http://www.indiepedia.de/index.php/Stereolab
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 21:33 (2 years ago) Permalink
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 21:34 (2 years ago) Permalink
http://www.metrolyrics.com/international-colouring-contest-lyrics-stereolab.html http://www.keyofz.com/keyofz/lucia.htm
EMPEROR TOMATO KETCHUP http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066468/ http://www.gomorrahy.com/trailer-park/emperor-tomato-ketchup.htm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZXyQ7fAl4c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPEdizQc6_U
http://www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Stereolab/Contronatura.html http://www.amazon.com/Against-Nature-Translation-Rebours-Classics/dp/0140440860
Stereolab - Nurse With Wound - "A Wonderful Wooden Reason" http://www.lyricstime.com/faust-meadow-meal-lyrics.html
Stereolab · Nurse With Wound - "Simple Headphone Mind" Alcatraz - "Simple Headphone Mind" from "Vampire State Building", recorded at Faust's studio, 1971 http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=10591
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 21:35 (2 years ago) Permalink
Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements: not one but three Perrey-Kingsley samples on one album, here are your royalties http://www.amazon.com/Out-Sound-Complete-Vanguard-Recordings/dp/B000055ZE1
Well, well, so you are an upright person, you love peace and quiet, law and order... you have worked over twenty years with the same company, your boss likes you, you have never been criticized, never any complaints... you play cards, you read the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, believe in God and belong to the shooting club... you're a lieutenant in the army!... about time you were bumped off! PENG!
http://stereolab.koly.com/exhibits/images/clifforig.gif
les yper-sound: pierre henry psuedonym, 7" psyche-rock single http://mysteryposter.blogspot.com/2007/04/les-yper-sound.html
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 21:36 (2 years ago) Permalink
― cutty, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 21:37 (2 years ago) Permalink
absolutely
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 21:37 (2 years ago) Permalink
http://www.45toursderockfrancais.net/rockfrancais/ypersound45t.htm http://www.bide-et-musique.com/images/gallery/GMZ-755.jpg
http://www.lyricsxp.com/lyrics/i/i_feel_the_air_of_another_planet_stereolab.html "I feel the air of another planet" / "Ich fühle luft von anderem planeten", first line of the Stefan George poem 'Entrückung', set by Schoenberg to music in the last movement of his second string quartet, now regarded as the first fully atonal piece of classical music http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1426242
Stereolab - Instant 0 In The Universe http://www.discogs.com/release/192321 Bernard Parmegiani - 'Instant 0' from 'La Création Du Monde' http://www.discogs.com/release/173060
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 21:38 (2 years ago) Permalink
I forget the 60's film poster that was used as the template for the cover of 'Sound Dust' -- I thought it was Polanski's "Cul De Sac" but can't find a direct match, I open the door
Kybernetická babicka "Cybernetic Grandmother" by Jirí Trnka, experimental animated Czech film, 1962 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0239543/ http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3053080331721849771
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 21:40 (2 years ago) Permalink
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Claude_Vannier
― oscar, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 21:41 (2 years ago) Permalink
― jaymc, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 21:42 (2 years ago) Permalink
Huysmans Against Nature actually has McCarthy as an intermediate step ("Anti-Nature") --
Someone has done a Youtube video somewhere of musical lifts, a couple of which are a bit "umm a I-IV-V progression isn't really a steal," but most of which are pretty obviously what they were listening to / lifting from.
― nabisco, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 21:43 (2 years ago) Permalink
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBRA_(avant-garde_movement)
― oscar, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 21:45 (2 years ago) Permalink
"First of the Microbe Hunters" was a term originally applied to Anton van Leeuwenhoek.
― jaymc, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 21:46 (2 years ago) Permalink
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Brakhage
― jaymc, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 21:49 (2 years ago) Permalink
Lyrics from Peng!33 = from opening chapter of Cent Anos de Solidad
― nabisco, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 21:52 (2 years ago) Permalink
(I made that sound more highbrow than it actually is)
esquivel, peter thomas sound orchestra, neu!
― Mr. Hal Jam, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 21:58 (2 years ago) Permalink
P.S. Not just Perrey-Kingsley, but Perrey-Kingsley playing back to Brazil with "One Note Samba"
― nabisco, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 22:01 (2 years ago) Permalink
The Ondioline was a vacuum tube-powered keyboard instrument, invented in 1941 [1] by the Frenchman Georges Jenny, and was a forerunner of today's synthesizers.
― dan selzer, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 22:06 (2 years ago) Permalink
One of their songs namedrops about 40 different Blue Jam sketches, which is pretty awesome bizarre.
