Stars of the Lid

For some reason Jessica Balliff comes to mind as a kindred soul on Kranky. Both are great choices for long lonely road trips, I think.

stars of the lid on a road trip? i would fall asleep in 10 minutes.

i suggest you try it (with a passager in case you go under)

what it like?

fucking geniuses.

has mcbride done anything since tired sounds (other than playing upfront for fulham thati s. actually, isnt that mcbride a texan too?)

http://www.brainwashed.com/common/htdocs/discog/krank088.html

Are Stars of the Lid like that as well? If Gareth likes them, chances are I would, as well.

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?

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

adam pacione 'sisyphus' (elevator bath)

very similar vary good

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.

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.

"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.

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.

it produces some pretty funny backlash comments though so i'm all for it

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.

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.

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.

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

I noticed those comments earlier. And chuckled briefly.

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

I'd partially agree with that.. certainly the occasional track like 'Even If You're Never Awake (Deuxieme)' is markedly hooky by their standards.

i think my favorite part of that metacritic page is
GENRE(S): Rock, Electronic

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?

start with tired sounds, yes.

*Should say "Not too familiar with "And Their Refinement. . ." I have, in fact, made my own decisions before.

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.

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.

i was really upset by those metacritic posts.

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.

woohoo, live in Seattle at the Triple Door 4/18!!!
(with Christopher Willits and Lusine)

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.

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

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!

I saw them friday in nyc. great show.

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.

I forgot to mention, one of the guitarists said something like, "we're stars of the lid and this is the last time you'll see us in... a long, long time" right before they started playing. pretty cryptic. I took it as, "touring is no fun and we won't be doing it again anytime soon" but who knows.

@ nikefanatic90: Sup (Z S), the discogs entry for Carte-De-Viste gives details of where the various tracks come from: http://www.discogs.com/release/1143841

Tracklisting:
1 The Mouthchew (Part 2) (3:45)
2 JPRIP (4:37)
3 Requiem String Melody (2:46)
4 Porch (Version #28) (5:00)
5 The Kraut (9:42)
6 Slight On The Childproof (5:01)
7 Virginia (20.03) (20:05)
8 Hunting For Pops (5:24)
9 The Funereal (2:27)

¤ Tracks 1, 6 and 8 are out takes from And Their Refinement Of The Decline
¤ Tracks 2 and 3 are out takes from The Tired Sounds Of
¤ Track 4 is an out take from Maneuvering The Nocturnal Hum
¤ Track 7 was previously released as part of The Kahanek Incident - Volume 3
¤ Tracks 5 and 9 are previously unreleased (1999 and 1997 respectively)

Ah, thank you for that!

I was going to say earlier, on one of the tracks there was the same deep, resonating, buttitch-inducing bass tone that comes up in "Requiem for Dying Mothers, pt. 2" on The Tired Sounds Of, so it doesn't surprise me that it's an outtake.

I am surprised that The Funereal is from way back in 1997. It's more "active" than most of their other material, particularly their stuff from back then.

Stars of the Lid are planning a movie...

http://sunhammerpounding.blogspot.com/2008/11/stars-of-lid-plan-feature-film.html

Wonder if non-Youtube clips will embed?

http://vimeo.com/1847116?pg=embed&sec=1847116

I heard that Adam was becoming sort of bored with the set list.

lol

Had no idea that Brian had a new band: http://www.bellgardensmusic.com/

I think I'll pass on this one after hearing those samples.

Roffle

http://spinalbap.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/blog-post.html

Live in London:

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/187786

lol at that link ned posted:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-f4t_enzgKJg/T5bzTGTVWQI/AAAAAAAAAL0/mm1OYHQR4F0/s640/SL1.bmp

can't believe it's been 5 years since And Their Refinement of the Decline.

does a new live gig mean there's a new album in the works?

Promoter's page is silent on the matter. Going to have to spend the next month huffing their older stuff so I don't mistake it for new.

this band remains really something.

itunes tells me i listened to tired sounds...167 times this year. that's not counting playing it on my phone, or on spotify, or on cd, or anything else. some days i think i could only listen to the two parts of "requiem..." happily for the rest of my life.

They played Requiem last night, and December Hunting, and er others - including a new piece. I read somewhere that you can't fully experience SotL without seeing them live which is always a bullshit line - sucks to be you if you never get the chance - but especially in this case when you really don't want the real world intruding on and distracting your experience. Yes I mean the hell of other people. The venue was fantastic, a large church, freezing cold which seemed oddly appropriate, and a wall with stained glass in the middle and large expanses of white plaster either side where the amazing visuals were projected. TBH the crowd weren't too bad, a few cameraphones here and there at the beginning and one bloke in front of me writing a text wtf you arsehole, but once December had reached its impossible series of ever increasing crescendos everyone that i could see was pretty much stunned into passivity. But there was a bar in the rear corner and in the quieter moments you could hear the clinking of bottles and chinking of cash drawers all the way through the gig. So overall it was awe-inspiring enough but I never achieved transcendence.

Also there was a loud crash in the middle of one of the songs, I looked around and up in the pulpit was the photographer leaning over and looking glum. Wasn't sure if he was just into the music but previously he'd been strolling round quite indifferently. Turns out he'd just knocked one of his lenses onto the floor ten feet below.

Also I still feel like I've got a long way to go before I've internalised most of their stuff, but The Ballasted Orchestra is in to my top 3 with a bullet.

