Word: bande
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...emblematic of the music as the band' s physical appearance may be, the thrill of actually seeing band members in person is transitory at best. Stereolab is no stranger to personnel changes. What hasn't changed is the thrill of hearing where Stereolab is going next, whether it's a casting out for funkier shores or spending a night in with Burt Bacharach and martinis. The next stop on their magical mystery tour? Soul. Not James-Brown-soul, although the drawn-out, reverb ad infinitum song endings the band took to performing at the Roxy do recall the virtuoso rock...
...short, Stereolab live was very different than Stereolab in the stereo lab. The band's sound is characteristically everywhere: their records run th aural gamut from fuzzy lounge-lizard pop to gritty reverb rock (and most often are a synth-washed mix of both). Through it all, though, they manage to give you the cold shoulder. Morgane Lhote's Moog must have a special dial for "disaffected": a breath of chilling ennui blows through all their music, a vague sense of world-weary aloofness that has its heart somewhere in songwriter Sadier's low-mixed lyrics...
...however, was completely different. Droning chords, insistent melodies, catchy syncopations, chanteuse vocals drowning in endless waves of synth-wash--all the innovations that Stereolab fans have come to expect --were all there. The difference was that Stereolab rocked. The aloof, polished, heavy-handed studio sound that many know the band by was shattered by gushing torrents of feedback and throbbing backbeats your ears just reveled in. From the minute they took the stage until the minute they left, the band pumped out and endless lifeblood of sound, filling the vaulted bordello-ballroom space of the Roxy to capacity...
...that reverb overkill is all good all the time. The band best known for perfect mixes of diverse and often discordant sounds should have done a better job of mixing their set list. The first half left you with that cold Stereolab feeling inside; the first few songs after "Free Design," their most recent single, showcased their new-found rock-out tendency, leaving you reeling with the overwhelming strength of their steroid-pop. But after a while it started to grate on the eardrums and sounding the same, like the never-ending conclusion to a bad U2 song riddled with...
...They can't sing. They're professional lip-synchers! No live band, no improvisation. Just pure, 100 percent unconcentrated lip-synching straight out of the carton. No potential for mess-ups, no whines from the crowd that the live versions sound different, no need for talent...