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Newgaze

Mahogany comes to town

By MICHAEL BRODEUR | April 22, 2008

Mahogany

The lamely monikered “newgaze” movement is pretty great — you get all the shimmering, over-processed guitars, all the feather-light vocals, and all the intense volume without the unsightly Doc Martens or ugly Beetlejuice tights. This Saturday, the international octet of Mahogany make their way to P.A.’s Lounge to play a chunk of songs off their landmark 2006 album, Connectivity (Darla), and, with any luck, some new stuff — it would appear that a crucial part of shoegazing is taking fucking forever to write a song. Anyhoo . . .

Mahogany, “Springtime Save Our Country”
Easily my favorite track off Connectivity, and perhaps the most representative of the surreal simplicity the band are able to forge from a host of complexities — from the insistently chugging bass to Ana Breton’s sweet soaring vocal to those sleigh bells in the background. Jeez, dudes. Reverb much?

A Sunny Day in Glasgow, “Watery (Drowning Is Just Another Word for Being Buried Alive Under Water)”
It might be unfair to post a demo from a band whose official releases are about as perfect as newgaze gets — especially a demo that they only “just kind of like.” But whatever, it’ll never get released otherwise, and even if it’s a little simple and wanky, it’s an entrancing view of their process.

Resplandor, “Raindrops”
Don’t let all that æthereal dreaminess fool you: these shoegazer types are very practical. This is a genre built on names, and these Peruvians enlisted folks from Mahogany to collaborate and dreampop czar Robin Guthrie to produce. Here Guthrie may have left them sounding like the Cocteau Quadruplets, but that’s hardly a bad thing.

Airiel, “You Kids Should Know Better”
It’s difficult to imagine this Chicago four-piece sounding any less like a Chicago band, but they certainly do add some much-needed bite to this fledgling revival. Think Catherine Wheel with a streak of Th’ Faith Healers; then think about JetBluing to the Second City to catch them loud and live.