Is Stereolab not the coolest?

Count me in.

Kevin

I really liked them when they were MonoLab, but the new band, SurroundSoundlLab are just rubbish.



Stephen

Stereolab are great. Didn't listen to them over the weekend, but did listen to Buzzlebee - High Llamas, who must count in a Stereolab thread!

Anna

No, not IMHO

cheers

Nigel

I listened to the following over the weekend:

Margerine Eclipse
Mars Audiac Quintet
Dots and Loops
Sound Dust
ABC Music Radio 1 Sessions

A nice sampling all the way around. Now, does anyone like their more obscure material?

PS- I should've asked "Are Stereolab the coolest?".

My fave is the Florescences ep, then the Music for the Amorphous Body Centre which you can still get on one of the Aluminum Tunes sets.

Kevin

I really like Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements, because it has "Jenny Ondioline" on it, for which "groovy" is a very apt word. Their Crumb Duck album with Nurse With Wound is good too. For some reason I've never bought anything else by them, on the basis that it all sounds basically a bit like "Jenny Ondioline" only not quite as good. Am I mistaken? Maybe I should check out some of their other stuff.

-- Ian

Ludwig said "I should've asked "Are Stereolab the coolest?"

I must admit if someone said "Is Stereolab not the coolest?" to me my first thought would be how I can leverage my rare bootleg CDRs into a date at the Valley High Senior Prom.

Matthew

PS "Dots and Loops" for me. Although I am far from an expert.

FWIW two things amazed me when I first moved here (West Coast) from NY:

1) How tech company employees* speak like surfers. In business meetings.
2) How young and not-so-young professionals* smoke marijuana.

I used to be such a square. Brown shoes and pressed khakis at parties and everything.

* Referring to product, IT, marketing, engineering people, not legal or accounting.

Back to Stereolab...

The earlier stuff is sublime – “Peng” & Transient Random Noise Bursts…” are excellent. “Refried Ectoplasm(Switched On Vol 2)” would be a good starter for someone wanting a representative collection of their early to mid-90’s stuff.. After “Dots & Loops” it seems they went a bit avant-garde just for the sake of it (maybe that's the point though?)

On Too Pure Records around the same time were Th’ Faith Healers – also fond of one or two chord riffs but far more brutal. Their Lps “Lido” & “Imaginary Friend” are well worth checking out if you like that kind of thing. Saw them playing at a stupidly high volume in the Jericho Tavern in Oxford many moons ago, the hearing didn't come back for days.

For someone who's a big pop fan (Beatles, ELO, Xtc etc.), i.e. me, which S.Lab album would be the place to start? I wanna run with the "fast" crowd, and be groovy too!

Always looking for fresh meat to feed the CD5i...

"Dots and Loops" and "Emperor Tomato Ketchup" seem to be the most popular entry points. I prefer the latter and in fact it's my favorite of theirs (an unoriginal, unhip stance).

I'm a fan of the rarified ectoplasm thingy album. More music for the brain than the soul though.

quote:

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Originally posted by Nick Lees:
it's not the sort of thing you're going to be singing in the bathroom!

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A very important point to make to a newbie! Though I do a bit of humming to their tunes.