During a conversation with Stereogum ahead of their appearance at New York’s Total Bummer festival, the Jesus and Mary Chain’s Jim and William Reid took on a pair of longstanding targets: the term shoegaze and the influence of Eddie Van Halen.
Jim Reid dismissed the shoegaze label outright. “Shoegaze, I’ve got a problem with that just because it doesn’t actually exist,” he said. He traces the word to a pejorative coined by the NME, arguing that the bands later grouped under it — he names Lush, Ride, and occasionally the Mary Chain — simply shared a certain onstage awkwardness.
William Reid’s criticism landed harder. “I think guitar players should never learn scales,” he began, before turning to one of rock’s most celebrated figures. “I can’t stand Eddie Van Halen’s guitar playing. I think he ruined rock guitar all through the ’80s and ’90s ’cause so many people copied him.” He rejected the fixation on speed and