Ledge did you see the concert at St Giles a couple of years ago?

I fell asleep standing up the last time I saw these guys live

You couldn't have fallen asleep during "December...", bass was immense. Didn't see them at St Giles (4 years ago more like), I saw them at ATP around the same time but that setting lends itself even less well to transcendence, although reasonably well to a kind of semi-distracted acquiescence.

I only fell asleep for like 10 mins, the show was great, but still

uuuuuuugh, i can't TAKE these long waits between records!! it's KILLING ME

it's been about 6 years now since refinement. same as between tired sounds and refinement (2001-2007)

uuumnnnnnnngggh

there's a new kate bush album

last week's NYT review of a 'rare performance' of the band, says there's a "forthcoming album." it didn't say when the new disc would be released, but it gave me hope for something new in 2014.

for real, how long has it been since the last one? jeez.
wonder if there's a recording of this set out there hmmm

damn this show looks like it was amazing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezG4FgNjZJk

from their FB page - "thank you for everyone that came out in the NYC area. lovely review in the times. we are humbled by your continued support, and hope to have something finished sooner than later, so stay tuned...."

There's also a pic on their Facebook page, if you scroll a bit, from recording sessions.

That NYC clip, damn. Excited to hear that they're still together and that more music is forthcoming. I thought that Adam had indefinitely shifted his focus to Winged Victory for the Sullen (whom I also adore, to be fair.)

"Winged Victory for the Sullen" is another great name

He's apparently doing both: AWVFTS just put out a new song: http://open.spotify.com/album/3h2DxHzPLS2xxJ1j6es3Ss

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/stars-lid-and-wordless-music-orchestra/

Lately I have been listening to Brian McBride's first solo album, When the Detail Lost Its Freedom, and damn if it's not every bit as good as Tired Sounds and Refinement.

good stuff

this music really lets you breath

One of my favorite bands... excited for new music!

Stoked!

Just heard "Don't Bother They're Here" in a TV spot for the new Godzilla movie.

You can stream the new EP from A Winged Victory for the Sullen over here, by the by.

New AWVFTS is nice. I think I like it more than the debut.

New what?

Their debut is "Music for Nitrous Oxide" and it's not that good of an album.

Ballasted Orchestra was their first good album imho.

Do they have a new album or you posted on the wrong thread? Can't find anything.

New A Winged Victory for the Sullen, i.e. Adam Wiltzie's newish duo, whose second album is due out on Monday.

Wow, that was a super-street-teamy sentence. Not intended as such. I liked the first one OK but not on a SotL level.

Also I looked at their website to get the release date: http://www.awvfts.com/
and misread one of the tour dates, which said
Yverdon
Switzerland

but my brain read both lines at once and thought they were playing in Swindon (UK), which would be really incongruous (also p. great, I could get the bus)

this was a pretty content-free post, but hey, tour dates, mostly western Europe, couple in Australia, four in the US so far

Sorry there was talk of A Winged Victory upthread. Didn't mean to confuse.

i love the first awvfts album. glad to hear good things about the upcoming one, can't wait to hear it.

i've been listening to atomos quite a bit since it came out and i've been really enjoying it. the emotional space it accesses is a bit more ambiguous than the debut which could be a bit like a nonstop cascade of melancholy. i was also surprised to hear far less piano than on the debut, since that tends to be dustin o'halloran's thing, but the arrangements here are quite lovely. that it's not as melodically driven makes some of the subtle shifts in sonics seem much more profound and moving. check it out if you haven't.

I'm only 2/3 of the way through track 1 but so far "less melodically driven" seems like a totally crazy person's interpretation of what I'm listening to.

Thanks for getting me off my ass to hear it though.

there are exceptions including that track but otherwise i still think it's generally true compared to the debut

Nah I'm sure you're right. Looking forward to the rest.

It was just funny to read "less melodically driven" -> press play -> devastating beauty

I read in an interview that O'Halloran had some kind of injury in his hand, so he was forced to play less piano on this one (since it was a commission on a deadline I guess?

there's a strong tonality/expressiveness about this music that sort of recalls the band Rachel's... it's affecting, and elicits a sense of relief upon first hearing it, but i feel like that sort of limits the 'life' of the music, where its effect wears faster than it would if it possessed more ambiguous qualities. still, the music is pleasant, and they've got some nice live material up on soundcloud.. stuff i've put on to help relax, a number of times.

I like to play 'Requiem for Dying Mothers Part 2' from 'Tired Sounds....' on a 24/7 loop

'And Their Refinement of the Decline' is beautiful too.

i should search out more...

Good job there Whiney

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/how-stars-of-the-lid-made-two-ambient-masterworks-20150721

yeah, nice one!
a little disappointing that a new album is not imminent, but good to hear they're working on it. i guess it makes sense that they would be working at a glacial pace.

When they were playing shows around the time of Kranky's anniversary they were sharing pics of themselves in the studio on their FB page so it's a little disingenuous to say "you press say whatever you want!" in response to whether a new record is in the works. Also I really really want them to put out a new record.

their complaints about recording during the summer in austin are cracking me up, this is a fun interview

ha, yeah, i like that they seem like very chill guys

they're really nice.

