C or D : Yo La Tengo

oh, and classic, by the way.

I like "And nothing turned itself inside out" the best.

Not precisely.

We saw them when they played the RFH a couple of years back with Neil Innes and Robyn Hitchcock added to the line-up. Magic.

sxxx

good article:
http://www.prosoundweb.com/recording/tapeop/roger/roger.php

Yes. And Then Nothing... comes in a digipak which looks pretty bad after a couple years of wear and tear. That's a pretty big flaw.

FOR GOD'S SAKE, THEY NAMED A SONG AFTER A TROY MCCLURE TV SPECIAL! CLASSIC X 1000!

Anyway, I was listening to this song today and looked up the lyrics. I never heard Paul Le Mat or KAte Moss when listening casually.

Everyday (Yo La Tengo)

I want summer's sad songs behind me.
I want a laugh a minute, without fail
Want to be Paul Le Mat in 1980
Looking to forget tomorrow, looking everyday.

I want to see you put your hands together.
I want to cross my heart
I want to hope to die
I hear Kate Moss talk, she talks to me
She's looking for a new beginning everyday.

When Monday comes I want nothing
Come Tuesday morning I want the same
The days and nights fly by
Looking to embrace the nothing, of the everyday

"And then Nothing..." and "I Can Hear the Heart..." were both in the NME's top 20 albums of the year. Hardly a diss. I have those two recs, plus Electropura, which is good, sloppy fuzz-pop. "And then Nothing.." is gloopy, washy, forgettable ambience. "I Can Hear the heart..." is simply one of the best records of the 90's. Lovely, sweet, touching melodies everywhere. Frequently slathered in beautiful noise. Who could want for more?

However I really like The Sounds Of The Sounds Of Science - one of my fave releases of the year.

but what i really want to say is that their cover of neil young's "barstool blues" has been kicking my ass around for about almost 2 weeks now.

1990, "Here Comes My Baby" PROMO-ONLY CDEP (Bar None Records)
Here Comes My Baby (from Fakebook)
The Story of Jazz (live)
Barstool Blues (live)
Let's Compromise (live, w/Chris Nelson singing)
At The River's Edge (live)
Ecstasy Blues (live)
Speeding Motorcycle (w/Daniel Johnston singing via telephone)

The live songs were recorded at our first-ever Berlin date on a not-especially-pleasant European tour. Chris Nelson, formerly of Information ("Let's Compromise" was one of their songs), later of Mofungo and The Scene Is Now, accompanied us. His occasional lead vocals provided us with many of the tour's memorable moments, particularly a frenzied performance of "1969" at our first-ever Madrid data. It was a free show and therefore packed a fairly large rock club (named The Rock Club), through it turned out there was still sufficient space for the crowd to get out of Chris' wasy when he decided to stage diver from the too-high-to-land-back-first stage. He limped for the rest of the tour, which didn't keep him from playing a stellar short solo set in Nijmegen, where we heard him debut "Gone For A Long Time" if memory serves.
--Ira Kaplan

(if so plz lemme know asap thx)

I love this band. They make me smile. THERE IS SO MUCH LOVE.

Painful has been my favourite of late, esp. Sudden Organ.

i like quite a bit of painful, too, but it seems to me that the more and more they've gone into sonic fuckery, the less and less attention they've paid to the songs. i liked them best when they had that balance.

(And why don't HTML tags work for me fcc - how you doin' 'em?)

"Painful" is wonderful, it's an album that I can hear two or three times in a day without getting tired of it. "Nowhere Near" was in the top 10 on my ballot for the 90's poll.

As others have mentioned, YLT really should keep their albums under 50 minutes or so, although when they go totally bonkers with their eclecticism ("I Can Hear the Heart ...") they can be excused for stretching things out another ten minutes.

However, I sure wish they'd take the mic away from Ira. God, I hate his voice. Sometimes, I don't think he's even trying.

Also the Today is the Day , EP version, is pretty fantastic ..

Electropura is my favorite. All the "rockists" HATED Summer Sun when it came out.

Great taste in covers too. And they named themselves after a Richie Ashburn tall tale, how Classic can you get?

They were pretty awful live.

Some of their songs are good, but I can never really make up my mind about them.

-- Ned Raggett (ne...), November 17th, 2004.

WOW! i'm breaking out in hives of envy right now.

Loving YLT is like loving your disfunctional relationship with your friend/partner/parents/children. Flawed but cherished.

Uh, no it wasn't! Sorry, I really didn't like YLT and they've barely registered with me since, and I absolutely hate Buffalo Tom. This was a bill of suffering through the openers to get to the headliner.

nice summer sun write up alex.

classic or dud album title? (will be out soon).

Their summer concert in NYC last summer was fun.

Does Louis Jagger like Yo La Tengo?

who cares? great band.

