Stars of the Lid

For some reason Jessica Balliff comes to mind as a kindred soul on Kranky. Both are great choices for long lonely road trips, I think.

stars of the lid on a road trip? i would fall asleep in 10 minutes.

i suggest you try it (with a passager in case you go under)

what it like?

fucking geniuses.

has mcbride done anything since tired sounds (other than playing upfront for fulham thati s. actually, isnt that mcbride a texan too?)

http://www.brainwashed.com/common/htdocs/discog/krank088.html

Are Stars of the Lid like that as well? If Gareth likes them, chances are I would, as well.

requiem for dying mothers part two is filling my room right now and sounds amazing

perhaps i am revealing my innocence, but i do not know what the name, "stars of the lid" refers to. do you?

i love the aegena airlines track from that (http://www.brainwashed.com/common/video/mov/the_dead_texan-aegina_airlines.mov), rest is good, but not essential

adam pacione 'sisyphus' (elevator bath)

very similar vary good

I thought of them yesterday when I heard Harold Budd & Eno's "The Pearl" for the first time, and it struck me as Dead Texan-esque.

Oh, really? Whoops. I knew that someone else did the artwork and the videos for the accompanying DVD, but I didn't know there was a musical collaborator.

"don't worry chief,
there is news and a new 2xcd 3xlp to come.

should be availible in march/april at the latest..."

I'm putting "Stars of the Lid Chief" on my business card, if I ever get one.

It's just plain odd, and quite possibly counterproductive, seeing SOTL at the top of the Metacritic list of albums of 2007. Kind of counter to their whole ethos.

it produces some pretty funny backlash comments though so i'm all for it

Robin C. gave it a 2:
This is a joke,right? These critics have such a wacky sense of humour.

Chris C gave it a 3:
Indie kids decided that the new vogue was a bunch of random tones slowly fading in and out? Why didn't they send me a memo?!

Hehheh.

Best:

Matt A. gave it a1:
This album licks my balls. It's even worse than The Field and so I guess it makes sense in an ironic way that it beats out that atrocity of an album for best of the year on this web site. The critics need to get a clue that they aren't proving anything by raving about this crap. It's aimless electronic nonsense and anyone with ears and half-decent taste in music can tell you that.

Interesting that this was revived, I finally got around to hearing this today. It was pleasant enough. Good ambient music. But top of the list?

xpost
Those comments are hilarious indeed.

I don't understand why it would be counter to their ethos? Unless you mean it's odd to rate it competitively. But it's always fun to read idiot comments.

ironically, this is probably their most "pop" record though in that there are clear melodies/passages in almost every track that stick out in my head and work as hooks, which didn't happen for me with most of tired sounds

it's a bit less minimal and more cinematic than any of their previous albums but i didn't really see anyone touch on this in any of the reviews linked from the metacritic page

I noticed those comments earlier. And chuckled briefly.

ironically, this is probably their most "pop" record though in that there are clear melodies/passages in almost every track that stick out in my head and work as hooks, which didn't happen for me with most of tired sounds

it's a bit less minimal and more cinematic than any of their previous albums but i didn't really see anyone touch on this in any of the reviews linked from the metacritic page

-- ciderpress, Sunday, 18 November 2007 23:18

I'd partially agree with that.. certainly the occasional track like 'Even If You're Never Awake (Deuxieme)' is markedly hooky by their standards.

i think my favorite part of that metacritic page is
GENRE(S): Rock, Electronic

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)

it's the first record in my ambient collection, alphabetically, and i can't count the number of times i've stepped over to that shelf to listen to something without words and immediately grabbed Aix Em Klemm upon seeing it.

it's always hard to pick individual tracks on ambient releases, but "the luxury of dirt" always stands out to me. otherworldly, lovely synth.

Agree with this. It's funny, though, because this is an album I really love where I always skip the first track. Isn't there a thread about that? I know some people love "The Girl With The Flesh Colored Crayon" but I can't stand that style of singing, and if I'd just heard that one track without having already been a Labradford / SotL fan I'd have never checked out this amazing album. There are vocals on another track too but they don't bug me nearly as much.

the first AWVFTS album is great

Speaking of Labradford, I can’t listen to them because on multiple albums they seem to have embedded extremely high pitches in their music, on the edge of my hearing range, but right in the sweet spot of my dog’s hearing - she goes crazy (not in a good way(

is she a labradorford?

we're not 100% sure (shelter dog; intriguing past), but i can say confidently that she is NOT a labradorford. she can't stand it!

i can't believe i wasted my best joke ever in the stars of the lid thread

think of this thread as the training grounds for the joke. you can spend 10, 15 years working on it here. and then, when SotL releases something new, you can unleash it in another thread

Not to cut across what is one of the finest jokes I've ever seen but this has bugged me for a bit: are Labradford named after the basketball player or is it something more obvious/arcane?

