The future of Stereolab

I was actually really high on D&L and Cobra, and Sound-Dust felt like a step down at the time. Haven't listened in a while, but I think I'd be more forgiving now.

I def gave up on this band after the one-two shitpunch of D&L and Cobra. after that I only sporadically paid attention.

i gave up after transient random noises to get back on the train with margerine eclipse. the concerts from 1993/94 on when they started doing stuff which sounded like easy listening with bossa nova and soundtrack elements put me off. i always preferred their early motorik krautrock pop period.

plenty motorik about MAQ

i have never listened to sound-dust before. loving it right now. thanks for the recommendation.

The world wasn't ready for Cobra in 1999

yeah there's tons of krautrock up until D&L afaict

I like Cobra, but it's too long and unfocused, not unlike many CDs of the late 90s.

D&L is excellent minus a couple clumsy electronic moments.

cobra is long and the production is reedy, but that works in its favour imo. it’s an absolute gem of an album. it takes you into another universe (‘blue milk’ being the most distant point) and eases you back out of it.

If it weren't for 'Dots and Loops,' 'Cobra' would probably be my favorite Stereolab, all these years removed...

A little annoyed that people are already getting copies of the new reissues, but I'm not supposed to receive anything before the 20th.

I love the all Mary demo version of the track "Emperor Tomato Ketchup".

The ETK demos are more like brief sketches compared to the demos for the 2 previous albums, which were more fully fleshed out songs. Kind of curious now how they got to the final versions, which were pretty far out there vs anything they'd done before. The "Metronomic Underground" demo sounds like a long lost CAN track.

Onto the next 2 albums!

Really like "With Friends Like This Pt. 2", pretty sure I've heard it before at some point. Cobra is easily the most generous with bonus tracks.

"Les Ypres Sound" has a different ending. Not sure I really get the rationale for altering the original tracks. Gives me a bit of an irksome Star Wars Special Edition vibe.

Isn't With Friends Like These Pt. 2 just With Friends Like These from the Free Design EP with the first part ("ban hate and violence/for our convenience") chopped off? It's an odd choice, but it's one of my favorite B-sides and it's kind of cool to have that part of the song isolated.

Also great to finally have the full-length version of Blue Milk.

The world wasn't ready for Cobra in 1999

― J. Sam, Wednesday, September 4, 2019 4:58 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

Wow, the extra stuff on "Blue Milk" is wild. This is a change I can get behind!

They extended 3 tracks on "Emperor Tomato Ketchup":
Les Yper Sound: 13s longer; I don't think they changed the ending, they just had the section around 3:45 loop longer
Percolator: 28s longer; later fade
Slow Fast Hazel: 14s longer; they loop section around 3:30 a bit longer

I think there might be a couple of extra lines sung by Mary towards the end of Les-Yper Sound that were previously edited out.

A few tracks on D&L are in longer versions as well.

I wasn't a fan of subsequent albums so someone else will have to A/B those.

I got my vinyl records today! They came 1-2 weeks sooner than planned, so I'm a happy camper.

Still waiting for mine (Royal Mail = fail). I have received the "Obi" CD of Cobra that I ordered though. I now own four copies of Cobra in different editions LOL

is the version of 'Blue Milk' on disc 1 of the reissue the same as the original LP version?

Yes, it's the 17 min version

Mine arrived last week, 3lp etk, obi and clear vinyl.

The cliff card was another fail, but I got three download card tickets!

One of the area record stores shared this recent acquisition on FB...

https://scontent.fhou1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/70281739_2468354663243835_4669236097702690816_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&_nc_oc=AQk69PKh9kKk_BFIKMYpAL0NO1_Rc8Y0i4cWxQkywH7kPbh-PTHEWGInoEc0jyeiYXk&_nc_ht=scontent.fhou1-2.fna&oh=5b259a3b3e6b7b8164c596a7fe155dfa&oe=5DF99078

An original press Cobra signed & decorated by the whole band (including Mary)

Ugh, I want it

lol @ "I LIKE TUBES!"

