― el sabor de gene (yournullfame), Monday, 7 June 2004 12:22 (nineteen years ago) link
i suggest you try it (with a passager in case you go under)
― harshaw (jube), Monday, 7 June 2004 15:49 (nineteen years ago) link
what it like?
― charltonlido (gareth), Sunday, 17 April 2005 23:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 17 April 2005 23:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― pod thai, Monday, 18 April 2005 00:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 18 April 2005 01:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― Zach S, Monday, 18 April 2005 02:37 (nineteen years ago) link
fucking geniuses.
― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 18 April 2005 02:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― Lukas (lukas), Monday, 18 April 2005 02:59 (nineteen years ago) link
has mcbride done anything since tired sounds (other than playing upfront for fulham thati s. actually, isnt that mcbride a texan too?)
― charltonlido (gareth), Sunday, 24 April 2005 10:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― charltonlido (gareth), Thursday, 19 May 2005 18:06 (eighteen years ago) link
http://www.brainwashed.com/common/htdocs/discog/krank088.html
― Lukas (lukas), Wednesday, 5 October 2005 02:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― Lukas (lukas), Wednesday, 5 October 2005 02:25 (eighteen years ago) link
― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Wednesday, 5 October 2005 02:33 (eighteen years ago) link
― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 5 October 2005 02:34 (eighteen years ago) link
Are Stars of the Lid like that as well? If Gareth likes them, chances are I would, as well.
― Paranoid Spice (kate), Wednesday, 26 October 2005 07:45 (eighteen years ago) link
requiem for dying mothers part two is filling my room right now and sounds amazing
perhaps i am revealing my innocence, but i do not know what the name, "stars of the lid" refers to. do you?
― terry lennox. (gareth), Sunday, 1 January 2006 10:11 (eighteen years ago) link
i love the aegena airlines track from that (http://www.brainwashed.com/common/video/mov/the_dead_texan-aegina_airlines.mov), rest is good, but not essential
― terry lennox. (gareth), Sunday, 1 January 2006 10:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― cutty (mcutt), Sunday, 1 January 2006 16:12 (eighteen years ago) link
adam pacione 'sisyphus' (elevator bath)
very similar vary good
― andrewc, Friday, 3 February 2006 06:25 (eighteen years ago) link
I thought of them yesterday when I heard Harold Budd & Eno's "The Pearl" for the first time, and it struck me as Dead Texan-esque.
― Zachary Scott (Zach S), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 19:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 20:35 (seventeen years ago) link
― sylvie and babs (sylvie and babs), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 20:55 (seventeen years ago) link
Oh, really? Whoops. I knew that someone else did the artwork and the videos for the accompanying DVD, but I didn't know there was a musical collaborator.
― Zachary Scott (Zach S), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 21:47 (seventeen years ago) link
"don't worry chief,there is news and a new 2xcd 3xlp to come.
should be availible in march/april at the latest..."
I'm putting "Stars of the Lid Chief" on my business card, if I ever get one.
― Zachary Scott (Zach S), Thursday, 12 October 2006 02:04 (seventeen years ago) link
It's just plain odd, and quite possibly counterproductive, seeing SOTL at the top of the Metacritic list of albums of 2007. Kind of counter to their whole ethos.
― Mister Craig, Sunday, 18 November 2007 23:11 (sixteen years ago) link
it produces some pretty funny backlash comments though so i'm all for it
― ciderpress, Sunday, 18 November 2007 23:13 (sixteen years ago) link
Robin C. gave it a 2: This is a joke,right? These critics have such a wacky sense of humour.
Chris C gave it a 3: Indie kids decided that the new vogue was a bunch of random tones slowly fading in and out? Why didn't they send me a memo?!
Hehheh.
― Mister Craig, Sunday, 18 November 2007 23:15 (sixteen years ago) link
Best:
Matt A. gave it a1: This album licks my balls. It's even worse than The Field and so I guess it makes sense in an ironic way that it beats out that atrocity of an album for best of the year on this web site. The critics need to get a clue that they aren't proving anything by raving about this crap. It's aimless electronic nonsense and anyone with ears and half-decent taste in music can tell you that.