Painful, still in my top 10 albums of the '90s. gorgeous, unforgettable album.

OTM! Yes! Painful is all killer, no filler. I mean, "Nowhere Near," "Big Day Coming," and just when you think they couldn't possibly top themselves, they go and throw "I Heard You Looking" at you. Though it is equally as great, I never understood why ICHTHBAO was the indie-rock du jour of the time, while Painful slid by relatively unnoticed.

Does anyone remember their "guitar tech" touring buddy (small skinny dude with bug-eyes and toussled hair - appeared to be perpetually in the throws of a meth binge) who was constantly by their side, running around and either tuning and prepping equipment or holding down organ "drone" keys for them during tours for Painful and Electro-pura?

the last show of theirs i saw (Sept 07), YLT opened with a nearly 30-min. version of "I Heard You Looking" :)

Damn.. that must've been nice. I'm a sucker for epic psychedelic guitar-noize freakouts, especially when performed live and especially ones with a melody/leitmotif as gorgeous as IHYL. I stopped going to their shows sometime around 2000 b/c I thought their records were starting to get a bit blase. Maybe I should start going again..

oh the live shows are still GREAT.

Does anyone remember their "guitar tech" touring buddy (small skinny dude with bug-eyes and toussled hair - appeared to be perpetually in the throws of a meth binge) who was constantly by their side, running around and either tuning and prepping equipment or holding down organ "drone" keys for them during tours for Painful and Electro-pura?

FUCK yes. When I saw them in 1994 I was constantly amazed at what he was doing/how he was doing it/how everything worked so seamlessly. High point of the show: "Out The Window" breakdown --> chaotic loops/drones --> "Sudden Organ." Killed.

Despite putting on three of the most incredible live shows I'd seen, I couldn't bear to see them on the tour following the fiasco that was Summer Sun. A friend of mine (and huge YLT fan) did, and was literally bored to tears.

The "Freewheeling Yo La Tengo" show I went to was pretty boring too. Too much VH1 Storytellers and jibber-jabber, not enough music, and the somewhat acoustic setting makes it hard to hide the fact that none of the three of them have strong singing voices.

(But their two Saturday shows at the GAMH, March 2000, were near the best live shows I've ever seen.)

xpost: The tech guy is Joe Puleo, who's still with the band, and who wrote some of the liner notes to Prisoners of Love. I used to buy copies of their zine, the Yo La Tengo Gazette, every time they toured. In one issue there was a backstage at Lollapalooza picture with the perfect caption, something like: "They said it couldn't happen ... Puleo meets Coolio!"

Ha! I wiki'd "Joe Puleo" to find out more & this is what I got: "Joe Puleo was an Olympic weightlifter for the United States." Somehow, I think we might be talking about a different Joe. Either that, or dude is packing some serious punch in those sinewy limbs. Must be from hauling all that equipment around over the years.

i have to say, i caught snippits of the new(whenever it was) album the other day and it sounded great. i felt strange enjoying it the way i did.

I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass is a long, motley variety show of an album, but is about 75% excellent, and certainly worth your time/money if you like their 90's output.

none of the three of them have strong singing voices

I disagree, but anyway isn't that part of the point, that they figured out how to make soft-spoken, closely miked singing work well with all manner of "strong" music? I liked the Freewheeling Yo La Tengo show I saw in Boston last year just fine myself (killer version of "Be Thankful For What You've Got" still getting play in my mind) but I'm a head over heels fan, they've been formative of huge swaths of my musical sensibility, so maybe it's best to seek counsel from a more neutral party.

i'll say classic, but i'm happy only listening to 'painful' and 'i can hear the heart...' and shelving the others. though the last one was pretty interesting and kept me listening for a good few months. had an awesome opening track

classic, for sure.
dad a: there's a really great bootleg of that boston show floating around. it was on bradley's almanac for a while but has since disappeared, but i'm sure you can find it on some fileshare thing. the cover of snapper's gentle hour and james mcnew's baby jokes and use of words like bingo bango make it totally worthwhile investigating.

I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Ask Our Guitar Tech Joe Puleo, Who Was an Olympic Weightlifter for the United States, to Kick Your Ass

There's like 25 threads about this band and it's still not enough.

I wanted a Yo La Tengo video to post on Facebook the other day and found this (one of my favourite songs by them):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l6EjHxfzC4

A lot of people take great songs and put up junk on YouTube, but now and again I'm amazed at how good some of the homemade stuff is.

That's nice. Years ago there was a homemade youtube for Durutti Column's "Sketch for Summer" that was perfect: shot through the windshield of an old Merc driving down some roads in the setting sun.

Derp.

you know, when they played state college on their '04 rock the vote tour, the hardest political line ira kaplan drew was that dick cheney or rumsfield or somebody was mean for not respecting the other side.

