“Simple Headphone Mind” by Stereolab & Nurse With Wound

"Simple Headphone Mind" was the second time Stereolab put their music in Nurse With Wound's hands, issued on Duophonic Records in 1997 as the follow-up to Crumb Duck, and the rules hadn't changed. Stereolab cut a basic track, then Steven Stapleton carried it off and did whatever he pleased with it, a blank-cheque method that turns the whole exercise into a gamble by design.

This time the before picture exists too: the untouched Stereolab take surfaced as "The Long Hair of Death" on a split single with Yo La Tengo, and later on the Aluminum Tunes compilation. The title borrows the name of a song by krautrock band Alcatraz, while "Trippin' with the Birds" tips its hat to Exmagma, and both groups sit on the Nurse With Wound list. It came out as a limited edition that included 4000 vinyl copies, around 1000 of them yellow, every one sealed in a metallic sleeve.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.