Only 4 other people had the good sense to vote for "Harmonium," and only myself and Nag! put it at #1. Shame on y'all.
― lingereffect (Kent Burt), Tuesday, 5 April 2016 22:32 (eight years ago) link
Refried 2LP is available from Drag City. Shouldn't be too expensive.
― lingereffect (Kent Burt), Tuesday, 5 April 2016 22:34 (eight years ago) link
I'll look into it, if there is one band in my mind that deserves to do the whole vinyl collector fetishism, it's this one.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 5 April 2016 22:45 (eight years ago) link
It's funny. Kent and I are acquainted outside of ILX, but we rarely to seem to agree on anything in these polls. This time an off-thread outrageathon over "Harmonium" has commenced. :)
― Maximum big surprise! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Tuesday, 5 April 2016 22:47 (eight years ago) link
It made my long list!
― Jenny Ondioleeene (Leee), Tuesday, 5 April 2016 22:48 (eight years ago) link
I was walking to work today and listening to Transient, which I don't do too often, and listening to Golden Ball I started to think: wow, this evil mess is actually really good! It was never what I looked to them for, but they could totally execute it.
When I checked back into the poll the results seemed practically random: Anamorphose, Laisser-faire, Check and Double Check? All those songs that blended together around my favorites? Which is glorious - there are like a million ways to love the Lab! I won't quite understand if Klang Tone or something makes the top ten but I'm really enjoying hearing these things anew through other ears.
― bentelec, Wednesday, 6 April 2016 00:02 (eight years ago) link
whole show from '94 here, and pretty great sound too. These guys were as tight live as on the records, and luckily I got to see them before Mary died.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw5bZWFM9BM
― Dominique, Wednesday, 6 April 2016 01:29 (eight years ago) link
nice!
― the 'major tom guy' (sleeve), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 01:43 (eight years ago) link
I saw them for the first time 6 days before that Danbury show at The Middle East in Cambridge, MA
― Check Yr Scrobbles (Moodles), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 02:26 (eight years ago) link
Yes, I've seen that Danbury '94 show, it's the best live document of early-ish Stereolab I've seen on youtube.
I also saw them on that tour, eight days before the Danbury show, opening for the Fall in Toronto.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Wednesday, 6 April 2016 07:31 (eight years ago) link
Posted this thread on the stereolab.co.uk forum and apparently a couple of readers are wondering why Margerine Eclipse isn't in the top 10 albums. I voted for two tracks but had no idea it had a fanbase. Only one of you included it in his albums list in 3rd or 4th place iirc.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 07:46 (eight years ago) link
Unrelated: not a single one of you voted for Whisper Pitch and you're missing out on one of their best latter songs.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 07:48 (eight years ago) link
Which albums do the "Margerine Eclipse" boosters not rate highly? The early stuff I guess?
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Wednesday, 6 April 2016 09:45 (eight years ago) link
Margerine Eclipse might be the least familiar of their LPs for me. Though it's mostly fun, and I had "La Demeure" on my shortlist until a late cull. Somewhere in the ILX archives is a regrettable thread I started shortly before its release in which I asked whether we even needed any more Stereolab recordings at that point. Doomed before I even heard a note!
― Maximum big surprise! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 10:05 (eight years ago) link
I think Nov '94 was the best Stereolab show I saw - Sheffield Leadmill (Laika and David McAlmont supporting! Not together, sadly). I guess I saw them... six times, maybe, between '92 and '04.
― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 6 April 2016 10:10 (eight years ago) link
No, I've checked the web and I went to nine shows...
