Love Tractor

Love Tractor's cover of "Neon Lights" on the Til The Cows EP is the best thing ever

OTM (well next to "planet rock" and "hip hop be bop" but still...)

these guys were great live in the 80s. think i liek their instrumentals better'n the later vocal stuff, tho.

where are they now etc

Love Tractor is like lolcollegerock. Makes me think of twentysomethings in the 80s wearing plaid shirts and rolled up tapered jeans. I actually worked side by side with a pretty hot former 80s lolcollegerock girl. She was into this band and Let's Active.

"I Broke My Saw" is one of the best things to come out of Athens, ever.

The instrumental first album is a lot better than the stuff with vocals.

I know one of the guys from this band lives in Richmond, Va. I saw him play cello at a modern dance concert.

I wonder if Dumptruck ever toured with Love Tractor?

Yes, alongside with The Cranes and the Fire Engines on their UK leg.

I remember those early albums being kinda tough to find even 20-years ago -- i still don't have their earliest material but everybody still keeps clammering about it being so much superior to the stuff that followed it. Time for a rip-off?

they really were great live; did many shows w/ Pell Mell on the west coast back in the day. did a great cover of Marvin Gaye's Got To Give It Up. isn't Armistead playing w/ Steve Wynn?

Ever since I posted to this thread the other day, "I Broke My Saw" has been stuck in my head. I always hear that this band was better as an instrumental combo but I really do love that track - loopy, spooky, and crackling with weird twangy energy. Blount tried to convince me to like the Flamin' Groovies after I played it for him, but it didn't quite take.

Haven't managed to track down the album it comes from, Themes From Venus. The one Love Tractor record I have (the self-titled one) I remember being okay, but I haven't put it on since the day I bought it...guess I should give it another chance though.

I'm an idiot, I thought "Neon Lights" was a Love Tractor song. Don't know what became of that record, and can't remember anything else from it.

Agreed this band was the classic college rock band. I remember really enjoying a record from 1987 called "This Ain't No Outer Space Ship."

Curious to see how it would hold up today though.

Wincey disclaimer for the term "Ameritwee", but This Ain't No Outer Space Ship pretty much is the torch for that in the best way. It might explain why they didn't sing initially, but I like the vocals and singing style on that album. It reminds me a little of Uncle Wiggly, as far as how to make that work well.

And while this is very much Love Tractor Mk2 or Mk7 or whatever, the 2000s lineup of Love Tractor deserves props for producing this album in 2006.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513SGW3ET0L._SL500_AA240_.jpg

hahah

Haven't heard them for decades, but I enjoyed the reference to them in a George Pelecanos novel I read recently.

Pelecanos likes a lot of good music but I wish he didn't have to spend every page of every book proving it to you.

This Ain't No Outer Space Ship sounds very 80s NZ indie pop-ish with some rough edges smoothed out (and yeah, American accents too, duh)

wow, i really like the around the bend album. never heard it before. has more in common with brit jangly stuff i like than r.e.m.-ish college jangle. very nice! it's never too late to be surprised by a band. i had always just ignored them for some reason.

The first few seconds of "Neon Lights" is one of my favorite musical moments.

I used to work with singer Mike Richmond at the UGA Library (Media Dept.) back in 06-07....real nice guy.

come to think of it, I also used to work with Pylon's bassist Michael Lachowski......

Iv'e always been a big Love Tractor fan. At their best, they sound like Vini Reilly jamming with the Ventures beside a North Carolina campfire.

At their best, they sound like Vini Reilly jamming with the Ventures beside a North Carolina campfire.

very well put -- i saw athens, ga: inside out last night and kept thinking of durutti column w/r/t the love tractor stuff.

The best cover ever is Wake Ooloo soaring through Love Tractor's "Fun to be happy." The original plods, and thinly at that. The cover you could listen to forever. (The Feelies covered it live from time to time, too.)

the feelies/wake ooloo are spiritual cousins, definitely.

The original line-up is doing a show in Athens next month

Jamming Themes from Venus this morning. In the minority here, but I actually prefer the albums with vocals. Love Themes is probably my favorite thing of theirs by quite a ways, though I never did find the second album or venture into any of the reunion records from the 2000s. The title track from Themes from Venus is quite possibly one of the greatest THC-influenced listening sessions I can remember from years ago. Even without the audio enhancement, it's still a monster.