Interesting that this was revived, I finally got around to hearing this today. It was pleasant enough. Good ambient music. But top of the list?
xpost Those comments are hilarious indeed.
― Bimble, Sunday, 18 November 2007 23:16 (sixteen years ago) link
I don't understand why it would be counter to their ethos? Unless you mean it's odd to rate it competitively. But it's always fun to read idiot comments.
― Noodle Vague, Sunday, 18 November 2007 23:17 (sixteen years ago) link
ironically, this is probably their most "pop" record though in that there are clear melodies/passages in almost every track that stick out in my head and work as hooks, which didn't happen for me with most of tired sounds
it's a bit less minimal and more cinematic than any of their previous albums but i didn't really see anyone touch on this in any of the reviews linked from the metacritic page
― ciderpress, Sunday, 18 November 2007 23:18 (sixteen years ago) link
I noticed those comments earlier. And chuckled briefly.
― Just got offed, Sunday, 18 November 2007 23:19 (sixteen years ago) link
-- ciderpress, Sunday, 18 November 2007 23:18
I'd partially agree with that.. certainly the occasional track like 'Even If You're Never Awake (Deuxieme)' is markedly hooky by their standards.
― Mister Craig, Sunday, 18 November 2007 23:22 (sixteen years ago) link
i think my favorite part of that metacritic page is GENRE(S): Rock, Electronic
― ciderpress, Sunday, 18 November 2007 23:28 (sixteen years ago) link
So, it's become imperative that I buy either "Tired Sounds. . ." or "And Their Refinement of the Decline." Either way, Is there any consensus on which is better to get first? From what I gather the consensus says Tired sounds is more so, and I'm not too familiar with, and don't want to burden myself with the arduous task of actually deciding for myself. Or, is there not much difference?
― mehlt, Sunday, 25 November 2007 00:33 (sixteen years ago) link
start with tired sounds, yes.
― cutty, Sunday, 25 November 2007 00:37 (sixteen years ago) link
*Should say "Not too familiar with "And Their Refinement. . ." I have, in fact, made my own decisions before.
― mehlt, Sunday, 25 November 2007 00:54 (sixteen years ago) link
tired sounds is more singular in tone to atrotd; atrotd goes for full-on widescreen euphoria, where tired sounds culminates with a series of endless blissed out drones. kinda like the difference between inner and outer space. both are some of the best music ever recorded imo so you need both really. even if you only start with one you'll get the other eventually.
going to watch them live on monday. gonna be sick.
― r1o natsume, Sunday, 25 November 2007 01:02 (sixteen years ago) link
I agree with the post above re: the singular tone vs widesceen thing, and that if you like the one you'll want the other eventually. Still, I'd say start with Tired Sounds, as it contains perhaps the greatest consecutive 15 minutes of music they've ever made - Requiem for Dying Mothers, Pts 1 and 2, which somehow manages to evoke the feeling of drifting around in North Atlantic coastal waves, or some impossibly long descent from the top of a tree as a falling leaf, or maybe just peaceful last breaths before dying, all without sounding nearly as gay as I just made it sound. And the rest of the album is nearly as good. Refinement goes for a more varied blissed out feeling, and succeeds, mostly, but if you dig the melancholy mood of Tired Sounds, you'll be obsessed.
― Z S, Sunday, 25 November 2007 01:18 (sixteen years ago) link
i was really upset by those metacritic posts.
― cutty, Sunday, 25 November 2007 01:29 (sixteen years ago) link
Of the next 5-10 cd's I buy, there's a good chance both will be included. It's honestly sometimes hard to fathom how much of an affect they can get out of so little, it's some of the most viscerally captivating and straightforward music I've heard in so long.