I e-mailed Stars of the Lid to inquire about the new album, and received this in response:
"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), Wednesday, October 11, 2006 10:04 PM (8 years ago)

i never realized this until right now, but he also emailed me a few months later with information on the release date. i always thought that i was just part of a mass email list, but he emailed it directly to me! i didn't even respond. i should probably respond now

haha, that is great. chief!
the real question is whether the new twin peaks will use this track
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETvKeB9SL0E

Glad these guys are generally nice in most folks' experience. Had a lame night with them personally, but they were on the road and guess it is not really fair to judge them based on that.

"renown"??

do you know any ambient fans who don't worship them? it's a tiny world but

Dug Tired out last night. Lush. Thanks, Whiney.

Tired and Refinement are by far their definitive albums but I've also really come to love Avec Laudenum.

The only others I have are Refinement and The Ballasted Orchestra.

Gravitational Pull vs. The Desire for an Aquatic Life is not one of their best but it's still an absolute classic and if you don't have it you are fucking up

i was listening to Refinement again last night and googling "for fans of stars of the lid" out of starvation for a new album, this is a gr8 revive

yeah i was just listening to refinement last week on the bus and it was almost ***too heavy***

xpost
did your search yield anything good?

i need to dig out the dead texan again. it's like pop-SOTL, so addictive

(yes i know that it's a. wiltzie from SOTL)

(i didn't mean for that to sound so snotty, sorry!)

dead texan is really good!

last night was enjoying Loscil and Biosphere

others listed here https://www.quora.com/Drone-Music/What-are-some-solid-Stars-of-the-Lid-like-recommendations

I hate to make it sound like he's derivative (he's not) but fans of SotL should check Kyle Bobby Dunn pronto

The person at the top of the link hoos posted also mentioned Kyle Bobby Dunn. i gotta get with the times, i don't think i've heard anything by him?

https://hardwax.com/24935/gas/nah-und-fern/

from the interview:

really, when you think of it, all this time that a record hasn't been released — that was us releasing a record, but it was the most minimal record we've ever released and nobody knew it was a record.

lmao

Stumbled upon this today - solo stuff from Adam Wiltzie, released earlier this year: http://open.spotify.com/album/5PQ0tdNTd7VeoRGZe9MdIC

streaming live tuesday!

https://boilerroom.tv/session/stars-of-the-lid/

please let there be nattily dressed hipsters reclining on cushions, eyes closed

whooooooa! i'm gonna try to go

I'm going to try to be there too

holy fuuu

i'm so projecting this at my house

Playing in LA next week and it's not looking good for my attendance. Immensely bummed.

I think I'm connected to the live stream--no action so far, tho

we have signal!!

Have no idea if the live stream captured just how colossal the sound was inside. Wow indeed!

yeah, I'm gonna hafta say it didn't... :(
still great, though! the projections translated very nicely. I'm looking forward to watching the recording (hopefully in better quality than the live stream)

I FEEL DEEPLY SATISFIED

The person at the top of the link hoos posted also mentioned Kyle Bobby Dunn. i gotta get with the times, i don't think i've heard anything by him?

He's good -- I have a number of his albums, all quite striking.

that was truly one of the best performances i've ever seen. here's way too much about it:

the music was predictably very, very good. the sound was excellent and massive and full. hearing the trademark SotL drone bass for an hour+ on massive speakers was transcendent. their set included requiem for dying mothers parts 1 and 2, december hunting for vegetarian fuckface, and a couple shorter pieces that seemed familiar but that i couldn't pinpoint.

it was really interesting to watch them perform with a string quartet. the string players were a living organism of sorts, their movements and phrasing breathing in and out with the music. (this is a good, short clip that illustrates the breathing and also the intensity of the performance: https://instagram.com/p/79VB0wypQ-/) i could only see adam wiltzie and the strings, (brian mcbride was hidden behind a giant speaker from my angle on the side), but it was a treat to see how he seems to function as the leader of the performance. he did the (minimal) talking between songs, and also conducted certain sections with the the neck of his guitar, slowly drawing it downward with each new drone entrance to provide waypoints for the strings.

i didn't expect that the live performance would be able to surpass the recorded versions, but at certain points they truly did. when i listen to SotL, i typically imagine synths making the noises. it comes across as programmed, at least to me. but live, you realize that it's the sound of a guitar run through many, many effect pedals. i took a picture of mcbride's setup after the show:

http://i.imgur.com/Y5RtyUN.jpg

in a live context there's more room for small variations and little mistakes to bleed through. they also changed the arrangements of certain sections. in particular, i remember requiem for dying mothers pt 2, which contains my favorite SotL moment - the part halfway through where everything fades out except for the strings and it sounds like water splashing up against cold rocks, and then the bass comes in at an ULTRA LOW AND DEEP frequency. anticipating this blissful moment, i have to admit i was a bit disappointed when they changed the arrangement to a long, repetitive buildup of cycling and overlapping strings, culminating with the ultra low/deep frequency payoff. it was still good, and it was totally stars of the lidsy, but for me it was like watching jurassic park and waiting for the "Hold On To Your Butts" part, but then samuel jackson unexpectedly launches into a short dramatic monologue about the things in your life that are worth holding onto the most, climaxing with "...so hold onto your butts!" - still cool, just different.

