Sic Semper Tyrannis

Dots and Loops

Now, my friends, I will tell you about another strange little band and album that I happened to discover while employed as a retail music jerk---the album Dots and Loops by Stereolab. There was another manager I worked with at the time, named Matt. We got along fairly well, primarily because I tend to keep my mouth shut. Matt was a little bit of a “doom and gloom” kind of guy, going to school to teach history, and as far as I could tell, he didn’t really care for music a whole lot, (at least not as much as music-geek me.) Anyway, our store had received a promo copy of this Stereolab album, and for some reason, it was Manager Matt’s go-to disc for in-store play.

Well, I was hooked on their aesthetic from the very first time I heard it. The sound of this album was an anachronism. Here it was the late 90s and they sounded kind of like something Austin Powers might listen to. The first thing you notice is the female singers’ voices. A lot of times, they would sing in French and had a real smooth, laid-back sound of sixties bossa nova jazz singers like Astrud Gilberto. But that was just the beginning. The songs themselves sounded like 60’s pop creations, with lots of organs and horns and tambourine. But the coup of it all, for me, was the analog, moog-ish synth sounds creating blips and bloops that might be heard in some kinds of dance music. All of these novelties with catchy melodies…I was sold.

I think the cool thing about Stereolab’s music is that it is hipster music for two different eras: the indie rock literati of today and I think that if you sent this music in a time machine back to the early sixties, they would “dig that crazy sound,” too, (if only they could play Cds. But Stereolab strikes me as the kind of band that releases stuff on vinyl, though. So it’s possible, if NASA would get off their asses with the time machine technology.)

I still find a weird kind of comfort in knowing that I never paid for this great album. Since it was a promo, it was mine for the taking. So often, the promos you get at a music store are just awful, bland, middle-of-the-road bands that you’ve never heard of for good reason, with no discernable creative impulse. But this promo was a rare gem.

So, take this as a hot tip-if you haven’t heard Stereolab’s Dots and Loops, I think you should. And I’m sure Jay can weigh-in with what his favorite Stereolab albums are, but I also like Sound-Dust and their box set of b-sides called Oscillons from the Anti-Sun.

posted by Mike @ 10:52 AM