― Just got offed, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 22:09 (2 years ago) Permalink
looking up these links was occasionally very frustrating -- five years ago it was easy to google the direct reference, but at this point you've got to go through about sixty pages worth of stereolab lyrics pages / retail sites / review pages / playlists playlists playlists. the difference between acknowledging an influence and eclipsing the source by borrowing the title for your own successful project is growing.
the fact that the referents are baldly sitting there doesn't necessarily mean anyone thinks to look (and why would they, it's a pop band). it's not as if there's a place for endless trainspotting in most reviews but sometimes I wonder if this band has ever offered a single intuitive or non-pilfered moment or if the whole point is wholesale representation / recombination, in which case you'd expect the referents to be mentioned a little more often than they are
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 22:14 (2 years ago) Permalink
― scott seward, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 22:16 (2 years ago) Permalink
ok a bit of overstatement there but the depth of their borrowing sometimes leaves me a bit stunned
xpost ok if we're just going to begin posting covers of albums
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 22:17 (2 years ago) Permalink
Which song is that Louis? Or is it easily Googlable?
― DJ Mencap, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 22:20 (2 years ago) Permalink
http://delia-derbyshire.dyndns.org/images/B00006LEPF.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg http://quimby.gnus.org/circus/jukebox.php?image=thumbnail.png&group=Stereolab&album=Oscillons%20from%20the%20Anti-Sun%20%283%29
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 22:20 (2 years ago) Permalink
― scott seward, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 22:25 (2 years ago) Permalink
sorry, i'm lazy.
Nothing To Do With Me (aka Moonflies (aka Chris Morris))
(as seen on This is the thread where you talk about Chris Morris - genius, and the finest satirist of modern times )
― Just got offed, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 22:27 (2 years ago) Permalink
Does one of those links go to Gil Scott-Heron?
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 22:45 (2 years ago) Permalink
i'm not a huge stereolab fan, but this list is mindboggling. good work, guys.
― ian, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 22:53 (2 years ago) Permalink
Here's an obscure one - the title of "Animal Or Vegetable (A Wonderful Wooden Reason)" which was on the Crumbduck EP, is a line from a Faust song (at least the bit in brackets is).
― everything, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 22:55 (2 years ago) Permalink
Should also mention the later McCarthy releases which offer a neat segueway into the first Stereolab record. (eg: "The Home Secretary Briefs the Forces of Law and Order").
― everything, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 22:58 (2 years ago) Permalink
― dmr, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 23:07 (2 years ago) Permalink
You're talking about the bass line to "Metronomic Underground," I take it?
― jaymc, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 23:13 (2 years ago) Permalink
Song on Aluminum Tunes:
― jaymc, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 23:18 (2 years ago) Permalink
Pack Yr Romantic Mind from Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements begins with a sample from "Pop Orbite", a song on Chico Magnetic Band's album.
― oscar, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 23:32 (2 years ago) Permalink
Obvious one, they recorded a split record with her. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigitte_Fontaine http://www.discogs.com/release/256204
― oscar, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 23:34 (2 years ago) Permalink
I always thought Speedy Car had a bit of the Soft Machine about them.
But if you want to talk United States of America, it's Broadcast on their first album that really rips that.
― dan selzer, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 23:35 (2 years ago) Permalink
On Dots and Loops. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Brakhage
― oscar, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 23:36 (2 years ago) Permalink
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Road_Again_(Canned_Heat)
― oscar, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 23:39 (2 years ago) Permalink
I agree, I'd prefer to keep this to direct references / uncredited samples / lyrical lifts rather than vaguer incorporated influences or else I'd just be Sylvie Vartaning it up over here
first track on Refried Ectoplasm, 'Harmonium', where the 70's DJ spools up a tape which promptly breaks and falls off the reel is lifted from an aircheck of Negativland's 'Over the Edge Vol 4 - Dick Vaughan'
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 23:44 (2 years ago) Permalink
― Autumn Almanac, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 23:47 (2 years ago) Permalink
― Autumn Almanac, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 23:48 (2 years ago) Permalink
- le
― Autumn Almanac, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 23:49 (2 years ago) Permalink
great work, Milton!
― sleeve, Thursday, 25 October 2007 00:00 (2 years ago) Permalink
This
is supposed to be based on the comic series Pravda la Survireuse by Guy Peellaert.
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 25 October 2007 00:00 (2 years ago) Permalink
Yes, this is a nice thread. Milton rocks.
nabisco, do they really reference _À Rebours_? That's one of my favorite books ever.
― Turangalila, Thursday, 25 October 2007 00:04 (2 years ago) Permalink
Here are the YouTube dissections of musical origins I was talking about. Apart from a couple things that seem too basic to see as steals (e.g., the Canned Heat), they're mostly pretty clear lifts or pastiches, without too many stretches -- and a couple disappointing "oh man, I can't believe you lifted the melody" parts. Mostly it's rhythmic grooves and feels they're snipping from things and using as a basis for their own stuff.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IrFdR7I_kjM http://youtube.com/watch?v=s9N1uwNEraM http://youtube.com/watch?v=E9iiJy0jWSg http://youtube.com/watch?v=LNAO-vqa6R0
Artists mentioned: Faust, Piero Piccioni, Canned Heat, Gal Costa, Krzystzof Komeda, Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre, Sun Ra, Snapper, Wanderlea, Laurie Anderson, the Association, the Archies, Serge Gainsbourg, Neu!, Silver Apples, Steve Reich, and Plastic Ono Band (as source of "Emperor Tomato Ketchup" bass line -- this was the only one that kinda surprised me!)
