Stars of the Lid

So, it's become imperative that I buy either "Tired Sounds. . ." or "And Their Refinement of the Decline." Either way, Is there any consensus on which is better to get first? From what I gather the consensus says Tired sounds is more so, and I'm not too familiar with, and don't want to burden myself with the arduous task of actually deciding for myself. Or, is there not much difference?

start with tired sounds, yes.

*Should say "Not too familiar with "And Their Refinement. . ." I have, in fact, made my own decisions before.

tired sounds is more singular in tone to atrotd; atrotd goes for full-on widescreen euphoria, where tired sounds culminates with a series of endless blissed out drones. kinda like the difference between inner and outer space. both are some of the best music ever recorded imo so you need both really. even if you only start with one you'll get the other eventually.

going to watch them live on monday. gonna be sick.

I agree with the post above re: the singular tone vs widesceen thing, and that if you like the one you'll want the other eventually. Still, I'd say start with Tired Sounds, as it contains perhaps the greatest consecutive 15 minutes of music they've ever made - Requiem for Dying Mothers, Pts 1 and 2, which somehow manages to evoke the feeling of drifting around in North Atlantic coastal waves, or some impossibly long descent from the top of a tree as a falling leaf, or maybe just peaceful last breaths before dying, all without sounding nearly as gay as I just made it sound. And the rest of the album is nearly as good. Refinement goes for a more varied blissed out feeling, and succeeds, mostly, but if you dig the melancholy mood of Tired Sounds, you'll be obsessed.

i was really upset by those metacritic posts.

Of the next 5-10 cd's I buy, there's a good chance both will be included. It's honestly sometimes hard to fathom how much of an affect they can get out of so little, it's some of the most viscerally captivating and straightforward music I've heard in so long.

woohoo, live in Seattle at the Triple Door 4/18!!!
(with Christopher Willits and Lusine)

a while back a friend gave me all of their albums, and because i get so much music all the time, i didn't really pay them any attention.

and now i've been listening to Avec Laudenum and Refinement on the daily.

i should add that i was incredibly distracted by the other stuff he gave me, too: lots of Plank and rare Eno shit.

woohoo, live in Seattle at the Triple Door 4/18!!!
(with Christopher Willits and Lusine)

― Mackro Mackro, Friday, February 29, 2008 9:37 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark

i love these guys but if my experience seeing them live is any guide you were way too excited about a Stars of the Lid show

I"m pretty sure "Dungtitled" is still my top track on Last.fm

anyone else see them closing the Brainwaves festival last night? they were great!

I saw them friday in nyc. great show.

That tour CD they were selling this year is really, really good. I guess it's a combination of earlier rarities + new tracks, although I haven't been able to find anything that lists which is which and where they come from. The only track on it that I recognize is "Virginia", a 20 minute cover of a Labradford song. It's actually one of the weaker songs on the CD. The last song exists in the middle ground between SotL and Dead Texan.

I bring all of this up only because I noticed that they're selling the left over copies of the tour CD on kranky's website now, if anyone's interested.

I forgot to mention, one of the guitarists said something like, "we're stars of the lid and this is the last time you'll see us in... a long, long time" right before they started playing. pretty cryptic. I took it as, "touring is no fun and we won't be doing it again anytime soon" but who knows.

@ nikefanatic90: Sup (Z S), the discogs entry for Carte-De-Viste gives details of where the various tracks come from: http://www.discogs.com/release/1143841

Tracklisting:
1 The Mouthchew (Part 2) (3:45)
2 JPRIP (4:37)
3 Requiem String Melody (2:46)
4 Porch (Version #28) (5:00)
5 The Kraut (9:42)
6 Slight On The Childproof (5:01)
7 Virginia (20.03) (20:05)
8 Hunting For Pops (5:24)
9 The Funereal (2:27)

¤ Tracks 1, 6 and 8 are out takes from And Their Refinement Of The Decline
¤ Tracks 2 and 3 are out takes from The Tired Sounds Of
¤ Track 4 is an out take from Maneuvering The Nocturnal Hum
¤ Track 7 was previously released as part of The Kahanek Incident - Volume 3
¤ Tracks 5 and 9 are previously unreleased (1999 and 1997 respectively)

Ah, thank you for that!

I was going to say earlier, on one of the tracks there was the same deep, resonating, buttitch-inducing bass tone that comes up in "Requiem for Dying Mothers, pt. 2" on The Tired Sounds Of, so it doesn't surprise me that it's an outtake.

I am surprised that The Funereal is from way back in 1997. It's more "active" than most of their other material, particularly their stuff from back then.

Stars of the Lid are planning a movie...

http://sunhammerpounding.blogspot.com/2008/11/stars-of-lid-plan-feature-film.html

Wonder if non-Youtube clips will embed?

http://vimeo.com/1847116?pg=embed&sec=1847116

I heard that Adam was becoming sort of bored with the set list.

lol

Had no idea that Brian had a new band: http://www.bellgardensmusic.com/

I think I'll pass on this one after hearing those samples.

