Stereolab Live In Frankfurt (1994)

May 10, 2021 9:11 PM

Full Concert VHS concert recording. Audio quality is not great but better than you might expect. RIP & respect to Mary Hansen as always
posted by CarrotAdventure (23 comments total)

As a long time collector/enthusiast for Stereolab as a live band, I've done some archival projects in this area

https://archive.org/details/stereolab-series-7
https://archive.org/details/stereolab-series-6
https://archive.org/details/stereolab-series-5
https://archive.org/details/stereolab-series-4
https://archive.org/details/stereolab-series-3
https://archive.org/details/stereolab-series-2
https://archive.org/details/stereolab-series-1
posted by anazgnos at 10:29 PM on May 10, 2021 [21 favorites]

It's been a good time for fans of The Groop with volume four of the Switched On series of rarities, b-sides, etc (Bleep.com link) and expanded editions of their back catalogue (Emperor Tomato Ketchup, for example).

Time Gane has been busy with his explicitly Krautrock outfit, Cavern of Antimatter (YouTube link to an album).

And, of course, until the pandemic hit they had reformed for live shows. Always an exciting prospect live - they are like two distinct bands, with live performances differing a fair bit from their recorded output - I'm hoping they will tour again after The Global Unpleasantness has passed...
posted by deeker at 1:16 AM on May 11, 2021 [5 favorites]

Also on Bandcamp for those who prefer to go there.
posted by acb at 1:30 AM on May 11, 2021 [3 favorites]

they are like two distinct bands, with live performances differing a fair bit from their recorded output

I had the good fortune of catching them in October '19 and... yeah. It was early in the tour and from the way they were looking at each other I wasn't sure if they just hadn't practiced together much in a while or what. They'd spend 20 minutes noodling on some dissonant arhythmic weirdness and then it would somehow lock into a beat or even one of the hooks and just GO. Jam band shit isn't normally my thing but from them it was amazing.

Also they were selling a silkscreened drawstring laundry bag and that was some of the coolest merch I've ever seen.
posted by 7segment at 6:10 AM on May 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

Stereolab was (I think) the second-last concert I saw before the pandemic; it was also October 2019, but the show I was at was pretty tight; my only disappointment was that they didn't play anything from Peng!
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:26 AM on May 11, 2021

I saw them twice around the time of this concert, 1993 and 1994, and both were underwhelming shows, though not for reasons I'd blame on the band. The first was a club gig. They were warming somebody up, one of those bland sorta-indie-power-pop outfits that you just couldn't avoid at the time. Anyway, Stereolab's set was limited in time, and it happened to coincide with a big game in the Stanley Cup playoffs, so Canadians being f***ing idiots when it comes to hockey, half the crowd was jammed around the TV set at the far end of the club. The next time was Lollapalooza 1994 where they played the second stage, mid-day, HOT. The weather, that is. They again had limited time on stage and, if I recall correctly, George Clinton and his crowd were roaring away off in the distance from the main stage. It was sonically chaotic and I kept wishing Stereolab would just decide, f*** it, and dive into a prolonged drone jam, but nah, they just did their songs and that was that.

I missed them the next time they hit town which was for Emperor Tomato Ketchup. By all accounts, they conquered that night. One of those shows that people still talk about with awe. Oh well.
posted by philip-random at 6:39 AM on May 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

I was astonished recently to discover that this 10/30/92 show at Cambridge, MA's TT the Bear's Place that I went to was recorded. It sounds even better than my now-dim memory of it :)
posted by ryanshepard at 6:52 AM on May 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

I saw them on Halloween night in '96, at Liberty Lunch in Austin. What a fun show! They were so tight, almost like an electronica band, and with such a dense, amazing sound. Oh, and DJ Spooky opened. Peak 90's.
posted by swift at 7:08 AM on May 11, 2021 [5 favorites]

Saw them in '01? '02? in Austin at La Zona Rosa and they rocked my world. It was everything I wanted.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 7:49 AM on May 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

I was lucky enough to see them on this tour in a tiny bar in Montreal. I was blown away by the energy that came of compared to the recordings. The drummer especially. I had been a fan for a while, but had never really considered them *fun* until that night.
posted by sauril at 8:41 AM on May 11, 2021

STEREOLAB IS GREAT!!!
posted by mc2000 at 9:10 AM on May 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