― nabisco, Thursday, 25 October 2007 00:09 (2 years ago) Permalink
xpost turangalila I'm not 100% sure. 'against nature' is the title in translation and a direct reference would have used the original french. the lyrics do seem to me like a commentary or response to the book, I linked them upthread
― Milton Parker, Thursday, 25 October 2007 00:26 (2 years ago) Permalink
if it is a reference it's admittedly not a very direct one (though I'm sure they've read it) -- with those lines about 'war', probably something else made the song's orbit as well
I actually liked this translation better, but I went for the pop edition to underscore the reference
― Milton Parker, Thursday, 25 October 2007 00:31 (2 years ago) Permalink
You're talking about the bass line to "Metronomic Underground," I take it? Yup, that's what I'm talking about, jaymc.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 25 October 2007 00:53 (2 years ago) Permalink
Milton I can't believe you didn't post this -
― Stormy Davis, Thursday, 25 October 2007 01:58 (2 years ago) Permalink
xxpost Milton
Hmm... yes. "Living fantasy of the immortal"
thanks!
I've actually only read it in Spanish. Going to buy this version you recommend!
― Turangalila, Thursday, 25 October 2007 02:01 (2 years ago) Permalink
Gastr del Sol opened for Stereolab at the Metro in Chicago back in the mid-90s, and a couple weeks before the show I bumped into David Grubbs at the Hyde Park Kinko's on 57th St. He showed me the gig flyer he was printing up which read "Stereolab - 'John Cage Bubblegum' / Gastr del Sol - 'Steve Reich n Roll'"
― Stormy Davis, Thursday, 25 October 2007 02:03 (2 years ago) Permalink
I didn't actually go that show tho. Dumb! I never saw Stereolab.
― Stormy Davis, Thursday, 25 October 2007 02:04 (2 years ago) Permalink
I HAVE THAT FIRST RECORD!
― jaxon, Thursday, 25 October 2007 02:21 (2 years ago) Permalink
it's been so long, but they ripped the bassline for a song directly from a yoko ono tune from her first or second solo album
― jaxon, Thursday, 25 October 2007 02:22 (2 years ago) Permalink
― dad a, Thursday, 25 October 2007 04:17 (2 years ago) Permalink
― Mark Rich@rdson, Thursday, 25 October 2007 04:26 (2 years ago) Permalink
Prokofiev's Symphonie Diabolique:
― dad a, Thursday, 25 October 2007 04:32 (2 years ago) Permalink
― dad a, Thursday, 25 October 2007 05:27 (2 years ago) Permalink
This is the future of an illusion Aggressive culture of despotism Living fantasy of the immortal The reality of an animal
― These Robust Cookies, Thursday, 25 October 2007 06:27 (2 years ago) Permalink
One of their tracks is based on "Disco Rough" by Mathématiques Modernes.
― Raw Patrick, Thursday, 25 October 2007 09:20 (2 years ago) Permalink
Can't think of anything less obvious right now (I thought I was a genius for spotting the 100 Years of Solitude thing once and then googled it and nabisco had already written about it on Pitchfork, thus I lose), but "Enivrez-Vous!" from Peng! takes its lyrics from a Baudelaire prose-poem.
I'd always wondered about some of these! Thanks.
― a passing spacecadet, Thursday, 25 October 2007 10:27 (2 years ago) Permalink
Maybe someone knows what that French Disco line really is: Bubble Withdrawal?
― Mark G, Thursday, 25 October 2007 10:33 (2 years ago) Permalink
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucia_Pamela
― zeus, Thursday, 25 October 2007 11:21 (2 years ago) Permalink
I have her CD somewhere, it is bats!
― Mark G, Thursday, 25 October 2007 11:23 (2 years ago) Permalink
a lot of that youtube series of comparisons are a little on the vague side, but they're fun
I would not have compared 'Emperor Tomato Ketchup' to 'Why?' by the Plastic Ono Band, I'd have used "Les Histoires D'A" by Les Rita Mitsouko
Stereolab guilty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML9PWVm0wEQ
― Milton Parker, Thursday, 25 October 2007 23:20 (2 years ago) Permalink
& I will post these anyway
Sylvie Vartan - Cette lettre-là (1965) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOlx2MxC6eQ
Sylvie Vartan - Par amour par pitié (1966) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3uL8M0svSQ
Sylvie Vartan - Irresistiblement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZCbwg6VmnI
― Milton Parker, Thursday, 25 October 2007 23:21 (2 years ago) Permalink
Pack Yr. Romantic Mind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataille
― Bill in Chicago, Thursday, 25 October 2007 23:42 (2 years ago) Permalink
― Autumn Almanac, Friday, 26 October 2007 03:15 (2 years ago) Permalink
that was feeble, sorry
― Autumn Almanac, Friday, 26 October 2007 03:16 (2 years ago) Permalink
brilliant thread, that Jirí Trnka film is mindblowing. good work!
has anyone mentioned family fodder yet?, as a general influence and specifically savoire faire and it's uncanny resemblance to (i think) wow and flutter. was it milton who mentioned upstairs somewhere that sterolab steals seem a bit disingenuous? i dunno if i could go along with that, their references generally seem pretty overt, if obscure. i think it's pretty key to the appeal of stereolab that you just know everything is pilfered.
