The future of Stereolab

This seems to be a popular view of Stereolab and not one I subscribe to at all. Their scamper away from the indie disco dancefloor down ever-narrowing corridors of fussy detail and texture mirrors my own shift in tastes, and as a result I've loved most of their records (especially Sound-Dust and the last quarter of everyone's favourite one to knock, ...Milky Night).

That said, an end to Stereolab now, after Mary's tragic death, would seem appropriate, but there are unpleasantly humdrum things like brand identity and paying the mortgage to think about.

On the contrary, they aren't fun enough

Agreed, this is why I sold Dots & Loops which gradually revealed itself to be not much fun at all.

This could be cool. I remember an Autechre remix (of a song I can't recall) that was completely out of the ordinary for them, and very good. Maybe they should hook up with Matmos or something.

Yeah that could have gone further...although like I said I don't think the D&L melodies are quite up to snuff.

Madness! There are some flaccid moments sure, but "Super Falling Star", "Mellotron", "Orgiastic", etc... I ask you?

Am I still the only person who actually thinks Emperor Tomato Ketchup has been the least durable record so far?

Laetitia may be impatient with fans -- after a hiatus they produce Sound Dust which is such a good record -- so consistent (i love roughly every second song) -- having heard loops and milky i say it is their best album after tomato, perhaps the culmination of that direction in their sound

that tv program Cold Feet had a millenium special episode that reprised cul de sac perfectly, since the drift/ island/ end metaphor worked perfectly for the 'end of time' hoop-la surrounding 0/0/2000 and the possibilities of ths show drifting, out to sea or beached, which it sure ended up doing, even if they didn't think they were drifting then

i liked those promo photos of stereolab, with the power poles vertically alligned with the pictures perspective -- like harry lime as the giant (film) wheel comes to a stop over occupied vienna, a snapshot, on the road to the castle or back ? waiting for the flood ? (i don't stereolab are misanthropic, the fans tiny dots or dust, as if viewed from harry's perspective)

i like this album art, the indication of a peak, however insular, an acknowledgement by the band that they may well be too disconnected from their audience yet wishing to take the chicago computer collaborations to a decent conclusion .. i bet they knew sound dust was make or break time, if not for the group then at least for that sound, which surely they got right on this album tens times more so than on the two albums seemingly leading in that direction, validating for me those experiments along the way -- good on them for acknowledging the alienating potential, yet admitting that this was the peak of that stereolab at least

yes, i think they will go looking for other peaks, somewhere else (Lionel Stander did get to work in hollywood again, after all)

maybe the boo-boos will have to go and a new angle for the lyrics taken with both Marie's terrible departure and the band learning the hard lessons of producing something so good by their own standards even if these didn't meet the demands of their audience -- the artistic journey has been completed -- that concept in light of Marie's death is almost horribly prophetic in a spooky new way, beyond their worst dreams i imagine (is Polanski a real king midas of horror and despair ? dark forces ?) (i do not wish to trivialise _anything_ in saying this)

of course the album + art stands on it's own feet as beautiful music with a variety of sentiment -- most of the band can return to the main land and pursue some other groove -- after a presumably respectful period of meditation and change of trade-name

"hiatus"

http://www.stereolab.co.uk/news/

Perhaps a necessary thing, really.

diminishing returns for a while now

Question: is the future of Stereolab any different than the past of Stereolab?

:( At least Chemical Chords 2 will still come out (and I'm glad I saw them this last tour)

yeah, me too! their show last fall was wonderful. still, if anyone deserves a break, it's probably them. they've never gone more than a year or two without an album over the past 20 years, have they?

they've never gone more than a year or two without an album over the past 20 years, have they?

There were a couple multi-year gaps in between Sound-Dust, Margerine Eclipse, and Chemical Chords though I think the box set comes in there somewhere.

yeah, maybe i'm just thinking that there are always various collections coming out in between records -- never seemed like they disappeared for any significant amount of time.

They were great when I saw them live last year. Like, really great, as much fun as the first time I saw them. If this is one of those permananent breaks then they are going out with a bang, at least as far as live music is concerned. I don't think I have any of their albums from the last ten years, but live performance is at least as important to me.

My thoughts on seeing them in September -- if that's the last time I'll ever see them, then the last song I ever saw them do was a great version of "Jenny Ondioline."

I guess one too many people made fun of their last album cover. It was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Link to video of Sydney show with additional laundry bag: http://www.quartzcity.net/2009/03/12/stereolab-in-sydney/

Seriously, this is the greatest mersh idea ever. I only wish I had one of the old Peng beach towels from way back

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3450/3350087958_fbbd04240c.jpg

so is Chemical Chords 2 still gonna happen? wikipedia has nothing on it that i can find...

Hmm...received in a Drag City promo e-mail just now, word of this forthcoming release:

Stereolab
Not Music

Nothing listed on the official band website about this.

There was talk about releasing the other tracks from the Chemical Chords sessions..so it could be that. Last official word I heard from Stereolab was that 'no new recordings were planned', which basically means a hiatus/break-up; vague isn't it? Maybe 'Not Music' refers to some kind of DVD or any non-studio albums release like rarities for example. Also interesting how it's from Drag City, they did CC on 4AD because of the whole Beggars restructure.

Any new Stereolab product is welcomed for me.

There's tons of non-lp material yet to be collected, including numerous collaborations - plenty of gems left uncovered. I've compiled 39 tracks totaling 3 hours, would love to see it all officially released!

xp stuff that isn't on the stray tracks catch-up compilations like the Switched Ons and Oscillons. Where did you get hold of these tunes?

I hope they are finally getting around to releasing Chemical Chords 2 and the b-sides collection they promised a couple years ago. Though wouldn't these come out on 4AD?

Looks like Laetitia has been doing some solo dates in South America lately.

Where did you get hold of these tunes?

Isn't that a silly question in 2010? ;-)

Here's what I've put together. I skipped some demos, remixes, radio sessions and live versions and stopped at the end of 2001:
1. Super Falling Star (Moog mix) - from Volume 4 compilation
2. Low-Fi
3. (Varoom!)
4. Laisser-Faire
5. Elektro (He Held The World In His Iron Grip) - these 4 from "Low-Fi" EP
6. Ronco Symphony (demo)
7. The Seeming And The Meaning (demo) - these 2 from the Spacewatch flexi
8. I'm Going Out Of My Way (WHFS session) - from "Inside Dave's Garage" split single
9. The Eclipse
10. Yes Sir! I Can Moogie - these 2 from "The Cat's Miaow" split single
11. ABC (The Multitude) - from "Godz Is Not A Put On" compilation
12. Simple Headphone Mind
13. Trippin' With The Birds - from "Simple Headphone Mind" collaboration with Nurse With Wound
14. Endless Summer (as Microlab) - from "Microstonia - Reprovisers" compilation
15. St. Elmo's Fire (radio)
16. Less Time
17. St. Elmo's Fire (Red Corona)
18. St. Elmo's Fire (Spatio-Dynamic)
19. Impulse Rah!
20. St. Elmo's Fire (Snow) - these 6 as Uilab from "St. Elmo's Fire" collaboration with Ui
21. Miss Modular (Automator mix)
22. Refractions In The Plastic Pulse (Feebate mix by Autechre)
23. Contranatura (Prelude To The Autumn Of A Faun mix by Kid Loco) - these 3 from "Miss Modular Remixes" EP
24. Freestyle Dumping - from JP release of Aluminum Tunes
25. Symbolic Logic Of Now! - from "Soi-Distant" split single
26. Chinese Whispers (Stereolab mix) - from "Chinese Whispers" compilation
27. Untitled / 008 - from Thurston Moore's "Root" compilation
28. Blaue Milch - from Peter-Thomas-Sound-Orchester's "Warp Back To Earth 66/99" compilation
29. Galaxidion - from "Social (Bodies)" compilation
30. Caliméro
31. Cache Cache - from collaboration with Brigitte Fontaine
32. Ticker Tape Of The Unconscious (Thievery Corporation remix) - from Thievery Corporation's "Abductions & Reconstructions" compilation
33. The Super-It
34. Fried Monkey Eggs (vocal)
35. Monkey Jelly - these 3 from "The Underground Is Coming" EP
36. Brain Drain - from "Collaborations 2: Constant Friction" compilation
37. Négatités - from "Yeti 1" compilation
38. Free Witch And No-Bra Queen
39. Speck-Voice - these 2 from "Free Witch And No-Bra Queen" EP

xp Songs on eps and singles already count as officially released though.

But all the same I'm sure there is a mine of unreleased material in the stereolab vault.

cannot believe the Low-Fi EP has not been compiled on a CD collection yet, a real high point for the band imo.

Yes the Low-Fi Ep is amazing, blows my mind it was recorded in 1992... mmm need to submit to the ep thread...

Due to popular demand:

Oddities part 1 - http://www.divshare.com/download/11278093-b2c
Oddities part 2 - http://www.divshare.com/download/11278167-301

Oh wise and good soul.

:D

Gerald, thanks for this! I'm four songs into Vol. 2 and that Brigitte Fontaine is hitting the spot.

xpost Gerald McBoing-Boing you have made my day.

Man, that looks like a great little comp. I tried dl but divshare never coughed up the files just started countdown again. Anyone else have the same problem?

yes, do it twice. same thing happened to me, but they did download.

weird, the 'try again' links were different this time around but it worked! thanks.

Wow, thanks!

So - what do y'all think of this stuff? For me, some of it is unlike anything else I listen to and more experimental than their LPs and therefore has a special place in my heart.

