intention of writing about them at all. While thinking of the other subjects of this post the Lilies just came up and wow, do they.
The Pandas have a new LP Infinity Maps they play from. I was able to take it home...heard it on the way. Finally I got this! I still like CDs. This is their third. They've been playing from it for a while. I can't recall since when. They would play these new tracks and I just assumed these were tracks I skipped somehow. Now....I got memories to imprint here. Helios is the first with that red hot branding iron. The pace is confident, heavier but not sluggish. Ghosting is one of them songs I cannot recall when I first started hearing it. This is what they are playing live from now on. This is what goths listen when they are happy, giddy like a bunch of Peanuts kids dancing with fucking Snoopy. And I can close my eyes and isolate an instrument and know who it is playing it. I am happy to finally have bought it. These are all test driven live. The first with the rhythm of innocence and experience. Its the third album, so for me there is the experience. And there is the sense of wonder I found in their first album. And no matter what lyrics she says....you are just lulled into this sense of optimism, forward striding optimism. So anything for now that I say about any one track will be the same. Gold Lines is nice to have so late in the middle of the CD. Perhaps because its placed near the end, Otherside has for me this residue of a classic romantic cult movie ending. Like something way fucking cool like 24 Hour Party People/Trainspotting cool only with a happy romantic ending.......I don't fucking know, work it out in your own fucking heads. A happily ever after ending that leaves you feeling cool because even you can believe it. Each track will find its own way to make itself part of your regular music soundtrack. Damn, this whole thing started on the pretext of seeing them at this festival. And I think I know where they filmed Arrows! They have a video for it. Them stoners from Ghost Adventures were there! No...not in the Panda video. They got their own.....And Rebecca is just strolling around.
I got a lot of significant memories woven into the first two albums. A short sentence between the two but a long road between them as well. She Dares All Things and Northern Automatic Music. This loosely woven shoegaze thing would be far more remote from me without knowing them locally. Without them locally, this shoegaze genre is more distant from me. They kind of held it down because they played a lot, and they introduced me to a lot. On top of me liking the band, they were close and accessible, and they made everything around them feel closer. I can stack the bands I know from them. Not just shoegaze. There's a lot you can remember if you can recall what music you listened to at the time.
There were a lot of fucking bands. I was also finally able to take home from Lightfoils Hierarchy. Before I just had their remix LP. This whole time seeing them and barely now do I actually have it to hear in the car on the way back. The familiarity I have with the music is entering a new phase. I'm not just relying on memory....and Youtube videos. Goths like to dance to the very music that is provoking them to think, to wonder. And we are ok with putting all that music in one fucking night. We can dance relatively slowly if we want. Industrial makes us move to damn fast. Lightfoils has that perfect pace for older goths that like to dance with their fucking hands twisting all over the place, like in the 90's goth clubs. Dancing is not frivolous for me and its a way of saying this music keeps your attention.
Taking home Diastolic is awesome. Jane's voice is clear yet what she says I cannot even make out. Yet her voice is persuasive. Mock Sun, the ending lyrics" Rest in peace lover of the brightest star " give me chills. Perfect for dancing introverts. The lyrics on the CD case were just as mysterious and minimal. Its strange to feel so familiar to this track live, I feel new to it again. Its cool to have the tangible CD to listen on the way home. Jane's voice is dreamy, angelic and feminine, otherworldly but not too distant. Cory on bass, Zeeshan on guitar, Neil on guitar, John on drums. Its the shoegaze that makes you move, it makes you dance. And for me that is not frivolous. I love hearing this shit on Philly's Shimmer. I may have mentioned just one track but really I'm into the whole thing and I'm still into the debut remix LP. This here is another shoegaze band that let me feel cool with them. They felt close, so everything around them felt close and easier to relate to. I know they got fans all the way in Peru. Its interesting to know where a band has a fan base. Where will they be instantly recognized in the street. The guys from Lightfoils I see often at other shows supporting fellow bands, or at Philly's Shimmer....and I think that is really cool, running into them at random times. It was nice to hear them sing in spanish. Altocamet is from Argentina. They are both chill and soothing with the clear male voice, and live and wired with the drums and bass. Nothing gets drowned out and I find myself listening and understanding...kind of. The voice at first is like Morrissey, only not....sad sounding. Jose from the Pandas and I were able to speak to them in spanish. After buying the merch that I did I had nothing left. All my research on them was done after meeting them. And I like what I hear and I'm glad they played. I'll put this one out now....its been sitting for too long.
Zig
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