LM Artist Poll No. 74 · STEREOLAB · Results Thread

Good morning! The rollout today starts with a collaboration.

http://i.imgur.com/yMJEidj.jpg
35. Animal or Vegetable 6 votes, 143 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Crumb Duck 7" w/NWW (1993)

wow, crazy

[no comments due to everyone listening to the full duration of this track]

Always thought Crumb Duck EP was one of the cooler things they did

Shoot forgot the yt link:

http://youtu.be/h56tXx8JHMI

one of my favorites, voted it high

http://i.imgur.com/KbSQGPY.jpg
TIE 33. The Light that Will Cease to Fail 7 votes, 143 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Super 45 10" (1991)
http://youtu.be/5F1OcUB3GKM

http://i.imgur.com/3IOmluw.jpg
TIE 33. The Noise of Carpet 7 votes, 143 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Noises EP / Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996)
http://youtu.be/8qisn5damOI

I think I for gat about Noise of Carpet when I put my ballot together because it definitely is one of my favorites. I love when she gets real strident in her vocal delivery. I wish the continued to do heavy songs like this every once in a while after this.

*forgot

http://i.imgur.com/DYTQbzn.jpg
32. Transona Five 6 votes, 145 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Mars Audiac Quintet (1994)
http://youtu.be/FKrYdhMdBfM

that's five from MAQ! has any album placed as many so far?

'We're on the road againnnnnnn'

I think ETK has?

Oh no, youre right four from ETK.

http://i.imgur.com/gwL1DTM.jpg
31. Tomorrow is Already Here 7 votes, 149 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996)

5 vs 5 now

http://i.imgur.com/ppX509g.jpg
30. Motoroller Scalatron 6 votes, 150 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996)
http://youtu.be/QHMe2nW0d08

6 now! New record.

Have any 1st-place votes shown up yet?

cool song, and something about it striking me as very Deerhoof. Like, if you raised the lead vocal up an octave, and sped it up by 20 bpm, it could be something on Apple O

Yes, several! Not in today's count though.

There are a couple in today's countdown later on. Most of them are stacked on the top 20.

Just checking out their UK chart history, and there was a moment '94-'97 (washed onto commercial shores with BritPop, I guess, though they stood far apart from it) when they sort of had a fringe mainstream presence - and then it promptly vanished:

Mars Audiac Quintet #16
Music for the Amorphous Body Study Center (mini) #59
Emperor Tomato Ketchup #27
Refried Ectoplasm #30
Dots and Loops #19
Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night #92
Sound-Dust #117
Margerine Eclipse #108
Chemical Chords #102

I mean, jeez, #117 with a bullet for Sound-Dust? I've probably seen terrible indie chancers playing third on the bill on the toilet circuit who managed that with a bit of favourable press and some Lamacq/Peel-as-was radio play. I honestly thought everything they released debuted inside the top 20 up to and including the 4AD record.

Xpost: yes, it does sound Deerhoof-esque. A bit tighter but it's the same sort of sonic palette they use.

Tomorrow Is Already Here and Motoroller Scalatron always reminded me of campfire singalongs

I think Sound-Dust was terribly overlooked. I think Cobra at the time was an album that made many people lose interest and it didn't help with the organic hype. If Cobra had stayed an ep or series of eps, I think the hype surrounding Sound Dust would have helped them have a better comeback (sales-wise) on the new decade. The album is excellent, maybe even with Cobra deflating interest in the band, marketing efforts would have helped.

There also seemed to be a shift in the "indie" audience from the 90s into the 00s, at least from my perspective. Early 00's electro and hip hop were in vogue, poptimism had won and the indie crowd were more into party music than the more introspective and delicate songs in Sound Dust.

Speaking of which... Final tie in the poll and contains one of my favorite sound dust songs:

http://i.imgur.com/jBIibVn.jpg
TIE 28. Captain Easychord 7 votes, 151 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Captain Easychord EP / Sound-Dust (2001)
http://youtu.be/KZ9z0Puurgk

http://i.imgur.com/TPCTKlC.jpg
TIE 28. Our Trinitone Blast 7 votes, 151 points. 0 first place votes.
From: Transient Random Noise-Bursts... (1993)
http://youtu.be/IZsuqlJ4kUI

wow, nice. Our Trinitone Blast is another one, like The Noise of Carpet, where Laetitia's vocals sound much more impassioned and forceful. Love it.

