The future of Stereolab

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)