List The Direct References of Stereolab

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- le

great work, Milton!

This
http://www.yellowmelodies.com/e-zine/numero5/portadas/Stereol7.jpg

is supposed to be based on the comic series Pravda la Survireuse by Guy Peellaert.
http://www.bedetheque.com/thb_couv/pravda.jpg

Yes, this is a nice thread. Milton rocks.

nabisco, do they really reference _À Rebours_? That's one of my favorite books ever.

Here are the YouTube dissections of musical origins I was talking about. Apart from a couple things that seem too basic to see as steals (e.g., the Canned Heat), they're mostly pretty clear lifts or pastiches, without too many stretches -- and a couple disappointing "oh man, I can't believe you lifted the melody" parts. Mostly it's rhythmic grooves and feels they're snipping from things and using as a basis for their own stuff.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=IrFdR7I_kjM
http://youtube.com/watch?v=s9N1uwNEraM
http://youtube.com/watch?v=E9iiJy0jWSg
http://youtube.com/watch?v=LNAO-vqa6R0

Artists mentioned: Faust, Piero Piccioni, Canned Heat, Gal Costa, Krzystzof Komeda, Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre, Sun Ra, Snapper, Wanderlea, Laurie Anderson, the Association, the Archies, Serge Gainsbourg, Neu!, Silver Apples, Steve Reich, and Plastic Ono Band (as source of "Emperor Tomato Ketchup" bass line -- this was the only one that kinda surprised me!)

xpost turangalila I'm not 100% sure. 'against nature' is the title in translation and a direct reference would have used the original french. the lyrics do seem to me like a commentary or response to the book, I linked them upthread

if it is a reference it's admittedly not a very direct one (though I'm sure they've read it) -- with those lines about 'war', probably something else made the song's orbit as well

I actually liked this translation better, but I went for the pop edition to underscore the reference

You're talking about the bass line to "Metronomic Underground," I take it?
Yup, that's what I'm talking about, jaymc.

Milton I can't believe you didn't post this -

http://files.myopera.com/E.%20Driver/albums/35120/JohnCage.jpg

xxpost Milton

Hmm... yes. "Living fantasy of the immortal"

thanks!

I've actually only read it in Spanish. Going to buy this version you recommend!

Gastr del Sol opened for Stereolab at the Metro in Chicago back in the mid-90s, and a couple weeks before the show I bumped into David Grubbs at the Hyde Park Kinko's on 57th St. He showed me the gig flyer he was printing up which read "Stereolab - 'John Cage Bubblegum' / Gastr del Sol - 'Steve Reich n Roll'"

I didn't actually go that show tho. Dumb! I never saw Stereolab.

I HAVE THAT FIRST RECORD!

it's been so long, but they ripped the bassline for a song directly from a yoko ono tune from her first or second solo album

http://www.zenker.se/Books/the_stars_my_destination.jpg

http://www.see.com.au/blog/archives/Darren%20002.jpg

Prokofiev's Symphonie Diabolique:
http://website.lineone.net/~dmitrismirnov/image020.jpg

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51It1cvE6cL._SS500_.jpg

if it is a reference it's admittedly not a very direct one (though I'm sure they've read it) -- with those lines about 'war', probably something else made the song's orbit as well

This is the future of an illusion
Aggressive culture of despotism
Living fantasy of the immortal
The reality of an animal

One of their tracks is based on "Disco Rough" by Mathématiques Modernes.

Can't think of anything less obvious right now (I thought I was a genius for spotting the 100 Years of Solitude thing once and then googled it and nabisco had already written about it on Pitchfork, thus I lose), but "Enivrez-Vous!" from Peng! takes its lyrics from a Baudelaire prose-poem.

I'd always wondered about some of these! Thanks.