I have no particular stereolab stories to tell but I love their music. It has as much depth as you have time to give it, whether it's a dark basement with nothing on, or just playing in the background as you live your life. I've probably listened to ETK more times in total than anything else I've ever owned, it's just so... reliable.
posted by rouftop at 9:42 AM on May 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

This was around the time in high school I started listening to Stereolab, after hearing the song Ping Pong on a CMJ compilation and buying Mars Audiac Quintet. I wasn't able to see them live for a few more years, when my friends and I drove 4 hours to see them at the Metro in Chicago on the Dots and Loops tour. That was a great show, but I would have loved to see them during this phase of the band, too.
posted by jomato at 10:17 AM on May 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

> It has as much depth as you have time to give it, whether it's a dark basement with nothing on, or just playing in the background as you live your life.

I remember reading an interview with Laetitia Sadier a while back where she said that she once got a letter or an email from a stripper who liked to perform to one of Stereolab's songs, and she appreciated it because most of the messages like that she got from fans were more along the lines of "I like to water my plants to your music!"
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:20 AM on May 11, 2021 [4 favorites]

The first Stereolab song I heard was "Brakhage" from Dots And Loops. It was one of those drive-to-the-record-store-right-NOW moments. Think I got there right after the song finished. Saw them twice, for the Cobra And Phases and Margerine Eclipse tours. For the Cobra And Phases tour they seemed to intentionally ignore the audience but played a great show anyway. The Margerine show was simply amazing, they kept switching instruments, everybody seemed to play keyboards, guitar, and brass instruments. We had tickets for their reunion tour but covid.

I've always thought of their recorded music as if they were a band from the early 70's who got teleported into the 90's to witness samplers and techno and then got sent back to the 70's to recreate it with instruments of the day.

In my mind I associate them with American Analog Set, a low-key but awesome band I only ever saw once at Spaceland.
posted by technodelic at 12:09 PM on May 11, 2021 [5 favorites]

I think about Tomorrow is Already Here a lot these days. Thanks for the post!
posted by wordless reply at 1:05 PM on May 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

I lived next door to the drummer for American Analog Set for two years before I ran into him at a club one night and he was like "oh hey neighbor, what are you doing here?" and I was like "dude, I'm seeing one of my favorite bands tonight, American Analog Set, what are you doing here?" and that's how I found out he's their drummer. I knew he was in band(s), just never which one. I still listen to Promise of Love weekly.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 1:08 PM on May 11, 2021 [5 favorites]

Groovy. Dig the Velvets-style grooves and those vintage keyboards. Quasi-Marxist lyrics are a bonus for me.
posted by ovvl at 1:32 PM on May 11, 2021 [3 favorites]

spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints, I was at that show at La Zona Rosa! And promise of love was on heavy rotation in our apartment at the time.

Stereolab has such a pleasing sound. It always feels to me like a deadpan Taylorist assembly-line approach to pop that serves the anti-capitalist lyrics perfectly.
posted by umbú at 1:46 PM on May 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

Some 20-25 years ago, a blog named I Hate Music (which specialised in knowingly uncharitable takedowns of much-loved bands) summed them up as “ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba socialism ba ba ba”.
posted by acb at 1:50 PM on May 11, 2021 [3 favorites]

That's great, but I would have gone with "ba ba ba ba so-ci-et-y ba ba"
posted by jomato at 2:28 PM on May 11, 2021 [2 favorites]

> a deadpan Taylorist assembly-line approach to pop

Laetitia Sadier said in an interview a couple years ago (Redbull music academy?) that when she recorded her solo albums she learned that Stereolab's approach to recording was unorthodox. If memory serves, Tim Gane would bring a bunch of melodic parts and would just sorta hand them out to the band. Vocals were just one of the parts. In the studio they would record one musician one track at a time instead of the whole group playing, you know, as a group. It fits with my timewarp idea of them visiting the future and seeing people using samplers and Ableton and then going back to the past to do that but with old instruments.
posted by technodelic at 3:05 PM on May 11, 2021 [4 favorites]

> a deadpan Taylorist assembly-line approach to pop

Yet somehow that deadpan approach gives me the feels more than just about any "really expressive" band. That's the beauty and the mystery.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 8:59 PM on May 11, 2021 [2 favorites]