Really like the outro on the album version of Captain Easychord.

Amazing run so far today, five of these nine were on my ballot.

There was definitely something uncool about Stereolab in 2001, they were a safe firm of retro that seemed so unadventurous all of a sudden. At least compared to what they'd been doing five years earlier. I blame John McEntire's production (I'm sort of serious about this).

Safe form of retro, rather. Maybe I'll think this over some more when I'm not typing this on my phone.

The show I saw on the Cobra and Phases tour was easily the largest I've ever seen them play, and it was also fairly uninspired. I felt bad because I had excitedly dragged a couple friends to it who had never seen them before. Don't know if this was a common experience at that time.

On the flip side, shows that I saw in support of Microbe Hunters and Sound-Dust were some of their best and had lots of energy.

I never experienced a bad or even lacklustre Stereolab show. They were always good. Even on the final North American tour (2008 I think) they were on fire. Best shows were in the mid-90s though. Love live Stereolab so much. I had ABC Music on my ballot for this reason - it's the best representation of what they sounded like live. It's brilliant that there are complete concerts on youtube now.

Oh man, I kind of wish I listed ABC Music on the album portion now -- yeah, they have this louder more aggressive sound that appeals to me a lot.

I sadly only got into them during Chemical Chords, which was the only time I got to see the play live. Still one of the funnest gigs I've been to, though.

MAQ vs ETK goes 6 on 6 once again.

http://i.imgur.com/lVKrnUJ.jpg
27. Wow & Flutter 6 votes, 153 points. 1 first place votes.
From: Wow and Flutter EP / Mars Audiac Quintet (1994)
https://youtu.be/JI-G5Cd6OeU

haha hanging chad MAQ vote here!

actually, it's really cool how often single and album versions would be different, like the synth stuff on the EP version

Love that song but didn't vote for it haha. The contemplative stoner lyrics are great.

Years since I heard 'Our Trinitone Blast' didn't remember Laetitia sounding so 90's with that distorted vox effect, it's a really cool song.

I'm happy it was only a style exercise on this song, I'm not sure I'd love her using those vocals on a full album.

Probably wouldn't be great all the time, but I would like to hear it a bit more.

And once again ETK takes the lead. This is my favorite song on the album, so not complaining.

http://i.imgur.com/UYIYj56.jpg
26. Emperor Tomato Ketchup 6 votes, 159 points. 1 first place vote.
From: Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996)
https://youtu.be/SuwTHHHCGU8

great tune. in all seriousness, I might have truly learned to love minimalism through Stereolab.

Cool drums in this

http://i.imgur.com/vWcqDRA.jpg
25. Revox 8 votes, 162 points. 0 first place votes.
From: John Cage Bubblegum 7" (1993)
https://youtu.be/YaU48UtxrVc

To elaborate on what I was trying to say earlier: Stereolab in the 90's were a catalogue of then-obscure musical reference points. I hadn't heard anything by Neu or Can when I discovered Stereolab, and I think most other fans were in the same boat (reissues of their material didn't pick up steam until well into the 90's). So here was a band who were obviously way cooler and smarter than you and were in tune with all sorts of amazing music that most people knew little about. And they were pouring all that acquired knowledge directly into their music.

By 2001, Your Hard Drive was the album of the year, seemingly everything worth owning had been reissued during the 90's, albums that people would spend years hunting down were easily available through filesharing, so who really needed a band like Stereolab to tell you what was cool and worth listening to? They were starting to sound passe, and so Sound Dust was relatively overlooked.

And starting with "Dots and Loops", their music was sounding overly clean and digital, and all the organ drones and hacking rhythm guitar lines were gone or turned way down in the mix. Their earlier albums were so much livelier for me.

Dots & Loops is a great album! You take that back!

Or I'll post a D&L song.