(this stuff = the oddities I posted)

Thanks Gerald. Do you happen to have an mp3 version off this single? Both songs are up on youtube and they are quite different to anything I've heard from them.

http://www.discogs.com/Stereolab-Solar-Throw-Away/release/662709

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Y2s-7Qny4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biJW68Bh7-o

I don't, I lost interest around 2001 and therefore stopped my compilation at that point.

the two tracks from that 2006 tour single are probably my favourite stereolab tracks since ETK

I love this! The St Elmo's Fire cover was a surprise. The Godz cover is great, too.
Great to have it all, in one place, no less.

Moka, those two tracks are great!

SCUTTLE

Anyone care to reup the compilation somewhere else? Divshare showing unavailable until June 3rd due to number of downloads...

aw!

*cough* *cough*

thanks very much!

wow, lovely eno cover.

Is there anything he can't do?

Thanks, this is a nice collection of stuff, even though it underscores the fact that the quality of their music fell off a cliff starting with "Dots and Loops". Looking back I can't even understand why I liked D&L at the time -- I guess I forced myself to like it because it was Stereolab. They totally unraveled when all their music started sounding cute and quirky (thx for nothing John McEntire!). They could still bring it when they played live but their records sounded so flimsy.

"Lo-Fi" might be better than any Stereolab album save for "Mars Audiac Quintet" (and even that album is a bit overlong whereas "Lo-Fi" is 25 minutes of perfection).

I've had ABC on a mix-tape for YEARS but it was only pretty recently I finally found out where it came from, because I never saw it in Stereolab discographies anywhere and it wasn't on any of the Switched On comps.

They totally unraveled when all their music started sounding cute and quirky (thx for nothing John McEntire!).

So glad that people are coming around on this...

My theory was that they were one of those bands that improved their musicianship and got to the point where they could play the music they always wished they could. And lost what they had to a greater extent.

Their later stuff was an improvement, I would add. (I got that 6 (or was it 8) 7" singles set of stuff)

I quite like the last 2 albums but I lost interest for several years when Dots & Loops came out.

honestly, i've enjoyed all of their records -- some more than others, sure, but I never saw a crazy drop off in quality. I got into them around Dots and Loops though, so I might be coming at it from a different perspective.

I would add that I don't think I've given that period anywhere near a fair chance, I've barely listened to a lot of it.

Yeah Dots & Loops is where I got off the bus, I never even had a copy until this year.

I would also like to be quick to place blame on Sean O'Hagan for those string arrangements, turgid and distracting nonsense.

Yeah, I thought it was him, but then he did some great stuff with them previous to D&L.

St Elmo's Fire was a collab with Ui inc. everyone's favourite indie-racial blogger and former ilxor Sasha Frere-Jones iirc

(well, fairly sure I do rc as I remember buying the thing and playing it a bunch, but as to who did what, I couldn't possibly tell you)

The first two Switched Ons I probably like more than any of Stereolab's albums proper, so looking forward to this bundle of goodies - thanks!

I liked the O'Hagan stringy stuff on MAQ and to a lesser extent ETK.

Felt very disappointed in D&L at the time and wanted to blame the collaborators, but since I had newly fallen in love with both Tortoise and Mouse on Mars it was kind of hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong.

They totally unraveled when all their music started sounding cute and quirky (thx for nothing John McEntire!)

yeah D&L was the "departure point" for me as well - the comment upthread about the improvement in musicianship resulting in a subsequent abandonment of most of the things that made them special/interesting is very on point imho. Listening to this collection, a lot of it is on that edge where they clearly became enamoured of technique and technology and complex compositions. some of the actual SOUNDS and tricks used are still great and engaging, and its nice to hear them flex their muscles with genuine bossa and samba rhythms, for example - but tunefulness and hooks went out the window. they lost a basic pop component, and traded it for a certain inscrutability. they still had all the same signposts (krautrock, experimental electronic music, brazillian jazz, etc.) but they became arranged in such a mannered and cluttered way no actual light could shine through. I'm not saying they needed to stick to playing one chord for 20 minutes, but their melodic sense definitely nosedived.

yeah that is probably otm ... still enjoy their "sound" though, throughout all of the records.

and I don't blame O'Hagen really (altho that High Llamas crap is terrible), he had previously done some quality stuff for them

xp

buncha High Llamas haterz here, eh? I might like them better than Stereolab!

heretic.

The 1997 Peel session is kind of interesting - it's never been properly collected, but it has a lot of the Dots & Loops songs without the Dots & Loops production.

Also this is really good - not sure what it actually is, maybe demos.

shakey, I'm surprised that a (fellow) beach boys + stereolab fan could hate the high llamas so much!

Well, I got "Gideon Gaye" thinking I'd love it...

Um, no.

A feeling of "HOW MUCH LONGER IS THISGOING ON FOR HELP!!!"

thats their weakest album fwiw and it all of it can come off as quirky or whatever at first but theres some fine psychedelia in there

YEah, I gathered as much but there was a sense of "oh you have to get this, you like the Beach Boys, and Stereolab don't you?" from the weeklies, it put them too far back in my mind...

Interesting opinions about "D&L" -- when we did the 90's poll a few years ago, it was nearly universally praised on this board!

You could see the writing on the wall with the McEntire tracks on ETK, but they moderated his influence a little better and the hooks were still there. I thought "Cobra and Phases Group ..." was a bit of a comeback because they regained some of the funkiness that went away with D&L (I should prob revisit that album though, I haven't heard it in ages). I really liked "Chemical Chords" too, they were keeping things simple and writing real songs again.

My theory was that they were one of those bands that improved their musicianship and got to the point where they could play the music they always wished they could. And lost what they had to a greater extent.

I disagree because they were still killing it live, they'd lay down these monster grooves that were way heavier than anything on their records. Stereolab really should do a live album, I'm not sure why they never did ... although "ABC Sessions" serves a similar purpose (and might be the best Stereolab album!)

So - what do y'all think of this stuff? For me, some of it is unlike anything else I listen to and more experimental than their LPs and therefore has a special place in my heart.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Saturday, May 8, 2010 7:35 PM (4 days ago)

Thanks for putting these up. I'm twelve songs in and there's been some great songs so far.

I really didn't think ABC was them until the last minute.

Elektro has probably been my favourite so far, just amazing. I really loved The Eclipse too but wish it had been longer.

they were still killing it live, they'd lay down these monster grooves that were way heavier than anything on their records. Stereolab really should do a live album, I'm not sure why they never did

Very much on the money.

Agreed -- and ABC Sessions is indeed a monster of a collection.

Watch them streamroll through "Analogue Rock", "Blue Milk", and "The Seeming and the Meaning" like they were the Feelies or something (from a 1999 show in Brussels).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHFrxgT_Ak8

count me in as a D&L-era bailer!

loved ETK tho!

for a while they were my favourite band.

i did like "interlock" that song that came out some years ago on a single or something

NoTimeBeforeTime, that video is great, especially "The Seeming and the Meaning". I don't remember ever seeing them play such fierce versions of those tracks.

Cannot let this High Llamas bashing stand -- Gideon Gaye is one of the best albums of the 90s! ONE OF THE BEST.

How did it do in the recent poll(s)?

probably poorly.

(Wasn't being sark, just wondered...)

agree about the ABC Sessions being awesome - was kinda blown away when a friend passed that on to me last year

xps

shakey, I'm surprised that a (fellow) beach boys + stereolab fan could hate the high llamas so much!

hey given all the comparisons it kinda surprised me too, but I honestly don't hear a lot of the Beach Boys in the High Llamas. its more like they mine a verrrry narrow vein of the BB's ouevre (specifically the instrumentals from the Pet Sounds era, which is like what, a year and a half?) sans the vocal melodies/harmonies, and without any of the Boys' oomph or weirdness. O'Hagen seems primarily concerned with aping the Wrecking Crew's Brian Wilson-penned AM pop arrangements, and it's just not that interesting to me. it's very flaccid.

yeah, as o'hagen himself will tell you, the beach boys thing is a little bit overstated when it comes to the high llamas stuff. sort of like saying stereolab is just a krautrock tribute band. i mean, the influence is there, but there is plenty of other stuff thrown into the mix. i understand why some people wouldn't be that into the Llamas but I love 'em. For me, each album is a wonderful little world to get lost in.

its more like they mine a verrrry narrow vein of the BB's ouevre (specifically the instrumentals from the Pet Sounds era, which is like what, a year and a half?)

I always felt like it was more that they did a focused study on this period of the BB ouevre, trying to see what else could be done within its margins. admittedly a lot is lost without the harmonies, and nobody believes o'hagan is 1/10th of the songwriter that BW is - but he certainly has a talent for arrangements.

high llamas have long been my go-to study music in school. I don't listen to them a lot now that I've graduated, but I always found the music - 100% pretty arrangement, zero 'song' - to be ideal background noise when I was trying to focus on something else.

yeah, as o'hagen himself will tell you, the beach boys thing is a little bit overstated when it comes to the high llamas stuff. sort of like saying stereolab is just a krautrock tribute band.

this is true when it comes to the content of the music, but I think in each case you feel the shadow of the beach boys / krautrock even when they're doing something unrelated - like even when o'hagan is going bloopy or stereolab is making bossa nova. this is not meant to be a criticism really...I am willing to rep for basically anything that either band has released.

I personally love High Llamas, but I think Gideon Gaye is one of their weaker albums. I recommend trying out Snow Bug or Beet, Maize, and Corn. Neither of these are very Beach Boys-sounding, but they are very good for other reasons. Stereolab singers sing a bunch of the songs on Snow Bug.

For more of a Beach Boys vibe, check out Hawaii.

Gideon Gaye has some Steely Dan moments.

Checking In, Checking Out is basically a straight rip of Pretzel Logic-era Steely Dan. Probably why it's my favorite song on Gideon Gaye.

