Comments on: History will only repeat itself once more.

History will only repeat itself once more.

sleepy pete — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 13:53:15 -0800

Stereolab origins parts 1 , 2, 3, and 4

It's youtubeishness, but I thought this was a really interesting way to show the influences of a band, especially Stereolab who celebrated their influences almost as much as they celebrated old synths. We're also coming up on the anniversary of the death of Mary Hansen in 2002

By: anazgnos

anazgnos — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 13:58:50 -0800

Not bad.

By: porn in the woods

porn in the woods — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:04:40 -0800

For the next volume, it should be noted that "Freestyle Dumpling" is a close cousin of The Fall's "Slags Slates Etc."

By: sleepy pete

sleepy pete — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:22:29 -0800

porn in the woods, there's a few that I didn't completely agree with ("Hallogallo" by Neu! is "Exploding Head Movie" by Stereolab as far as melody, not "Jenny Ondioline," which has essentially the same rhythm, and I don't think the Plastic Ono Band had much to do with Stereolab, although I understand why they're there), but I think you're right.

By: sgt.serenity

sgt.serenity — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:34:11 -0800

It's a bit depressing someone showing you how the magic tricks were done......

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:09:43 -0800

youtubeishness youtuberance, please. c'mon, I'm trying to start a meme here, people.

By: mubba

mubba — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:05:07 -0800

No way! Popular music is vaguely similar to other popular music?!

By: TheNewWazoo

TheNewWazoo — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:56:55 -0800

La première link est morte.

By: Brian B.

Brian B. — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:59:41 -0800

Part one seems to have been removed.

By: melissa may

melissa may — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:40:37 -0800

Good gracious, mubba, Sun Ra is popular where you live? And The Silver Apples? Snapper? The kids all still remember The Archies and The Association there? Stereolab is popular where you live? You must reside in Chillville, boasting the largest per capita consumption of sorbet and bongo drums in the world, where the girls all go by in striped shirts waving coolly from Vespas and the men all cock an ironic but affable eyebrow as you pass. All the doorbells go la la la la la, am I correct? And the car alarms just whisper "Hey, man, I'm still making payments." Put in a good word for me with Mayor Gainsbourg, would you?

By: sleepy pete

sleepy pete — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:44:13 -0800

Part 1 is here. The person removed it and put it back up. I hope that doesn't happen to all of them.

By: stinkycheese

stinkycheese — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:46:57 -0800

Ono's Mindtrain is pretty much exactly copied, as I recall. Can't remember what Stereolab titled it, but yeah, that's the track. I love me some old Stereolab, but it really ticks me off that they're trying to pass off other people's stuff as their own. The internet really showed this up in a lot of bands (Spacemen 3 are another offender), and that's one more value to it, I suppose...you can't rework rare vinyl & pass it off as your creation anymore, too many people listening, too many memories.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:57:46 -0800

Fixed the link to part 1. Neat stuff.

By: joeblough

joeblough — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:01:54 -0800

thanks, this is great. love stereolab... but i'm always bummed that Mary Hansen was killed back in 2002.

By: space2k

space2k — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:20:37 -0800

pretty cool - but it seems like Neu should have been mentioned sooner! Also, where can I find more Krysztof Komeda?

By: porn in the woods

porn in the woods — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:36:23 -0800

Seek: "Flourescenses" EP, Switched On comps, Mars Audiac Quintet, Emperor Tomato Ketchup Destroy: Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night, The First of the Microbe Hunters EP

By: stinkycheese

stinkycheese — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:46:49 -0800

It's Metronomic Underground that rips off Mindtrain (from the Plastic Ono Band's freakazoid double LP Fly). A lot of these are kinda hmm maybe, but that one is particularly shameful.

By: mike_bling

mike_bling — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 21:48:41 -0800

This is just more proof that Stereolab is way hipper than you'll ever be.

By: tim_in_oz

tim_in_oz — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 21:54:34 -0800

True story: My wife an I got married in an old club in St Kilda in Melbourne. As the night wore on, there were more an more people there whom we didn't know - friends of friends and so on. I was approached by some English guy at some point who apologised for gatecrashing our wedding. I asked him who he was, he told me, and I asked him what he was doing in Australia. 'Oh, my band are touring at the moment'. Which band I asked? 'Stereolab. Have you heard of them?'. Lovely guy. I think we had the whole band there at one point. No-one had any idea who they were.

By: PHINC

PHINC — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 09:16:19 -0800

Wow, nice. A real education for me. I had no idea one of my all time favorite bands was influenced by the Archies and bands I've never heard of of before. Some smart programmer needs to create a spinning rhizome jukebox of musical influences so that I could waste my days away.

By: moz

moz — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 11:30:29 -0800

a compliment to the influences would be the band to whom tim gane (and, very late, laetitia sadier) belonged to -- mccarthy. both bands took different approaches to their music, but both were (are) quite political.

By: Rich Smorgasbord

Rich Smorgasbord — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 19:58:07 -0800

These are clever comparisons but isn't it post hoc to draw a conclusion? Besides, the more you pay attention to these things, the more you find out that practically everything sounds like something else.

By: schyler523

schyler523 — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 14:36:54 -0800

I remember an interview on Morning Becomes Eclectic back in 1996 when they were touring to support Emperor Tomato Ketchup. Where they were explaining their sound to Nick Harcourt. They take a riff from say Charles Mingus, and play it and layer other riffs over the top of it...I remember Nick having quite a bit of trouble understanding this... So i don't think they were ever trying to give the impression that they had 'created' these' riffs, they just compiled them differently. One of my favorite bands ever, excellent post.

By: schyler523

schyler523 — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 14:38:48 -0800

By Nick Harcourt, i meant Chris Douridas...oops.

By: sleepy pete

sleepy pete — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 08:45:40 -0800

schyler523, thanks for saying that. I was going to, but I didn't want to moderate the thread. There isn't a lot of art that doesn't have an antecedent somewhere (modernism, and post-, relishes it; how many more years will Chuck Berry songs be remade?). With Stereolab, they were very forthcoming about their influences. The beauty of it all, and with others who do this, is that they took the ideas of others and used them to create their own pieces. Was it Gramsci or Althusser who theorized that this was the only way to create art (it's been years and I can't look it up right now since I'm at work). Oh well, I'll look it up later since I don't think anyone's reading this still. Also, it looks like part 5 is up (although I'm getting a weird message at work so it won't play correctly).

By: imperium

imperium — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:27:08 -0800

The Jean Michel Jarre bit is utterly implausible, as are many of the others. Also, have you noticed (for older Stereolab at least) how much better they are than their purported influences?

By: stinkycheese

stinkycheese — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:27:16 -0800

With Stereolab, they were very forthcoming about their influences. I'm sorry, but this just isn't true. Or at least wasn't true. They credit themselves for stuff they are really very obviously ripping off. They may discuss these "influences" in interviews or whathaveyou, but the acid test is really the album credits, and any proper accreditation there is noteable only by its absence. That said, some of the examples in the youtube clips are, admittedly, way off.