SEATTLE'S LOVELESS RECORDS is poised to celebrate its first birthday by offering a tribute night to one of the finest bands of the past two decades, My Bloody Valentine. The party is proof-positive of obsessive fandom on the part of Loveless founders Michael Hukin and John Richards. The two are in fact so enamored of My Bloody Valentine that they went as far as naming their upstart label after the band's 1991 Loveless LP.

But their geekiness is warranted. My Bloody Valentine's career was nothing if not important. Formed in Ireland in 1984, their start may have been unspectacular--but within a few years, given a home at Creation Records and something of a musical tweaking, the band found a remarkable stride, and their ascension to underground acclaim was testament to their penchant for innovation and ingenuity. By today's standards, the music of My Bloody Valentine could still be called cutting-edge. Loveless was practically a manifesto for studio engineers (or the 18 engineers who worked on it), a record that took founding member Kevin Shields' would-be excellent pop songs, meditated upon them, and then layered them so laboriously that the result was a close approximation to sonic perfection: deviant, confusing, groundbreaking, and ultimately blissful. Shields, a relentless perfectionist, saw to it that his band would go down in rock and roll history.

History was created. My Bloody Valentine were the first to be called "shoegazers," and legions of bands like Slowdive, Spiritualized, Stereolab, Swervedriver, Lush, and Ride (to name a few) intelligently formed and morphed in the band's brilliant, discursive wake. A vivid, alluring music scene sprang up around them. And though many of the aforementioned bands were genuinely remarkable, none were ever able to accomplish what My Bloody Valentine had. The reasons were obvious: My Bloody Valentine had pioneered the genre, and their songs were better. In fact, it's almost unfair to lump them into any genre at all. Upon a retrospective glance through their career (which produced countless EPs, but only two full-length albums), the band's influences are traceable to sources that run from the Jesus and Mary Chain to Philip Glass, from the Cramps to Brian Eno. And whether the songs are repetitive meditations on two measly chords, meandering explorations of dissonant reverberation, or straightforward cutouts of bubblegum preciousness, they are smart, intuitive, and astonishing. They were a great band.

Though none of the bands performing at this Thursday's show would be pleased to consider themselves mere appropriators of someone else's much-lauded achievements (and they're not, really), they're all undoubtedly excited about having the opportunity to pay homage to (and have a go at) the music of My Bloody Valentine in front of a live audience. The Northwest lineup is shoegazingly appropriate: Voyager One, Melody Unit, Kinski, the High Violets, Bering Sea, the Sophies, Kaleid, Seymourglass, Greg Markel, Man of the Year, and Hypatia Lake. No, they're not all shoegazers, but wait until Voyager One work their wanky effects pedals to render the vacillation between fuzzy distortion and shimmery pop hooks of Loveless' "Soon," and hearkening back to late-'80s listlessness will be unavoidable. The lineup also features the Mockingbirds--a "one-off" band that features Anisa Romero of Sky Cries Mary doing vocals, as well as members of the Heather Duby Band, Head Full of Stars, and ex-members of Western State Hurricanes.

It's all very exciting, but the question is, are these bands going to be able to pull it off? My Bloody Valentine fans are devoted and relentless. You'll see them up against the far walls with their black plastic glasses and 40-dollar haircuts, poised like the unmarried 26- to 40-year-old know-it-alls they are. And many of them will hate this show. Each band gets only two songs to make good. Kinski will surely wow them with the brilliant tension they so effortlessly create. According to Hukin, the band will be performing "You Made Me Realise" (from the 1988 EP of the same name), which, also according to Hukin, is "the best version of that song." Hukin also noted that Portland's Man of the Year (not shoegazers) have wisely chosen "When You Sleep," a relatively straightforward three-chord guitar ascension from Loveless, and "Sometimes," a more subdued, acoustic-guitar-heavy track, also from Loveless, that shows where even the Smashing Pumpkins draw inspiration from My Bloody Valentine. If bands like Melody Unit take on the precious stuff while bands like the High Violets go for the heavier material, the night should prove dynamic and satisfying. Anything is possible. Hukin gave very little information about the musical selections, which is good--a night like this should be about weird, experimental moments that come as a surprise.

No matter what happens this Thursday night at Sit & Spin, the showroom promises to be jam-packed with much local talent. Plenty of beautiful songs will be wonked and wanked into oblivion. Plenty of celebratory good cheer will be had. And Loveless Records will be a year old.