I saw the 'Lab KILL "The Seeming and the Meaning" at the Granada in Lawrence in 99 (I think?). Top five concert moments for me.
A guy in the audience requested "Surreal Chemist" with wild fervor, the band seemed confused by that. It was funny.

with shakey mo and whoever else: loved basically everything prior to dots & loops, and basically nothing thereafter. not sure what the difference is, exactly. more complex and subtle arrangements, obviously, and an abandonment of heavy, druggy guitar & organ jams over a simple beat, but the latter approach was largely gone by emperor tomato ketchup, and i adore that record. as others have said, to my mind, their ear for undeniable pop hooks went out the window somewhere around this point - or else they lost interest in that kind of appeal. i still like some of the beats and sounds, but the sum total comes across as a tasteful but forgettable wash.

Sound Dust is something of a reclamation album, imo. Hated Dots and Loops, never owned it and probably never will.

sound dust is my favorite stereolab album by a huge margin

"a tasteful but forgettable wash" = a strange complaint, cuz extended, basically tuneless droning is one of my favorite things about early stereolab. there was something very inviting and soothing about those early fuzz tunnels, though - thinking here of stuff like "contact". it didn't sound like pop, but it worked like pop, at least for me. i suppose that as their sound became less overtly psychedelic and monomaniacal, it became less welcoming to me, but perhaps more interesting to others?

I personally like Dots and Loops, Cobra and Phases, and especially Sound Dust. Everything post-Mary Hansen hasn't been as good, but there have been plenty of enjoyable moments.

Is it wrong for me to say that they would be better if they found someone to replace Mary? The singer on the last Immitation Electric Piano album or the bassist/backup singer from Monade would both be great choices.

i should give sound dust another try. though it was clearly an attempt to reclaim some of their early territory and appeal, it didn't hook me immediately, and i wrote it off without giving it much of a chance. seems to have a lot of supporters, though.

though it was clearly an attempt to reclaim some of their early territory and appeal

it doesn't sound like their early work at all tho! it does sound like some of their mid-career aluminum tunes era stuff

I'm pretty sure that Sound-Dust was Tim Gane's attempt to sound like Holst's The Planets.

KUDOS to gerald mcboing-boing. thx2u dawg.

it doesn't sound like their early work at all tho! it does sound like some of their mid-career aluminum tunes era stuff

― iatee

it's super, super lush - some of their earlier stuff hints and this, but none of it quite reaches it. holst is a pretty good reference - melody nelson too. (it's also their most 'french' album imo.)

hints at* this

hahaha, i started listening to the LOW-FI songs eagerly anticipating my first listen of these tracks until I realized that I actually owned this at one point in time (either 10" or plastic sleeve CDEP or maybe both :( lol)

ahhh ex-collectorism...

'Captain Easychord' on Sound Dust was the song that got me into them. Always thought they had a very appealing thing going on for them before but that's the one that really grabbed me.

Dots and Loops is my favorite Lp by them though.

Sound Dust is really good, agreed! I came to it late cuz I hadn't been paying attention any more but I was thrilled when I finally heard it.

I'm with the bailed-after-Dots crowd, in fact I finally got around to selling it this year. The "Oscillons" box clued me in to some of their better post-Dots singles and of course it gathers up all their UK EPs, though it shuffles the order (which still works well, remarkably).

I didn't bail after D&L, but they weren't one of my favourite bands from then on. For me it was a gradual loss of interest (I didn't really appreciate "Sound Dust" until I heard the versions on "ABC Music") until "Margarine Eclipse", at which point I stopped caring completely.

I've said this elsewhere, but Dots and Loops really felt like a revelation to me when it came out, like I had been waiting all my life for an album that sounded like that. (Before that, I'd heard Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Transient Random Noise-Bursts, but they didn't have quite the same effect.) I was probably at the peak of my fandom in 1998-2000 -- bought a couple older albums I hadn't heard before (I particularly liked Mars Audiac Quintet) and really got into Aluminum Tunes and Cobra and Phases Group and First of the Microbe Hunters, too. So for me, it wasn't until Sound-Dust that I felt disappointed in them. And even then, it wasn't that I disliked it, it just seemed too predictable. And I suppose that's kind of how I feel about everything else they've released this decade.

first of the microbe hunters is so awesome. i kind of wanna walk the earth with a boombox on my shoulder playing "outer bongolia" on repeat til the end of time

The 1997 Peel session is kind of interesting

I'm listening to this now - what's the story with this? Is it live from Peel Acres or a proper Maida Vale Peel session?

Live from Maida Vale, according to the Peel Sessions book. Thanks for putting these tracks up btw.

Did Laetitia's album come out yet? She seemed to be playing everywhere the end of last year.

from a pre-Chemical Chords interview w/Tim Gane:

"I cut a loop from a record, and it’s so tiny it sounds like it’s blurring when you loop it. For instance a tiny sample of less than a second, half a second or something like that, and I loop it sixteen times and mix it down to a piece of audio, and then I find another loop and mix that down until I have eight different loops, and I put them in an order at kind of random. And then what we do is listen to what’s going on in the sample and try to excavate what we can hear. What you can hear, is difficult to hear, because it is so short and sort of blurring that you don’t know why you should play anything, so you don’t get any kind of even flow. You hear a little guitar, but I don’t actually write anything on it. We just kick out what we don’t think you can hear, but what you hear isn’t really exact, so it’s hard to tell what’s going on. ... For me it’s the loops we recreate and the real instruments, as the band, that reproduce these tiny little sounds."

no wonder stuff composed this way sounds tuneless

out 9/21 Laetitia Sadier TBA LP/CD
out 11/16 Stereolab Not Music 2xLP/CD

A+++ will anticipate!

yeah, interested to see what a Laetitia Sadier solo rec sounds like. I dig Monade.

out 11/16 Stereolab Not Music 2xLP/CD

?! is this the other stuff they left off Chemical Chords...?

I was sorta unimpressed with the Monade records

gonna assume it's a rarities collection of some sort ...
i'd say give monade another chance. it didn't make a big impression at first, but I came around to really liking it.

where is this info coming from?

email from drag city

Laetitia also has a song on a 4 way split 12" that we're on (srry for spam) that comes out in the fall i think? track is great.

looks like "Not Music" is indeed the Chemical Chords II thing they had mentioned a while back. http://pitchfork.com/news/38978-new-stereolab-music-on-the-way/

And that is fully confirmed now via this promo mailout:

Not Music is Stereolab’s twelfth album and is released during the band’s self - imposed hiatus from recording and touring.

The tracks that make up Not Music were recorded in early 2007 - half of the recordings from the session would be released in August 2008 as Chemical Chords – Stereolab’s eleventh album!

About the recordings –

Tim Gane started messing with “a series of about seventy tiny drum loops” on top of improvised chord sequences using piano and vibraphone. “Building them up from there – later slowing the tracks down or speeding them up – a totally new way of doing songs for us…”

With typical prolificacy, the band laboured over the summer at their studio, Instant Zero (in Bordeaux, France), helping transform these blueprints into 32 luminous new songs, with keyboardist/technician Joe Watson manning the mixing desk.

Not Music will be released via Drag City November, 16, 2010.

cool, looking forward to this. the 'Lab may be on hiatus but there's plenty of music to enjoy. The Laetitia solo album is a gem.

heyyy, both of these records (the trip and not music) are awesome.

What are they like?

not music is obv. pretty similar to chemical chords since the songs come from the same sessions/era. some nice horn arrangements, cool bass lines. the highlight for me might be the 10-minute emperor machine mix of "silver sands" which out-kraftwerks kraftwerk. sadier disc doesn't sound like a radical departure from stereolab/monade. less manic/busy, more space in the arrangements. great nico-esque version of "summertime."

i need to check the sadier. in my dl queue waiting to be unzipped.

not-music isn't anything special in imho, but this isn't shocking as it's from the chemchords session and that album also left me cold. it's like their hearts weren't in it, you know?

"The future of Stereolab? Stereolab [i]is</is> the future, etc."

i know what you mean, but i seem to be a bigger fan of 21st century 'Lab than a lot of people. chemchords/not music isn't where i'd point a stereolab newbie or anything, but i still dig the sound. xp

sound dust is my favorite stereolab album by a huge margin

― iatee, Thursday, 13 May 2010 02:46 (5 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

This.

Chemical Chords is nothing short of wall-to-wall genius but I cannot penetrate Not Music. I'll keep trying, but the point is I've not had to work at anything post Mars Audiac Quintet.

I feel like if sound dust had been released as some band's first record instead of 'stereolab not making the music the fans wanted more of', more people would have realized how genius it is

Sound-Dust is indeed incredible. It's like they had a second crack at Cobra and got it right.

Trawling previous threads, I found a long sequence in the Chem Chords thread in which that album sent me from boredom to orgasm in three days. Perhaps I should persevere with this new thing.

Sound-Dust is indeed incredible. It's like they had a second crack at Cobra and got it right.

So wrong! (I like Cobra much more than Sound-Dust.)

"the highlight for me might be the 10-minute emperor machine mix of "silver sands" "

Agree with this...is it just me or is this album more atonal than usual? I wasn't paying close attention during the walk to work this morning so that might be wrong.

nice Vitamin Water commercial guys

What does Tim Gane do with his time now?

Revel in the idea that Alyssa Milano has possibly listened to his music.

Did another soundtrack with Sean O'Hagan. Also produced the last High Llamas album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hXFJ-56jk0

Or was it mixed?

Did another soundtrack with Sean O'Hagan.

outer bongolia 2 imo

Did another soundtrack with Sean O'Hagan

good lord are these what pass for "pretty" people in France now?

http://ugsmag.com/2013/04/teseolab-tes-tim-gane-shoot-shoot/

so glad to know Tim Gane is actually alive and doing shit, i'm kinda into this

I'm ready for a whole album like this

Cool track, terrible mc.

That's the lamest band name I've heard in a good while.

Is that david cross?

Love it when that Focus sample comes in.

