Well, I know this “new” genre has been gestating for a few months, so posting about it now doesn’t exactly put me at the cutting-edge, finger-on-pulse, ear-to-ground forefront of web-savvy blog buzz. But hey, we’re in Nashville! Nashville loves to stay just behind the crest of the hipness wave, no?
So remember when people started name-checking “glo-fi” and “chillwave”? Basically, a crop bands — Neon Indian, Memory Tapes, Toro y Moi, Washed Out, et cetera — started to emerge about a year ago, using electronic instrumentation and various production techniques to make digital recordings sound analog. It certainly wasn’t a new trend — artists like Ariel Pink have been doing it for a while — but when united by a semi-official moniker and the power of the Internet, BOOM! It was a trend. Well, when it comes to semi-official (and seemingly pretentious) monikers, trends and especially Internet power, I think this latest wave of artists has to take the “WUT?” Cake. The blanket term is “witch house,” though it’s also interchangeable with “drag,” “screwgaze” and — my absolute favorite expression ever — “crunk shoegaze.”
