Stereolab: Classic or Dud

thanks to this thread i'm listening to mars audiac quintet and random transient noisebursts and the music and the memories are actually quite overpowering

GOLDEN BALL my god. john cale, eat your heart out.

the fake skip in that got me so good when I first played it

and then her voice comes in clear! *bows down*

it is sublime

I was so glad i was able to see them the one time. there's so much to explore, there isn't a single Stereolab album that i feel like doesn't deserve further listening. 'Cobra and Phases...' was i think considered a disappointment but yeah i think the PF review did a lot of the heavy lifting when it came to that reputation. when i first heard it i was surprised at how not-bad it was. the disingenuousness of that review (and Brent D's entire career in music writing) is pretty obvious now, something like that wouldn't fly or be as influential today.

I thought it was the "0" from the NME that really hurt Cobra's rep at the time. I read an interview somewhere from the Sound-Dust era where Laetitia was talking about it, why anyone would bother or care that much to give it a zero

i'm still cool with the travistan zero tho

It was always the zero from the NME that pushed it to the back of the queue when I was delving into the Stereolab catalogue as a skint student, as silly as that was given that I’m sure SWells wrote the review and it was clearly a stunt review. The other thing is I really didn’t like the artwork. Haven’t listened to it in years but now I may.

So, I've been looking for an archive with videos/rare Lab songs ever since the Merlin Warp copyright strike last year. Considering I only got into them in 2016, there isn't much I had time to find, so if any of you know anything, could you please let me know?
P.S. Don't know how to deal with the fact that I'm too young to have ever seen any live Lab performances

the live project

😁

Oh wow, many thanks to you for the live project!
Also, any advice on finding fellow Lab fans irl? It's hard to do as a non-Brit and a high school student...

this has made my night

Listen, I am desperately trying to relate here, and I finally found someone else who listens to this milk to the ears.
Sure, it may seem funny, but it's also great to have finally found this thread, so I might as well ask you guys to educate me:
What are your thoughts on Aluminium Tunes?

Lots of good tracks, don't listen to it a lot these days, but back when this stuff was coming out on various EPs, it seemed like they were finding new directions every few months.

Definitely seems like it, although personally, I don't mind the transition from krautrock-style jams to more melodic variations. Obviously, Peng! and Fab Four Suture don't really compare, but they're both fun to listen to, in a way.

Pop Quiz was the song that got me into Stereolab

That was five years ago... loved songs here and there (Cybele, Les-Yper, Everybody's Weird Except Me, Anamorphose), but I only became completely obsessed a year or two ago... my favorite is Cobra and Phases by a mile... but I love them all. Such an amazing and unique band.

Moodles' live comp is so great. Outer Bongolia is great on there.

I'll check it out after I get more sleep.
I actually got hooked through The Flower Called Nowhere, and ended up sticking to later songs (Double Rocker, Strobo, most of Margerine and Sound Dust). Pack Yr Romantic Mind is great too.

Honestly though, I just love how lush and sophisticated the synths are, every song is a masterpiece of its own. Combining Moogs and woodwinds is not something you hear every day... unless it's in a Lab song! Still, I wish I could have seen the band develop and not just accept its entire history ex post factum.

Love this band, even if flappy and I will never agree that sound dust is the best ;-)

Getting into a band long after they've disbanded has its advantages - you're able to digest and accept the body of work as a whole and with context and perspective for each piece of work. As with so many bands that changed through their career, there are a lot of people that 'got off the train' so to speak when Stereolab went this way or that way. Seems like that was Dots & Loops for a lot of people. I feel lucky to have been fans of amazing bands as they developed but I went through the same things when they changed, and my attention toward and opinion of the work past a certain point waned, either out of disappointment or exhaustion.

weirdly enough, I was buying lunch today at a local natural food store and as I approached the register "Pack Yr Romantic Mind" came on and it was one of those perfect soundtrack moments, I said "I love Stereolab" to the cashier, they said "oh me too" and we chatted about them for a bit

Hey sleeve, I'm afraid that sort of thing could only happen in Lab heaven...

Flappys right but it's high time to revise the stereolab narrative - their final records are fantastic

I saw lab on the Fab Four Suture tour. Played a lot of their catalog and convincingly switched between the extremes of dots and tracks like jenny oindoline. Mary's backing vocals were replaced by horns in what felt like an affectionate tribute. What I took away from the show was the conviction that a band could mutate from grunge one chord rock and to exotica all within the same breath.

Maybe it's possible that they'll come back sometime after Caverns of Anti Matter settles down? Sadier still makes pretty Lab-ish songs...

God I hope so

I'm guessing that most of you are from the UK? There hasn't really been an American following going, as far as I know.

tim's also making stereolab inflected tracks

https://soundcloud.com/cavern-of-anti-matter/melody-in-high-feedback-tones-coam

hope they figure this shit out

nah I live on the east coast USA & in my small city one of the few things that unites a very diverse, disparate, and at the moment isolated is Stereolab.

*isolated community of musicians & artists

Digging this. The end of John Cage bubblegum is INCREDIBLE.

I'm guessing that most of you are from the UK? There hasn't really been an American following going, as far as I know.

im from Georgia in the USA here and when i got into them 98-99 there were plenty of irl friends super into Stereolab. they have always had a big following in Atlanta and Athens. the biggest Stereolab fans i know are from Marietta and their band is heavily influenced by them

i remember seeing videos on MTV2 and The Box. first time i read their name was in a factoid where they described the writing process of Dots & Loops as being making up the tracks layer-by-layer

another American here, saw them at the Showbox in Seattle, musta been early 2000's? Honestly can't remember but I still have the ticket.

they played La Zona Eosa in Austin when I saw them, probably for a few hundred.
there's a 15 minute version of 'Super Electric' on here!

Alex, don't know if you are looking for the earlier side of the groop, but here are two playlists of early live Stereolab.

1991-1994: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeWPnyT2WYQ-5-z71RsvVcbyQBh1T6xK2
1995-1996: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeWPnyT2WYQ-VRdSWFULNRDh1ocaZuFSm

i saw them at AS220 in Providence in '95 iirc. needless to say it was amazing.

They really toured the hell out of America

Saw them many times in Boston, Houston, and Austin, plus once at Coachella. They were at peak live power in the ETK - Sound-Dust years. Biggest show I saw was Cobra tour at the Roxy in Boston. Enthusiasm and crowds for their shows seemed to dwindle in later years.

I saw them at the Roxy in Boston as well - can't remember who else was on the bill - Yo La Tengo or Go-Betweens?

I prefer the gig they did at Mama Kin with Air Miami opening, 1995 I think. So loud!

Jersey kid here: guess I should wait around until Sadier is touring again, her Silencio album was pretty good...

i saw Sadier's solo show last summer in Denver — it was really fun! Not a huge crowd, but a very appreciative one. She is a great performer.

xxp

Yes! The Roxy gig was a bit lackluster, maybe too big a venue for them. Mama Kin was probably the best show I've seen them play, possibly best I've seen anyone play, absolutely mind blowing. Also caught them at Middle East and Paradise.

I always forget that they were on the second stage for some of Lollapalooza 1994.

Yup, those were some good shows. Hung around backstage with Tim and Laetitia for part of that.

And yes they toured America quite a bit, one reason why I think they survived on Elektra longer than anyone might have guessed. They regularly put in the effort. Mary's death was, frankly, a near crippling blow, and while the last couple of tours did find a way to present the material in new ways -- I think they finally figured it out in full with the last tour -- something was inevitably gone, never to return.