Broadcast. How could I have been so wrong?

I was going to say that they bore me, but I realised I was thinking of Stereolab and Pram. I quite enjoy what Broadcast I've heard.

I'd now like to see them do a mostly-instrumental long-player. Many of those b-sides and certainly the Microtronics EP hint at a groovy electro-jazz thing which is probably best left unconstrained by song structures.

I confess. I too tossed Broadcast's first album in the "sell" bin almost immediately after receiving my advance of The Noise... because they sounded too much like Stereolab. I admit. I did not give Broadcast much time to sink in. I promise to make it up to you and Broadcast very, very soon.

Sincerly,
Sneeky

OTM OTM OTM. That they're also a ref. point for Stereolab (SOME S'lab) is probably the confusing thing...

Yep, I shouldn't try posting to ILM without the CD in front of me.

noise made by people doesn't sound anything like stereolab. i think the fact that they released their first single on stereolab's lable is where the comparisons come from. broadcast is much more classically pop than stereolab, far better too, less willing to push a bad idea for a half an hour just to prove they can.

The Stereolab comparison is apt because Broadcast is to the United States of America as Stereolab is to Neu. And BTW, Broadcast is really only similar to the first song on the USA album (American Metaphysical Circus?).

although i must admit that first song in 3/4 is kind of charming, like a children's TV song.

There's a couple of live bootlegs floating around, the best recent one for sound quality was recorded at the Cafe de la Danse, early on in the Haha Sound tour.

2003. Impressed but ultimately unmoved by Ha Ha Sound. Saw them live; still impressed; still unmoved. (Although a couple of friends were in raptures.)

"Before We Begin" seems like the PERFECT kick-off or wrapup track to a crushmix right? WRONG. For some bizarre interstellar reason, it backfires embarrassingly/frequently as "Something ABout Us." I think it's just wiser these days to take her on a lot of blingy and fun car rides and note all the songs she really likes from different CDs you play, then ask her if she wants the mix, then make it, but provide no tracklist, and when she asks for it, pull it out your pocket, put it into your fly, zip up, and sheepishly say yo while pointing at yr mangina. "Come and get it then, heh." If she bites, you're awesome. If she doesn't, prepare a campus-wide damage-control plan immediately, and never make a crushtape ever again. Why are you even reading this?

i was asking myself that exact question

Today ridicule, tomorrow really cool.

Broadcast don't have a regular drummer these days as far as i can make out, there seems to be 3 members with people being hired in to play the other instruments e.g. the drummer for the tour you saw was Julian Barnes of Bablicon/Hawk and a Hacksaw.

Indeed, but the correct comparison should be with White Noise's An electric storm.

i found the early stuff, work and non-work etc, all pretty sterile, antiseptic, didnt like her voice that much, it all sounded like good music, was in the style of good music, but, somehow it wasnt. so i kind of switched off, pretty much like i switched off from all those class of 97 bands in the end (jameson, electric sound of joy, mogwai, magnetaphone, plone, mahogany, fridge), because none of them really seemed to have any fizz, any life,

so, i havent really heard noise made by people, or haha sound. but, the consensus seems to be that theyve really picked up since then?

they never made a bad record

How can one object to Broadcast for sounding like Stereolab yet praise Work And Non Work? Oh wait it's a flappy bird post never mind

The version of "Unchanging Window (Chord Simple)" from EP2 is probably my favourite Broadcast track ever.

xpost i didn't object to them sounding like Stereolab, i don't even remember what Ha Ha Sound is like. nearly two years ago it didn't click. and now i dig Work and Non Work. woof

Ha Ha Sound sounds less like Stereolab than Work and Non Work. Regardless, the more you listen to Broadcast the less you think they sound like Stereolab at all.

Like many great bands Broadcast sounds like no one else but they evoke an uncanny sense of familiarity. They don't really sound like Stereolab but they bring you back mentally to a similar idea of the 60s that is also an idea of the future.

Tried to phrase that in a less cloying way but whatever. Great band.

I wrote an essay in my head years ago but never typed it up about what they really have in common. Basically they're both amazing record geek bands with specific sets of influences that they rip off wholesale where the sum is more than the parts, and the most major difference between the bands is the differing choice of source material.

That's a simplification obviously but it makes some sense to me.

Work And Non-Work is the one that finally sucked me in after trying with several others

my initial entry point was that Motorway Mix that went around after Trish died, I love that thing

The Broadcast sound does seem to operate by stealth, i.e. its influences sound obvious and excessive but the more you replay the more you find deceptive side-steps that hook you back in.

Noodle Vague otm 11 years ago

All broadcast is good

The person who made the mammoth Stereolab Origins series on YouTube also made an eight part Broadcast one - here's the first.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqhqn2CeoTw

Was lucky to see them live in 2003 and I'm taken aback at just how well all of their albums have revealed their depth. I love those last couple of albums and am still sad about what could have been.

The Future Crayon is as great as any one of the albums - great 'b-side' band too.

Fantastic record covers too. I always felt like Julian House brought his A game for this band, even over the stuff on his own label.

