A Tribute To Ride

Ten years after the release of their final album Tarantula, the impact of Ride can still be heard throughout the landscape of Modern Rock.
A list Ride's fans reads like an encyclopedia of Modern Rock. Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, the Flaming Lips and Coldplay have all been outed as fans over the years, and the band's inluence on their music is unmistakable.
Ride was one of the leading acts of the British shoegaze movement of the early 90s, breaking ground alongside such legenday acts as My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. Their relentless assault of melodic guitar feedback blended what the Jesus & Mary Chain had started years before with the chorused tones and fanciful lyrics of The Cure. As their career progressed, Ride's songs increasingly evoked the guitar harmonies of 1960s pop.
By the mid 90s, the Shoegazing scene once so popular in Britain had succumbed to the popularity of Britpop. Popular music and critical tastes continued to move away from Ride's sensibilities and by 1996 Ride disbanded during the recording of their final full length album, Tarantula.
Ironically, as the emergence of Britpop accelerated the end of the careers of "shoegaze" bands such as Ride, even the bands at the forefront of Britpop paid their respect to Ride and My Bloody Valentine. Infamous rivals Oasis and Blur have both confessed to being influenced by Ride, with Andy Bell even eventually joining Oasis as a permanent member in 1999.
In the years since Ride's break up, fans of Ride were rewarded with side projects, boxed sets, rarities and as of late, solo careers from former Ride band members.
Meanwhile, Ride is mostly rembered for Nowhere, generally considered to be their best album, along with the ocassional airplay of their hit single "Vapour Trail" on college radio.
All of the while Ride's unmistakable influence often goes unnoticed among music fans. The idea of a tribute album is to remind people of Ride's bright spark of creativity, that like so many of Ride's contemporaries, burned out all too quickly.