Not sure, but it does seem like A Stable Reference to something.

The second best joke in the thread!

I'll take it :)

maybe she'd like CS + Kreme's Snoopy?

I enjoy the first two AWVFTS albums and like their subsequent stuff just fine, though nothing as transcendent as the high bar of Stars of the Lid. Have not listened to anything from new album yet.

I just listened to Aix Em Klemm for the first time in a long time, just the other day. Agree re the first track, which is also why some of the early Labradford albums are hit-and-miss for me.

Am I wrong or does Labradford only do the high-pitch thing on Mi Media Naranja? It's in multiple tracks on that album but I don't recall it on their other albums.

Not to cut across what is one of the finest jokes I've ever seen but this has bugged me for a bit: are Labradford named after the basketball player or is it something more obvious/arcane?

― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Wednesday, February 3, 2021 9:33 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

my assumption is it is a take on the band name "La Düsseldorf".

referencing the town in west yorkshire, beloved of american people everywhere

Courtesy of BandNameOrigins.com:

How did Labradford get their name? Sorry, we don't know how Labradford got their name.

stars of the leeds xp

A Wakefield Victory for the Sullen.

Sigh. It was the best I could do.

thought that was pretty good.

Am I wrong or does Labradford only do the high-pitch thing on Mi Media Naranja? It's in multiple tracks on that album but I don't recall it on their other albums.

At least Fixed::Context has the high pitched sounds appearing.

I think the new one is lovely.

that is, Invisible Cities. I imagine it would work quite well for its original purpose, too.

From a FB post today. Maybe there will be another album one day:

Once upon a time if you wanted to go away for a while it might have been easier to disappear without being swallowed by the internet.
Lately, there has been a myriad nefarious activity (vacuous sounds uploaded digitally & unauthorised physical product) that it behooved oneself to trademark the Stars Of The Lid moniker. Part of this new endeavour is an official merchandise store Hello Merch We are slowly digging into the archives and re-printing former tour-shirts from ages long ago, starting with these two visible in this post (More arriving in time for Christmas) And in our gruesome passive-aggressive way, eventually some new music, unless the world ends next week, which seems plausible at this point…

Order: https://www.hellomerch.com/collections/stars-of-the-lid
Order: https://www.hellomerch.com/collections/adam-wiltzie

I saw that post and totally skipped over the part at the end because I thought it was just about march, damn I'll take any glimmer of hope for new music from them

And one of them is already sold out completely. Jesus, you really do just have to jump on everything IMMEDIATELY these days to even have a chance. Good for them, this bodes well for more shirts and merch down the road.

!!!!!!!

legit just did a little yelp.

https://www.facebook.com/100050668261250/posts/518163743215897/

nice remembrance of making Ballasted Orchestra, for its 25th anniversary. not even attached to a reissue or anything.

I was watching a recent French spy drama. The protagonist had completely screwed the pooch - he'd misjudged a situation, his agent had been captured, total disaster. His response, almost instantly, was to trash his apartment. I sat there watching thinking "I would never do that". In that situation all my anger would be turned inward, to curdle into shame. It would never have occurred to me to direct it outwards like that. My therapist made the point that the anger is going to go somewhere. She often tries to connect me to a healthy, self-protective, outward-directed anger.

Luckily for me, anytime I need to do that I just need to visit the RYM page for Gravitational Pull vs The Desire for An Aquatic Life, so I can read Threntall's review: "Cool, warm and enveloping drones. Very much what the rest of their more famous discography sounds like. Not really good enough to standout, but certainly enjoyable and relaxing to listen to."

New AWVFTS single? Why thank you.

https://awvfts.bandcamp.com/album/all-our-friends-are-vampires

Good job there Whiney

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/how-stars-of-the-lid-made-two-ambient-masterworks-20150721🕸

god DAMMIT sotl you’re killing me! Aaaaaagh oooh nooo *dead*

xpost

Doh how did I do that. Hmm.

Anyway this stood out to me, possibly cause I read this thread backwards and that newish post about dealing with anger was in my mind.

