#Stars of the Lid

[ruinedholograms]

(2000-2007)

• Queens Of The Stone Age - Rated R

• Andrew Bird - Weather Systems

• Nine Inch Nails - And All That Could Have Been, and Still

• Clint Mansell + Kronos Quartet + Mogwai - The Fountain

• Animal Collective + Vashti Bunyan - Prospect Hummer

• Xiu Xiu - Fag Patrol

• Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven

• Sigur Rós - Takk…

• Kanye West - Late Registration

• Queens Of The Stone Age - Lullabies To Paralyze

• Ray Lamontagne - Trouble

• Tim Hecker - Harmony In Ultraviolet

• Elliott Smith - Figure 8, From A Basement On The Hill, and New Moon

• LCD Soundsystem - Self Titled

• Xiu Xiu + Grouper - Creepshow

• Slipknot - Iowa

• Nine Inch Nails - The Hand That Feeds, With Teeth, and Every Day Is Exactly The Same

• Thom Yorke - The Eraser

• Tom Petty - Highway Companion

• Thom Yorke - Spitting Feathers

• The Postal Service - Give Up

• The Knife - Silent Shout

• Air - The Virgin Suicides

• The Knife - Self Titled

• Stars Of The Lid - And Their Refinement Of The Decline

[bubblesandgutz]

Every Record I Own - Day 832: Stars of the Lid And Their Refinement of the Decline

When ambient duo Stars of the Lid released their two-hour triple LP And Their Refinement of the Decline back in 2007, we were in the weird era between iPods and iPhones. It was also the era of Last.fm---the website that tracked and displayed your digital listening habits. Stars of the Lid were my top played artist by a wide margin, mainly because I was listening to this album on tour night after night on my iPod headphones to drown out the sound of snoring bandmates.

And Their Refinement of the Decline was the perfect sleepy time music back then. The Texas duo of Brian McBride and Adam Wiltzie contorted the sound of their electric guitars into hazy orchestral swells to a point where it was nearly impossible to figure out where one ethereal guitar line began and the other ended. It was an undulating mass of feather-light electric drones supplemented by strings, French horn, trumpet, and flugelhorn. It was equal parts narcotic and narcoleptic.

It was sublime stuff, especially if you were slightly inebriated and dozing off to sleep. But as with all music, you can burn yourself out on it if you play it too much. Eventually I started listening to other Stars of the Lid albums when I'd go to bed. Or I'd listen to other ambient and drone albums. At some point, the album fell out of constant rotation in my life.

But I just got home from a five-week European tour last night, and I'd revisited And Their Refinement quite a few times over the course of that trip.

Touring is different now than it was 17 years ago. I'm no longer putting music on my headphones as an escape from the close quarters of years past. I'm not sharing a bed with a bandmate. Most nights, I'm not even sharing a room. And I'm not going to sleep with multiple beers in my bloodstream.

Early tours were an adventure. You didn't know what to expect from one night to the next. There was a certain baseline level of adrenaline and anxiety that was ever-present as you'd go from town to town on a shoestring budget, hoping the van didn't break down somewhere along the way, hoping folks would come to the shows, hoping they'd buy enough merch to put gas in the tank. There was no privacy, no backstages, no moments of calm. You were either with your bandmates or in public. You'd drink or smoke weed to take the edge off the constant socializing. You'd go to bed with your head buzzing, trying to will yourself to sleep while your brain was still processing all the events of the day.

Things are different now. We know most of the promoters and clubs. There's a comfortable backstage on most nights. I spend less time out in the crowd, mostly because people want to talk or take pictures together and the pandemic made me leery of interacting with throngs of strangers in confined spaces. We have ticket pre-sales so we generally know how many people will be at any given show before the date arrives. It's less of an adventure and more of a routine, which may seem a bit sad to the young'uns out there who romanticize the chaos and excitement of life on the road, but at age 47 the only way to make this sustainable is to stay healthy, grounded, and well-rested.

I played Stars of the Lid on this tour not to induce sleep in a cramped hotel room, but to bring a sense of calm to the occasional stresses of the road. Have to drive an hour after a hectic show to get a start on the next day's drive? Throw on Stars of the Lid. Gotta drown out the hordes of school kids running around on the ferry between France and England after dealing with customs and immigration? Stars of the Lid is perfect for that.

And you know what? It's been nice to revisit this album in a lucid state, to hear the subtleties in this deceptively nuanced music. The surface level admiration of the woozy serenity of the album has been replaced by a deeper appreciation for its interwoven layers and textural depth. It was once an inverse of touring life's agitation, a remedy to the dissonance of the road. Now it's a moment of reflection in a calmer world---a way to further strip away the noise and bustle of the public and replace it with a study in the benefits of deep listening.

[caviarsonoro]

The Artificial Pine Arch Song · Stars of the Lid · Brian McBride ·

Si no fuera de noche saldría a quemar las naves de esta plomiza nostalgia. Juan José Vélez Otero

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Stars of the Lid - VPRO Studios, Amsterdam, Netherlands, January 17, 2002

Like a lot of you, I've been revisiting the Stars of the Lid discography since news broke of Brian McBride's passing. And although I've described SotL as "music for the universe's funeral" in the past, this deep dive hasn't been depressing. The opposite, in fact!

The tired sounds that McBride and Adam Wiltzie made contain deep wells of sadness, yeah, but the albums also have a certain romance to them, even a sense of humor. That wide openness might be its greatest strength; Stars of the Lid's music was in dialogue with the listener. It brought something to you and you gave something back — and those somethings could change every time, depending on your own state of mind. A galaxy of possibilities.

That might not make sense, I don't know, whatever. What I'm saying is — Stars of the Lid is good for you. So listen to their records ... and listen to this great Dutch radio session from the early 2000s, featuring beautiful versions of "Piano Aquieu" and "Porch."

[knightofleo]

Stars of the Lid | The Daughters of Quiet Minds

[vyva-melinkolya]

when the bass comes in at 29:25, it’s like going to heaven

[ambientworld]

[radiophd]

stars of the lid -- jan. 69

[fireland]

Stars of the Lid / Fac 21

RIP Brian McBride

[bruce-adams]

Brian McBride 1970-2023

I got the word this past Saturday morning, August 26, that Brian McBride has passed. The news was not easy to hear. It was my good fortune to have been working for kranky when Brian and Adam Wiltzie agreed to release Stars of the Lid recording on the label. Before I left the label, I was also lucky enough to promote his solo album, When the Detail Lost its Freedom.

It was my great fortune to have known Brian and spent time with him. In addition to his musical work, Brian was a college debater and coach of great skill and renown in the field. I wonder if the ability to examine and articulate the sides of an issue, so crucial in debate, was reflected in Brian's music - so focused on detail and gesture. I have memories of evening conversations, cats, and half-lit rooms in Chicago when I think of Brian. And now I have the accumulated regrets we sometimes get when someone dies - why didn't I stay in touch? Why didn't I follow up on that unanswered email?

So if you love the music Brian made, drop a line or make a call to a friend you haven't talked to for awhile.

[the-inevitable-minor-fires]

This one fucking hurts.

[cursethrower]

Brian McBride - The Guilt of Uncomplicated Thoughts

[lineara]

.

[fenrirgraves]

Articulate Silences

[knightofleo]

Stars of the Lid | Even (Out) +