Madchester

I've had a long-standing appreciation for shoegaze, and the bands that arose from that scene and eventually grew out of it. I spent the summer of '91 at the University of Pennsylvania. There, the Daily Pennsylvanian positively reviewed Chapterhouse's Whirlpool record, so I went to the CD store at the student union, listened to it at the counter, and picked it up. I also picked up a used copy of Lush's Gala, and lusted after the import-priced Ride EPs in the racks.

I also spent Sunday nights from midnight until 2am watching 120 Minutes on MTV. They aired plenty of shoegaze videos back then. But MTV also successfully pushed the Madchester scene's product onto Anglophilic viewers like me. Memorable, one-great-album bands like the Stone Roses. Bands with a two decade legacy, like the Charlatans. A band inartfully pulled from the UK's Grebo scene due to their Madchester-esque penchant for baggy clothing, Ned's Atomic Dustbin. The next big thing that never quite was: The Happy Mondays. And an also-ran that I had long forgotten, the Inspiral Carpets.

And now, YouTube makes it so easy to revisit the Madchester scene, without having to suffer through a Concrete Blonde or Sisters of Mercy video.