Oct '92 Boardwalk, ManchesterOct '93 Garage, LondonNov '94 Leadmill, Sheffield (Laika, McAlmont)Jun '95 Lomax, Liverpool (Yo La Tengo)Sep '95 Riverside, Newcastle (Tortoise, Mouse on Mars)Mar '96 Forum, London (Tortoise, Broadcast)Nov '99 Heaven, LondonApr '00 ATP, Camber SandsApr '04 9:30 Club, Washington DC
― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 6 April 2016 10:13 (eight years ago) link
!!! The web suggests that my equivalent, er, list is:
1998-02-03, Prince of Wales, Melbourne
― Maximum big surprise! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 10:38 (eight years ago) link
I have an old VHS of a live gig filmed from the side of the stage, you can easily imagine you are on stage with them, playing bass maybe.
At one point, band member asks Tim what's next, tim replies "Harmonium Percolater" or some such, band member goes "ah, which one's that?" and Tim goes, "you know, langalanga dungung nerrrr"
(Quotes from memory, probably not exact)
― Mark G, Wednesday, 6 April 2016 10:43 (eight years ago) link
I listened to Sound-Dust and Margerine Eclipse back-to-back a while ago and remember being struck by how joyous the former was and how deflated the latter, despite some lovely material. I had liked Margerine a lot upon release, when I still had little sense of who was in the band and what Mary Hansen's passing meant for them (despite Sadier singing "goodbye, Mary") — I'd been a fan since '98 but still didn't really know who the group were (had never seen them). The relative anonymity of the band members ("Anonymous Collective," no group photos in the album artwork) seemed key to their utopianism; yet in another sense Stereolab weirdly didn't seem like "people." The separation between the knowingly allusive track titles (which, like a lot of us, I often don't remember) and emotionally/politically direct lyrics (which I often do) performs some of this displacement, too — the "meaning" seemed to be in the gap between the two things, but in a way the meaning was the gap itself. I wonder if insisting on this gap became difficult to sustain over time. More recently, reading interviews where Laetitia Sadier has talked about the band's "industrial" production methods (recording a huge number of tracks very quickly, basically), which she seemed to find increasingly dehumanizing, was rather poignant. I actually love Chemical Chords (my #2 album), whose making she described as particularly difficult, but where I hear this sense of looking out in longing over the horizon on the title track, and seeing the end of something on the closing track. Not sure if they knew it was the end (at least for a while) when they were making it, but it feels that way.
― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 11:33 (eight years ago) link
Only one of you included it in his albums list in 3rd or 4th place iirc.
― it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 11:45 (eight years ago) link
from the opposite pov - I like margerine eclipse fine but it feels very unambitious after their previous string of albums. post-sound dust it really does feel like they're just doing beep-bloop stereolab.
― iatee, Wednesday, 6 April 2016 11:50 (eight years ago) link
I was at the Forum and Heaven shows that Michael attended too! Probably saw them about a dozen times altogether. Most exotic location was, erm, probably Eindhoven.
― Jeff W, Wednesday, 6 April 2016 12:28 (eight years ago) link
Actually, it was a different '96 show. Got confused by the reference to Broadcast. Think I saw them in Kilburn with Broadcast supporting (and Squarepusher?), around the time Fluorescences EP was released.
― Jeff W, Wednesday, 6 April 2016 12:31 (eight years ago) link
from the opposite pov - I like margerine eclipse fine but it feels very unambitious after their previous string of albums. post-sound dust it really does feel like they're just doing beep-bloop stereolab
OTM. "Chemical Chords" is much of the same, but catchier. They were mostly running in place in the last few years of their career.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Wednesday, 6 April 2016 14:26 (eight years ago) link
I think there are lots of great individual songs in there, but yeah, overall there was just less joy in what they were doing after Mary passed
― Check Yr Scrobbles (Moodles), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 14:28 (eight years ago) link
Good morning! The rollout today starts with a collaboration.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 15:03 (eight years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/yMJEidj.jpg35. Animal or Vegetable 6 votes, 143 points. 0 first place votes. From: Crumb Duck 7" w/NWW (1993)
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 15:04 (eight years ago) link
wow, crazy
― Check Yr Scrobbles (Moodles), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 15:04 (eight years ago) link
[no comments due to everyone listening to the full duration of this track]
Always thought Crumb Duck EP was one of the cooler things they did
― Dominique, Wednesday, 6 April 2016 15:19 (eight years ago) link
Shoot forgot the yt link:
http://youtu.be/h56tXx8JHMI
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 15:22 (eight years ago) link
one of my favorites, voted it high
― the 'major tom guy' (sleeve), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 15:24 (eight years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/KbSQGPY.jpgTIE 33. The Light that Will Cease to Fail 7 votes, 143 points. 0 first place votes. From: Super 45 10" (1991)http://youtu.be/5F1OcUB3GKM
http://i.imgur.com/3IOmluw.jpgTIE 33. The Noise of Carpet 7 votes, 143 points. 0 first place votes. From: Noises EP / Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996)http://youtu.be/8qisn5damOI
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 15:25 (eight years ago) link
I think I for gat about Noise of Carpet when I put my ballot together because it definitely is one of my favorites. I love when she gets real strident in her vocal delivery. I wish the continued to do heavy songs like this every once in a while after this.
