The Chart Time Tunnel: Stereolab

As much as the phrase "campus chart veteran" is bandied about in my columns, there are two non-Canadian groups, Sonic Youth and Stereolab, who have consistently charted and usually topped the campus charts with a number of their releases since I started to compile these charts on a weekly basis in the spring of 1996.

Ten years ago, it was Stereolab who were about to begin their record-matching run at the top of the charts.

In the fall of 1999, Stereolab's Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night had already been charting for a month before finally usurping Julie Doiron And Wooden Stars' self-titled album for the #1 spot on the charts for the week of Oct. 14 to 21, 1999.

Cobra And Phases would eventually match the group’s previous full-length studio album, 1997's Dots And Loops — which hit #1 two years earlier — for time spent both on the campus chart (16 weeks) and at #1 (7 weeks). That #1 record would eventually been topped by Stars' Set Yourself On Fire in 2004, which spent 10 weeks at #1.

Stereolab would eventually have four of their studio albums inhabit the top spot on the campus chart, beginning with 1996's Emperor Tomato Ketchup and continuing through to 2001's Sound-Dust. To date, at least a dozen of Stereolab's releases have charted on the weekly top 50 chart, beginning with Emperor Tomato Ketchup and running through to last year's Chemical Chords. Included in this list are EPs — the First Of The Microbe Hunters EP in 2000 (11 weeks) — and compilation albums — Aluminum Tunes in 1998 (10 weeks).

It would have been more if CHARTattack compiled weekly charts before 1996. Both 1994's Mars Audiac Quintet and 1995's Refried Ectoplasm (Switched On Volume 2) charted well on Chart magazine's monthly campus charts.

Behind Stereolab and the Doiron/Wooden Stars collaboration was The Sadies' Pure Diamond Gold, which held onto the #3 spot for a second week. The Folk Implosion's One Part Lullaby rose a spot to #4 while Blurtonia's Adventures In The Kingdom matched that move, rising a spot to #5.

Lamb's Fear Of Four was the highest debut of the week entering the chart at #11. Saukrates' independently released The Underground Tapes arrived at #19 with Richard Thompson's Mock Tudor debuting at #29.

This weekly chart also featured the first appearance of Joel Kroeker, as his debut album, Naive Bohemian entered the chart at #39 before sinking off the chart the following week. Andrew Bird's Bowl Of Fire's Oh! The Grandeur arrived at #44, marking Bird's first appearance on the Canadian campus chart.