Cavern of Anti-Matter were great at ATP.

wait a second, did Tim Gane team up with Whiney?!?

Cavern of Anti-Matter album is out apparently: http://www.grautagrec.com/releases/006/gt006.html

oh man this sounds very cool, ordered!

Yeah, finally managed to grab a copy of this from Rough Trade on Sunday (after they sold out of their first shipment within about a week). Great to hear it on vinyl blasting through my hi-fi after having to make do with the stream for several months. Don't forget to nominate it and/or vote for it in the EOY poll, folks!

Yeah, it's rad.

Should appeal to the fans of the less loungey side of the band.

I like this ok, but man, doesn't Gane ever get tired of the Neu! formula that he always builds from?

shhh :)

Those are the most Tim Gane songtitles ever! Excited to take a listen to this.

It's hard to believe that Margerine Eclipse is a decade old this month. I popped it on the other day and was struck at how good it was. I think that they had something to prove with it, and succeeded admirably. In retrospect, they probably should have called it a day after that.

yeah the funky reprise of "dear marge" that closes the album out would have been a perfect way to draw the curtains

True, though the record right after that had moments

I think the Chemical Chords/Not Music twofer was a pretty nice exit, nothing to be ashamed of at least. Margerine Eclipse was probably their best 21st century album, though, just by a hair.

I just could not get into Chemical Chords- I just remember every track fading out abruptly. Not Music has some moments but really feels like leftovers when you add remixes to the equation...but truthfully I haven't listened to it all that much.

There's plenty of good stuff on all their releases from Margerine onward, although none of it quite reaches the heights of the albums that came before.

Isn't there supposed to be one last album's worth of tracks or B-sides or something that they had talked about releasing? Whatever happened to that?

I remember really liking Fab Four Suture at the time. I should listen to it again.

I think that's what Not Music was-- all stuff that didn't make it onto Chemical Chords.

Yeah I played Margerine Eclipse a few weeks back and enjoyed it a lot. Vonal Declosion is probably my favourite album opener of theirs. That one and Sound Dust are crazy underrated and up there with their best for me. Think I'm a bit of an uncool Stereolab fan really, I'd take those two albums over any of the first three. Also Dots & Loops is my second favourite album and don't a lot of people think that's when they started to lose it?

dots & loops is when i tuned in! in retrospect transient random-noise bursts is my favorite but i'm a big fan of the mcentire era

Cool. I know there's fans that think they started making the same album around that point but I love those albums. I should really give Cobra and Phases another chance at some point. Being such a big fan of the albums either side I would probably like it more than I remember.

Should point out Emperor Tomato Ketchup is my favourite album of theirs by quite some distance.

Sound-Dust is a favorite of mine, although I like all their early stuff too. Margerine not so much with the exception of a few tracks.

Sparkle Motion:

When Chemical Chords came out, they said they had 2 more albums in the can. One was the second half of material that they recorded for Chemical Chords, which became Not Music, but they also supposedly had a collection of outakes and b-sides from the last decade that they were planning to release as a similar collection to Switched On, Refried Ectoplasm, Alluminum Tunes, etc.

Sound-Dust is incredible. Properly got me back into them after becoming disillusioned with them around the time of Dots & Loops.

i think i liked not music more than anything they did since aluminium tunes

thanks Moodles. I'd gladly take another volume of Switched On. I do believe I have a couple of tour 7"s that didn't make it onto long-playing release I've ever seen.

All said I'd love to see them get back together as soon as their batteries are recharged.

I suspect it ain't happening, but who knows?

Laetitia's last solo album Silencio was really solid.

Generally pro-Chemical Chords/Not Music anyway, but their live sound on that last tour was tremendous. Liked seeing them as much then as back in the beginning.

I'd gladly take another volume of Switched On.
[...]
I suspect it ain't happening, but who knows?

Tim, from a recent Q&A with Record Collector magazine:

Is there anything still unreleased?
"For Stereolab, nothing really, though some of the more obscure stuff will be compiled on a future Switched On. Enough for a double LP. We’ll also soon begin remastering all of the Stereolab LPs, in order, from the original two-track tapes, and try to have a limited-run box set, finances permitting, as well as issuing them separately. We’ll also try to have a separate disc of the four-track demos to all the songs on a particular LP, placed in order, and with a mini facsimile sleeve. Some have been lost or damaged, but they’ll be replaced by something suitable from the same period."

Only for Stereolab could "nothing really" unreleased = a double LP of unreleased material.

Well no, he's saying it's obscure stuff not unreleased stuff. So limited editions, b-sides etc.

This whole remastering and demo plan is intriguing. I forsee myself re-buying lots of Stereolab stuff if this plan actually happens. When was that interview from? Was there any indication of when any of this stuff would be released?

I used to have this dream of owning all the Stereolab albums on vinyl. I bought vinyl copies of a couple albums, Peng! and Dots and Loops, and was shocked to find that the sound quality on them was terrible. I wonder if these remasters will include higher quality vinyl releases.

I love "Chemical Chords" on Chemical Chords. It sounds a lot like the sequel to The High Llamas' sublime "Glide Time."

Generally pro-Chemical Chords/Not Music anyway, but their live sound on that last tour was tremendous. Liked seeing them as much then as back in the beginning.

Yeah, it was by then I think the band had also figured out how to gel in the absence of Mary. The first tour after that seemed so hesitant, but by the final tour things had fully clicked. Glad they bowed out that way.

Been thinking about the band a lot lately, partially due to cleaning up my digital music collection. (Have the first disc of what I guess was a three CDR live collection of tracks via the old fan list; need to ask Mackro about that.) Also, the venue that I ended up most associating them with, the Detroit Bar down here in OC, has been sold and will close soon. Stereolab played the opening night back in 2000 or so and ended up performing there every tour after that, so I saw them around four, five times there over the last decade. Good memories, including seeing Andy Ramsay sitting down at a meal at Taco Mesa two blocks away before the show. (Kinda love how Andy became the secret favorite of a lot of people over the years; he really was a hell of an anchor and a deft overall performer with them.)

I bought vinyl copies of a couple albums, Peng! and Dots and Loops, and was shocked to find that the sound quality on them was terrible.

Yep, I took my copy of Switched On back to the store the same day I bought it.

xp yeah seeing them on that last tour, ramsay really brought a lot to the whole experience, especially on the latter day material -- those songs "breathed" a lot more in a live setting.

absolutely agree that Ramsay was key to their sound. He's a master of the eighth-note kick drum.

Generally pro-Chemical Chords/Not Music anyway, but their live sound on that last tour was tremendous. Liked seeing them as much then as back in the beginning.

Never thought my first time seeing them (which was on that tour) would be my last time seeing them. ;_;

I used to have this dream of owning all the Stereolab albums on vinyl. I bought vinyl copies of a couple albums, Peng! and Dots and Loops, and was shocked to find that the sound quality on them was terrible. I wonder if these remasters will include higher quality vinyl releases.

― Ornate Coleman (Moodles)

Are these the reissues that came out last year? I keep seeing these around and I'm always tempted to get some of the ones I don't have. They just brought out Sound Dust which looks cool but I definitely won't bother if the sound is that bad.

my copy of Dots and Loops dates back to when the album was originally released. The Peng! copy is newer, but I've had it at least a few years. I haven't heard these new ones that came out last year, maybe they are better.

yeah my underwhelming Switched On LP was from years ago

I thought I'd seen something somewhere already that these reissues are a bit dodgy. We need a thread on vinyl reissues to avoid really. They're bringing out so many cool things on vinyl now but I've read various things about the quality of a lot of them being terrible.

To complicate matters I seem to recall a slew of recent vinyl reissues that were not licensed by the band. If you just see one in the record store you may not know what you're getting.

I used to love Stereolab. I bought transient random-noise bursts when it came out because of the review in Spin and the cover was beautiful. It was fun listening to them back then, not knowing much about music and how exciting everything was to me, the design, noise, synths. I think the first disappointment was Emperor Tomato Ketchup. I'm not sure why because I liked most of the songs, some of them are my favorite Stereolab songs, but with each release I listened to less and less, and after Cobra And Phases, I haven't heard anything. I'd probably buy a deluxe vinyl box set with complete lps though. I sometimes miss having stereolab in my life and being exciting about what they were doing.

I recall reading Latetia once describing their music along the lines of "we're not rock & roll... we're more just roll". I think that kind of sums up the band before & after ETK.

Meantime, thinking of when I've seen them -- this has made the rounds a bit, but the very first time I ever saw them, at UC Irvine back in 1993, was videotaped (still don't know who by) and surfaced on YouTube, along with Unrest, who were headlining the tour. As I was involved with the radio station and was friends with the campus promoter I was also doing some help throughout -- sitting at the entrance and Mark E. Robinson coming up asking where to load in was kinda funny. Still remember being asked to get some food for the band and I took Tim and Laetitia across from campus to get some pizza. I remember explaining Irvine's planned community nature to her and she was very bemused! I had interviewed her by phone shortly beforehand -- great fun. Not sure if I have the tape around, I hope I do. Anyway:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE4CBKerRNs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iOGjeWAGVo

I think the Stereolab reissues on 1972 may just be sourced from CD masters (e.g. their Cobra and Phases doesn't have the longer version of "Blue Milk" that showed up on the original vinyl).

Have the first disc of what I guess was a three CDR live collection of tracks via the old fan list; need to ask Mackro about that.
yes please

I thought I'd seen something somewhere already that these reissues are a bit dodgy. We need a thread on vinyl reissues to avoid really. They're bringing out so many cool things on vinyl now but I've read various things about the quality of a lot of them being terrible.

― Kitchen Person, Wednesday, January 15, 2014 8:46 AM

here you go:

Search & Destroy: New Vinyl Pressings (And Reissue Pressings) What's Worth Buying?

