Word: stereolab
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...fusion of diverse elements extends to their members as well, and Sunday's performance really pointed out how similar their striking visual presence is to the striking aural presence of their songs. On the one hand there's Australian-born Hansen, the gamine, androgynous face behind Stereolab's characteristically sultry French vocals. (She's possibly the only person in music today who can make a complaint about faulty sound systems sexy: "Does anyone else hear that rumble?") Her look-but-don't-touch attitude makes her akin to the too-hip aunt of Bjork and Winona Ryder, a coy mistress...
...other hand is Laetitia Sadier, Stereolab's all-purpose singer-songwriter-guitarist, who took center stage on Sunday...
...could compare her to Austin Powers' Frau Fraubissina, although you might get a jackboot to the stomach. The creator of Stereolab's cold-hearted sound storm appeared in hardcore military-chic: high collar, olive-drab frock, tight mug. But somehow, when she and Hansen stepped up to their microphones, it was all okay: Sadier's harshness and Hansen's softness mixed together as well as Stereolab's other songwriter (and founder) Ti Gane can mix Muzak and German post-punk, the listless vocals carried along like a beauty queen in a homecoming parade of sound clips, acid jazz and dippy...
...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...