Maybe someone knows what that French Disco line really is: Bubble Withdrawal?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucia_Pamela

I have her CD somewhere, it is bats!

a lot of that youtube series of comparisons are a little on the vague side, but they're fun

I would not have compared 'Emperor Tomato Ketchup' to 'Why?' by the Plastic Ono Band, I'd have used "Les Histoires D'A" by Les Rita Mitsouko

Stereolab guilty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML9PWVm0wEQ

& I will post these anyway

Sylvie Vartan - Cette lettre-là (1965)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOlx2MxC6eQ

Sylvie Vartan - Par amour par pitié (1966)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3uL8M0svSQ

Sylvie Vartan - Irresistiblement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZCbwg6VmnI

Pack Yr. Romantic Mind:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataille

http://www.bigoven.com/uploads/margarine.jpg

that was feeble, sorry

brilliant thread, that Jirí Trnka film is mindblowing. good work!

has anyone mentioned family fodder yet?, as a general influence and specifically savoire faire and it's uncanny resemblance to (i think) wow and flutter. was it milton who mentioned upstairs somewhere that sterolab steals seem a bit disingenuous? i dunno if i could go along with that, their references generally seem pretty overt, if obscure. i think it's pretty key to the appeal of stereolab that you just know everything is pilfered.

Yet nothing sounds quite like Stereolab. Sort of like a robot made of all sorts.

holy shit this thread. overwhelming amount of info. more pls!

What Charlie No4 said above.

thanks, people

"All good things to come.."

MBV,Spacemen 3, Astrud Gilberto, Nico, Francoise Hardy.

"Pause" samples the "Swedish Rhapsody" numbers station transmission.
(Numbers stations transmission consist of transient noise bursts with announcements.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVqaoxxsN7Q
More info:
http://www.simonmason.karoo.net/page30.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station

Wouldn't it be quicker to just list the things that aren't a direct influence on Stereolab?

Like uh........ummmmm........

Corn Flakes

You obviously haven't heard the obscure 1996 comp-only track "Kellogg Oberheim Fondle"

i'm not on board with a lot of these, but ...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IrFdR7I_kjM
http://youtube.com/watch?v=s9N1uwNEraM
http://youtube.com/watch?v=E9iiJy0jWSg
http://youtube.com/watch?v=LNAO-vqa6R0

Does it count that they play this record sometimes before they go on mean it's a reference, or just a somewhat similar sound?

http://perso.orange.fr/vivonzeureux/Images/familysavoir1.jpg

i'm not on board with a lot of these, but ...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IrFdR7I_kjM
http://youtube.com/watch?v=s9N1uwNEraM
http://youtube.com/watch?v=E9iiJy0jWSg
http://youtube.com/watch?v=LNAO-vqa6R0

-- jaxon, Saturday, 27 October 2007 10:23 (53 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Some of those are either acknowledged influences (Gane has said Flower Call Nowhere is based on Fearless Vampire Killers, which is obvious when you hear the AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH ... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH ... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH ... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH bit) or incredibly tenuous links. Quite a few are disturbingly close though.

http://www.seafriends.org.nz/photolib/shows/snapper.jpg

And from an NZ domain too.

You poopheadz, I posted those just upthread!

The really tenuous ones are the things that seem common to a million songs, too common to count as a "steal" even if they're directly referencing the original -- the Canned Heat one is pretty free-floating in the whole world of music at this point, and the Archies one is like, umm, pretty common rhythm guitar sound.

now i see snapper, sorry.

astrud gilberto - "summer sweet"

listen to the verses and tell me that the organ sound and chord changes aren't like a total mid-era Stereolab sound.

Jon, amazingly comprehensive -- nice work. I will admit I had no idea of the extent to which their music was referential.

Should we start a thread about the 'Lab aesthetic -- ie, what the point of all this is? Because for me, the mind has always been engaged by the sum total of their work -- in particular, the (frankly unprecedented) vigilance of their postmodernism. But the heart, which has to judge Stereolab records on their musical merits, is altogether less convinced.

The whole thing started collapsing under its own weight when they started collaborating with fellow derivative bricoleurs, the High Llamas.