― mehlt, Sunday, 25 November 2007 02:29 (sixteen years ago) link
woohoo, live in Seattle at the Triple Door 4/18!!! (with Christopher Willits and Lusine)
― Mackro Mackro, Friday, 29 February 2008 21:37 (sixteen years ago) link
a while back a friend gave me all of their albums, and because i get so much music all the time, i didn't really pay them any attention.
and now i've been listening to Avec Laudenum and Refinement on the daily.
― the table is the table, Monday, 3 November 2008 07:17 (fifteen years ago) link
i should add that i was incredibly distracted by the other stuff he gave me, too: lots of Plank and rare Eno shit.
woohoo, live in Seattle at the Triple Door 4/18!!!(with Christopher Willits and Lusine)
― Mackro Mackro, Friday, February 29, 2008 9:37 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark
i love these guys but if my experience seeing them live is any guide you were way too excited about a Stars of the Lid show
― HOOS HOOS HOOS on the autosteen (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 3 November 2008 13:51 (fifteen years ago) link
I"m pretty sure "Dungtitled" is still my top track on Last.fm
anyone else see them closing the Brainwaves festival last night? they were great!
― nerve_pylon, Monday, 24 November 2008 15:05 (fifteen years ago) link
I saw them friday in nyc. great show.
― original bgm, Monday, 24 November 2008 15:27 (fifteen years ago) link
That tour CD they were selling this year is really, really good. I guess it's a combination of earlier rarities + new tracks, although I haven't been able to find anything that lists which is which and where they come from. The only track on it that I recognize is "Virginia", a 20 minute cover of a Labradford song. It's actually one of the weaker songs on the CD. The last song exists in the middle ground between SotL and Dead Texan.
I bring all of this up only because I noticed that they're selling the left over copies of the tour CD on kranky's website now, if anyone's interested.
― nikefanatic90: Sup (Z S), Monday, 24 November 2008 16:05 (fifteen years ago) link
fuck
REST IN PEACE BRIAN MCBRIDE [1970-2023] pic.twitter.com/fvSSeRL6pi— krankyltd (@krankyltd) August 27, 2023
― Murgatroid, Sunday, 27 August 2023 15:59 (eight months ago) link
Oh my fucking god :(
― Snoopy is a cat, who lives in a cage (flamboyant goon tie included), Sunday, 27 August 2023 16:00 (eight months ago) link
Awful news
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Sunday, 27 August 2023 16:02 (eight months ago) link
Horrible, horrible.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 27 August 2023 16:09 (eight months ago) link
His solo work is also whew, so good. I love this album.
https://starsofthelid.bandcamp.com/album/when-the-detail-lost-its-freedom
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Sunday, 27 August 2023 16:10 (eight months ago) link
When asked what he will miss the most when he’s gone during an interview with podcast Five Questions, McBride said surprises. “Maybe you’re in a matter of fact mood, you’re driving home from doing a bunch of errands, you see somebody walking their dog, and the cat has gone on the walk with dog and the owner, and she’s running past them, showing off, scratching the trees. And you suddenly take delight in that,” he explained. “The weird appreciation for the mundane or the banal. That’s what I’ll miss the most. The times when you can surprise yourself and notice things that seem quite matter of fact but are actually quite beautiful depending on how you look at it.”
big oof
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Sunday, 27 August 2023 16:12 (eight months ago) link
I had to get some thoughts out of my head:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/in-honor-of-88329908
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 27 August 2023 17:15 (eight months ago) link
very lovely, Ned. truly difficult to describe my relationship with this music— it seems almost all-encompassing at times.
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Sunday, 27 August 2023 17:26 (eight months ago) link
Thank you. It's that sense of scope and immersion without...without drowning you in it, if that makes sense. You feel it more than hear it.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 27 August 2023 17:29 (eight months ago) link
Ah fucking hell, no way. RIP.
― (picnic, lightning) very very frightening (Chinaski), Sunday, 27 August 2023 17:42 (eight months ago) link
i remember years ago when i coached hs debate and i was looking at the ut austin summer debate camps (which i soon discovered our school could never afford). i saw one of the coaches names there as brian mcbride and thought, ha that guy has the same name as the guy from sotl. and then i found it it was the same guy and my mind split apart. everytime i'd listen to them i'd marvel at these grieving sound poems and then think, man imagine this guy teaching teenagers how to spread in debate.
