Shoegaze | Rock That Font

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Tender New Signs is the welcome follow-up record to Tamaryn’s 2010 release, The Waves. Using most of the 80’s Creation Records’ roster as a jumping-off point, New Zealand born vocalist Tamaryn and collaborator Rex John Shelverton make the kind of hazy left-of-center pop music that should be on big, expensive radio stations but is not. This is a shame because you should be able to be driving down a big city boulevard and randomly hear songs like “While You’re Sleeping, I’m Dreaming” on your car stereo.

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A friend recently asked a funny question: “What song did you listen to right after losing your virginity?” While I really don’t remember, it very well could have been “A Thousand Stars Burst Open” by the always underrated Pale Saints.

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I wanted to follow up Eric’s inaugural post with another shoegeezer classic and offer a piece of advice.

The next time you put on Slowdive’s Just for a Day (in an obvious attempt to set the mood for a make-out session), whisper this little tidbit in your partner’s ear: “This album’s font is a variant of Caslon Bold, based on William Caslon I’s first English Old Style typefaces of 1725.”

You’ll thank us later.

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Editor’s note: Is there a more appropriate record to kick off this project? We didn’t think so.

it’s hard to believe that my bloody valentine’s loveless album is nearly 20 years old. the first time i heard it, way back in the early 90’s, it pretty much exploded my ideas about what pop music could be. when i first heard the careening, overdriven guitar swells of “only shallow,” i was in my room working on something or other. i had to stop and listen to the whole disc in its entirety before moving on to anything else, it’s one of those albums, like sonic youth’s daydream nation that begs to be listened to straight through. it was immediately timeless for me. it’s easy to understand why it would have been so hard for kevin shields to follow it up.
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