Broadcast played twice on Halloween in Vancouver (afaik). Trish signed my Tender Buttons poster and commented on my "green hair" (I was dressed up as a senior and the neon lights turned my grey hair green). Trish is very much missed.

Anyone dig "Mother is the Milky Way" their tour EP? It was one of their last releases and it showcased a more pastoral folk side that was deeply trippy. Some tracks were naught more than a guitar and Trish' voice.

wait what I never even heard of that

1 for sale from $75.00, lol

https://www.discogs.com/Broadcast-Mother-Is-The-Milky-Way/release/1978395

Yeah, Mother is the Milky Way was very nice, felt like a continuation of the Focus Group collab LP. Just about everything they did was great, but for me Tender Buttons is their absolute masterpiece - with the help of a sentient fax machine they cranked out the most endlessly listenable collection of neon future pop ever.

Was lucky to see them live in 2003 and I'm taken aback at just how well all of their albums have revealed their depth. I love those last couple of albums and am still sad about what could have been.

Yeah, saw that same show with ET and it was truly special. As were they.

I stand by this I wrote five years back

https://nedraggett.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/rip-trish-keenan-of-broadcast/

Just about everything they did was great, but for me Tender Buttons is their absolute masterpiece - with the help of a sentient fax machine they cranked out the most endlessly listenable collection of neon future pop ever.

― J. Sam, Tuesday, December 6

I remember being disappointed with Tender Buttons when I first heard it, but over the years it's become my favourite. I'd have no problem putting it in my top 20 favourite albums ever now.

Yeah, it was very much a "grower" for me too.

xxxpost re. the 2003 N. American tour - in October 2003 CBC Radio broadcast the Vancouver live show. You can find it out there on the net. Perfect sound quality 10/10 highly recommended. (I have it on LOL minidisc)

wish they'd re-release that mother is the milky way CD... they've re-released the microtronics EPs so it's possible! and second tracking down one of their live shows floating around online... they're also really great.

Got into them through Work and Non-Work. Their *sound* was just like nothing I'd heard before.

As the band grew and evolved the Stereolab references got lazier and lazier imho, as they kept on sounding more like Broadcast with every record.

I bought The Noise Made By People when it came out, put it on, thought it sounded too much like The United States of America and didn't listen to it again.

Then when Tender Buttons came out I heard a song from it that I loved so I bought that.

Then I went back and bought Ha Ha Sound.

Then I got everything else.

I think Tender Buttons is really special, I think they stripped away the references of the first two LPs, and created this stark sound that's so amazing.

There really doesn't seem to be consensus on what their best album is. I'm guessing if we did a poll, Tender Buttons would probably win.

I'd bet on the noise as the winner but yeah between those two.

I love how popular they are on here. They won two of the best songs from the 2000s polls in the last month or so.

Haha Sound is my favourite. Hard to beat "Man is Not a Bird".

"Noise Made by People" was my first back in 2000, but I still think they improved on their sound on each subsequent release. "Unchanging Window" from NMBP vs. the EP2/Future Crayon re-imagines that song in a far less sterile way and with more of that muted bass groove. Saying that, it's hard to beat songs like "Come on Let's Go".

The Book Lovers is still the one for me. I just realised it's almost exactly 20 years since I first heard it on the John Peel show. Incredible song.

Only recently discovered they'd performed that on MTV in 97. Nice to see Trish with guitar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikrQzl3zJLs

^^ I still have that Alternative Nation episode (or at least one where they repeated this one) on Video 2000 somewhere.

(OT: MTV should upload all those AN episodes with Toby Amies somewhere, some really great live sessions)

Co-sign the Broadcast love. This track by Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve featuring Hannah Peel comes close to scratching that itch. With a healthy pinch of Stereolab too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtev3N2HQc0

also check out Lake Ruth for Broadcast-style vibes

xxxpost re. the 2003 N. American tour - in October 2003 CBC Radio broadcast the Vancouver live show.

Gwenno is a bit of a welsh Broadcast

xpost - great clip, thanks!

vanishing twin has phil jenkins on "strange sounds"

https://v-twin.bandcamp.com/

Vanishing Twin sounds right up my alley! Thanks maura.

I love how popular they are on here. They won two of the best songs from the 2000s polls in the last month or so.

― Kitchen Person,

in case people don't understand this statement: Acclaimed Music Top 40 Songs from 2000 poll

Black Cat won Moka's 2005 songs poll too.

that Gwenno album is excellent and I bet if she hadn't been one of the Pipettes it would have been a favourite round here

peluché will prob be up alleys here too

Cat's Eyes as well, who I've mentioned but are completely ignored everywhere it seems. They even did the soundtrack to Duke of Burgundy (same director as Berberian Sound Studio).

Witch Cults might still be my favorite album released this century. Definitely way way up there, at least.

Duke of Burgundy seemed practically designed around an imaginary Broadcast score it couldn't have.

that Gwenno album is excellent and I bet if she hadn't been one of the Pipettes it would have been a favourite round here

― boxedjoy,

Rose has made a couple of great albums too.