Early years: 1985 - 1987
This is Your Bloody Valentine (1985)
Originating in Dublin, Ireland in 1983, the first iteration of MBV consisted of Kevin Shields (guitar), Colm Ó Ciosoig (drums), and significant goth fan David Conway on vocals, with Conway’s girlfriend Tina Durkin (keyboards) joining in 1984. This is Your Bloody Valentine was their first official album, released on the German record label Tycoon following the band’s departure from Ireland and a ragtag tour of Europe.
Here we find a band far removed from what they would eventually become. It’s 25:50 minutes of riffs and delivery that blatantly rip off The Birthday Party and rockabilly punks The Cramps, while adding some Doors-like organ for good measure.
It’s raw, it’s murky and Nick Cave most likely loves it.
Man You Love To Hate (1985)
While Man You Love To Hate is officially an MBV “release," it’s really a cassette tape of a live show in Sputnik, Berlin, at a music festival in 1985. Moreover, it reveals an entirely different-sounding band with a not-so-flattering recording quality and some inebriated banter from David Conway.
It’s an interesting artifact, but not essential to the Valentine’s canon. There’s a good chance that, just like the title suggests, Kevin Shields harbors some hate towards it.
Geek! (1985)
A full EP with the first official lineup gelling with Kevin Shields on guitar, Colm Ó Ciosoig on drums, newcomer Debbie Googe on bass, and David Conway on vocals—at least for now.
Here, we find the band churning out the same sounds as their debut album, except with a significantly more significant amount of fuzz wrapped around their goth garage rock, which was a step in the right direction. Perhaps this could be attributed to Scottish noise rockers The Jesus and Mary Chain and their groundbreaking debut Psychocandy, which had dropped the month before.
Conway’s greasy-haired crooning over the shrill noise of standout tracks like "Moonlight" and "Love Machine" merge so that if you didn’t know any better, it could be a raunchy good Saturday night with an entirely different group.
The New Record By My Bloody Valentine (1986)
If you’ve been keeping score, it’s gothabilly three for three, but The New Record took a hard left into some fresh-faced and optimistic territory.
MBV ratcheted the fuzz from Geek! up a few notches, swapped The Cramps sound for The Monkees by way of Jesus and Mary, and featured an entirely different vocal delivery from David Conway, who seemed to have left his howling deep vibrato at home: note, not one minor chord among the upbeat, noisy 10 minutes of tracks.
The New Record also marked a change in production and attention. Joe Foster, associate of the soon-to-be-relevant Creation Records, had just started up his own Kaleidoscope Records and offered the Valentine’s the irresistible temptation of financial assistance on their next record on the condition that it could be his label’s debut album.
The New Record would be their first and only record with Foster, but thanks to Kaleidoscope’s exposure, the Valentines were moving up in the world.
Sunny Sundae Smile (1987)
After leaving Kaleidoscope Records, MBV signed onto Lazy Records, a label run by the CEO Wayne Morris, who had prided himself on discovering talent, i.e., his burgeoning band The Primitives, and had been after the band for quite some time. The result was a hard-hitting 4-song sunshine punk dream with each Valentine firing on all pistons.
Based on the previous EP's upbeat sound, sugary-sweet melodies mingle with sharp, biting teeth. Manic drumming and bass are the stiff backbone to a no-frills crunching guitar, and Conway and Shield’s harmonies bring us closer to the future iteration of MBV that we know. To this writer, even years later, the T.Rex-on-speed madness of "Sylvie’s Head" is enough to pretend this was the band’s apex.
Strawberry Wine EP (1987)
MBV arrived at a proverbial fork in the road when David Conway’s stomach illness peaked, expediting his departure from the band. Accepted onto Lazy Records and without a singer, MBV quickly began to audition and stumbled upon the charming Belinda Butcher, and, after her rendition of Dolly Parton’s ‘Bargain Store', inducted her into the fold. The result is My Bloody Valentine's history.
Armed with Butcher’s guitar and ethereal harmonies with Shields, the eponymous title track is a jangly, spiraling blueprint of what was to come. Elsewhere, "Never Say Goodbye"'s push-pull dynamic melds into a dreamy chorus in unison, underscoring just how impactful Butcher’s role was in taking the band to new levels in just three songs.
Ecstasy EP (1987)
The final lineup of MBV was complete, and the Ecstasy EP signaled a pivotal moment in the band’s sound. Tracks oscillate between twee jangly rock ("She Loves You No Less"), straight up Jesus and Mary Chain idolizing ("The Things I Miss"), and, like the Beatles' Revolver, a quick glimpse into their unique sound and trademark wall of sound ("Clair").
It also heralded the end of the partnership with Lazy Records, which would ultimately be for the best, as Wayne Morris would release a compilation of both the Ecstasy and Strawberry Wine EPs together without the band’s permission years later. However, a serendipitous meeting was around the corner.
Ecstasy and Wine Compilation (1989)
As mentioned previously, this bootleg compilation was released without the consent of MBV, but later proved to be exceptionally fortuitous, in that the 10,000 copies Shields seized from Lazy Records would later be sold to finance his recording sessions after they were dropped from Creation Records. Speaking of…
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