― cw, Friday, 26 October 2007 11:51 (2 years ago) Permalink
Yet nothing sounds quite like Stereolab. Sort of like a robot made of all sorts.
― Autumn Almanac, Friday, 26 October 2007 11:59 (2 years ago) Permalink
holy shit this thread. overwhelming amount of info. more pls!
― CharlieNo4, Friday, 26 October 2007 12:22 (2 years ago) Permalink
What Charlie No4 said above.
thanks, people
― Daniel Giraffe, Friday, 26 October 2007 12:51 (2 years ago) Permalink
"All good things to come.."
― Mark G, Friday, 26 October 2007 12:57 (2 years ago) Permalink
MBV,Spacemen 3, Astrud Gilberto, Nico, Francoise Hardy.
― Zeno, Friday, 26 October 2007 13:12 (2 years ago) Permalink
"Pause" samples the "Swedish Rhapsody" numbers station transmission. (Numbers stations transmission consist of transient noise bursts with announcements.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVqaoxxsN7Q More info: http://www.simonmason.karoo.net/page30.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station
― dad a, Friday, 26 October 2007 14:03 (2 years ago) Permalink
Wouldn't it be quicker to just list the things that aren't a direct influence on Stereolab?
Like uh........ummmmm........
― PhilK, Friday, 26 October 2007 14:07 (2 years ago) Permalink
Corn Flakes
― Autumn Almanac, Friday, 26 October 2007 23:52 (2 years ago) Permalink
You obviously haven't heard the obscure 1996 comp-only track "Kellogg Oberheim Fondle"
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 27 October 2007 00:01 (2 years ago) Permalink
i'm not on board with a lot of these, but ... http://youtube.com/watch?v=IrFdR7I_kjM http://youtube.com/watch?v=s9N1uwNEraM http://youtube.com/watch?v=E9iiJy0jWSg http://youtube.com/watch?v=LNAO-vqa6R0
― jaxon, Saturday, 27 October 2007 00:23 (2 years ago) Permalink
Does it count that they play this record sometimes before they go on mean it's a reference, or just a somewhat similar sound?
― Soundslike, Saturday, 27 October 2007 00:32 (2 years ago) Permalink
-- jaxon, Saturday, 27 October 2007 10:23 (53 minutes ago) Bookmark Link
Some of those are either acknowledged influences (Gane has said Flower Call Nowhere is based on Fearless Vampire Killers, which is obvious when you hear the AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH ... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH ... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH ... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH bit) or incredibly tenuous links. Quite a few are disturbingly close though.
― Autumn Almanac, Saturday, 27 October 2007 01:19 (2 years ago) Permalink
― keythkeyth, Saturday, 27 October 2007 01:46 (2 years ago) Permalink
And from an NZ domain too.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 27 October 2007 01:47 (2 years ago) Permalink
You poopheadz, I posted those just upthread!
The really tenuous ones are the things that seem common to a million songs, too common to count as a "steal" even if they're directly referencing the original -- the Canned Heat one is pretty free-floating in the whole world of music at this point, and the Archies one is like, umm, pretty common rhythm guitar sound.
― nabisco, Saturday, 27 October 2007 22:30 (2 years ago) Permalink
now i see snapper, sorry.
― keythkeyth, Saturday, 27 October 2007 23:58 (2 years ago) Permalink
astrud gilberto - "summer sweet"
listen to the verses and tell me that the organ sound and chord changes aren't like a total mid-era Stereolab sound.
― Steve Shasta, Sunday, 28 October 2007 01:38 (2 years ago) Permalink
Jon, amazingly comprehensive -- nice work. I will admit I had no idea of the extent to which their music was referential.
Should we start a thread about the 'Lab aesthetic -- ie, what the point of all this is? Because for me, the mind has always been engaged by the sum total of their work -- in particular, the (frankly unprecedented) vigilance of their postmodernism. But the heart, which has to judge Stereolab records on their musical merits, is altogether less convinced.
― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 28 October 2007 15:10 (2 years ago) Permalink
The whole thing started collapsing under its own weight when they started collaborating with fellow derivative bricoleurs, the High Llamas.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Sunday, 28 October 2007 22:49 (2 years ago) Permalink
The Lightning Seeds: "Pure"
― Mark G, Monday, 29 October 2007 16:31 (2 years ago) Permalink
-- oscar, Wednesday, October 24, 2007 11:32 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Link
actually "Pop Orbite" is sampling the same fragment of that Perrey / Kingsley tune "One Note Samba -- Spanish Flea". thanks for getting me to check out that Chico Magnetic Band album though, it's nuts
The Groop Played "Midnight Cowboy" Music
>Should we start a thread about the 'Lab aesthetic -- ie, what the point of all this is?
I think we all know what the point is, I like their tunes. If they're sometimes a little too wallpapery, the wallpaper suits me -- if I'm going to tune out to something lovely, it's reassuring that when I tune back in I realize the lyrics are about Bataille or Marx instead of guns or money or something poisonous). I like that they leave a trail of crumbs leading to the inspirations, I'm just surprised more people don't investigate them when it's such a blatant aspect of their whole project
― Milton Parker, Tuesday, 30 October 2007 19:37 (2 years ago) Permalink
Can I just point out that the arrangement of Perrey & Kingsley's One Note Samba/Spanish Flea medley is surely based on the Sergio Mendez medley of the same two songs which was released the previous year. All the changes take place at identical points in the songs, the tempo is almost identical also. It's like they used it as a template. I realize that this has nothing to do with Stereolab though I'm sure they must have at some point betrayed a Sergio Mendez influence.
― everything, Tuesday, 30 October 2007 22:25 (2 years ago) Permalink
This thread is why I've never liked Stereolab and have never tried very hard to
― Tom D., Wednesday, 31 October 2007 17:15 (2 years ago) Permalink
See, Jon, I actually wasn't be snide about asking what the "point" of them is -- reading this thread, for the first time I began to think that maybe I was missing something about Stereolab's referentiality. I honestly used to think, "These guys are the lowest form of hero worship" -- Neu, Serge Gainsbourg, etc. It never seemed to rise above the materials they were pilfering.
But what you've laid out above is much, MUCH more obsessive than that -- more than I ever realized and definitely more than mere hero worship. It's almost as if Stereolab intentionally went into this thinking that they were going to be analog plunderphonics, creating their work exclusively out of the songs and aesthetics of others' to the exclusion of any original material whatsoever.
And I think that's absolutely fascinating -- a word I never would have associated with Stereolab in my life.
― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 17:32 (2 years ago) Permalink
Primal Scream for hipsters
― Tom D., Wednesday, 31 October 2007 17:34 (2 years ago) Permalink
Because Primal Scream are for the masses, maaaaan
― nabisco, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 17:48 (2 years ago) Permalink
The idea that they're somehow insane plunderers is getting WAY overblown on this thread, for a lot of reasons:
(a) the stuff up at the top of the thread consists of the same kind of iconographic / non-musical references most every band takes up in the service of creating an image/aesthetic
(b) the number of direct musical borrowings may not be as high as this thread makes it seem, considering that this band has released approximately 18,000,000 songs
(c) the only reason those borrowings get tagged as somehow significant is precisely because they were borrowing from sources that were (at the time) somewhat arcane -- a rock band that borrows just as much from obvious sources like the Kinks or Clash or Gang of Four or whatever is not considered to be plundering, mostly because they're interpreted as following in a common tradition, and not trying to get credit for those sources; it's not necessarily a safe bet that anything different is going on with Stereolab
(d) it's somewhat off to act as if these borrowings were somehow discrete: one of the best things about their middle period was the way a lot of their influences just went bubbling around in an amalgam that could seem to be referencing, say, K Komeda and Neu! and Jobim and Francoise Hardy in equal parts and at the same time
― nabisco, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 17:54 (2 years ago) Permalink
Exactly. It's worth pointing out for example that their song "The Free Design" doesn't actually sound like the Free Design, "Into Outer Space With Lucia Pamela" sounds completely unlike Lucia Pamela's album of that name etc etc.
― everything, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 18:09 (2 years ago) Permalink
BUT the coda for the song "The Free Design" is an intact borrowing of the intro to ABBA's "Dancing Queen"
the point that it all comes out sounding like Stereolab has already been made on this thread, I think they certainly have their own distinctive voice. but it's a strange voice with hundreds of carefully chosen historical voices shoehorned into it. nabisco's point C is also key, the things they reference were obscure during their own time and still obscure by the time Stereolab brought them up again -- making a preferable alternate history = having a voice
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 18:33 (2 years ago) Permalink
is there a specific origin for the phrase "space age bachelor pad music" or is that just a record collector catch-all term for "Martin Denny and Esquivel records"?
I googled for it but all I found was the Esquivel record under that name, which was a collection that came out after the Stereolab EP had already used the phrase ...
― dmr, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 18:49 (2 years ago) Permalink
http://www.chaoskitty.com/sabpm/sapvol1.html
It should be pointed out that the phrase "Space Age Pop" wasn't in vogue when this music was created. That term arose during the mid-1980s, when cultural trashpickers--underground cartoonists and free-form DJs--were scavenging through thrift store bins and used record shops, paying 50 cents an armload for the stuff--because nobody else wanted it. Moreover, the vinyl archaeologists who bought those castoff relics developed a new (or in some cases renewed) appreciation for the quirky signals etched in the grooves. The producer credits Los Angeles artist Byron Werner with coining the phrase "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music"--later shortened to Space Age Pop by the producer.