but the projections were the icing on the cake. for reference, this is what the space normally looks like:

http://i.imgur.com/eTfFFZO.jpg

from my vantage point on the far o left side of the stage. the relief at the front was especially, uh, relieved, which affected how the projected images appeared. For opener Christina Vantzou's set, the effect was ultimately frustrating for me. the visuals for her set were projected from the stage, onto part of the backdrop (maybe 20 feet high or so). but since the imagery often used concrete images (humans, body parts, objects) and the relief was so extreme that everything appeared disjointed and broken. i guess it was just frustrating because it looked like someone had put a lot of energy into the visuals, but no one took the space it was going to be projected onto into account. (the 2 people i was with liked it, fwiw)

where the projections for Vantzou were warped by the shape of the room, the projections for Stars of the Lid warped the room itself. first of all, they came from the back of the church, and a much larger portion of the space - the entire front area behind the performers, much of the side space that i was closer to, and also parts of the ceiling. the imagery they used was also much more appropriate for the space - more abstract, repeated patterns that absolutely came to life on the reliefs that were all over the church. there were very few flat spaces in the building, so it made sense to let abstract patterns dance around them and warp and slither down the walls and spiritual icons.

one last thing. BEST MOMENT: i believe it was during vegetarian fuckface. dynamically it was the peak of the evening. mcbride and wiltzie were in full on drone wildness, and the strings were boiling over as loudly as possible trying to keep up. it was just punishingly loud and awesome, and sustained. then the visuals gradually began incorporating flames, overlayed with some strobe-like circular hex patterns. the flames were rotating and bleeding all over the varying reliefs in the room, but at one point they focused on the front and central area where the main catholic iconography was. and for a moment, it all came together: flames spreading across the cross and jesus and mary and the rest of the crew, the devastating drone still in full effect and somehow getting even louder, the strobe overlay. in that moment, it was PURE METAL. i heard someone a few pews back loudly whisper "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON??".

sorry this is so long. go see SotL if you ever get a chance.

oof sounds amazing. thanks for the report.

holy fuck

i know it was cheesy but during the metaldrone/flame/strobe i couldn't help but make the Hail Satan sign

http://i.imgur.com/BRiUo4q.jpg

also the lady in front of me laid down lengthwise on the pew early on in their set. she sat up before they finished and from her body language appeared to have transcended into other planes of existence during her time away

we have signal!!

― Heroic melancholy continues to have a forceful grip on (bernard snowy), Wednesday, September 23, 2015 1:10 AM (17 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i couldn't get the stream to work :(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

it looks like it's still up:

https://boilerroom.tv/session/stars-of-the-lid/

but it's weird because i think it's just on an endless loop, but it's mid-performance right now and i don't think there's a way to skip forward or ahead?

oh wait, i'm wrong. it starts from the beginning. you can't skip around, but it's all good anyway.

rad

I laid down for a bit to let it wash all over me, but I loved walking around - there were terrific resonate nodes around the church where the sound was booming.

oh man that sounds amazing, thanks for the report

Wish I was there. Goddamnit. On the list to see ASAP

had no idea they were doing a mini-tour. last date is tonight, in LA, sold out.

Not sold out - I just bought a ticket at the door.

Just back from seeing them in LA and echo everything Karlnsaid about this his experience above - sounds like they did more or less the exact same set. Requiem for Dying Mothers and December Hunting were by da the standouts of the evening - truly transcendent in moments. DHfVF reached a level of chaos that I don't associate with SotL, but it worked. Requiem, especially the second half, was a gorgeous build. Adam and Brian seemed totally silent while the string quartet did all the work - and then the two guitars finally came in and the whole song went to a new level. What a show.

New old tune, and I'm seeing them on Saturday! Will be the second time I'm seeing them live.

Also, Zach, only just now read your lovely review, kudos my man.

Was that in a tiny club in Amsterdam that was full of smoke? They mentioned it, complained that the barbican was too big for the smoke machine :)

Set felt short, 4 tunes, a shade under 90 mins I think, no encore. I don't remember the guitars being so inscrutable last time I saw them - like, what are they contributing to the sound? Are they even playing them? All became clear at the tumultuous end of December Hunting though.

Impressive monumental organ drones from support act Claire M Singer.

It was actually! :-) Just before they started a smoke machine puffed some clouds into the room and my brother and I were like: lamest on-stage effect for SotL ever. But boy, did it make sense once they started! Stunning visuals because of the smoke. Will post some pics later.

It was amazing. They played four pieces, two of which were encores. The first was a half hour suite (with movements of Requiem for Dying Mothers and other pieces). They only got their first applause after that suite, and you could hear a pin drop the entire time. Rarely experienced such a quiet audience.
Oddly, after the first piece McBride said "we're going to play the last song now". That turned out to be Vegetarian Fuckface, which all in all lasted more than 30 minutes as well? I wouldn't have even minded if they'd stopped right there and then, but they came back for two more pieces cause the crowd never stopped applauding. First one was with the string quartet (perhaps it was 'Mulholland'). The last encore was just the guys on guitar and someone using that monster of a Moog on stage, droning out for 10 mins.

sounds like the same set minus the encore fakeout. yeah it was great, no complaints really. people falling over each other to leave after the last piece at the late hour of 9:45, hopefully they were keen to get to the pub, not bed.

The same happened in Amsterdam. Very odd. Lots of lonely 40+ males though, perhaps they couldna hack it any more.

i just ctrl_f's "debate" with no luck but
mcbride is a debate whiz who has done the UT-austin debate camps for high schoolers and i have half a mind to convince my school to let me take students up there so i can stalk him

i wish i could make music like this but i wouldn't even know how to start

ha, yeah, it sort of seems like it wouldn't be toooooo hard to do, but it is! i was trying to do some ambient-y kinda things recently and couldn't get a grip on it.
anyone check out this? might scratch the stars of the lid itch: https://scissortail.bandcamp.com/album/diminished-composition

i wish i could make music like this but i wouldn't even know how to start

― na (NA), Monday, November 28, 2016 4:07 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

seems to me a volume pedal + analog delay + knowledge of basic guitar chords and voila but what do I know

There's a new AWVFTS out on Erased Tapes... a film soundtrack. Haven't spent enough time with it but, perhaps unsurprisingly, it didn't seem at the level of Atomos. Felt a little more generic.

Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie has the "Salero" soundtrack at Erased Tapes, while AWVFTS have the "Iris" soundtrack available at the usual electronic haunts now (look for the bonus version w/ 2 tracks from ABW's EP), as well as the cd/vinyl versions for pre-order at Erased Tapes.

New material from Brian McBride (from 25 mins in): https://www.mixcloud.com/NTSRadio/kranky-w-brian-mcbride-5th-july-2017/

jesus, it's been 10 years since the last one

stars of the lid, that is. every time this thread is revived i'm literally crossing my fingers

me too :(

https://soundcloud.com/adambryanbaumwiltzie/sotl_twin-plotkin_v2

"For fans of SOTL's earlier minimal drone era. This Lost recording from 1997 of a remix of Stars of the Lid's Twin Peaks Episide # 30 Part 1, by James Plotkin. (Commissioned for $100USD)During this particular moment, the glory days of pre-file sharing, we had been considering and gathering remixes via the post for a potential release but as many things go in the world of Lid, the idea became a bit stale. Mostly due to our own boredom. We are not sure if this thing is of any decent quality, but if you listen at low levels then the effect could possibly lead to a good nap at the very least...."

damn

every time this thread is revived i'm literally crossing my fingers

same

wait, i said that
still the same, i guess

the tired sound of this thread revival

it's kind of weird to introduce a remix by someone else with "we are not sure if this thing is of any decent quality"

i like it though!

I get the sense that SotL have a case of crippling perfectionism and truly cannot tell if anything they do is good.

Hence the self deprecating song titles :)

I'm seeing them live for the first time at the Sigur Ros thing next week.

those recent shows they did in some church in NYC looked transcendent, would love to see them :/

I saw them in LA 2.5 years ago and they were phenomenal.

how hard is it to stay awake during their sets, just curious

not hard, it's an enthralling experience.

Man, the refinement of the decline of this thread and its updates, indeed

was just clowning around tbh

:)

👊

They were great tonight in Reykjavik. Beautiful and medative. I did find my eyes closing over a few times, but didn’t fall asleep.

totally fell asleep at a Boston show ~2003, no regrets

“Atomos” will be on TV

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2018/dance-season?#heading-atomos

awesome!

Pfork article on Adam Wiltzie scoring the new Whitney Houston documentary.

We work on stuff, but I don’t know. We’re weird people, Brian [McBride] and myself. After 2007, we could feel this—I don’t know why I would ever feel like Stars of the Lid was starting to feel hyped—but there was some madness starting to happen at the end of touring that last record [And Their Refinement of the Decline]. If we had just kept going, it would have turned into something else. For me especially, I just thought I should do something different. [Sighs] Like let’s move on and do something else. We come back to it and still enjoy making music together. Hopefully, we’ll try to poop out one more Stars of the Lid record before we pass on.

poop it out! poop it out! poop it out! poop it out!

lol

what is with that embarrassing headline

yeah, it's awful

maybe it'll catch on

hold up a second, you're telling me there's a lost coltrane album featuring his classic quartet?

wope, wope, wope - dave grohl recorded new music and i'm writing about it?

Whoa whoa whoa, slow down - Elvis Costello? DEAD?? No way

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/now-wait-a-damn-minute-here-let-me-get-this-straight-youre-saying-that-elvis/

'a guy from stars of the lid' smh

guess i'll be seeing the whitney doc!

going to see laurie anderson at the Art Institute of Chicago tonight, and afterward i will definitely be making a trip to see the Stars of the Lid installation:

Stars of the Lid ··· “Installation for People with Special Powers on the Run from Government Exploitation” ··· Inspired by the Sculpture Court
Location: Gallery 161

will provide trip report when i get back. also on the docket tonight are site-specific installations by midori takada, visible cloaks, kaitlyn aurelia smith, tashi wada and julia holter, and more.

https://midwinter.pitchfork.com/schedule/

i am very excited because i didn't think i would be able to see any of this since i had 0 dollars when the shows were announced, but my partner secretly bought us a ticket and i just found out recently. :)

that's awesome. i went on friday night and thought i was going to volunteer/see stuff for free on sat but that fell through. tonight i promised to go to a friend's show BUT it includes another friend playing in the "secret Slowdive side project" (lol) that played last night. it was a pretty engaging enterprise, hope they do it again!

did you end up seeing any of the installations on friday night? i'm not sure what to expect

they were not well labeled imo -- i also have to admit to having trouble reading the program because it was so tiny BUT you may have an easier time knowing where things are if you have read about where and what it is beforehand? i wanted to see the stars of the lid one but failed to find it. on the upside, haley fohr's performance was amazing and i'm glad i saw it.

yeah, i don't want to criticize the roll-out of the entire midwinter thing too harshly because i'm guessing someone i know, here or otherwise, might have worked on it, but on the whole it has been very, very confusing just to figure out what is going on, who is playing and when, how much it costs, and what you will be able to see with a ticket.

the sound installations are just some sonos speakers stuck in corners of certain rooms. all the music i heard from them was pretty ambient. the stars of the lid one was probably the most effective because it was in a more open space and was loud enough to hear. the julia holter one was almost inaudible.

