Stereolab: Classic or Dud

Here's the spotify list I made based off of those origins youtubes

https://open.spotify.com/user/olken2000/playlist/06G3CvbMmQ90bj0KOPWM0b?si=cBq4uZvhS8Kp3nf6T87kfQ

I could theoretically rip the CDs into a different format, but I have no idea what format the original files were. Quite possibly they were already sub-FLAC to start with. The CDs date back to around 2001.

i'll tell "my friend" not to look a gift horse in the mouth. thanks for the link

Great post from the Doc!

--

For me, a little Stereolab goes a long way. I liked (but never loved, note)their earlier Kraut-rockin stuff. I guess the 'Refried Ectoplasm' singles/rarities compilation is all I need. The vocals work OK, until you realize that's all they can do - in other words "Ba, Ba, Ba" all the time. It's just dull. The fact that the whole 'Lab thing is a some kind of conceptual exercise in passionless irony gets in the way, and means that it is impossible for me to do more than just admire the good bits. (Rather as you could admire a well designed piece of furniture). They could never move me. The increasing involvement of O'Hagan and especially, that wretch from Tortoise, from Dots and Loops onwards has mainly killed my interest. It's also ensured that I don't need to hear another Marimba for the rest of my natural life. While I'm on a roll - I hate the way that they record brass. It's so thin and wimpy, it's like "hey we're using brass - but don't worry, you can still hear the marimbas, and the glockenspiel and the shitty vocals. So don't worry punters, even though we're using brass on this track, you won't notice and it'll still sound like all the rest"
They release too much stuff - how much could you need another Stereolab album when there's so many other bands to buy. The whole thing seems like a lifelong project to ensure that a special edition of record collector is devoted wholly to them, perhaps in 2010. (Rarest item, the 9-inch, single-sided vinyl, limited edition of 54 'Wooly Mammoth Situation' EP. Released only in Czechoslovakia in 2005)

What's the brown coloured album called? The one after Dots and Loops? Anyway I have it and whilst I don't like it much for all the above reasons, I have to come clean and say that short bursts are OK. I couldn't get through the whole thing without a gun to my head.

What's the conclusion? Dud.

― Dr. C, Wednesday, January 31, 2001

yes we are familiar with the laughable wrongness of early British posters on ILX

Seems the opposite of great to me, but I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion.

All good Albert!

I went on a trail run a few weeks ago to the first disc of ABC Music -- such perfect music

some kind of conceptual exercise in passionless irony

lol what a bad take.

there's so much heart in the music and it extends to the rigor, the references and the hopeful lyrics.

sleeve otm!

2001 was a long time ago

Smug comment ahead: the opinion of people around my generation gap (born between 1983-1990) regarding Stereolab - if they do know them - invariably affects how much I’ll consider their views and recommendations on music. If they don’t know them at all I immediatly assume the high ground.

That last sentence is not serious.

Half serious: I’ve found that people who find Stereolab boring are very boring themselves.

Dead serious: marimbas should be a required instrument when starting a band.

Stereolab were more into vibraphones and farfisa organs than marimbas though...

you had me at vibraphones/farfisa

i kind of get it, a lot of the vocals are sigh-ey, etc. the first time i saw them live it kind of blew my mind how physical they were, how funky they were. personally i would never say they were boring (in fact the opposite) but im sure there are folks that hear Neu! 2 and think it's a snoozefest.

i saw pram, in London in 2002...I think I have a soundboard recording of that as well. I'll look for it.

i saw Soop (= stereolab improvising around soop groove) supporting pram supporting EAR (with sonic boom) just to tie a few things together. the garage, 1996-05-30

each band had *their own* theremin on stage, couldn't share one, had to use their own...

Different tunings, probably.

Also, bass theremin, alto theremin, etc.

Koogs, I put a copy of that show up on Dime last summer. Looks like it is still up there now. They played Cadriopo at that show, which I don't know that they ever played before or since.

(when EAR started they set one of those wind-up eggtimers on top of one of the speakers and played until it was about to go off. only when it did it was a lot quieter than everything else, you could barely hear it)

put on first of the microbe hunters (EP) for the first time in ages. doesn't kill my buzz as much as it used to, felt like the band was stretching their ideas thin but "outer bongolia" sounds better than I recalled. the groop were great when they treated a melody like a jazz improvisation, circling around a repetitive motif with bursts of sound. EP even has a little more guitar, which seemed to be pretty much reduced to subtle fragments at this period in their career

I Feel The Air (Of Another Planet) was one of their finest moments. Shame the EP (which is actually a LP) was marketed at full price, 16.99 when I bought it. Good marketers these blokes

i saw Soop (= stereolab improvising around soop groove) supporting pram supporting EAR (with sonic boom) just to tie a few things together. the garage, 1996-05-30

each band had *their own* theremin on stage, couldn't share one, had to use their own...