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 18:59 (2 years ago) Permalink
So [ban me], are you saying I should just go back to being bored by them again?
Because I can!
― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 19:13 (2 years ago) Permalink
(what did N-i-t-s-u-h's name get replaced by "[ban me]" in my post?)
― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 19:14 (2 years ago) Permalink
cause you're always going around using people's real names
An Incomplete Catalog of Space Age Bachelor Pad Music
Danny and Dena Guglielmi's 'Adventure in Sound' & Elsa Popping's 'Delirium in Hi-Fi' are standouts. The latter's particularly French, a 1959 pop record made with concrète techniques.
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 19:18 (2 years ago) Permalink
Since when is that verboten? Everyone's emails used to be on here WITH their names!
― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 19:19 (2 years ago) Permalink
happier times
remember rivers, becky?
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 19:29 (2 years ago) Permalink
I have the Elsa Popping record. it's pretty good but the descriptions of the songs on the back of the sleeve made it sound like it was going to be really really good.
― dmr, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 19:33 (2 years ago) Permalink
I think that record's really really really good. side one's especially demented.
& the Boris Vian involvement is a huge connect-the-dots perk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b5Cs0AlsZM http://wapedia.mobi/en/Boris_Vian
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 19:38 (2 years ago) Permalink
"Froth on the Daydream" is an excellent book
― zappi, Thursday, 1 November 2007 13:15 (2 years ago) Permalink
Ok, Nabisco:
Yes...and no. Not every band does it by any means -- these guys worked extra hard at creating that image/aesthetic.
Ha, agreed but...now I'm just guessing, but I bet it is.
The first difference with the Kinks, Clash and Gang of Four is that you wouldn't notice those sources as much anyway. With Stereolab, you do -- even if you don't get the references, as I was mentioning earlier in the thread, there isn't a moment in their catalogue (as I know it anyway) that at its most opaque doesn't sound at least like an homage to someone or something. Beyond that, though, is there ANYTHING they're done that doesn't hark back to some other source, be it a song title, lyric, instrumentation, artwork, melody, etc.? Again, this isn't something I really thought much about before -- but I'm asking seriously...
This is a point I actually agree with, in large part. But I would chalk that up to the maturation process more than anything.
"Insane plunderers"? I dunno -- pop's been around too long to argue anything exists in a vacuum. But Stereolab very consciously seem to not even bother trying.
― Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 1 November 2007 14:23 (2 years ago) Permalink
Haha, I never noticed this! Probably because I wasn't really familiar with ABBA when Cobra and Phases Group came out.
― jaymc, Thursday, 1 November 2007 14:39 (2 years ago) Permalink
Those YouTube clips are great; I think the Komeda/Sun Ra/Ono comparisons are the most striking - the rest are a bit of a stretch.
Of course, now I must go out and buy every Goraguer/Komeda soundtrack I can find.
― Michael Jones, Thursday, 1 November 2007 15:01 (2 years ago) Permalink
Komeda did Rosemary's Baby, I believe.
― jaymc, Thursday, 1 November 2007 15:01 (2 years ago) Permalink
Holy shit, so it does! That's why it's bothered me for so many years.
Hey and now Dancing Queen's always going to remind me of The Free Design.
― Autumn Almanac, Friday, 2 November 2007 01:37 (2 years ago) Permalink
I think they got that part via "Oliver's Army."
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Friday, 2 November 2007 04:33 (2 years ago) Permalink
j/k
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Friday, 2 November 2007 04:34 (2 years ago) Permalink
Oliver and his army Will work on a project To make the people happy And further production
― Autumn Almanac, Friday, 2 November 2007 04:41 (2 years ago) Permalink
NTI -- there was an ILE thread where people were having fun posting my real name a lot, so the Lou E. Jagga code got applied. This will be awesome if I become famous and successful and there are threads like "Nobel Prize awarded to BAN ME."
It's funny how it seems like you agree with me about the mechanics of point (c), but still see it as a problem! I think the thing I'm trying to get at there is that it's not necessarily a matter of varying levels of "creativity" -- the way Stereolab will approach a task like "sounding like Neu!" does not seem to me to be particularly less creative than the way some standard-ass rock band might approach "sounding like the Clash." And Milton's point about having an alternate history of basic references is kind of key here. I think I wrote somewhere (review of Oscillons?) that there was a later-90s point where any given Stereolab track seemed like a thought experiment in imagining different pop worlds: one song where pop's main influences were Hardy / Denny / Faust, another where pop's main influences were Can / Jarre / Gilberto, and so on infinitely. This made for interesting stuff, I think.