I saw them in touring ETK, this was the set-list:

French Disko
Motoroller Scalatron
Melochord Seventy-Five
The Extension Trip
Lo Boob Oscillator -> Für Immer (NEU!)
Spark Plug
The Noise of Carpet
Anonymous Collective
Percolator
Super Electric
Ronco Symphony
Metronomic Underground
Crest
Ping Pong
Stomach Worm
Spinal Column

The ETK tour was the only one I missed, I think -- and I'm STILL annoyed with myself for that. Not only was Sonic Boom playing with them but Prolapse was opening. One of my few honest to god full regrets when it comes to missing shows by anybody. IIRC I was at a radio station retreat that weekend.

Meantime one of my favorite times seeing them was the Stereolab/Mouse on Mars/High Llamas bill in LA around Thanksgiving 1997 -- hot on the heels of a full High Llamas performance the previous night, with string section. I remember this vividly as well because at one point I turned around in the line to get in and two people back was John C. Reilly, who I'd just seen for the first time a couple of weeks beforehand in Boogie Nights.

ETK tour was super good, probably best concert I've ever seen.

Ned, thanks for the Irvine '93 vids! /watch later x 2

You're welcome!

yes please

Tylerw: I asked and Mackro didn't remember offhand. But the other two discs have gotta be around somewhere. Will do some checking...

STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING AND FIND THEM IMMEDIATELY NED

Complaints complaints

Still got my set of 3 intact *ducks*

Moodles - the Record Collector Q&A is from the December issue. I agree though that it's probably best not to hold your breath for these groop-approved reissues though. Switched On 4 has been "coming soon" for years now.

Search & Destroy: New Vinyl Pressings (And Reissue Pressings) What's Worth Buying?

― sleeve

Thanks. Should have realised there was already a thread for this.

xpost -- ah, so YOU'RE the guy. (Any chance of liberating those, as it were...?)

I'm pretty sure I have those three disks around somewhere too, I can look around for them if you want, they have probably been sitting out in my garage for a while.

While we're recounting great Stereolab shows, the Electric Ballroom gig that went: Stereolab/Drive Like Jehu/Prolapse/Flying Saucer Attack in '94 was incredible for all kinds of reasons.

xpost -- Please do! (I'd say if someone has a complete set they can send to tylerw he'll take care of the rest.)

And yeah I remember hearing about that show in retrospect and going "THE FUCK."

High Llamas, Mouse on Mars and Stereolab sounds like my dream concert line-up. I'm sitting here seething.

It was crazy great. MoM joined Stereolab on stage for an encore of (IIRC) "Stomach Worm" that pretty much destroyed civilization (in a good way).

I saw 'em live in Philly on the Dots/Loops tour in 1997. Believe the LLamas opened but can't remember who else was on the bill.

I didn't much enjoy the show because the band sounded EXACTLY like the albums, which felt like a negative.

Whoa whoa whoa == Stereolab/Drive Like Jehu/Prolapse/Flying Saucer Attack

What an amazing lineup.

I have the Mars Audiac vinyl reissue. It sounds fine, but no better than the CD and from what I read somewhere, it is in fact actually just a vinyl press of the CD, not from the master or anything.

I am destroyed by all of chunkletguy's videos, wow. Thanks for the link Ned

This thread sent me back to listen to 'Sound Dust' tonight for the first time in years. I liked it.

xpost -- You're welcome! Yeah some amazing stuff there.

This was a great show too

http://www.gigposters.com/posters/35527.jpg

Ned: I found that CD set, email me with the info for what you would like me to do with it.

Per earlier post:

(I'd say if someone has a complete set they can send to tylerw he'll take care of the rest.)

So, tylerw...?

sup! can you upload mp3s or would you rather send the physical object somewhere?

I'll see if I can figure out how to get them uploaded this evening and let you know

Pretty interesting interview with Tim here: http://tapeop.com/interviews/98/tim-gane-bonus/

xp thanks moodles!!!!!

oh and the tape op interview looks great -- the one that appeared in the print edition was frustratingly truncated it seemed.

Good interview!

Laetitia is interviewed in the same issue. Can't remember if she got the web bonus treatment as well.

tylerw, webmailed you the info, let me know if you run into any issues

Somewhat relevant...

http://www.southlondonhardcore.com/2013/12/episode-96-sean-ohagan.html

This week we spoke to Sean O'Hagan, formerly of Microdisney and Stereolab, about his life in South London, Stereolab's South London roots, the transpontine tunes he recorded with The High Llamas and 'Here Come The Rattling Trees', his latest narrative music project which is set in Peckham.

i was at the MoM/lab show in mtl way back then. i remember my lungs rattling.

ETK tour was super good, probably best concert I've ever seen.

― Ornate Coleman (Moodles)

This was an all-time top five concert for me too (Cornershop opened for them).

got the webmail, moodles, will grab it when i get home tonight! thx!

I am pleased this is coming about.

sorry i cyberbullied everyone into it, but it had to be done...

I'm glad you are interested in them. If Ned hadn't mentioned it, they eventually would've melted in my garage.

If anyone else on here is interested in some good quality stereolab live recordings, feel free to hit me up for the URL.

I'D HIT THAT.

saw them at leeds cockpit 1999/2000 terrible sound
köln 2005? amazing gig, properly loud, loved the bassist that night, they seemed genuinely surprised that cologne loved them, highlights: a song i've never heard before or since and stomach worm
reading the year morrissey white stripes libertines without pete played. was meh was in a tent they weren't into and half the crowd were waiting for lethal bizzle or dizzy rascal

the groop was definitely one of the first bands where i was like "i must own everything by this band"

hahaha good luck with that one

I'd love some live 'lab if you could email biznotic AT gmail. Saw them in New Orleans on the ETK tour. Threw a little alien toy on stage and it ended up displayed on their Moog? for the duration of the set.

sent, if anyone was looking for these and didn't get them let me know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx0pthgzDWU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L7DbDKl0lo

So tylerw these ARE appearing on your blog sooner rather than later, yes?

hahaha

if that's cool, yes!

Yes, yes I think that would be cool, yes.

Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements
Mars Audiac Quintet
Emperor Tomato Ketchup

i like the idea of stereolab (i.e., that general sound, and the individual elements the band drew from), but i've had a hard time getting into them. these are stupid reasons, but it's partly because (a) i generally dislike their album cover art and (b) i've become too impatient a listener to get through what i remember being fairly long songs. that said, i loaded the three albums listed above into my ipod this morning, and i really liked what i heard of them. i'd like to try another approach to this band, but i think it's best to try that with individual songs, rather than full-albums. what individual songs from the discs above is the best "way-into" stereolab?

Probably something from "Transient Random Noise Bursts With Announcements" because it has more of a tendency to ROCK as opposed to the outer space science pop with cooing French lyrics that you probably associate with Stereolab.

actually i really liked the "outer space science pop with cooing french lyrics"-songs that i heard. i just want to take it in small, carefully-selected doses at the start.

Mars Audiac Quintet is the on you want.

lol daniel, golden ball

loving this song. thanks.

I love that the Stereolab origins series on YouTube is up to part 17 or 18 now.

TRNBWA: "Jenny Ondioline" or "Crest"
MAQ: "Anamorphose"
ETK: "Tomorrow Is Already Here"

Pause

I love that the Stereolab origins series on YouTube is up to part 17 or 18 now.

Sounds like it's time to update my Stereolab Origins Spotify playlist.

Tylerw, what's yr blog?

http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com
it's a kinda bootleg/live/rarities thing for the most part

sweet! following you now

Daniel Esq 2, check out "Perversion" and "The Seeming And The Meaning" from Peng! too bcz you will be really delighted

perversion is great. i love the cascading, and kind of dueling, vocal lines. i've also decided that, with this band, it's really useful to read the lyrics; they add considerable heft to the songs.

Thank you, Moodles!

idk much about lyrics/poetry but there is a flat, direct, didactic quality to stereolab's lyrics that complimented their early noisier stuff best. I do like the juxtaposition witb the later bouncy loungier stuff, though.

Kinda fitting Malkmus quote in today's Salon interview on vintage Stereolab:

"I mean, I really, really liked Stereolab, and I think sonically and stuff they hold up so well. Also I was lucky to play a lot of shows with them back when they were especially burly sounding, real kind of heavy sounding — they got a little softer as time went on.

...

Their drummer was tough and the bass player, like whatever their backing band was I was really impressed by them. When we would play it would be — we’d have to get pretty drunk to make up for our lack of the power that they had. It sucked playing after them sometimes. You don’t think of them that way, but they really were that way. It was pretty awesome."

The Köln gig was definitely that way

i like the idea of stereolab (i.e., that general sound, and the individual elements the band drew from), but i've had a hard time getting into them. these are stupid reasons, but it's partly because (a) i generally dislike their album cover art and (b) i've become too impatient a listener to get through what i remember being fairly long songs

this is pretty much my experience too - the 'lab seem like a band tailor made to my tastes and yet I derive something cold and boring from them. granted I always thought ETK was incredibly good but listening to Transient Noise-Burts put me off and I can't explain why - first time I heard it I was on a big Faust/Neu! kick and was kinda disappointed to see them borrow so much wholesale from those guys. that said one of these days they're inevitably going to become my favorite band.

i'm not into them at the moment, but used to love them. maybe finally hearing hallogallo kind of spoiled jenny ondioline for me, which was until that time a 17 minute masterpiece.

i don't really feel that "heavy" thing malkumus is talking about wrt stereolab, he probably thinks everything went south after MAQ anyway.

live they could be quite heavy

Tracks like "Crest" and "Analogue Rock" have a particular grindy quality to them that comes pretty close to "heaviness"

i know they got "heavy", i just mean i don't feel them when they got "heavy"

I totally agree with SM on the heaviness, and I say this in spite of never having Stereolab as my opening band on several tours.

