Stereolab Share Rarity “Household Names”: Listen

Stereolab have shared another entry from their forthcoming Electrically Possessed compilation. The song, “Household Names,” appeared on the band’s 2000 mini-album The First of the Microbe Hunters. Check it out below.

Tim Gane reflected on “Household Names” in a press release:

During a two-week break in touring for the Cobra and Phases Group LP we decided to go into Blackwing Studios to record a bunch of tracks “old style”—straight to tape for what would become the world’s first double-mini album First of the Microbe Hunters. It was a spur of the moment kind of thing and there was only one song already written (“Outer Bongolia”—originally played by Turn On for three concerts played around the time of the release of their LP 28/07/97) and one song that had already been recorded and mixed earlier (“I Feel the Air”—originally meant for Dots & Loops but we run out of time to mix it for the mastering and so it was left off). Consequently—as time was tight—all of the other tracks were written very fast across two or three days. “Household Names” was one of three tracks written on the first day (according to the running order on my Fostex cassettes) and it’s a little bit of a hark back up to the poppy side of the ETK period I suppose. The track has some lovely singing throughout and great keyboard arrangements courtesy of Sean O’Hagan. We played pretty much as a band and unlike the previous two LPs we didn’t use any computers. Andy [Ramsay]’s working title for the song was “Dicky Bows at Dawn,” a reference to its cabaret wedding band sound.

Electrically Possessed includes “Dimension M2,” which came out last month. The compilation is out February 26 via Warp/Duophonic UHF Disks.