I am totally cool with you just plain being bored with it; I just tend not to agree with the idea that it's some kind of shameless mix-and-match "easy" plundering, largely because they've tended to do the mixing and matching in a really sophisticated and hard-working way.
― nabisco, Friday, 2 November 2007 18:30 (2 years ago) Permalink
Wait, wait, wait -- I think you misread what I meant. I'm not saying they're boring -- I'm saying I may have missed how fascinating they are! I may have missed the extent to which they were essentially coding everything they did in, yes, another language quite apart from what we think of when we think of "pop." And yes, I'm saying that's actually a helluva lot more fascinating than, yeah, "Now let's juxtapose Neu! and Bridget Bardot."
I still find the depth of their plundering to be kind of remarkable -- it's certainly far more sophisticated than I'd thought when I listened to them during the mid-90s. I mean, Magma notwithstanding, there aren't too many acts who've essentially created their own language.
So, getting back to my earlier point, I guess that's the aesthetic then -- "Stereolab's Bizarro Pop Canon."
― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 2 November 2007 19:12 (2 years ago) Permalink
Yeah, that's definitely a good part of the appeal! If you listen through the EP tracks on Oscillons, you get more of a sense of how they were working that angle -- a lot of their sidework tracks seemed like fun-experiment answers to questions, some of which actually may be as simple as "what if Bardot fronted Faust?" and the like. Did someone mention upthread how their on-stage set-lists would contain working titles that were just the sources -- songs referred to as, say, "Sun Ra Cage" or "Can samba" or whatever? The main one that always sticks out in my memory had the working title "Heavenly Van Halen," which is the kind of interesting pop-imagination experiment I can totally go for. (Was that the one that wound up being called "Pinball?")
― nabisco, Friday, 2 November 2007 19:37 (2 years ago) Permalink
Wow, I must say -- I just dl'd Cobra Phase and listened to this w/o actually hearing it, until I played it back. It's pretty clearly intentional but buried beyond belief.
Incidentally, I'm only 3 songs into it, but Cobra Phase seems pretty packed with the Dave Brubeck "Take Five" grooves.
― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 3 November 2007 19:43 (2 years ago) Permalink
Some further insights via Simon Reynolds' interview w/ them in 1996:
"I'm not into the kitsch element," Gane says. "I'm more into the futuristic side, the way orchestral big band music was crossed in the '60s with early electronic music – stuff that was originally done for cynical, commercial reasons often resulted in some very strange combinations and juxtapositions of sounds."
― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 3 November 2007 19:51 (2 years ago) Permalink
― dad a, Thursday, 8 November 2007 14:42 (2 years ago) Permalink
Listened to "The Free Design" yesterday, off "Oscillons"...
Yep.
― Mark G, Thursday, 8 November 2007 14:54 (2 years ago) Permalink
Here's parts V and VI from that dude who did the youtube dissections that nabisco and others linked to upthread.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZkpyzXVOFk
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZAxxMQwzL0Y
Personally, I think nearly all of these are OTM. Only the Cybele's Reverie one was too much of a stretch for me.
― Jeff W, Thursday, 8 November 2007 19:38 (2 years ago) Permalink
>-- dad a, Thursday, 8 November 2007 14:42 (5 hours ago) Link
thank you! I searched and searched but couldn't find it
I'd forgotten the degree to which they really just used that Polanski poster as clip art
― Milton Parker, Thursday, 8 November 2007 20:26 (2 years ago) Permalink
yeah that's amazing
I already knew the majority of musical stuff in this thread but the visual ones like the Polanski poster and the Peng! cartoon are great
― dmr, Thursday, 8 November 2007 20:37 (2 years ago) Permalink
Milton, you were so comprehensive I had to read the thread twice to make sure I hadn't overlooked it! For extra credit here's Komeda's Polanski soundtrack:
― dad a, Thursday, 8 November 2007 21:09 (2 years ago) Permalink
It sez something about Stereolab that pt six of that vid has two equally plausible origins of Metronomic Underground (and that's before anyone Kraut rock is considered too.)
― Raw Patrick, Thursday, 8 November 2007 21:58 (2 years ago) Permalink
the "Symbolic Logic of Now!" rip of Archie Shepp's "Akai" and the "Margarine Melodie" rip of Ron Grainger's "Theme from Omega Man" sound like insane plundering to me, Nabisco
better Philip Glass tracks to illustrate "Kybernetická babicka": "Music In Twelve Parts, Part 11" or some of the choral pieces from "North Star"
ok they're referencing 'The Omega Man', 10,000 points to anyone who can find a "Demon Seed" or "Phase IV" reference
― Milton Parker, Friday, 9 November 2007 00:03 (2 years ago) Permalink
and putting "symbolic logic of now" and scrolling past about 15 mail order hits, you get a fragment of an online book called "PERFORMANCE ANTHOLOGY" about California Performance art in the 70's and a reference to a piece by video artist Joel Glassman
http://books.google.com/books?id=lu7KPDCfcXMC&pg=PA520&lpg=PA520&dq=%22symbolic+logic+of+now%22&source=web&ots=M6h1noVnPN&sig=LXv4xzXCgcPI_0AhFnnvddU8HvU#PPP1,M1
anyone saying that they may not be borrowing _that much_ only makes me think that person isn't even bothering to notice their project, these are not just songs, but clues
― Milton Parker, Friday, 9 November 2007 00:25 (2 years ago) Permalink
oh and I just found two Cluster samples on Fab-Four Suture, if anyone has the packaging perhaps they can tell me if they even credited or paid. they obviously go on listening tears to specific artists while recording single albums.