Actually I think their first two records may be the heaviest?

SM's comments also made me also think of Broadcast another band whose live heaviness was completely and unexpectedly immense.

when i heard them live they were doing soundtrack stuff, not heavy at all. but i didn't like it i have always the early stereolab. the band that sounded as amateurish and as straight and simple as neu! there was something very direct and unfiltered in their minimalistic sound. it probably had to do with laetitia sadier's sprech-singing almost like nico (heavy french instead of heavy german accent though). sadier sounded innocent and sexy at the same time. those are the best female voices.

i have always loved the early stereolab.

reading their lyrics is really helping me connect with sterolab's music. that said, these lyrics -- from spark plug -- seem callous.

There is no sense in being interested in an ill person
Or unwell a society if one cannot believe their readiness
And the capacity for proper recovery

maybe i'm cherry-picking lyrics to arrive at a harsh and unfair reading, but this is what struck me when i heard it.

lifted/translated from proust, satre or baudelaire?

that would make sense. based on a very generalized (and maybe overly-hasty) first-impression, they seem like a band that draws from essayists, novelists, philosophers, playwrights, and so forth.

absolutely

Broadcast another band whose live heaviness was completely and unexpectedly immense.

Yeah definitely, I only saw them once in 2001 or so and they were crushingly loud, bass drum thumping against chest type loud.

I'm told that Stereolab tours were notoriously fraught affairs on a personal level. Might explain some of the heaviness.

a friend of mine went to see them in the early noughties and after the gig had finished tim and laetitia fucked off and the rest of the band just sat round a table looking glum and barely speaking. my friend tried talk to them and congratulate them on their performance, but she just received monosyllabic, disinterested replies.

interesting, never heard this about their tours.

I did read a somewhat recent (past year or two) interview with Laetitia where she said she'd be willing to get the band back together with Tim so long as all the other members were replaced.

wow - that's a pretty unusual rift in inter-band politics

Even Andy? Does she even know WHY the band kept clicking for so long? Honestly amazed; you can't just replace him at the drop of a hat.

Even Andy?

This was my exact initial reaction. Don't know if she was including him in that comment or not. I'm sure they are aware of just how important he's been to them.

hey quick question about liberte egalite fraternite (which is sounding awwwwwesome) -- is there a link to more info about the tracks (dates etc)? can't find anything.

xp
I think she might be. Something happened on that last tour, which led to Andy quitting when more dates were planned and which effectively forced the "hiatus".

tylerw - Here's the old website for 'liberte egalite soeu/fraternite'. Some of the links still work if you can fight your way through the angelfire pop-up ads:
http://www.angelfire.com/space/tahansite/

anyone heard "eaten horizons or the electrocution of rock"?

lol at the angelfire site! thanks though, that fills in some of the blanks.

I assumed they broke up the band because Tim and Laetitia split. Sounds like there's more to it?

I thought they split ages ago - that's why I find it strange that these two would gang up against the rest of the band

yeah didn't they break up like 2004 or thereabouts?

yes, they split a while ago.

Keep in mind, this was only expressed by Laetitia, I have no idea if Tim agreed. My impression is that the last tour was not a particularly positive experience, but I have no idea how true that is or what the problem was.

judging from the Gane interview in Tape Op, he was basically burnt out:

It's pretty simple. While I was finishing the last sessions, I'd I felt like I'd exhausted any ideas that would work for Stereolab. I didn't want to make the classic "bad record" that some long-time bands seem to put out. I don't think we've made one of those yet. I can't think in a creative way within the limitations of Stereolab anymore, because there's just too much around it. The other part of it is that I was really tired of being away from my home and my wife for seven months out of the year. I wasn't sure whether to stop it completely, or keep it open, in case any good ideas came; like a good offer that sparked some creative thoughts. If that happened, I would do it. But until it does, I don't want to do it. It's as simple as that. We can call it a "hiatus."

So Tim and Laetitia split years before the band broke up? I don't really know anything about their personal history.

At a performance on 21 June 2013 at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival held at Pontins in Camber Sands, Cavern Of Anti-Matter (a trio featuring former Stereolab members Tim Gane and Joe Dilworth) were joined onstage by Lætitia Sadier for a performance of "Blue Milk" (from Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night), thus effecting a partial Stereolab reunion

i worked there one summer (1997), but all we had was Boney M without the main guy, Rolf Harris, and Freddie and the Dreamers without Freddie. Oh yeah and a tribute to Freddie Starr.

So Tim and Laetitia split years before the band broke up? I don't really know anything about their personal history.

Yeah five years before the "hiatus"

So around what album?

just before margarine eclipse?

Emil.y witnessed the ATP performance according to this thread

I saw them only once, in 2008, despite being a fan since around when Cobra Phases came out. It really caught me off guard how much they rocked. They were funky as hell.

Yeah I guess I saw them around that time too...had pretty much lost track of their recorded output by that point but they put on a really good show.

he was the best bassist imo

I witnessed that too (ATP mini-reunion), they had a spare vocal mic hanging around all performance, but COAM were so damn great I didn't even get excited about it. Being the Deerhunter ATP Bradford Cox was up there too. Have a shitty photo.

http://scontent-a-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash2/t1/1004737_10100773448187428_166785064_n.jpg

Every time I see this thread title I imagine an album that ends w/ someone saying "Tell me about the future of Stereolab?" and Tim Gane says "The Future of Stereolab is a..."

And then silence.

just a little empty infinity

Xpost

Funny you mention that, I always think of "the future of the groop is in doubt."

And yet it isn't until just now that I realized those two quotes bookended that album, which I've only listened to about a million times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rQ94tLkEX8

I'm glad Stereolab kept going just so we could get this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrPpsGGddEw

Huh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6odrRSNxYY

I've heard that song a hundred times but never made the Stereolab connection because it was always in the context of the rest of the Eurythmics record. As a standalone, I hear it quite differently.

And "Caveman Head" is the Th' Faith Healers song off In The Garden.

On the Stereolab forum, a fizzy-bubbly unreleased track (circa Dots and Loops) from a Museum Exhibit with Charles Long has been unearthed.

http://www.stereolab.co.uk/forum/stereolab/topic/7405/flat/0/

(scroll down a little to get the dropbox link)

Thanks - it's good.

Yes, great find! Still awaiting more Switched On comps.

didn't they say they had another one coming when they announced they were going on hiatus? never heard anything more about it...

Yeah, 'Not Music' came out.

I've been on a big Stereolab kick lately. I can't say I've ever been the *biggest* fan of the group—I love Emperor Tomato Ketchup to death and have spent passing time with some of their other albums or individual tracks, but I've never done a formal deep dive into the discography. Been spending the last few days with their early albums, Peng through Mars Audiac Quintet. Kinda does something to you to just play all their albums in a row for four hours.

I've also been on a renewed Stereolab and Broadcast kick the last year or so. I'm weird in that even though my first Stereolab album was Emperor Tomato Ketchup, my favorites were 'Dots and Loops' and 'Cobra and Phases Group...', more the xylophone and brass and strings and bouncing baselines side of things, less the motorik-based side. For some reason I stopped following around 'Sound Dust,' though--perhaps too busy exploring their inspirations--but I recently realized their supposed fall-off was vastly exaggerated (probably by people who preferred their guitar-based early sound), so I went out and bought everything they've done in the last decade, and so much of it is really excellent!

I don't think either introduced me to their more motorik/Krautrock-influenced forebears, as I think I discovered Can and Neu and Faust along with them in my late teens. But I know for sure they lead me to things like USA and White Noise and BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which lead to David Axelrod and Placebo and a much fuller exploration of library stuff and Italian/French/German/UK soundtrack music, as well as to Ghost Box and newer stuff that drew on all of the above.

Thinking of all this got me to make a couple of mixes recently that I just uploaded that Stereolab fans would probably appreciate, so check them out here:

https://images-mix.netdna-ssl.com/w/300/h/300/q/85/upload/images/extaudio/261a03b5-422a-4c9b-9899-3d95302f647d.jpg

'La Diffusion' (1957-1975)

