Rare is the band that fits in so well with modern college life. Effortlessly mixing lounge pop, krautrock and a penchant for left-leaning lyrics, they really should have been bigger than they ended up being. I mean, dropped from Warner Bros records for not selling enough albums, shame on you college students. Turn off that flavor of the week (I’m guilty of it too) and put on some real stuff.
Sadly, the word “been” gives it all away: they are no longer together. “Not Music” which I’ll have a review up for later tonight, is their siren song made up of odds and ends from their “Chemical Chords” sessions. Apparently making music for almost two decades with a flagrant disregard for popular trends in music took their toll. Wait until retro 60s French pop makes a comeback; they’ll look so foolish then!
Part of what made Stereolab work was how it was a work of pure music nerds. I mean, how many bands can just off the cusp reference a Tod Dockstader piece like they did on “La Demeure”? Or how many bands articulately discuss the importance of vinyl and Jean-Claude Vannier while actually knowing exactly what they are talking about? The amount of attention they gave to each song, beginning, middle and end was phenomenal. Stereolab felt at times a band who constantly worshipped at the altar of good music, getting little to nothing in return. A band made up exclusively of music snobs who made music for people who got the joke.
Even before it was cool, they indulged in bossa nova covers like “One Note Samba” which extended into 9 minutes for reasons only they could describe. And when their beloved band mate Mary Hansen passed away, they continued to release nearly unreasonable amounts of music. Calling them a band of rock critics rather than musicians shouldn’t even be considered an insult; a band this knowledgeable ought to take that as a compliment. The amount of bands that are painfully inarticulate about their music is massive: I remember Tortoise being interviewed on MTV 2 and shuttering as they stated their music was a “cross-pollenization” of different musical movements. When my spell check tells me that’s not a word that just confirms how useless they are as promoters.
I’m a bit saddened that now they’ve called it quits. After “Fab Four Suture” their music seemed to recover from the slight directionless that they encountered earlier in the decade. “Chemical Chords” confirmed that for me: here was a band getting back into the swing of things only to let me down. Honestly, I can’t complain that they didn’t give it their all. And I also know that they have a great deal of influential fans to collaborate with (like Deerhunter’s Brad Cox) but I will miss them. Listening to the new album, I felt a certain wistfulness, nostalgia even, for when I could reliably expect at least an album (or more) a year from them.