That's Andy Schafly-level derp. (xpost)

I heard a brief promo for the Pitchfork Fest on NPR the other morning - Pitchfork is a sponsor - and as the voice was listing acts on the bill, when she got to Yo La Tengo, as per NPR's wont, she totally went into dramatically proper Spanish inflection, which I found jarring and hilarious in equal measure.

"With Bjork, Belle & Sebasian, JO LA TENGO and more!"

Clickhole knows.

http://www.clickhole.com/blogpost/i-regret-waiting-until-marriage-have-sex-all-3-mem-1258

just checked and the onion's yo la tengo roof collapse article is over twelve years old. christ.

They had a couple of things up on their Bandcamp but the floodgates just opened with a lot of their back catalog:

https://yolatengo.bandcamp.com/

8 Days of Chanukah shows in NY sold out quick

Annnnnd new album

https://yolatengo.bandcamp.com/album/this-stupid-world

new song rules

sounds grrrrrreat

this song is fantastic! so stoked for this. also, as a fan of longer YLT jams, some of those song lengths on the back of the CD get me excited.

Tour dates announced as well, two nights at the Fillmore out here -- which is where I saw them last time, though then they were backing Robyn Hitchcock on Black Snake Diamond Role (hell of a version of "Acid Bird" that night).

oh man that sounds incredible

Worth seeking out, I assume there's a recording somewhere!

Good tune! Promising.

ooh this is classic ylt, how long has it been since they've sounded like that?

Riot was my fav YLT album in 15+ years but I am also ready for them to get loud again, bring it on

Aaaah, that hits the spot.

Tix on sale today. Glad to be seeing them again finally.

And another new song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J9fV29AuOQ

It's great, of course.

new album is very good

Lately I've been listening to We Have Amnesia Sometimes and I like it a lot more than I expected. It feels like hanging out in their practice space while they zone out. Very satisfying.

They Shoot, We Score has been in regular rotation in the minivan as I drive around Savannah. It has some nice variations of Green Arrow.

Yeah both are great! Zoned out experiments are great indeed.

it's not like they ever really fell off that much but the new one is maybe their best since and then nothing turned itself inside out?

If there's an unfair criticism of the band to be made, it's that they have been firmly in the "best album since ..." cycle for what feels like several albums now.

it's true though!

idk i wouldn't really say that about any of the others from the past decade? we have amnesia sometimes was all drones, quite the stylistic diversion. there's a riot going on was just 'yet another decent ylt album' with a focus on ambience. stuff like that there was a very inessential covers album. fade was pretty solid and comes the closest to that but only really represented a step above popular songs (which is one of their weaker albums).

this one's also stylistically the closest to their 90s peak since then

xpost And yet, while I enjoy each of their new albums, I really never go back to them. Again, it's unfair, and not the band's fault for being consistent, just not often anything that really jumps out at me. Certainly nothing as much as " ... And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out" did. For example, I'm listening to "There's a Riot Going On," prompted by this thread, and it's lovely. But if someone told me this *was* the new album, I would have totally believed them.

this one's also stylistically the closest to their 90s peak since then

Then I'm psyched!

Fade rules, I Am Not Afraid Of You rules, There's a Riot rules, wtf u jaded cynics

"this band keeps being good, it's so boring"

tbh Stuff Like That There is top 5 for me...a superfan :D

i am not afraid of you is quite good! but after a few listens i think i like the new one more

"this band keeps being good, it's so boring"

lol it's not that any of it is bad or sub par or even boring, it's just that there never seems to be anything drawing me back. Maybe that's really a "me" problem...

I felt pretty much the same way; thought for a few years I’d had my fill of Yo La Tengo albums, but these 2 new songs have piqued my interest again — they’re pretty much exactly what I want from them.

Summer Sun is extremely underrated

Which sort of underscores my point, as I honestly haven't listened to it since it came out; at the time, following "And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out," it felt something like a disappointment. So is it underrated? Maybe! At this stage I'd call half their catalog underrated (to me, at least), because scanning the album titles there's not a single one I recall disliking, but also not a single one that pops out as something I specifically return to. It's like the last half dozen albums have been one really long compilation.

I've been having my own moment with them as a listener these past few months. I loved them in the late '90s as a teen and have always given what they release a listen but hadn't really spent real time with their records for a while...then I grabbed some cheap copies of Stuff Like That There and I Am Not Afraid Of You... and now I'm all the way back in. SLTT is a good example of something I thought I wouldn't need (probably dismissed it unfairly when it came out as "just" quiet covers or something)--it's actually wonderful. And gentle, sure, but still demonstrating their range and taste to superb effect. Sleepless Nights is similar and achieves that weird feeling of like...this is minor work from them in the long run but I still am stunned it's so successful.