https://www.mixcloud.com/musicophilia/musicophilia-la-diffusion-1957-1975/

01 [00:00] Raymond SCOTT - "The Rhythm Modulator" (Manhattan Research Co., 1957)
02 [01:12] Silver APPLES - "Oscilations" (Silver Apples, 1969)
03 [03:55] Barry FORGIE - "Dawn Mists" (Stringtronics, 1972)
04 [07:17] Jean-Michel JARRE - "Black Bird" (Rarities, 1972)
05 [10:24] Mother Mallard's Portable MASTERPIECE CO. - "Cloudscape for Peggy" (Self-Titled, 1970)
06 [13:40] Jacques THOLLOT - "Cecile" (Quand le son Devient Aigu, 1971)
07 [15:33] White NOISE - "Your Hidden Dreams" (An Electric Storm, 1969)
08 [20:36] Paolo RENOSTO - "Confronto" (Here and Now Vol. 2, 1974)
09 [22:50] Ian LANGLEY - "Frantique" (Reggae for Real, 1973)
10 [25:27] Blue PHANTOM - "Equilibrium" (Distortions, 1971)
11 [29:11] Braen's MACHINE - "Obstinacy" (Underground, 1971)
12 [32:46] Karl Heinz SCHAFER - "La Victime" (Les Gants Blancs du Diable, 1973)
13 [36:23] Jacques SIROUL - "See" (Midway, 1973)
14 [39:53] David AXELROD - "Holy Are You (Instrumental)" (Release of an Oath, 1968)
15 [44:14] Piero UMILIANI - "La Rinuncia" (La Ragazza Fuoristrada, 1973)
16 [46:23] GOBLIN - "School at Night (Lullaby)" (Profondo Rosso, 1975)
17 [50:00] ORGANISATION - "Silver Forest" (Tone Float, 1970)
18 [52:27] Franz AUFFRAY - "Sweet Popcorn Part 2" (Original Popcorn, 1969)
19 [55:13] Guy BOYER - "Pop Sticks" (Ballad Pour un Vibra, 1971)
20 [58:12] Ennio MORRICONE - "The Victim" (Maccie Solari, 1974)
21 [61:41] Alan PARKER & John CAMERON - "Survival" (Afro Rock, 1973)
22 [64:47] Ananda SHANKAR - "Metamorphosis" (Ananda Shankar, 1970)
23 [68:02] United States of AMERICA - "Cloud Song" (The United States of America, 1968)
24 [71:32] Billy GREEN - "The Death of Doctor Death" (Stone, 1974)
25 [72:58] Alessandro ALESSANDRONI - "Galleria di Immagini" (Prisma Sonoro, 1974)
26 [76:52] Alain GORAGUER - "Valse des Statues" (La Planete Sauvage, 1973)
27 [79:14] Jacqueline THIBAULT - "Le Loup Quie Pleure" (Laurence Vanay, 1974)
28 [81:12] Manfred HUBLER and Siegfried SCHWAB - "Necronomania" (Der Teufel Kam Aus Akasava, 1971)
29 [83:33] Tom DISSEVELT and Kid BALTAN - "Moon Maid" (Electronic Music, 1962)
30 [86:34] Free DESIGN - "An Elegy" (You Could Be Born Again, 1968)
31 [89:25] Philippe BESOMBES - "Theme Grave" (Libra, 1975)
32 [91:21] Gianni ODDI - "Omerta" (Style, 1974)

https://images-mix.netdna-ssl.com/w/300/h/300/q/85/upload/images/extaudio/360e3aa2-e697-4f31-b9c4-23252683aabd.jpg

'Memories of Tomorrow' (1997-2015)

https://www.mixcloud.com/musicophilia/musicophilia-memories-of-tomorrow-1997-2015/

01 [00:00] Death and VANILLA - "Necessary Distortions" (To Where the Wild Things Are., 2015)
02 [05:55] BEAK - "Lulsgate" (Beak II Bonus, 2012)
03 [08:15] Jane WEAVER - "Argent" (The Silver Globe, 2014)
04 [16:10] Mount Vernon ARTS LAB - "The Black Drop" (The Seance at Hobs Lane, 2007)
05 [19:22] Last EX - "Trop Tard" (Last Ex, 2014)
06 [23:57] His Name IS ALIVE - "Everything Takes Forever" (Ft. Lake, 1998)
07 [28:02] The SOUNDCARRIERS - "Let It Ride" (Harmonium, 2009)
08 [33:45] PORTISHEAD - "The Rip" (Third, 2008)
09 [38:05] Belbury POLY - "Goat Foot" (The Belbury Tales, 2012)
10 [41:03] BROADCAST - "Unchanging Window" (The Noise Mde by People, 2000)
11 [44:48] CARIBOU - "After Hours" (Andorra, 2007)
12 [50:44] Yo La TENGO - "The Sea Horse (excerpt)" (The Sounds of the Sounds of Science, 2002)
13 [53:13] BECK - "Paper Tiger" (Sea Change, 2002)
14 [57:56] IVY - "Back In Our Town" (Apartment Life, 1997)
15 [62:27] TORTOISE - "I Set My Face to the Hillside" (TNT, 1998)
16 [68:19] STEREOLAB - "The Emergency Kisses" (Cobra & Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night, 1999)
17 [74:12] The Advisory CIRCLE - "The Patchwork Explains" (As the Crow Flies, 2011)
18 [77:04] AIR - "Ce Matin La" (Moon Safari, 1998)
19 [80:35] Erykah BADU and Flaming LIPS - "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" (Heady Fwends, 2012)

Thanks for those links! Will check out La Diffusion for sure.

Yeah, 'Not Music' came out.

― Mark G, Sunday, August 23, 2015 11:17 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The way I understood it, they planned a b-sides compilation spanning multiple years and sessions in addition to Not Music, which was all material from the Chemical Chords sessions.

It's probably in Japan, or some such..

Meantime, I'm due to interview one L. Sadier in fifteen minutes, so should you have any burning questions...

cool, thanks for the mixes!

you could ask her if there is a Stereolab b-sides compilation waiting in the wings? also, is there a recommended pressing for Stereolab vinyl? I've seen various versions with very mixed reviews.

Alas I forgot to ask her about same! Mostly concentrated on her current work and album.

Today looking out the window on a bus and "Miss Modular," - "Do we do we do we do", and also the one in 5/4: "Diagonals"

is Tim Gane just retired now? It's weird how Sadier seems so much more active/productive post-Stereolab.

see here:

http://www.discogs.com/artist/3445802-Cavern-Of-Anti-Matter

not sure how available this stuff is, I have not heard it

fairly recent interview -- he mentions "soundtracks and installations" taking up a lot of his time http://thequietus.com/articles/16983-cavern-of-anti-matter-tim-gane-stereolab-interview

it's strange how his quest to keep things interesting for himself - compositionally, sonically, etc. - led to such boring results. (I have real problems with most Stereolab stuff post-Cobra Phases) Like his micro-managed approach to random compositions, it sounds like an interesting thing to try but the odds of it producing anything worth listening to seem really low.

During their lifespan there were times when it felt like a bit of a slog staying with them but now it's done it seems like one of the most sublime bodies of work that any band has managed to produce.

it's just interesting that his approach to songwriting became so abstract, almost mechanical. The idea that interesting/engaging work can be produced by following a more or less random set of rules. I mean every songwriter has techniques and tricks and boundaries that they draw on but he seems to have taken it to a very extreme level. And you can hear it in the work produced imo - the songs where every bar is different, or melodies and changes that sound completely random, everything just feeling chopped up and atomized and sort of beyond any standard musical logic. That stuff sounds very alienating to me.

3 Cavern of Anti-Matter tracks are on Spotify (+ a collab w/ Mouse on Mars)

I have a Cavern of Anti-Matter album called Blood-Drums. It's really awesome, actually. I find it much more interesting than the last two or three Stereolab albums.

They're also releasing, or maybe they have released, a single for Ghost Box's "Other Voices" series.

You can still stream that album on Staalplaat's bandcamp, if you were to be so inclined.

http://staalplaat.bandcamp.com/album/blood-drums

I probably can't explain why without just gushing, but I find a lot of Stereolab's most beautiful music came post-Cobra, especially on Sound-Dust and Chemical Chords. While I can perceive how one might see more immediacy in the earlier material, I tend to turn to the later albums more often. The Stereolab Origins videos on YouTube help excerpt some latter-day highlights and give a sense of the band's range, almost as much because of as in spite of the overtness of quotation the videos sometimes reveal. There's no group I miss more.

i prefer the earlier stuff, but i still think there's a lot of great stuff on the latter day releases. gane's discussion of his working methods is pretty interesting -- it doesn't sound like a fun way to make music to me, but it must be rewarding for him.

They're also releasing, or maybe they have released, a single for Ghost Box's "Other Voices" series

Out on December 4th, pre-order from this Friday. Based on the clips on soundcloud and iTunes, the A-side could end up being my track of the year. And for those who like "the earlier stuff", the B-side sounds like a lost instrumental from the Mars Audiac Quintet sessions.

Those tracks sound a lot like both Stereolabs I know and love.

Tim Gane's soundtracks with Sean O'Hagan are very pleasant.

Well this thread revival was all well timed.

http://pitchfork.com/news/62170-stereolabs-tim-gane-announces-cavern-of-anti-matter-album-featuring-bradford-cox-shares-melody-in-high-feedback-tones/

Now, had I missed Joe Dilworth is back on drums or is that actually news?

Tim Gane's soundtracks with Sean O'Hagan are very pleasant.
yeah! if i made movies, i would hire them.

this cavern of antimatter song sounds great!

has anyone on here watched any of the movies they soundtracked?

i haven't! are they available in the states?

not that I know of

Nope.

The last one they did didn't even get a soundtrack release. I think there might even be another one I forgot about.

Yeah, the last two soundtracks still await a release in any format.

had I missed Joe Dilworth is back on drums or is that actually news?
He's been on the drums since CoA-M started.

If you want to hear what they sound like live (good), there's a free live set on band camp here:
https://dieletztemetro.bandcamp.com/album/the-cavern-of-anti-matter-loop-de-loop-live-acud-05022015

Oh and they've launched a website today as well:
http://www.cavernofantimatter.com

ooh thx for that live set!

New song just showed up on Spotify today: http://open.spotify.com/album/0qJi44vJHJOdvxNfPh6v2B

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd67wTwBK0I

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/06/listen-cavern-of-anti-matter-tardis-cymbals-track-premiere

Meantime there's this!

http://www.factmag.com/2016/01/22/fact-focus-stereolab/

Excellent thanks.

Love the last Cavern of Antimatter single (the one on Ghostbox). Their most Stereolabby so far.

Lots of deep cuts there, looking forward to queuing this up

Xpost

This is helping my tedious Friday afternoon ever so. Thanks!

man, this cavern of antimatter record is sounding great!

New single "I'm the unknown" is gorgeous.

(Cavern of Anti-Matter)

Need that in my life. On the weekend I picked up brand new copies (CDs) of Margarine Eclipse, Chemical Chords and Emperor Tomato Ketchup for $4 each. Very very happy about that, especially Margarine Eclipse which is just so brilliant.

New single "I'm the unknown" is gorgeous.

― Ross, Thursday, October 13, 2016 7:37 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

(Cavern of Anti-Matter)

― Ross, Thursday, October 13, 2016 7:37 AM (one hour ago)

I think we all were..

Yep, me too.