― oatly carmichael (m bison), Sunday, 27 August 2023 18:11 (eight months ago) link
Just devastating.
― ian, Sunday, 27 August 2023 18:24 (eight months ago) link
While my primary musical interest as a teenager was rave culture, my tastes were eclectic (e.g., I started posting here as a teenager). When I started attending parties, I couldn’t understand why ambient and drone didn’t didn’t permeate into dance music culture. The cultures felt, despite their shared history and interests (e.g., computers and drugs), antagonistic toward each other in the late-90s/early-00s. It was particularly baffling in Detroit where the specialized shops like Stormy (Wendy & Carl’s shop) and Neptune exclusively catered towards these two cultures. The one exception was Stars of the Lid. Everyone loved them. This band from, of all places, Texas, was the one artist that managed to bring together all these disparate Detroit music sub-cultures. By 2007 with the release of “And Their Refinement of the Decline” it felt bizarre to think these sub-cultures were so isolated. They truly brought people together.
― Allen (etaeoe), Sunday, 27 August 2023 18:34 (eight months ago) link
i.e., rip
― Allen (etaeoe), Sunday, 27 August 2023 18:35 (eight months ago) link
legit been reaching out to people with whom i shared major life moments with to this music— i remember my friend Eric giving me a bunch of SotL mp3s in early 2008 when all i’d heard was ATROTD.
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Sunday, 27 August 2023 18:38 (eight months ago) link
multi xpost
just had a debate coach friend of mine reach out to me. apparently when my friend was a young debater, mcbride was his judge on occasion. when he later became a teacher, his debate kids worked with mcbride and apparently he put on little concerts for the students. he had no idea of mcbride's side gig as a musician until i told him about it some years ago.
― oatly carmichael (m bison), Sunday, 27 August 2023 18:51 (eight months ago) link
oh how my heart aches
― ꙮ (map), Sunday, 27 August 2023 19:04 (eight months ago) link
refinement was so healing for me in such a crucial and dangerous moment in my life. the beauty there is unfathomable.
― ꙮ (map), Sunday, 27 August 2023 19:05 (eight months ago) link
very sad about this as both an ambient/drone fan and a one-time forensics club kid (didn't know that about him until i read the p4k obit). RIP, too too soon
― donna rouge, Sunday, 27 August 2023 19:10 (eight months ago) link
stars of the lid are my most played artist in itunes. it's not even close. it's reductive to describe the influence of music in numbers like this, especially music with as much soul and grace as the music of brian mcbride.
but the amount of _time_ i have spent with mcbride's (and adam wiltzie's) music ... it is a part of me. i will never forget the nights i spent alone in the control room of the 107" telescope at the mcdonald observatory, refinement of the decline blasting out in the silent high desert. rip brian.
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Monday, 28 August 2023 00:47 (eight months ago) link
Really sad news. I recall that Brian was briefly on the DroneOn list just as SOTL were signed to Kranky. Nice guy. Remarkable music that continues to resonate. RIP.
― sawdust lagoon, Monday, 28 August 2023 02:33 (eight months ago) link
Just awful news. Refinement might be my most-listened to ever album.
― toby, Monday, 28 August 2023 04:03 (eight months ago) link
Sawdust - I ran the DroneOn list. I remember when I saw that he subscribed. Kinda undone by this... RIP
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 28 August 2023 06:35 (eight months ago) link
his music has meant so much to me. really sad news. RIP.
― i really like that!! (z_tbd), Monday, 28 August 2023 13:42 (eight months ago) link
This was not what I was expecting to see when I saw the thread revive yesterday.