― koogs

kind of funny, i saw cornelius yesterday and they had three theremins up there (the drummer didn't have one i don't think). they played them all together, sounded lovely

never saw stereolab live, haven't been impressed by any of the live recordings i've heard but tapes can lie of course

opening for cornelius were a band called rocketship. apparently they were around in the '90s but they never showed up on my radar back then. they were okay but they seemed to start with their most boring material and gradually got more interesting. also since they were an opener the mix was shit and it was impossible to hear anything. the main thing i took away was being not impressed at all by their drummer, who i'm not sure was able to play in waltz time?

that came out as an aimless ramble, what i meant to say is that rocketship sort of reminded me of stereolab.

hey I really enjoyed listening to the first disc of that live compilation tonight, thanks ILX

I'm trying to find the name of a Lab song I heard once, hopefully you guys can help me out.
Chords: C# E B, time signature 3/2
Guitar bass line: C#-G#C#D#G#-G# C#-G#C#D#G#-G# C#-G#C#D#G#-G# E-G#C#D#G# E-G#C#D#G# E-G#C#D#G# B-F#BC#B-F# B-F#BC#B-F# B-F#BC#B-F# (repeat)
Vocal riff: D#-G#----- F#-D#----- F#-C#-------
Thanks if you find anything!

Not "Pop Quiz" ?

nope, sorry

if it helps, the bass line is more stretched out. in pop quiz, the rhythm is different. It's more like:
C# G#C#^D#^C#^ G#C# G#C#^D#^C#^ G#C# G#C#^D#^C#^ G#|| E G#C#^D#^C#^ G#E G#C#^D#^C#^ G#E G#C#^D#^C#^ G#|| B F#B^C#^B^ F#B F#B^C#^B^ F#B F#B^C#^B^ F#

agh the spaces got deleted! so more like
C# ----- G#C#^D#^C#^ -- G#C# ---- G#C#^D#^C#^ --G#C# -----G#C#^D#^C#^-- G#|| E ----G#C#^D#^C#^ --G#E -----G#C#^D#^C#^ --G#E -----G#C#^D#^C#^ --G#|| B----- F#B^C#^B^-- F#B -----F#B^C#^B^ --F#B -----F#B^C#^B^ --F#

super jealous of rush getting to see Rocketship and Cornelius! i used to have a Rocketship CDR and recall it being cool 90s shoegaze

https://youtu.be/HllqYsggN_A

(for alex xpost - that’s da one)

(no YouTube link for the studio version, which is the last track on the Cobra and Phases Group etc album from 1999.)

New Cavern of Anti-Matter is streaming on NPR: https://www.npr.org/2018/03/15/593428620/first-listen-cavern-of-anti-matter-hormone-lemonade

Seems decent.

New Little Tornados, a band that's got Laetitia in the roster, came out the other day. It's terrible. Their first wasn't good either.

https://irascible.ch/de/releases/little-tornados/apocalypse/

Little Tornados is the European psychedelic country project of David Thayer, featuring bass lines and backing vocals of Laetitia Sadier (Stereolab), drumming by Emmanuel Mario (Holden, Astrobal), John Herndon (Tortoise), Hans Hansen, bass by Amin Khatir, guitar by Joel Raif, and some vocal work by Caroline Sallee (Caroline Says), Giorgio Tuma and others. The second album, Apocalypse! uses instrumentation such as tube synthesizers and discarded home organs found on the streets and thrift stores of Switzerland.

It's on Spotify if you're interested. Vocals and lyrics are just really, really bad.

Man, I'm really digging Cavern's new one.

I had no idea they had another album prior to void beats until just now.

Blood Drums:
https://open.spotify.com/album/1mLFEzALzHJrGQEqwP53Bf?si=thcvUeYXRvWJuHfbqpB3WQ

Yeah, it's a good one. Limited release. Didn't know it was on Spotify, but that's good news.

It got reissued last year I think.

I was considering making a blog combining all Lab lyrics and tabs in one place, what do you guys think?

I support this idea. This site still exists, but don't think it's been updated in a while:

http://www.koly.com/stereolab/

I was just playing ETK for the first time in a while, timely bump. and YES! that would be amazing

Oh no, Koly doesn't work!
Where am I going to get all of the photos?

Wait, nevermind, just the lyrics part has gone haywire for some reason

Also, I just discovered Cliff!

wtf

@jordanbpeterson I am so gutted by the treatment The Guardian -and some of the well to do media- has given you this week. You have all my support and many thanks for your clarity and -oh too rare- courage to speak the truth!

— Lætitia Sadier (@SadierLae) February 12, 2018

I cannot for the life of me figure how a committed Marxist could reconcile their beliefs with Peterson's entirely anti-Marxist rhetoric, nor see him as some kind of truth-teller. Does not compute.

Between this and Rosie Cuckston I'm almost grateful Trish Keenan was never on Twitter. Sometimes we're just better off not having the private thoughts of people we like made available.