Talk:Stereolab/Archive 1

4th interval

 * The vocals are typically based around the 4th interval, uncommon in Western music.

I don't get it - I assume this means that the interval of a fourth is common in vocal parts, but maybe it means they tend to hover around the fourth note of the scale (eg the F in C minor). But whatever it means, is it really true? It's not something I've ever noticed in their music (but it's not something I've ever listened for, either). In any case, it certainly isn't true that the fourth is an uncommon interval in western music (but maybe something else is meant). So I'm a bit confused, altogether. --Camembert

Maybe they mean harmonies a 4th apart? -- Tarquin


 * Maybe, though that wouldn't be particularly unusual either (C-F-G-C anyone?). I think I'll listen to Dots and Loops - maybe all will become clear. I'll ask Tubby (who added the above) if he can clarify, as well. --Camembert

I didn't mean a leap of a 4th, I meant two part harmony with a 4th in between -- most western music uses 3rds, 6ths or octaves. (there's a 5th in the Siamese cats song in Aristocats... ;) having said that, it's still just speculation ... -- Tarquin 11:32 Dec 9, 2002 (UTC)


 * Ah yes, I see, I knew what you meant all along really, I was just testing you ;) Still doesn't sound like Stereolab tho... --Camembert

"I was just testing you"... are you sure you're not training to be a schoolteacher...? that was the trick they always tried to pull on me ;-) -- Tarquin


 * Heh - we had a music supply teacher once, who insisted that J.S.Bach had written the Messiah. It would've been quite funny, but she became rather aggressive and shouted a lot when we tried to correct her... --Camembert

Yeah, Tarquin's got it. I don't really know the theory myself, but my mother does and she pointed out that observation. The original sentence is not all that clear, but I don't really feel confident to clarify it. But yeah, Tarquin got it. -Tubby


 * Ah, thanks for the clarification. I'll fiddle around with the sentence and try to make it a bit clearer (hopefully). --Camembert


 * Look you mentalists, a 4th is just an inverted 5th - usually the they'll be singing it in that context (eg someone singing an F on top of a C, but the chord is F major anyways) ... occasionally, though, yes, they'll do that "added 11th" thing (ie add a 4th to an major chord, or a 7th or 9th chord). This is really not rocket science, and in no way remarkable, and should not be especially picked out in the article - all this would show is the general musical ignorance of Stereolab fanboys.--feline1 23:07, 27 January 2006 (UTC)


 * It is extremely rare for rock music journalism to feature anything like this; it is extremely unusual for rock musicians and fans to know enough about notes to understand what this means, let alone understand why it is unusual. Compare it doo-wop or The Supremes; it would make much more sense to the intended audience. Juryen 18:02, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Mary's obituaries
Sources on Mary's death:
 * http://www.stereolab.co.uk/forum/
 * http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/news/altnews/021211_stereolab.shtml
 * http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/2566949.stm
 * http://www.nme.com/news/103736.htm

Very sad. --rbrwr

Most of these links are dead and need either updating or new links established. -Elysium


 * The links in the article reference section itself should work. (At least they all did a few months ago when this went through FA). - Merzbow 21:20, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

EP's
The EP section definitely has to be expanded. Stereolab has many more singles and EP's than what is listed. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=STEREOLAB&uid=CAW010603221547&sql=11:e91uakok5m3v~T22

GA/FA try?
Anyone want to help turn this into a GA/FA article? Stereolab being my favorite band, I have an inkling to do so, if I can dig up the time. - Merzbow 07:26, 1 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm working on a substantial expansion to the article now; while this is occurring some sections of the article may seem overly large or out-of-place in comparison with the others. Please drop me a note before doing any major surgery. - Merzbow 18:34, 27 May 2007 (UTC)


 * All I have left now is to add a new multipart "History" section. I'm working on it in my sandbox now. It should be ready next week, and will replace the current line-up section. After that, new pictures and sound clips have to be added. - Merzbow 02:10, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

