Broadcast. How could I have been so wrong?

reissues coming

I guess this means my og vinyl copies won't be worth $$$ anymore :(

i got haha sound a couple years ago and wasn't into it, it just made me want to listen to Stereolab. but i got the work and non work comp yesterday and it rules

Oh yeah that Work & Non Work compilation is perfection. One of my most played albums ever. They did a great job sequencing those songs.

Have you listened to Ha Ha Sound recently? Give it another shot.

I highly recommend any Broadcast fans check out the Cat's Eyes song "Names on The Mountains".

I've been rediscovering Broadcast lately. The first album (Noise Made By People) is by far the one I'm most familiar with. I love the thing they did with Focus Group too. I should really take the time to check out the other stuff.

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.