Everything's just too fiddly on Cobra. I can understand the bad reviews for it.

annoying opening track

that's the best one!

no it’s bad sorry

The opening track is glorious. It straps you to your seat for the ride you're about to embark on.

It’s a really good album and it’s got Blue Milk.

Got mine in the mail yesterday. Haven’t dug into them yet (though I did peruse the liners and the font in the Cobra booklet gave me a minor headache), but I’m very much looking forward to hearing the long “Blue Milk”—that one was a total monster the one time I saw them live with Sonic Youth. Psyched for the Philly show next week!

They are doing it for love

I've never seen such a massive merch line at a medium club show.

annoying opening track

― heard about you (||||||||), Wednesday, September 18, 2019 1:54 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

that's the best one!

― j., Wednesday, September 18, 2019 2:00 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

no it’s bad sorry

― heard about you (||||||||), Wednesday, September 18, 2019 2:07 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

The opening track is glorious. It straps you to your seat for the ride you're about to embark on.

― Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, September 18, 2019 3:34 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

Fuses is Stereolab's best song

It's weird that there are moments of Darla Records catalogue that I enjoyed just fine and maybe one or two Kindercore albums also when I was 20 or whatever, but there is something so much awfuller when the purveyors of the finest Neu!-derived monoliths fully fell into hotel lobby lounge music. There is no difference in my brain between "Fuses" and like.. St. Germain's "The Tourist" and all the other lobbyrock records from that era

It's just that much more frustrating that you know that this period of Stereolab isn't BAD it's just so much WORSE THAN BEFORE and the band is doing things that you don't NEED or WANT.

Also, more than a Stereolab reunion, I want a McCarthy reunion

it’s not worse at all, it’s just different

I find the 'stereolab should have just done krautrock for 30 years straight' fans mystifying.

I greatly prefer phase one of Stereolab, but they were pretty good live last weekend playing the, uh, lobbyrock stuff. Even the crowd's weirdly misplaced devil horns and hooting had a charming enthusiasm. Laetitia clearly disappointed we didn't go the climate march earlier in the day, but come on... September in Texas is not when you go to outdoor marches.

my souvenir from their friday concert in brooklyn:

https://i.imgur.com/rfUpFr5.jpg

Wow... that is better than I expected.

Yeah it's hard to really pinpoint my frustration, especially because AA is right, it's not actually "worse", it is really good at doing what it's attempting to do. I guess it's just that it's a whole other set of neurons that get stimulated with the latter-day stuff, it just is, in my view, such a departure

And no I don't think they should've kept making Neu!rock for 30 years I just guess I would've liked it if they evolved in a different direction, started aping Faust instead or something

i’m biased because ‘dots and loops’ is one of the best things that has ever happened to me, but the direction they choose is the right one because… it’s their art and their choice.

people who ask for a different direction (or no change in direction at all) are basically saying ‘do what I want you to do’ (and not ‘i trust you to do what you want to do’), which is a hallmark of a successful fan base but also missing the point of liking people’s art for what it is. (if they had sold out for easy ca$$$h, that would be a different conversation.)

btw i don’t mean to be all hardarse about this, especially as i have a history of being annoyed with musical artists for not doing the things that i arbitrarily like.

Oh for real, I'm not actually tasking this band that has recorded several of my favourite songs with revising their change of direction from twenty-five years ago, I'm just being a dickhead is all

it’s cool, i’m just on a directionless rant

i like krautrock stereolab so much more than the lounge-y material (though some of it's very good, there's just as much that's frustrating and grating to me). this meant that it took me forever to actually get into them because people always recommend ETK as their masterpiece when to me it sounds like a weird transitional record between those two phases, and while it has some real highlights it doesn't really do either of those things anywhere near as good as the records before and after it.

Ah that’s interesting, I always felt like it was an excellent hybrid, not a transition record. There are a couple tracks on ETK that are among my favourites (and as I stated elsewhere, “Cybele’s Reverie” is one of my fave lyrics ever)