It's been a true pleasure watching you develop the article over the last month (from to ). Thank you for the hard work and good example :) --Quiddity 06:03, 1 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks... appreciate the kind words. Let me know if you have any suggestions. I'm closely patterning the structure, tone, and style of this article after FA music articles like The Smashing Pumpkins, so I hope I'm not doing anything too risky. - Merzbow 06:43, 1 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Supported at FAC. The only query I have (which didnt seem worth bringing up there) is should Mary Hansen, Sean O'Hagan, and Katharine Gifford be added to the members list in the infobox? I've done so, but feel free to revert/tweak as I don't know my way around the details/conventions here. Thanks again for all your work :) --Quiddity 23:03, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Looks good, I didn't know the infobox supported that field. I felt guilty about not including Hansen's name more prominently. - Merzbow 23:17, 13 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I think O'Hagan at least was a strong influence in their formative phase - Peng! - I'd put him in the lead alongside Ramsay & Hansen. Also, the sentence "their sound often overlays a repetitive "motorik" beat with female vocals sung in English or French" says more or less the same thing as the one before; ie Faust + melody. Or in other words Neu!. Ceoil 23:16, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure that sentence is unnecessary; "repetitive 'motorik' beat" explains things succinctly for the vast majority of readers not familiar with krautrock's sound, and "female vocals sung in English or French" isn't really implied. - Merzbow 23:22, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
 * It is repetition' considering that the Krautrock bands were Faust and NEU!, and that in both sentences you say the influence was married with a softer touch. It might be an idea to merge. The early eps are almost comical repitions of NEU 2 - eg the ! in Peng! as an obvious eg - and there is not a lot of Can or Amon Düül II in there. Bty I prefer Stereolab to NEU!, I was lucky enough to see ST 3 times before Ping! was released, and oh my. This is a trivial matter anyhow, the article is very good, and is the best overview I've read so far. Well done. Ceoil 23:36, 13 June 2007 (UTC)


 * The article is full of gushing POV and fan blabber, it would never make a FA without pruning all this stuff and being more objective. Whilst the degree of referencing things is commendable, I fear that simply referencing an very subjective bit of journalistic hyperbole doesn't make it encylcopaedic.--feline1 (talk) 19:23, 17 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Uhh, news-flash - it did make FA. I fear your analysis is flawed. I'll accept what you've changed so far, but I find no issues with the rest of the article. - Merzbow (talk) 04:31, 18 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Or the FA process is flawed :) --feline1 (talk) 12:51, 18 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I dispute that O'Hagan was ever a member rather than a collaborator. Source? 86.44.17.5 (talk) 07:36, 15 August 2008 (UTC)


 * "O'Hagan moved from a full member to a part-time guest during the recording of the album -- he was busy forming his own band, the High Llamas -- and the band added keyboardist Katherine Gifford." From the AllMusic bio page. - Merzbow (talk) 01:19, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

Discography redo, images
I've decided to redo the "Discography" session citing reliable sources (mostly All Music). In the near future expect to see it change a lot as I experiment with format. As part of this I've removed the cover art thumbnails because their use here is a violation of fair use guidelines - specifically, the guideline says that cover art is "not for identification without critical commentary". Since this article does not contain critical commentary on each album, it doesn't qualify. Further evidence for this interpretation is that none of the articles of bands that are featured articles have cover art thumbnails in their "Discography" sections. I know it looks better with the art, but if we ever want this article to achieve GA/FA, we need to abide by guidelines (which have been getting stricter lately as the Foundation has been limiting the scope of fair use - see this ANI thread). - Merzbow 05:17, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Stereolab were/was
Per consensus at Coldplay (where it has been debated extensively), Radiohead (a Featured Article), and other British bands, this article should refer to Stereolab as plural; ie, the article should read "Stereolab were an alternative music band ..." as it does presently. Per American and British English differences, it is legit to refer to a band as plural in British English. Furthermore, the article should remain internally consistent: if the introduction is changed from "were" to "was", the entire article should change accordingly. -M.Nelson (talk) 04:10, 17 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Ditto The Beatles, but the discussion is long, long archived. LessHeard vanU (talk) 22:22, 17 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Arrgh, that's irritating. There should be a fork of English Wikipedia for British and American versions.  Psychlohexane (talk) 22:40, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

WP:Undue re Marxism
Unless someone is going to put up a  template, might I suggest that the reference to Marxist leanings in the lyrics (which, per the article, are not always very distinguishable) might be pared down to perhaps the mention in the lead and once elsewhere in the article? The contemporary music culture, especially the non chart orientated variants, of the UK and Europe are often fairly politically aware - even some charting artists are known for their political affiliations and references to them in their work. So, instead of the boy meets girl, boy loses girl, girl is abducted by aliens, boy finds true love with deciduous tree, scenario of most offerings (wha'? I happen to be a Siouxsie and the Banshees fan!) they make some social commentary? It happens quite often. I sense, per the previous section noting the British use of the plural for bands not being apparent, that this article is chiefly by those of a US orientation, and they may have included a political bias that the band themselves - or their European fanbase - consider as unimportant. I realise that US sources might push that angle a bit, but then the need would be for UK/Europe references that refer either positively to that, or do not comment upon it when discussing their music. Cheers, LessHeard vanU (talk) 22:34, 17 February 2010 (UTC)