― Check Yr Scrobbles (Moodles), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 15:29 (eight years ago) link
*forgot
― Check Yr Scrobbles (Moodles), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 15:30 (eight years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/DYTQbzn.jpg32. Transona Five 6 votes, 145 points. 0 first place votes. From: Mars Audiac Quintet (1994)http://youtu.be/FKrYdhMdBfM
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 16:02 (eight years ago) link
that's five from MAQ! has any album placed as many so far?
― Dominique, Wednesday, 6 April 2016 16:06 (eight years ago) link
'We're on the road againnnnnnn'
― Mark G, Wednesday, 6 April 2016 16:07 (eight years ago) link
I think ETK has?
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 16:09 (eight years ago) link
Oh no, youre right four from ETK.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 16:10 (eight years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/gwL1DTM.jpg31. Tomorrow is Already Here 7 votes, 149 points. 0 first place votes. From: Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996)
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 16:35 (eight years ago) link
5 vs 5 now
http://i.imgur.com/ppX509g.jpg30. Motoroller Scalatron 6 votes, 150 points. 0 first place votes. From: Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996)http://youtu.be/QHMe2nW0d08
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 16:48 (eight years ago) link
6 now! New record.
Have any 1st-place votes shown up yet?
― Honor thy pisstake as a hidden intention. (WilliamC), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 16:50 (eight years ago) link
cool song, and something about it striking me as very Deerhoof. Like, if you raised the lead vocal up an octave, and sped it up by 20 bpm, it could be something on Apple O
― Dominique, Wednesday, 6 April 2016 16:51 (eight years ago) link
Yes, several! Not in today's count though.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 16:52 (eight years ago) link
There are a couple in today's countdown later on. Most of them are stacked on the top 20.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 16:54 (eight years ago) link
Just checking out their UK chart history, and there was a moment '94-'97 (washed onto commercial shores with BritPop, I guess, though they stood far apart from it) when they sort of had a fringe mainstream presence - and then it promptly vanished:
Mars Audiac Quintet #16Music for the Amorphous Body Study Center (mini) #59Emperor Tomato Ketchup #27Refried Ectoplasm #30Dots and Loops #19Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night #92Sound-Dust #117Margerine Eclipse #108Chemical Chords #102
I mean, jeez, #117 with a bullet for Sound-Dust? I've probably seen terrible indie chancers playing third on the bill on the toilet circuit who managed that with a bit of favourable press and some Lamacq/Peel-as-was radio play. I honestly thought everything they released debuted inside the top 20 up to and including the 4AD record.
― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 6 April 2016 16:54 (eight years ago) link
Xpost: yes, it does sound Deerhoof-esque. A bit tighter but it's the same sort of sonic palette they use.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 16:55 (eight years ago) link
Tomorrow Is Already Here and Motoroller Scalatron always reminded me of campfire singalongs
― Check Yr Scrobbles (Moodles), Wednesday, 6 April 2016 16:59 (eight years ago) link