Will they remain installed outside of the midwinter fest? Trying to experience a sound installation at a giant party is futile.

no but they were all in various gallery rooms of the art institute so it wasn't very party like in there

on the dark side, couldn't really hear the stars of the lid soundscape because of crowds and people talking

on the bright side, accidentally caught a laurie anderson encore performance while i was checking out this butt!

https://i.imgur.com/6iQyVZa.jpg

That's an amazing photo! How was her show?

it was wonderful! i feel bad posting a long thing about it in the stars of the lid thread (where with every revive i hope it's news about a new album), so i put it here instead: S/D Laurie Anderson

sotl are so good at naming things :D

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

karl otm

otm

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

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

otm otm otm

otm-est

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

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

kyle bobby dunn got cancelled

What a time to be alive.

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

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

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

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

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

Yep

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

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

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

Are Stars of the Lid a finished proposition?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Correct. :(

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

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

― pomenitul

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

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

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

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

xp Oh man, I love that record!

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

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

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

otm

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aix Em Klemm, the Dead Texan

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

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

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

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

Indeed it was!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

tired sounds is beautiful but impossibly remote

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

it really is, i love it. it's the first record in my ambient collection, alphabetically, and i can't count the number of times i've stepped over to that shelf to listen to something without words and immediately grabbed Aix Em Klemm upon seeing it.

it's always hard to pick individual tracks on ambient releases, but "the luxury of dirt" always stands out to me. otherworldly, lovely synth.

interesting bandcamp notes on the reissue! (weird line spacing in original, i'm too lazy to fix it)

AIX EM KLEMM Is the moniker of the ambient music project consisting of Adam Wiltzie (Stars of the Lid / A Winged Victory for the Sullen) & Robert Donne (Labradford / Anjou). As Adam Wiltzie told Sadness Is In The Sky fanzine, his collaboration with Bobby Donne began when "We all met during a Texas swing of a Labradford tour that Stars of the Lid opened for back in 1996. They stayed at my house for a few days and we became close.”

A year later Wiltzie was asked to join Labradford for their Mi Media Naranja European tour of 1997 as
the sound technician. This tour also included Bruce Gilbert of the legendary band Wire who was the
opening act and joined them in the van for the entire tour. With Bruce’s nightly improvisations of minidisc
field recording explosions running through a Sherman Filter Bank, it left a profound effect on Adam &
Bobby, and led to inspiring internal philosophical discussions on the importance of improvisation.

After concluding six weeks in the van the idea of creating a unique collaboration separate from our other
projects was realized. The duo exchanged tapes over the course of a year and then Donne ventured to
Austin, TX for a week to record at Wiltzie's home studio in 1999. The in-person collaboration moved
much more quickly than the exchange of tracks by mail. One track on the Aix Em Klemm album,
"Sparkwood and Twenty-One," was written and recorded in one day. The duo took the mysterious name
Aix Em Klemm and the self-titled debut was released in the autumn of 2000.

As of late, Wiltzie lives in Brussels, and Donne joined Stars of the Lid on their last tour of Europe in 2016
playing modular synth. They still collaborate musically so new Aix Em Klemm recordings remain a
possibility.

god if their canadian shipping wasn't so hefty I'd buy....a lot of those records, damn

AWVftS post on FB for Bandcamp Friday:

Today is the day...
Bandcamp waives the fee today in support of artists.
Make sure to follow us over there to get our news directly.
We have something coming...
Bandcamp:
AWVFTS: https://bit.ly/2Znd5Jt
adam bryanbaum wiltzie: https://bit.ly/3mZP1q0
Dustin O'Halloran: https://bit.ly/36tQAXF

New AWVFTS album Invisible Cities

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/a-winged-victory-for-the-sullen-invisible-cities/

there should be a separate Winged Victory for the etc. thread so my heart doesn't jump every time this thread is bumped

Agreed, and because I've found AWVFTS's material quite disappointing so far.

Probably why there's no AWVFTS thread...

Aww. I liked The Undivided Five quite a bit when it came out.

nice score

it's the first record in my ambient collection, alphabetically, and i can't count the number of times i've stepped over to that shelf to listen to something without words and immediately grabbed Aix Em Klemm upon seeing it.

it's always hard to pick individual tracks on ambient releases, but "the luxury of dirt" always stands out to me. otherworldly, lovely synth.

Agree with this. It's funny, though, because this is an album I really love where I always skip the first track. Isn't there a thread about that? I know some people love "The Girl With The Flesh Colored Crayon" but I can't stand that style of singing, and if I'd just heard that one track without having already been a Labradford / SotL fan I'd have never checked out this amazing album. There are vocals on another track too but they don't bug me nearly as much.

the first AWVFTS album is great

Speaking of Labradford, I can’t listen to them because on multiple albums they seem to have embedded extremely high pitches in their music, on the edge of my hearing range, but right in the sweet spot of my dog’s hearing - she goes crazy (not in a good way(

is she a labradorford?

we're not 100% sure (shelter dog; intriguing past), but i can say confidently that she is NOT a labradorford. she can't stand it!

i can't believe i wasted my best joke ever in the stars of the lid thread

think of this thread as the training grounds for the joke. you can spend 10, 15 years working on it here. and then, when SotL releases something new, you can unleash it in another thread

Not to cut across what is one of the finest jokes I've ever seen but this has bugged me for a bit: are Labradford named after the basketball player or is it something more obvious/arcane?

