View Full Version : Holy Fuck: Mary Hanson from Stereolab dead at 36


Mason R Butler
12-11-2002, 05:36 AM
http://www.stereolab.co.uk/news/

A car crash. How terrible and sad.

strange_one
12-11-2002, 08:52 AM
<font color=33FFFF> :(
failure will be devastated</font>

James is Cool
12-11-2002, 09:43 AM
That's awful.

House of Bread
12-11-2002, 02:15 PM
This completely ruined my day :(

patrick
12-11-2002, 03:07 PM
...

:(

patrick
12-11-2002, 03:11 PM
-11.12 martin
-Mary 1/11/1966 - 9/12/2002
-It is with great regret and deep sadness that I must announce the death of Mary.
We will all miss her dearly.
-Stereolab


i think that is the saddest thing i've ever read :(

DeadSwan
12-11-2002, 03:31 PM
:(

spa ced
12-11-2002, 03:59 PM
That is so sad. :(

lament
12-11-2002, 06:38 PM
while riding her bike... :(
Stereolab member dies in accident (http://www.canoe.com/JamMusic/dec11_stereolab-can.html)

THRILLHO
12-11-2002, 06:57 PM
:( that's awful...

Irridescent Fairysex
12-11-2002, 07:48 PM
Mary Hansen, Star of the Sea


I first met Mary Hansen at Lollapalooza. There were a lot of great bands that year. I was playing drums with King Kong at the time (we were the first band on the side stage). Smashing Pumpkins were the last band on the main stage. I was a huge Stereolab fan. At the time they were still relatively unknown in America. They happened to be King Kong fans, especially Mary and Tim. We hung out with them quite a bit on that tour. We went to the same bars after the shows, we stayed at the same hotels, we had dinner together.


When I joined Tortoise there was also a camaraderie between us and the ‘Lab. Tortoise and Stereolab ended up doing a number of tours together, they were always strong supporters. Because beyond similar musical interests, there was always a real friendship between us.


When Stereolab asked me to play bass with them, it was a dream come true. I toured with them in Europe for about six months. That’s when Mary and I really got to become friends. We lived together at her flat in Kings Cross. We would stay up late, playing a cards with her sister Jenny, listening to records, drinking, gossiping, and rapping about our relationship problems. She taught me how to make tea properly and I became the designated pot o’ tea guy for the late night card games. One thing I know about Mary: she loved to laugh. She had a very distinct, comfortable sense of humor.


Her flat was freezing at the time. I slept on the floor with no heat and used an old curtain as a blanket. I've slept outdoors in really cold weather before but I've never been as cold as I was in Mary's flat! But the apartment was very inviting. Mary favored bright, sixties colors, it perfectly reflected her colorful personality. Even though the housing development she lived in was grim, with junkies in the hallways and nasty weather, Mary made her place an oasis and a locus for exciting parties where good people could dance to good music.


When I returned to America I had to make a choice. I could be in Tortoise or Stereolab but not at the same time. It was a really difficult decision because I loved both bands and felt loyalty towards each of them. In the end, it was easier to make it a geographical decision. My girlfriend and family lived in Kentucky at the time and Chicago is a hell of a lot closer to Louisville than London. Fortunately I got to see Mary as much as ever because of the close relationship between the two bands.


But when I left Tortoise a few years later it's true that I didn't see Mary as often. I would look for any excuse to hang with the ‘Lab; I would play shows with them, record at Tim and Laetitia's house, visit them while they recorded in Chicago, etc. I often collaborate with my super busy musician friends as an excuse to spend time with them.


I did a solo tour in Australia a few years ago, as Papa M, and played in Brisbane, a town near Maryborough, where Mary’s family lives. I was supposed to stay at her house but then her father died. Now the Hansen family is a very tight unit so this of course was a huge shock to them all. We wrote each other quite a bit during this difficult time. When I finally met up with her and her sisters in Brisbane I dedicated a song to them. I'll never forget how they hugged me afterwards, how a song without words can conjure up such memories and strong feelings. The Hansen sisters made me feel like the little brother they never had.


The second to last time I saw Mary was when Papa M opened for Stereolab in Costa Mesa, California. (in Mary's words, "...in that club where you couldn't smoke inside and couldn't drink outside") I hadn't seen her for a long time and I guess I blurted out something like, "You're my favorite!" She never let me forget that and I'm still not sure what I meant.


We started writing each other again very recently, despite the fact that I've been ultra busy. She was very excited about playing organ in a band with Katherine (the original keyboard player for Stereolab), going back to school, and especially about the wire sculptures she had been designing. I asked her if I could have one of her rejected wire sculptures because I'm sure they are all great. I told her I was glad that she was pursuing her art, that she seemed really happy, that I was looking forward to seeing her when I go to Europe next year. I sent her a lot of love, not knowing it was the last contact I'd ever have with her.


Mary always had a quiet love for God, not in a dogmatic religious way, but in deeply personal way. I always liked that about her. I know there are a lot of people right now examining their own relationship with Mary, reflecting on the conviviality she inspired, and the comfort she radiated. Her extended musical family stretches out over the entire globe. I can't even imagine the grief her family in Maryborough must be experiencing right now.


When I think about Mary I envision a beautiful green field. She was surely as colorful as the brightest tulip, as light as the August breeze, and as warm as the midday sun. She was absolutely sweet and fragile yet vibrant and always filled with life. The tragedy is that she is physically no longer with us. But the truth is that she enriched the lives of everyone she touched with her voice, her prescence, and her laughter. Nourishment like that always remains.


David Christian Pajo

patrick
12-11-2002, 08:23 PM
:(

neubautenpumpkin
12-11-2002, 10:39 PM
this really stinks,
she will be missed

mercurial
12-11-2002, 10:48 PM
wow, and I just saw her and stereolab earlier this year - one of the best gigs I have ever been too

RIP

lawson
12-11-2002, 11:07 PM
they were/are a great band funny i should have to wonder if they are or were... saw them live once i think opening for sonic youth sounded great though i have none of their albums. in fact the only song that i can actually hear in my head is Lo 8oob Oscillator. damn that's sad

TiaraGurl
12-12-2002, 01:06 AM
Random transient noise bursts was one of the first albums I bought in college.

:(

Shane the Pane
12-12-2002, 08:28 PM
As a Stereolab fan, I was very unhappy to recieve this news. Now... what is in the future for Stereolab?