Stars of the Lid—and Brian’s solo work—are simply transcendent. I like a lot of ambient music but SotL have always hit a different emotional button. Nobody, in any genre, elicits the same feelings in me that they could. All these years later I was still holding out hope for one more album. What a loss.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Monday, 28 August 2023 15:32 (eight months ago) link
“Even if You’re Never Awake (Deuxieme)” just wrecks me, it’s so beautiful.
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Monday, 28 August 2023 15:41 (eight months ago) link
RIP. When I think of Stars of the Lid, I think of specific, vivid times in my life when I was seeking quiet and calm for myself and the people I love: writing my graduate thesis in the library late at night; a restless, painful day in the hospital with my partner when our first child was born; laying beside that child years later on a school night when they were anxious and struggling to fall asleep... Stars of the Lid is almost always the first thing I think to play in these moments. I will forever be grateful to have their music.
It was heartening to read the sentiment in this tweet:
It was my privilege to have worked on behalf of the music Brian McBride made. It was my pleasure to have known him. I'll remember cats and conversations on cold Chicago nights. Believe me when I say that he knew how much the music meant to us all. pic.twitter.com/KGYp7r8608— Bruce Adams (@BruceMAdams) August 27, 2023
― Indexed, Monday, 28 August 2023 15:51 (eight months ago) link
Yes, that.
― djh, Monday, 28 August 2023 17:38 (eight months ago) link
A lovely comment from Jeff Copas on FB, from the long running (and very good) Austin band Sixteen Deluxe:
I counted Brian as a friend, starting with our radio gigs at UT in the early 90s (I took over the “grunge” show from him, he having wisely moved on to less well-trod pastures). He was funny and frighteningly intelligent, with an eye on the horizon way beyond where most could see. A terrible and tragic loss.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 28 August 2023 18:56 (eight months ago) link
Philip Shelburne celebrates the good man:
https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/remembering-stars-of-the-lids-brian-mcbride-with-10-essential-records/
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 29 August 2023 00:48 (eight months ago) link
i've been playing refinement a lot over the past few months. miraculous music.
― ꙮ (map), Saturday, 18 November 2023 04:11 (five months ago) link
any time i want to be transported to a more peaceful and reflective state of mind, i put on decline. i'm happy to say i'll likely be listening to it regularly until i die.
― ꙮ (map), Monday, 18 December 2023 02:23 (four months ago) link
https://adamwiltzie.bandcamp.com/album/eleven-fugues-for-sodium-pentothal
Releases April 5. Vinyl / CD (yay) pre-order now.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Tuesday, 27 February 2024 18:08 (two months ago) link
lol at that last song title
― tylerw, Tuesday, 27 February 2024 18:34 (two months ago) link
And now a nice video too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfrbadnqEoo
― Xgau Murder Spa (nikola), Saturday, 2 March 2024 01:34 (two months ago) link
I'm lucky enough to have heard the album.
I won't say much except to say that those, like me, who have found the excessively sentimental and overly-orchestrated cast of recent Winged Victory, etc, will be pleased with how enjoyably sparse and at times harmonically dissonant (ish) this is...
― JonR345, Saturday, 2 March 2024 03:44 (two months ago) link
dang, that video is something
― z_tbd, Saturday, 2 March 2024 05:49 (two months ago) link
I like Wiltzie's album more than the last few AWVFTS albums though it's still just okay. Generally like the vibe but nothing grabbing me the way the best SOTL stuff does.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Monday, 8 April 2024 18:55 (one month ago) link
Yeah I found Winged Victory disappointing too. Can’t believe those SOTL albums are 20+ years old
― Slorg is not on the Slerf Team, you idiot, you moron (Boring, Maryland), Monday, 8 April 2024 19:11 (one month ago) link
starting to think McBride was the secret weapon
― Paul Ponzi, Monday, 8 April 2024 19:22 (one month ago) link
If you’ve listened to his first solo album, it’s absolutely clear he was the secret weapon
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Monday, 8 April 2024 19:50 (one month ago) link
^^^ love it as much as SotL
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Tuesday, 9 April 2024 15:25 (one month ago) link
Me too
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Tuesday, 9 April 2024 16:03 (one month ago) link