Roffle

http://spinalbap.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/blog-post.html

Live in London:

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/187786

lol at that link ned posted:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-f4t_enzgKJg/T5bzTGTVWQI/AAAAAAAAAL0/mm1OYHQR4F0/s640/SL1.bmp

can't believe it's been 5 years since And Their Refinement of the Decline.

does a new live gig mean there's a new album in the works?

Promoter's page is silent on the matter. Going to have to spend the next month huffing their older stuff so I don't mistake it for new.

this band remains really something.

itunes tells me i listened to tired sounds...167 times this year. that's not counting playing it on my phone, or on spotify, or on cd, or anything else. some days i think i could only listen to the two parts of "requiem..." happily for the rest of my life.

They played Requiem last night, and December Hunting, and er others - including a new piece. I read somewhere that you can't fully experience SotL without seeing them live which is always a bullshit line - sucks to be you if you never get the chance - but especially in this case when you really don't want the real world intruding on and distracting your experience. Yes I mean the hell of other people. The venue was fantastic, a large church, freezing cold which seemed oddly appropriate, and a wall with stained glass in the middle and large expanses of white plaster either side where the amazing visuals were projected. TBH the crowd weren't too bad, a few cameraphones here and there at the beginning and one bloke in front of me writing a text wtf you arsehole, but once December had reached its impossible series of ever increasing crescendos everyone that i could see was pretty much stunned into passivity. But there was a bar in the rear corner and in the quieter moments you could hear the clinking of bottles and chinking of cash drawers all the way through the gig. So overall it was awe-inspiring enough but I never achieved transcendence.

Also there was a loud crash in the middle of one of the songs, I looked around and up in the pulpit was the photographer leaning over and looking glum. Wasn't sure if he was just into the music but previously he'd been strolling round quite indifferently. Turns out he'd just knocked one of his lenses onto the floor ten feet below.

Also I still feel like I've got a long way to go before I've internalised most of their stuff, but The Ballasted Orchestra is in to my top 3 with a bullet.

Ledge did you see the concert at St Giles a couple of years ago?

I fell asleep standing up the last time I saw these guys live

You couldn't have fallen asleep during "December...", bass was immense. Didn't see them at St Giles (4 years ago more like), I saw them at ATP around the same time but that setting lends itself even less well to transcendence, although reasonably well to a kind of semi-distracted acquiescence.

I only fell asleep for like 10 mins, the show was great, but still

uuuuuuugh, i can't TAKE these long waits between records!! it's KILLING ME

it's been about 6 years now since refinement. same as between tired sounds and refinement (2001-2007)

uuumnnnnnnngggh

there's a new kate bush album

last week's NYT review of a 'rare performance' of the band, says there's a "forthcoming album." it didn't say when the new disc would be released, but it gave me hope for something new in 2014.

for real, how long has it been since the last one? jeez.
wonder if there's a recording of this set out there hmmm

damn this show looks like it was amazing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezG4FgNjZJk

from their FB page - "thank you for everyone that came out in the NYC area. lovely review in the times. we are humbled by your continued support, and hope to have something finished sooner than later, so stay tuned...."

There's also a pic on their Facebook page, if you scroll a bit, from recording sessions.

That NYC clip, damn. Excited to hear that they're still together and that more music is forthcoming. I thought that Adam had indefinitely shifted his focus to Winged Victory for the Sullen (whom I also adore, to be fair.)

"Winged Victory for the Sullen" is another great name

He's apparently doing both: AWVFTS just put out a new song: http://open.spotify.com/album/3h2DxHzPLS2xxJ1j6es3Ss

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/stars-lid-and-wordless-music-orchestra/

Lately I have been listening to Brian McBride's first solo album, When the Detail Lost Its Freedom, and damn if it's not every bit as good as Tired Sounds and Refinement.

good stuff

Winged Victory's first album ranks just as highly, verges into Erased Tapes territory (and it's... released on Erased Tapes so go figure) but it's a nice "spa day" version of SotL

I rank four SotL albums as "perfect": Ballasted, Laudanum, Tired and Refinement. I don't know if I've listened to Gravitational vs. Aquatic

Refinement will always be my favorite, Tired next, then When the Detail Lost Its Freedom

Table, that’s my ranking too.

My esteem of “Refinement” has matured like a fine wine over time. I loved it when it came out, but since then I’ve come to consider it one of the top albums of the 2000s, and then the 21st Century, and now I consider it one of my top albums of all time, period. Tired Sounds is excellent but hasn’t quite matured like that for me. And I only discovered Music for Nitrous Oxide after the latest repress, though I was really impressed by it out of the gate. Refinement, though, what a special album.

i have a clear memory of driving through the mojave national preserve on my way back to la listening to 'refinement'. it was a strong beam of light and peace that reached me during a dark and turbulent time.

I never connected with this band, not really, despite it being right in my wheelhouse. Ambient, Kranky, etc. But I'm listening to “Refinement” for the first time in eons, maybe really listening for the first time, and boy is it connecting. (At the same time, I'm having vague flashbacks to dozens of different documentaries and indie films.)

I only started liking Kranky stuff when I got old and my ears got tired

“Tired Sounds” suit tired ears - especially if you are old and, ahem, Kranky.