Saw a couple of the 1972 re-issues at the weekend but they were expensive (nearly £40 each).

Also saw a re-press of one of the Too Pure albums.

"Sound Dust" is an awesome holiday season record. Opening track goes perfect with falling snow.

Every time this thread gets bumped I immediately think "the future of the groop... is in doubt."

Has anyone heard the new Laetitia Sadier?

yeah I got it the other day, only listened to it once but I liked it.

https://daily.bandcamp.com/2017/03/27/laetitia-sadier-find-me-finding-you-review/

motorik beat...

swinging with Sadier trademarks, like looping bass, chiming vibes, and soft “ba-ba-ba” backing vocals.

its ok

the first song that is. Haven't heard the rest.

It's fine, but kinda similar to the last one. I was hoping for a different sound given the 'Ensemble' credit. Could have done with more guests / different producers actually.

the first side is a lot better than the second, i think there's some good stuff but it really drags toward the end

first of the microbe hunters is so awesome. i kind of wanna walk the earth with a boombox on my shoulder playing "outer bongolia" on repeat til the end of time

― hobbes, Wednesday, May 12, 2010 6:35 PM (six years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Mookie: You killed Radio Raheem!

Cop: Dude, there's only so much "outer bongolia" a man can take...

so much fun to play along to that song on bass.

Just found out my man Sean O wrote 'Bongolia,' which I should've realized years ago.

really? do you have a link/source?

i've always been confused by Stereolab's songs pretty much all being credited to Gane/Sadier. did they write the bass lines? there are so many parts and instruments, especially as they go deeper into their career, to the point where Gane's skeletal guitar parts are buried in the mix or totally absent.

He's given the credit.

I mean, it doesn't sound too far off from "Fiery Yellow," which is another one of his.

yeah i just looked it up on Discogs, him and Andy Ramsay are credited.

btw i encourage anyone with a vinyl copy of The First of the Microbe Hunters to listen to Outer Bongolia at 33 1/3 rpm. It's just such a monster groove, and all of the bits that fly in and out of the mix are much easier to catch when it's slowed down. One of the funkiest things they ever did.

Here's a wonderful interview. Very unusual to hear Laetitia give such an in-depth retrospective of her career.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1L0Uw1BU9s&t=2660s

hmmm....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1L0Uw1BU9s&t=2660s

grrrr.... try this one

Thanks for that great insightful interview, I didn't even know that she was responsable for the Stereolab lyrics and that they were so left wing, somehow I had always thought McCarthy was the marxist band and Stereolab less political.

I got to see Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble the other night here in Austin, had a great time. The band and music is very much in line with the various solo projects she's had from Monade onward, stripped down, fairly subdued songwriting, not unlike Stereolab, but with more emotional resonance and more open-ended vocal lines. The last time I caught her solo show was with Monade in 2005. The big difference with this new band is that they are more versatile, all playing multiple instruments and everyone contributing vocals. There were lots of nice moments when they all harmonized together. Laetitia also continues to grow as a singer, she's always been good, but I think her voice is actually improving.

The first opening band was Astrobal, from France. They had some nice tunes, including some moments that reminded me of Domenique Dumont. They were very nervous and ended abruptly. While they were playing I kept thinking that their songs sounded very much like the music on Laetitia's new album. Turns out Astrobal is her backing band.

Second band was Heather Trost. Musically, they were fantastic, with great Broadcast-esque jazzy drums and lots of interesting keyboard and guitar melodies interweaving. Unfortunately, their vocals were pretty terrible, very out of tune and bland. The did do a nice cover of "Me and My Arrow".

After the show I bought a vinyl copy of Laetitia's Something Shines album and she was nice enough to sign it "The point is to change it, Matt, w/love! Laetitia".

nice, planning on seeing her next week up in denver -- thanks for the report!

http://thequietus.com/articles/23842-cavern-of-anti-matter-new-track-listen

avern Of Anti-Matter, the project of Stereolab's Tim Gane, will release a new album in March entitled Hormone Lemonade. Premiering above is lead track 'Make Out Fade Out', a pacy, motorik-driven instrumental cut built around layers of hypnotic, fuzzy guitar.

Hormone Lemonade is the group's third album to see release on their Duophonic label, with the record's catalyst lying in various rhythms committed to tape by band member Holger Zapf, using the Takron Z3 and Z2, over the course of three one-hour studio sessions.

Gane edited these jams into smaller useable parts and further fleshed them out, overdubbing each part with additional musical ideas. The group's Joe Dilworth then added further beats over Gane and Zapf's previous efforts, before Zapf added further sounds with his modular synth set-up.

The album is due out on March 23. You can pre-order it here.

Sweet!

nice — you know, I'm pretty happy with the current Tim / Laetitia situation ... they're both putting out very strong stuff.
willing to bet there's a live reunion of some sort in the near-ish future, but no rush ...

Meantime, a slew of albums plus Oscillons is now officially on Bandcamp

https://stereolab.bandcamp.com/music

I've had Dots & Loops on repeat for the last week or so.

damn ned i misread your post as "a slew of shows is now on bandcamp"

for such a beloved and amazing live band there's a relative dearth of recordings out there. every era is represented but often by only a handful of shows. maybe idk where to find them since they're not on archive.org

can anyone tell me how they get the bass sound on metronomic underground? i'm in love with that muted palm styling that broadcast also uses

The original Jazz Bass had felt mutes on the bridge - most likely something like that, or the flip-up mute on the Bass VI, but the tone is more Jazzy.
https://i.imgur.com/8CaHTDN.jpg

Laetitia’s albums are on Spotify now, thanks to Drag City

Another cool cover version comp

https://theblogthatcelebratesitself.bandcamp.com/album/stereolab-in-metronomic-underground-versions

what in the mother fuck

@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

Uhhhhh...

Very interesting

that is so weird

boooo

wtf

never figured Sadier as one to go in for regressive gender politics

flappy it's not fucking "interesting", stop giving that asshole a pass

so disappointing

deleted

haha i'm dumb it's still there

just older than i thought. yikes.

nooooooooo

from actual marxist to an enemy of 'postmodern neomarxism': the laetitia sadier story

ah FUCK

she is a musical hero nonetheless

flappy it's not fucking "interesting", stop giving that asshole a pass

― sleeve, Thursday, August 2, 2018 2:31 PM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I wasn't giving him a pass, wtf? Dude sucks. It IS very interesting because it makes NO sense - Stereolab are one of the most well known / successful Marxist band in history, right?

behind Richard Marx

god who fucking cares? Jordan Peterson is a dumb asshole. Sadier has a Bad Opinion. Stereolab still rules.

Otm

well, I guess we know the future of Stereolab now

stereolobster

"Don't we all know the dangers of two conflicting viewpoints? An active troublemaker fanning the flame of dissent...so aggravating"

^lyric was intended as irony for those who didn't get it.

stereolab is to mumford and sons what jordan peterson is to morrissey

Morals are for the blind, not the critical mind
Morals which don't even tackle the real issues
Moral Which seek intervention and control
Morals which don't even tackle the real problems
Morals that just seek control over our lives

(the latter in reference to: https://www.thecut.com/2018/08/jordan-peterson-carnivore-diet-mikhaila-meat.html)

It's alright 'cause the historical pattern has shown
How the economical cycle tends to revolve
In a round of decades three stages stand out in a loop
A slump and war then peel back to square one and back for more
Bigger slump and bigger wars and a smaller recovery
Huger slump and greater wars and a shallower recovery
Don't worry be happy things will get better naturally
Don't worry shut up sit down go with it and be happy

Pretty sure her Marx ship sailed once she started doing Red Bull events.

That's a dumb thing to criticize a working musician for tbh, still gotta live/eat in the world as it is

Yeah I mean this is a pretty common thing for artists as they age - becoming conservative - but I don’t remember any indication at all that Laetitia did that.

Also who found the tweet lol

laetitia sadier rules - similar to kate bush and her conservative beliefs - why do a musicians views politically really mean shit when they rule so hard

it's still disappointing

i don't believe in black and white "cancelling" or kneejerk shunning
i reserve the right to be personally disappointed by people when they reveal themselves to have repellent beliefs

sure it is disappointing

but the culture of take down and kill your idols is shite

My 2 cents is that she's always been more of a crackpot than a deep political thinker, but she got a pass because her views tended to align more to the left. She's still a great artist, and I'm not planning to light my Stereolab collection on fire over this.

Also, it may be interesting to discuss, but I'm not sure it was so important as to require several different thread revives.

otm

xp it is counterproductive
that is why i drew the distinction

thanks la lechera appreciated

RED bull dys

As I said on the other thread, maybe do some research on Living Marxism/Spiked/Revolutionary Communist Party and this current turn of events will come as no great surprise.

Rosie Cuckston is one of 'them' too - they are almost a cult.

do some research on Living Marxism/Spiked/Revolutionary Communist Party and this current turn of events will come as no great surprise.

Or just read some Stereolab lyrics.

Looks like not many of their fans have.

Am I the only one who doesn't know who this Peterson dude is?

tom, i dont care.

assumptions are not really a great standing ground

That's OK, lots of Morrissey fans feel the same way about Mozza.

Looks like not many of their fans have.

She's tweeted anti-feminist spiked articles before, she's been going that way for a while

always interesting when successful women decide to become anti-feminist once they've gotten successful.

Can't leave ladders lying about, dangerous.

interesting or disappointing depending on your perspective i guess

yes I meant disappointing obv

there are pockets of this sort of thing in my musical circles and it's always mysterious to me. I'm fb friends with the fellow who is Fuxa and he's a liberatrian as well. He keeps his politics offline though thankfully though one of his friend started threatening me out of the blue one day for being a libtard.

don't really gaf about this. it is funny to read all these dudes declare she is not a feminist now as if that matters at all.