Band on indefinite hiatus (not ended)
Stereolab is on indefinite hiatus per their April 2009 announcement on their website. During a November 2010 radio interview (@ 37.45), in answer to the question "does [the] band still exist?" Tim Gane stated "No, [...] well, it's kind of on hold, in a jar or something like that" and goes on to explain that if new interesting ideas came along then Stereolab would resume. There has been no formal announcement that the group has ended. Rostz (talk) 23:02, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

Accidental death
I hope no-one minds me raising this -- but was Mary Hansen's death accidental? I couldn't find any information about an inquest. I'm not suggesting that she was killed on purpose at all, but I feel the word 'accident' would be inappropriate if the lorry driver was found to be negligent in some way. Yaxu (talk) 14:27, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

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Stereolab Stereolab Stereolab
Almost every written use of "band" or "group" was replaced with "Stereolab" in this diff - I'm tempted to revert half of these edits since the article looks like quite a mess now. --Ilovetopaint (talk) 15:06, 6 January 2018 (UTC)

Terms such as "The band" and "the group" tend to come off as being from a journalist's point of view. But feel free to reword it if you still think it's wrong. 100cellsman (talk) 20:54, 6 January 2018 (UTC)

Admittedly I went a little overboard with the article, as I noticed tidbits that may not have been necessary to change. Overall, you can rework what you think I did wrong. And if you want I can give explanations about why I edited certain tidbits. 100cellsman (talk) 21:08, 6 January 2018 (UTC)

Excess sound-bytes?
I think the article is using too many sound-bytes, according to WP:SAMPLE. Partially my fault for including one for "Nihilist Assault Group". It should be a matter of discussion, but I was thinking of deleting "Ping-Pong" for example. I'm not sure how it's relevant when the lyrics are being explained. I do think "Motoroller Scalatron" is appropriate since you can hear the vocal techniques being used. These are just my thoughts.100cellsman (talk) 21:41, 18 July 2018 (UTC)


 * Coming back to this again! I propose that the samples for "Captain Easychord", "Margerine Rock" and "Ping-Pong" should be removed. I don't really see how "Captain Easychord" using country techniques really contribute enough for a sample, the caption for "Margerine Rock" is already mentioned in the musical style section and it makes the sample kinda pointless. I've already mentioned the reasoning for "Ping-Pong" above.
 * However, I do think that "Jenny Ondioline", "Nihilist Assault Group" and "Motoroller Scalatron" should stay. "Jenny Ondioline" illustrates their use of Krautrock influenced music, which is their most significant influence. "Nihilist Assault Group", illustrates their vintage keyboard use and "Motoroller Scalatron" for what is also mentioned above.&#32;100cellsman (talk) 00:10, 1 September 2018 (UTC)

inconsistent citations
Hi, has this particular citation style this article has at the moment become outdated? I've seen other articles in that format but what I've seen for the most part is the {cite x} style. Just wondering.100cellsman (talk) 13:14, 10 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Though I'll be on and off at times I'm currently working on reconstructing the citations.100cellsman (talk) 00:54, 11 December 2018 (UTC)
 * I usually see articles with this formatting when you have many references for just a few books, where it's beneficial to pinpoint pages and such. If the sources are all one-page urls then all this formatting does is create a bottleneck to them.--Ilovetopaint (talk) 01:44, 11 December 2018 (UTC)

As of 03/06/2019 Stereolab are now touring, so should be considered "is" a band rather than "was" a band.
As of 03/06/2019 Stereolab are now touring, so should be considered "is" a band rather than "was" a band.
 * They simply updated their website to include a list of their tour dates. They don't start touring till May 29. That's not really being active. 100cellsman (talk) 20:16, 6 March 2019 (UTC)
 * I agree, when May 29 rolls around and they actually perform would be a good time to update "was" to "is". --hulmem (talk) 03:21, 7 March 2019 (UTC)