Not sure, but it does seem like A Stable Reference to something.

The second best joke in the thread!

I'll take it :)

maybe she'd like CS + Kreme's Snoopy?

I enjoy the first two AWVFTS albums and like their subsequent stuff just fine, though nothing as transcendent as the high bar of Stars of the Lid. Have not listened to anything from new album yet.

I just listened to Aix Em Klemm for the first time in a long time, just the other day. Agree re the first track, which is also why some of the early Labradford albums are hit-and-miss for me.

Am I wrong or does Labradford only do the high-pitch thing on Mi Media Naranja? It's in multiple tracks on that album but I don't recall it on their other albums.

Not to cut across what is one of the finest jokes I've ever seen but this has bugged me for a bit: are Labradford named after the basketball player or is it something more obvious/arcane?

― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Wednesday, February 3, 2021 9:33 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

my assumption is it is a take on the band name "La Düsseldorf".

referencing the town in west yorkshire, beloved of american people everywhere

Courtesy of BandNameOrigins.com:

How did Labradford get their name? Sorry, we don't know how Labradford got their name.

stars of the leeds xp

A Wakefield Victory for the Sullen.

Sigh. It was the best I could do.

thought that was pretty good.

Am I wrong or does Labradford only do the high-pitch thing on Mi Media Naranja? It's in multiple tracks on that album but I don't recall it on their other albums.

At least Fixed::Context has the high pitched sounds appearing.

I think the new one is lovely.

that is, Invisible Cities. I imagine it would work quite well for its original purpose, too.

From a FB post today. Maybe there will be another album one day:

Once upon a time if you wanted to go away for a while it might have been easier to disappear without being swallowed by the internet.
Lately, there has been a myriad nefarious activity (vacuous sounds uploaded digitally & unauthorised physical product) that it behooved oneself to trademark the Stars Of The Lid moniker. Part of this new endeavour is an official merchandise store Hello Merch We are slowly digging into the archives and re-printing former tour-shirts from ages long ago, starting with these two visible in this post (More arriving in time for Christmas) And in our gruesome passive-aggressive way, eventually some new music, unless the world ends next week, which seems plausible at this point…

Order: https://www.hellomerch.com/collections/stars-of-the-lid
Order: https://www.hellomerch.com/collections/adam-wiltzie

I saw that post and totally skipped over the part at the end because I thought it was just about march, damn I'll take any glimmer of hope for new music from them

And one of them is already sold out completely. Jesus, you really do just have to jump on everything IMMEDIATELY these days to even have a chance. Good for them, this bodes well for more shirts and merch down the road.

!!!!!!!

legit just did a little yelp.

https://www.facebook.com/100050668261250/posts/518163743215897/

nice remembrance of making Ballasted Orchestra, for its 25th anniversary. not even attached to a reissue or anything.

I was watching a recent French spy drama. The protagonist had completely screwed the pooch - he'd misjudged a situation, his agent had been captured, total disaster. His response, almost instantly, was to trash his apartment. I sat there watching thinking "I would never do that". In that situation all my anger would be turned inward, to curdle into shame. It would never have occurred to me to direct it outwards like that. My therapist made the point that the anger is going to go somewhere. She often tries to connect me to a healthy, self-protective, outward-directed anger.

Luckily for me, anytime I need to do that I just need to visit the RYM page for Gravitational Pull vs The Desire for An Aquatic Life, so I can read Threntall's review: "Cool, warm and enveloping drones. Very much what the rest of their more famous discography sounds like. Not really good enough to standout, but certainly enjoyable and relaxing to listen to."

New AWVFTS single? Why thank you.

https://awvfts.bandcamp.com/album/all-our-friends-are-vampires

Good job there Whiney

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/how-stars-of-the-lid-made-two-ambient-masterworks-20150721🕸

god DAMMIT sotl you’re killing me! Aaaaaagh oooh nooo *dead*

xpost

Doh how did I do that. Hmm.

Anyway this stood out to me, possibly cause I read this thread backwards and that newish post about dealing with anger was in my mind.

McBride: I like late at night because there’s no distractions. There’s very little chance there’s gonna be dogs barking. You’re not gonna get phone calls. Working on the music, for me, it’s kind of important to not fake it in some ways, to not try to force this emotional state out of it, to sort of pay attention to what’s going on in your life, if you’re feeling inspired or motivated just letting it happen. Especially after you’ve released a bunch of records for a long time, you don’t want to manufacture longing.

Anyway that link is dead, here’s the live (lid) one:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/how-stars-of-the-lid-made-two-ambient-masterworks-63198/

And what’s a good starting point for AWVFTS? Any consensus there?

The new Winged Victory single is reliably pretty, but there was something about the merging of McBride and Wiltzie's sensibilities that was of a fundamentally different order - Wiltzie left to his own devices, or with O'Halloran in Winged Victory, tends to the syrupy I find, whereas perhaps McBride scuffed the edges a bit in even the last two SOTL records.. I prefer McBride's solo records, at any rate, and I've long since given up on the idea of new SOTL, despite the rather infuriating tendency that they have to vaguely intimate new music every few years or so.

And what’s a good starting point for AWVFTS? Any consensus there?

― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Wednesday, March 15, 2023 bookmarkflaglink

Start with the first album and go chronologically until you start to get bored. They’re good but they lack the secret sauce of SotL.

…and as much as I like Wiltzie I think McBride is that secret sauce, as evidenced by his first solo album which I rate nearly as high as the last to Stars albums.

I love the first album. "Steep Hills of Vicodin Tears" was on my nighttime playlist for years.

yeah, i've enjoyed their separate efforts quite a bit. i wish i could listen to them without knowing about stars of the lid. but SotL was and is so very special. i think upthread is a spot where i got to see them live. it was just brilliant, one of the top few hours of my life

xpost

Seems we are mostly in consensus. I too appreciate that little bit of a sharp rough tang that gives their work as a duo just that hint of seasoning.

Based on y’all’s recommendations I’ll put McBride’s first solo release on my list. That would be When The Detail Lost Its Freedom, published under his own name? Still trying to get all the names of their different acts sorted — Dead Texan is also a Wiltzie project, okay I’m starting to piece together the clues here.

Lmao wish I could say witnessing a musical performance was a peak life experience. That time I was really high when I was in high school and Primus played my hometown? Nah probably not. I did very much vibe with Sonic Youth at Lollapalooza in Atlanta. Okay sorry tangent.

Yes, When the Detail…

McBride hasn’t had as many side projects. His two solo albums are pretty much it. He was in a group called Bell Gardens (I think?) but iirc they’re not really the same. Wiltzie by far the more prolific of the two.

Until I read this thread, I had no idea that AWVFTS had anything to do with Stars of the Lid. For some reason, I never paid attention to who the musicians were.

Cheers to pfwp for clarification.

Respect always to Jimbeaux too, dissenting view on AWVFTS duly noted. Steep Hills of Vicodin Tears is passable, If you’d told me it was a newer SotL release I doubt I’d know the difference. It definitely follows the typical formula, the simple melody gradually building to a muted crescendo. It just lacks that special something tho.

I will say, for AWVFTS - I *love* Dustin O’Halloran’s theme for the tv show Transparent

I did say it was part of my nighttime playlist LOL. Literally the one I used to go to sleep. It was perfect for that purpose, and that's not a knock.

Right, I have Requiem for Dying Mothers Parts 1 & 2 on my Nap playlist which are the songs with by far the most plays in my entire library.

Still I have to wonder if this poster is okay?

I like to play 'Requiem for Dying Mothers Part 2' from 'Tired Sounds....' on a 24/7 loop

…
― Jessie Fer Ark (Mobbed Up Ping Pong Psychos), Sunday, 2 November 2014 23:06

I love SotL, as everyone should, but WVFtS bores me to tears, for many of the reasons stated above. Seeing them live early on definitely did not change my mind

have never dived into WVftS and this conversation is not exactly lighting a fire under me. But When the Detail Lost its Freedom is A+++, I definitely love it as much as the SotL records, though I think of it as pretty different (at least within the paradigm of this type of music, I'm sure they'd be indistiguishable to someone pulled off the street)

I really love the album that Wiltzie made with Robert Donne from Labradford under the name Aix em Klemm— I think it’s Wiltzie’s best work outside of SotL.

yep, that one's great!

I still believe that The Dead Texan record is the best non-SotL record by a SotL member.

Why, this is good to see

https://starsofthelid.bandcamp.com/album/avec-laudenum

welll, that was a mightily cruel thread bump :) we're never seeing a new album, are we?

Pitchfork is reporting that Brian McBride has died. Terrible news.

https://pitchfork.com/news/stars-of-the-lids-brian-mcbride-dies-at-53/

fuck

REST IN PEACE BRIAN MCBRIDE [1970-2023] pic.twitter.com/fvSSeRL6pi

— krankyltd (@krankyltd) August 27, 2023

Oh my fucking god :(

Awful news

Horrible, horrible.

His solo work is also whew, so good. I love this album.

https://starsofthelid.bandcamp.com/album/when-the-detail-lost-its-freedom

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

I had to get some thoughts out of my head:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/in-honor-of-88329908

very lovely, Ned. truly difficult to describe my relationship with this music— it seems almost all-encompassing at times.

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.

Ah fucking hell, no way. RIP.

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.

Just devastating.

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.

i.e., rip

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.

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.

oh how my heart aches

refinement was so healing for me in such a crucial and dangerous moment in my life. the beauty there is unfathomable.

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

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.

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.

Just awful news. Refinement might be my most-listened to ever album.

Sawdust - I ran the DroneOn list. I remember when I saw that he subscribed. Kinda undone by this... RIP

his music has meant so much to me. really sad news. RIP.

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.

“Even if You’re Never Awake (Deuxieme)” just wrecks me, it’s so beautiful.

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

Yes, that.

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.

Philip Shelburne celebrates the good man:

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/remembering-stars-of-the-lids-brian-mcbride-with-10-essential-records/

i've been playing refinement a lot over the past few months. miraculous music.

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.

https://adamwiltzie.bandcamp.com/album/eleven-fugues-for-sodium-pentothal

Releases April 5. Vinyl / CD (yay) pre-order now.

lol at that last song title

And now a nice video too

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

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...

dang, that video is something

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.

Yeah I found Winged Victory disappointing too. Can’t believe those SOTL albums are 20+ years old

starting to think McBride was the secret weapon

If you’ve listened to his first solo album, it’s absolutely clear he was the secret weapon

^^^ love it as much as SotL

Me too