Stars of the Lid

it has been 12 years, 3 months, 16 days
since you last released an album
i go out every night and stars of the lid all day
since you last released an album

karl otm

otm

i got the new kyle bobby dunn album in today and was able to listen to about half of it before it got too late to play loud. it's really good, highly recommended for sotl fans. but soon afterward i grabbed headphones and went back to the source.

Karl otm, of course. Wiltzie still busy with soundtracks it seems, there's a new one out I didn't know about. But nothing compares, obv.

otm otm otm

otm-est

I also want a new SotL record. nothing scratches the itch in the same way.

kyle bobby dunn got cancelled btw. read into it. pretty bad stuff

kyle bobby dunn got cancelled

What a time to be alive.

Global is not kidding btw. It is pretty bad stuff and unfortunate to see.

By the way, Stars of the Lid were dicks to me when I opened for them once hah hah :)

Not a big deal, touring life is complicated, but still. Was not expecting it.

I know, it's just such a strange sentence to read.

They could be unpleasant to other bands and ppl putting them up etc, heard a story or two over the years.

Yep

Yeah, I heard of the Kyle Bobby Dunn stuff when it happened (it was discussed in another thread). His initial replies were dumb and not at all helpful, and he didn’t really deny anything. However, the accusations themselves were very vague - I’m not sure anyone outside that circle has any clue wtf happened or the nature of the transgressions. fwiw several people have mentioned his struggles with mental health (not that it’s an excuse for chronic bad behavior) and he also issued a blanket apology (very vaguely, to match the vague accusations) the other day.

a new album by a winged victory for the sullen, the undivided five, came out a few days ago, for those who may be interested

On first listen The Undivided Five is pretty gorgeous. Not much of a jump from Atomos, but somehow a bit more intimate. If you liked Atomos, I can't imagine you not liking this.

Are Stars of the Lid a finished proposition?

nope, they're still going. they keep dropping hints that they're working on a new album, so we can expect it somewhere in the 2020-2027 timeframe

At first pass I like The Undivided Five better than their first two albums – it feels less facile somehow.

lol good song titles on the undivided five record ... "aqualung, motherfucker"

It's no 'December Hunting for Vegetarian Fuckface' but I'll take it.

'Our Lord Debussy' is just a statement of fact.

the Facebook post for the new AWVFTS album made it pretty clear we'll get a new SOTL album eventually; never feel like the former is an adequate substitute for the latter tbh

nice.
just listened to the tired sounds for the first time in a while a few weeks back — it remains miraculous.

never feel like the former is an adequate substitute for the latter tbh

Correct. :(

Still, I had no idea a new SOTL album was even so much as hypothetically in the works. Gaudeamus igitur!

At first pass I like The Undivided Five better than their first two albums – it feels less facile somehow.

― pomenitul

i'm giving it another listen right now, but i felt similarly the first time through. i could be completely wrong, but it seems like wiltzie must handle a lot of the plaintive piano parts that form the skeleton of many of the songs. i say that because the piano resembles the piano from The Dead Texan (another wiltzie project, with christina vantzou). but i'm not in love with the layers surrounding the piano (often orchestral, or at least sampling orchestral instruments). i can't say why with any coherence. it's an odd thing to say about mostly slow music, but maybe the arrangements seem too busy?

Pre-And Their Refinement of the Decline they struck just the right balance between cinematic classical and reverb-laden ambient. Everything that's come after (doubly so since they've temporarily parted ways) has leaned a little too heavily on the former aspect of their shtick imho.

somehow i've never listened to their Maneuvering The Nocturnal Hum EP...*90s movie trailer guy*...until NOW

yeah if anything "Requiem" is so affecting because it's an outlier at that point

xp Oh man, I love that record!

Great news about a possible new SotL, I too thought it unthinkable at this moment in time. Will give the new one a spin soon.

Pre-And Their Refinement of the Decline they struck just the right balance between cinematic classical and reverb-laden ambient. Everything that's come after (doubly so since they've temporarily parted ways) has leaned a little too heavily on the former aspect of their shtick imho.

― pomenitul, Tuesday, November 5, 2019 11:58 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm

I, too, agree. I've zero evidence to back this up, but my theory is that 'Refinement' was made - in part - with the following tour in mind. They came out - relatively, of course - guns blazing, with the string quartet and the whole shebang on stage. And it was beautiful! But they lost something with/after that album. I'm sure Pom will concur 'reverb-laden ambient' is a flawed description but it's close to the truth. Something of the profundity was lost, though.