McBride: I like late at night because there’s no distractions. There’s very little chance there’s gonna be dogs barking. You’re not gonna get phone calls. Working on the music, for me, it’s kind of important to not fake it in some ways, to not try to force this emotional state out of it, to sort of pay attention to what’s going on in your life, if you’re feeling inspired or motivated just letting it happen. Especially after you’ve released a bunch of records for a long time, you don’t want to manufacture longing.

Anyway that link is dead, here’s the live (lid) one:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/how-stars-of-the-lid-made-two-ambient-masterworks-63198/

And what’s a good starting point for AWVFTS? Any consensus there?

The new Winged Victory single is reliably pretty, but there was something about the merging of McBride and Wiltzie's sensibilities that was of a fundamentally different order - Wiltzie left to his own devices, or with O'Halloran in Winged Victory, tends to the syrupy I find, whereas perhaps McBride scuffed the edges a bit in even the last two SOTL records.. I prefer McBride's solo records, at any rate, and I've long since given up on the idea of new SOTL, despite the rather infuriating tendency that they have to vaguely intimate new music every few years or so.

And what’s a good starting point for AWVFTS? Any consensus there?

― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Wednesday, March 15, 2023 bookmarkflaglink

Start with the first album and go chronologically until you start to get bored. They’re good but they lack the secret sauce of SotL.

…and as much as I like Wiltzie I think McBride is that secret sauce, as evidenced by his first solo album which I rate nearly as high as the last to Stars albums.

I love the first album. "Steep Hills of Vicodin Tears" was on my nighttime playlist for years.

yeah, i've enjoyed their separate efforts quite a bit. i wish i could listen to them without knowing about stars of the lid. but SotL was and is so very special. i think upthread is a spot where i got to see them live. it was just brilliant, one of the top few hours of my life

xpost

Seems we are mostly in consensus. I too appreciate that little bit of a sharp rough tang that gives their work as a duo just that hint of seasoning.

Based on y’all’s recommendations I’ll put McBride’s first solo release on my list. That would be When The Detail Lost Its Freedom, published under his own name? Still trying to get all the names of their different acts sorted — Dead Texan is also a Wiltzie project, okay I’m starting to piece together the clues here.

Lmao wish I could say witnessing a musical performance was a peak life experience. That time I was really high when I was in high school and Primus played my hometown? Nah probably not. I did very much vibe with Sonic Youth at Lollapalooza in Atlanta. Okay sorry tangent.

Yes, When the Detail…

McBride hasn’t had as many side projects. His two solo albums are pretty much it. He was in a group called Bell Gardens (I think?) but iirc they’re not really the same. Wiltzie by far the more prolific of the two.

Until I read this thread, I had no idea that AWVFTS had anything to do with Stars of the Lid. For some reason, I never paid attention to who the musicians were.

Cheers to pfwp for clarification.

Respect always to Jimbeaux too, dissenting view on AWVFTS duly noted. Steep Hills of Vicodin Tears is passable, If you’d told me it was a newer SotL release I doubt I’d know the difference. It definitely follows the typical formula, the simple melody gradually building to a muted crescendo. It just lacks that special something tho.

I will say, for AWVFTS - I *love* Dustin O’Halloran’s theme for the tv show Transparent

I did say it was part of my nighttime playlist LOL. Literally the one I used to go to sleep. It was perfect for that purpose, and that's not a knock.

Right, I have Requiem for Dying Mothers Parts 1 & 2 on my Nap playlist which are the songs with by far the most plays in my entire library.

Still I have to wonder if this poster is okay?

I like to play 'Requiem for Dying Mothers Part 2' from 'Tired Sounds....' on a 24/7 loop

…
― Jessie Fer Ark (Mobbed Up Ping Pong Psychos), Sunday, 2 November 2014 23:06

I love SotL, as everyone should, but WVFtS bores me to tears, for many of the reasons stated above. Seeing them live early on definitely did not change my mind

have never dived into WVftS and this conversation is not exactly lighting a fire under me. But When the Detail Lost its Freedom is A+++, I definitely love it as much as the SotL records, though I think of it as pretty different (at least within the paradigm of this type of music, I'm sure they'd be indistiguishable to someone pulled off the street)

I really love the album that Wiltzie made with Robert Donne from Labradford under the name Aix em Klemm— I think it’s Wiltzie’s best work outside of SotL.

yep, that one's great!

I still believe that The Dead Texan record is the best non-SotL record by a SotL member.