Broadcast vs Stereolab

Never really understood or liked the tendency to compare these two bands, more different than similar to each other.

Broadcast - got into them first and more deeply than subsequent Stereolab admiration.

feel the same re comparison

gotta go with Stereolab, even though I greatly prefer Keenan's voice to Sadler's. Few bands can match the Mars-thru-Cobra run.

i think the comparison is mostly surface-level--eclectic experimental bands with an affectless female singer

They both draw on a certain retrofuturist non-hippie-60s vibe, but with very different specific focuses within that (admitedly niche) world. To me it's not really that they sound much alike, as that they sort of pair well to paint an even fuller picture. You could out it as extrovert/introvert, cool/emotional, futuristic/mystical, warm/chilly, etc.

This is sort of like Zep vs Sabbath or Fall vs Birthday Party. Breadth vs intensity.

Not really a fair fight here tho, I would be surprised if broadcast won

Tough poll tho. I mean broadcast wrote come on let’s go, one of the most beautiful songs ever. But then stereolab has pack yer romantic mind!

Ugh

Broadcast got compared to Stereolab because two of their first three releases were on Stereolab's record label, and at the time they sounded like early Stereolab (The Book Lovers, Phantom, The World Backwards). Not a lot more complicated than that, surely? The music press by nature are lumpers, not splitters.

Stereolab was definitely an important influence on Broadcast, but I think that the comparison comes often because the seem to hatch from the same set of influences yet made something really different with it: early electronic music, krautrock, suicide, united states, velvet underground, the free design, white noise, young marble giants.

Main difference might be that broadcast would often have a psychedelic, folkier side to them and Stereolab a more kitsch, pop side.

Poem of Dead Song vs K-Stars sums it up for me. Going with Broadcast because they happened to track more closely with my own interests as time passed... they went folk horror instead of avant garde

Broadcast had a much more interesting pivot to me near the end of their career. Stereolab’s last two records found them in such a hyper cut and paste pop mode, imo it makes sense that they folded as the train was running out of steam.

Broadcast instead as mentioned went folk horror. I’m convinced if trish didn’t die that the direction hinted at on focus group EP (a Jefferson airplane Avant Garde folk album) and mother is the Milky Way (pastoral folk with found sounds but no real electronics or layering, acoustic guitar dominant) would have led to an occult folk record.

Instead we got children of Alice minus trish, and that was more in line with Berberian or witch cults.

I’ll never forget trish signing my tender buttons poster and commenting on my old man Halloween costume (appled white spray paint to hair and wore onion glasses to appear older)

I was standing by the merch table and Trish and James were there. Trish says “you look green”. The neon venue lights were making my white spray paint beard and hair look green lol

Rip

She was way too young to die.

Another thing both bands sadly have in common

Yeah :-(

The connection of influences with these two bands really only lines up with their earlier material as mentioned.
Last couple broadcast broadcast were way more wicker man- hammer horror than what stereolab sounded like

That ‘Memories of Tomorrow’ mix is making my day. If it just had a Komeda track on there it'd be perfect.

Voted Broadcast, btw.
But I agree with whoever said you can't be into one of these bands without being into the other.

Seems like a much more even competition than I expected w/ all the Broadcast love itt, but also reminds me of the RTX v Pavement thread & its results.

stereolab will win this poll no doubt

Considered creating 20 spam accounts just to vote for Broadcast

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

broadcast must win C'MON

(LET'S GO)

It's funny how the name Stereolab evokes hi-fi privacy where Broadcast's invokes a shared public, given sensibilities that tend in opposite directions. ("Come and Let's Go" made me think of this in part because the song's lyric is about getting out more but it sounds like such a melancholy prospect, like the addressee is being asked to give up that private world and its fantasies (surely a less persuasive invitation than "unless we try we won't know, we won't know, we won't know").

Stereolab for me anyway — just a much greater volume of quality music. Broadcast's albums feel like soundtracks with a handful of beguiling songs supplemented by enjoyable but somewhat incidental score work; Tender Buttons to me is the only fully realized album. I do return to much of their work pretty frequently, though (partly because unfortunately I didn't really investigate them until after Trish's death).

this will be a blowout, Stereolab has such a deep catalog. i did get to see them in the late 90s in San Francisco. one of the best shows i have ever seen. i have probably seen just north of 200 national shows.

Stereolab will win but that's the wrong answer really.

Wow Bee OK, you really like the National

It’s maybe unjust to compare a band that had the years and discography of stereolab to band that was cut short as broadcast. Maybe a better poll would be pinnacle album or song vs another.

Tender Buttons or noise made by people vs transient sounds or emperor tomato

lol

xpost

ironically i did see the National in 2018, the only time i have seen them.

Too close to call, but I'll give Broadcast the nod - not least because they included Chelmsley Wood in a song ('Michael A. Grammar'), which is the estate in Birmingham where my nan lived, right next to where I grew up. Odd to find such a sense of place in a group that sounded nothing like other Birmingham bands.

It was almost as much of a surprise as discovering that Felt came from nearby Water Orton, of all places.