I caught them during their Refinement tour (on the top floor of a Masonic Temple, no less) and it was absolutely wonderful, but I remember thinking that it put the album the shame. So your theory makes sense to me.

So AWVFTS are playing here in SF in April at Grace Cathedral, which, yes.

i wouldn't be surprised that guys who make a living selling minimalism aren't the nicest. patience wears thin when the grasping classes contend

I get the impression that Wiltzie and Brian McBride are barely collaborating these days, but don't want to say anything definitive about the end of SOTL as a recording project. There was talk last year of a McBride solo album but it never materialized. My best guess is that SOTL will reappear periodically to tour, but that's about it, unfortunately.

together we stand. divided we fall. trance syndicate. windsor for the derby. labradford

Aix Em Klemm, the Dead Texan

^^ both up there with the very best SotL ever did.

I caught them during their Refinement tour (on the top floor of a Masonic Temple, no less) and it was absolutely wonderful, but I remember thinking that it put the album the shame. So your theory makes sense to me.

― pomenitul, Tuesday, November 5, 2019 11:07 AM (fifty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

my ex-wife was at that show if it's 2008, mtl

Indeed it was!

I, too, agree. I've zero evidence to back this up, but my theory is that 'Refinement' was made - in part - with the following tour in mind. They came out - relatively, of course - guns blazing, with the string quartet and the whole shebang on stage. And it was beautiful! But they lost something with/after that album. I'm sure Pom will concur 'reverb-laden ambient' is a flawed description but it's close to the truth. Something of the profundity was lost, though.

― Le Bateau Ivre, Tuesday, November 5, 2019 bookmarkflaglink

I don't understand what you mean that they lost something post-Refinement. That was their last album... what have they released that tells you they've lost something?

SOTL toured just a couple of years ago, and there are photos of them in the studio at that time. I get the impression that they work on it when they can but they just don't live in the same city and they have other lives. So it will come whenever it comes.

I saw Brian McBride perform at a Kranky anniversary show a few months back and he was terrific. I would LOVE a new solo album from him. "When the Detail Lost Its Freedom" is right up there with the best SOTL stuff.

With 'with/after' 'Refinement', I meant 'with' the album, and 'after' the tour. Apologies for being unclear.

"When The Detail Lost Its Freedom" is indeed a huge album. Based on their solo/non-SotL efforts, a new McBride and Wiltzie collaboration would be so interesting. You can kind of hear the both of them branching out in different directions though.

tired sounds is beautiful but impossibly remote

I get most of my new music from two sources - a podcast called Low Light Mixes, and an internet radio station called Sleepbot. As with Aquarius Records I always feel sad when I think about Sleepbot because one day it's going to end. Aquarius Records actually did end. I always used to imagine popping half-way across the world to San Francisco and going to Aquarius Records and looking cool but not buying anything, but now I can't even do that.

Anyway, Sleepbot plays a load of old Pete Namlook side projects, and also Stars of the Lid, almost exclusively from Tired Sounds and Refinement. I know almost nothing about them but was I surprised. From the name and song titles I was expecting something along the lines of Thee Silver Mount Zion, but they're a lot subtler. Tired Sounds stands out more and is sad even without the song titles. "The Lonely People (Are Getting Lonelier)" was written in 2001 but it makes me think of Facebook, Occupy Wall Street etc, a general failure to connect and incessant bot-driven imitations of interaction.

I have some Low Light mixes from way back, glad he's still going

Slow & Sleepy and I Fell Asleep At My Desk... are my go to mixes at bedtime

I met Wiltzie once, he was...not especially nice. My gf and I went to see WVFtS on one of their first tours, and a very close friend in common suggested we "definitely" say hello for her, which is something I'm typically loath to do. I introduced myself after they played and I don't think his eyes ever left his cell phone. Maybe he was having a bad day.

Nope, sorry, not a new one. But the seminal 'Aix Em Klemm' is getting a 20th anniversary reissue (for those of you still looking for this one on vinyl).

It's easily one of the best things SotL or either of them solo ever did. I trust ZS to back me up on this.