'Excursions Into Oh, A-oh' samples a loop of 'Prothese' from Grosses Wasser 'Widow Weirdo' samples a loop of 'Caramel' from Zuckerzeit
― Milton Parker, Friday, 9 November 2007 00:38 (2 years ago) Permalink
No mention of Cluster samples in the FFS (FFS!) artwork, such that it is (single card insert, CD back cover, that's it).
― Michael Jones, Friday, 9 November 2007 00:57 (2 years ago) Permalink
not to be self-righteous about uncleared sampling or anything
the loops themselves are more winking ornamental shoutouts than integral elements
― Milton Parker, Friday, 9 November 2007 01:13 (2 years ago) Permalink
10,000 points to anyone who can find a "Demon Seed" or "Phase IV" reference
Add N to X got there first on Demon Seed: http://www.discogs.com/release/325990
...but Andy Ramsey from Stereolab does play on this track!
(/lab geek. I deserve my 10,000 points for that one!)
― Jeff W, Friday, 9 November 2007 16:09 (2 years ago) Permalink
― Moodles, Saturday, 10 November 2007 05:14 (2 years ago) Permalink
― Moodles, Saturday, 10 November 2007 05:15 (2 years ago) Permalink
Golly, I'm drunk
The Incredible Shrinking He-Man
― Autumn Almanac, Saturday, 10 November 2007 11:51 (2 years ago) Permalink
Was just listening to Steve Hillage's "It's all too much", the refrain of which bears striking resemblance to "I'm going out of my way" from Transient Random Noise Bursts, right down to the overdriven organ.
― Sparkle Motion, Monday, 21 January 2008 06:16 (1 year ago) Permalink
According to this interview the title of Sound Dust comes from the liner notes to a Messiaen record. Which one?
― dad a, Monday, 28 January 2008 22:48 (1 year ago) Permalink
not sure, it'd be appropriate for any of them. tim mentions the Turangalila here. a lot of Sound-Dust strikes me as Komeda production & arrangements of Messiaen chord sequences). One of my favorite Stereolab moments ever is that shifting filtered sequence at the end of "Gus The Mynah-Bird", which reminds me of "Vingt Regards".
Messiaen POV / POX
Parts 7 & 8 of the 'Stereolab Origins' series, part 8 includes a bit of the Turangalila
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV78kmTqH3k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn7vfuC-waE
― Milton Parker, Monday, 28 January 2008 23:49 (1 year ago) Permalink
Maybe he's talking about this? Pupils of Messaien, A Capella Works by Messaien, Stockhausen & Xenakis - one of the Stockhausen pieces, Agnus Dei, describes the Lamb of God by saying, "its step makes the sound of rainfall on the dust."
― dad a, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 03:27 (1 year ago) Permalink
Anyone heard the Monade record? I like it but it's basically just Cobra and Phases Group without the fiddlier bits.
― Dimension 5ive, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 03:34 (1 year ago) Permalink
the other day I found a copy of the "Stereolab" edition of Tchaikovsky's Symphony #6 Pathetique on Vanguard - the 'Lab nicked the cover design for the sleeve of "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music". Wish I could post a scan, can't find an image online...
― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 11 September 2008 17:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
http://www.discogs.com/Stereolab-Explosante-Fixe/release/1469221
http://www.amazon.com/Boulez-Explosante-fixe-Ensemble-Intercontemporain/dp/B0007404HI
the Stereolab Origins series on Youtube is up to episode 13. It's so much fun, you try to guess which track is about to be cut to, providing a vague match, but I'm out of my depth by this point (though man, it's clear I really need to hunt down every last Don Cherry album I can find)
― Milton Parker, Monday, 20 April 2009 19:11 (7 months ago) Permalink
4) The alternate set list name for "Blips" is "Emil". Surprised?
Nooo
― Milton Parker, Monday, 20 April 2009 19:19 (7 months ago) Permalink
ha ha WOW the first one on part IX, biggest laugh yet
― Milton Parker, Monday, 20 April 2009 19:21 (7 months ago) Permalink
More film references:"Fuses": http://www.ubu.com/film/schneeman_fuses.html"Three Women":
And updated links for previously mentioned films:"Kyberneticka Babicka": "Emperor Tomato Ketchup" (NSFW):
― ernestp, Saturday, 24 October 2009 15:03 (3 weeks ago) Permalink