Broadcast have plenty of material though, with many eps, microtronics cds, tour exclusive material, etc - not as much as stereolab but I don’t want to be sad when they lose cuz I miss trish.

Stereolab forever and ever. love the albums, love the videos. the one show i was lucky enough to see blew my mind w how funky and dancey it was. i got to chat w Latitia for a half hour and she was super chill down to shoot the shit w whoever.

but i have to admit i haven't really heard much Broadcast. i listened to some live sessions yesterday and they were nice, they sound like a band inspired by Stereolab. wish there were more or those.

Yeah laetitia is super nice

but i have to admit i haven't really heard much Broadcast. i listened to some live sessions yesterday and they were nice, they sound like a band inspired by Stereolab. wish there were more or those.

― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Saturday, June 30, 2018 1:36 PM

Adam Bruneau, you'd definitely be doing yourself a big injury to leave Broadcast at that. Their entire body of work is fantastic, and on par with Stereolab in quality if not quantity. I'm sure they were somewhat inspired by Stereolab, but their roots substantially predate Stereolab (see mix I posted upthread).

Soundslike otm

Stereolab easily. I initially ignored Broadcast because they seemed so derivative in the beginning, sort of like Hooverphonic, I assumed they were just Bandwagon jumpers. When their LPs got reissued, I had heard so much about them over the years that I bought them all and decided to work through them. Turns out Broadcast is great, just like everyone says. However, I can’t listen them them often. They seem to occupy a narrow band of emotion in their sound that feels slightly dark and depressing to me. This limited range means I can only listen to Broadcast in limited situations. Stereolab has many more moods and can sound as good in the bright summer sunshine and the dark and gloomy winters. Broadcast never sound good in the sun to me.

Hooverphonic?? wow. Off the money man

Just that they were 2nd wave like Hooverphonic,not saying they sounded like Hooverphonic. Just seemed like a new wave of artists copying established artists at the time.

^ Fair. First record did sound like a pram/stereolab deal..mixed with old man willow by elephant's memory

Their first eps and singles from the 90's were very Stereolab and even the first album at parts but by HaHa Sound they were mixing it with psych and horror folk and established a more unique sound for them. They stopped sounding as retro-futuristic as stereolab and started sounding haunted and extraterrestrial instead.

is it true they recorded the drums in haha sound in a church or something? cuz those fills on man is not a bird are massive.

Nothin' against Broadcast like, I've just never got into them for whatever reason, whereas I've loved the Lab since the very beginning.

xp

Pretty sure it's true. Ha Ha Sound rules.

Ha Ha Sound was the first one I heard and I really didn't dig it at all. Then I heard Work and Non Work a few years later and got it - and more recently, Tender Buttons, which is just stunning. Still not even close for me, even with Stereolab's quantity advantage.

EP 2 remains my favourite release for Unchanging Window/Chord Simple

Stereolab overall but I think Tender Buttons is better than any single Stereolab album.

i would say margarine eclipse is maybe on par with tender buttons

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

this seems like a super challopsy vote to me. having said that here's a broadcast tribute mix i put together after trish keenan's death. i never have put together a stereolab tribute mix.

sister irene o'connor - fire
sven libaek - inner space: music for eels
premiata forneria marconi - il banchetto
jean philippe goude - machine
chairmen of the board - white rose (freedom flower)
komeda - our hospitality
robert dennis - milk
joni mitchell - shadows and light (demo)
mike post - wouldn't it be nice
van dyke parks - ice capades commercial
the beach boys - my solution (later version)
riders of the mark - electronic insides and metal complexion that make up herr doktor krieg
simon and garfunkel - save the life of my child (alternate)
devo - because
random hold - what happened
camilo sesto - damned for all time
franco battiato - la convenzione
anika - yang yang
hp lovecraft w/ken nordine - nothing's boy
omar khorshid - guitar el chark
cmu - space cabaret
halfnelson - computer girl
ron geesin - untitled, bbc 1971
luiz eca & sagrada familia - please garcon

You go in that team, I go on this team
Divide everything, a flag or a number
Make 'em opposites, so there's a reason
Stigmatization, okay, now we can fight

nailed it

I don't think so, considering how close Broadcast came to winning.

But still these bands are both incredible. Putting them against each other seems a little eh. I wanna love both bands in my heart and not designate them a soccer team

Found mother is the Milky Way ep. super rare, pm me

Way to go Ross!

Yeah this hints at a syd Barrett rabbit hole. Imagine their last eps minus the electronics with found sounds and mostly acoustic !!

Like tears in the typing pool for a whole record

Anyone hitting me up please leave your email when messaging me

oh wow, still haven't been able to hear that!

listening to the Broadcast Black Session, Paris 5/4/2000 this morning. some good stuff

Hey everyone, ripping within a couple hours
Hold tight

apologies - broken computer, no internet at home anymore and my Aunt just died so i have been delayed. some of my other family members are also possibly very unwell. I will try to do this as soon as possible, sincerest apologies

sorry to hear about your aunt, ross. take care of yourself man.

thank you Karl, appreciate it