I'm someone who thinks Fade is a top 5 album of theirs so I don't feel like their best days are long behind them. (I know that album is now a decade old-wow.) But I'm really excited for this new one.

I wish I saved a screenshot of this, but around 2006, there was this bootleg forum I frequented where people traded CD-R's of various shows, and one day, this post comes up where a user calls out another user for sending him a threat with a package of bootlegs he sent him. It's a long, angry post, but also a little vague on the details, and the user it's addressed to actually responds with some bewilderment. Turns out, what sparked the angry post was something like a ribbon or poster promoting Yo La Tengo's upcoming album, but it's designed to look like someone scrawled on a piece of paper "I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass." The other guy had included it as a surprise gift.

It was a hilarious misunderstanding, and searching for it now, I found the item in question.

amazing

haha that's classic

I love that record title so much because YLT has to be a contender for the least threatening band in all of indie rock's history.

Agree. And yet, you put that record on without any context and it drops right into the intensity of Pass the Hatchet, it totally feels like it fits the title

Good point, it was around that album when I last saw them live, killer shows (god, it's been so long! glad I'll see them in March).

I think it’s actually quite a feat that YLT have remained so consistently good without ever turning that quality into a knock against them. Yes some albums are better than others but personally, aside from the ones that caught me at just the right personal moments of my life, I don’t even have any desire to rank them. Just let ‘em play and may keep playing for a long long time

Yeah, to be honest that is a different but good way of looking at it. I have a couple of favorite records that also happen to be a couple of my favorite records, period. Do I think any of the many others hold up to those? No, not really. But from the band's formative works to their most recent stuff, I know I can always just throw on any random yo la tango album and enjoy it.

I've sat down multiple times over the past few years to try to rank the YLT albums and it's damn near impossible for me, the level of consistent quality is so great that I end up just frustrated by not being able to rank like nine of them in my top 5.

Grade 4/5 class working on some art as we listen to Fade. The best.

Fade is such a great album, particularly with the second disc on the deluxe version.

I really need to catch up on the last few albums since Fade.

I think they're overrated. Its like they're always playing that safe 60' pop melodies through an alt ock filter. Its like pavement post s&e.

"I want to see you put your hands together.
I want to cross my heart
I want to hope to die
I hear Kate Moss talk, she talks to me
She's looking for a new beginning everyday."

Embarrasing lyrics

You can boil down literally any band to an unfair oversimplification, and then fans will counter with tons of examples that don't adhere to it. What do we accomplish in the end?

I think they're overrated. Its like they're always playing that safe 60' pop melodies through an alt ock filter. Its like pavement post s&e.

Even if one were to grant this as absolutely true, this would only be one of the many threads they wind through their albums. They have a lot more going on than that.

I don't understand what "safe" has to do with a melody.

xps In this case even the song cited as having embarrassing lyrics is a counterexample to the reason given for thinking they're overrated!

Just because I've been listening to a lot of I Am Not Afraid of You..., don't hear any "safe 60' pop melodies" on, say, "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind".

I'd suggest to accept "no lo tengo" and move on

I don't understand what "safe" has to do with a melody.

― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, January 26, 2023 9:48 AM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Melodies should only be composed by cats running across pianos all other melodies are safe spaces for snowflakes

I've heard both of those things on WFMU in one day

In the same song, I'm willing to bet.

On paper an Ira Kaplan guitar solo may appear composed by frightened piano cats, and if the rest of the song is a safe 60s pop melody then we're checking all the boxes. No wonder they're WFMU's darlings

In other news, I just saw this yesterday, really lovely, apologies if posted already

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcxiSRg41-M

I miss them being a neighbor in town. I currently live on the same street they were on for all those years.

Lovely 1959 melody there

I hadn't noticed valued poster CerebralCaustic's other great contributions today or else I wouldn't have bothered to feed the troll.

cerebral and caustic!

anyhooooo — good podcast w/ McNew over here! https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2023/01/25/transmissions-james-mcnew-yo-la-tengo-dump/

Who was Goodkind again? All this time I thought they were band but Google doesn't turn up anything definitive?

I assumed it was for fantasy writer Terry Goodkind, but I'm not sure.

Presumably also a nod to the Black Randy album title "Pass the dust, I think I'm Bowie."

or perhaps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgy4A7O6rQE

^^ yeah that was my take on it

YLT are kind of like GBV now where you probably can't doubt the quality of their output, it's going to sound very much like you expect it to, there are a lot of albums, they are all good, and you can be forgiven for getting slightly bored with them.

I saw YLT for the first time in 25 years a few months back and they were so great, still. But now I feel like I could go another 5 years before seeing them again.

I remembered Tom Goodkind's name popping up in New York Rocker back in the day. I still don't understand the song title.

Tom Goodkind, a longtime fixture on the New York City music scene, best known as the co-founder of The Washington Squares folk revival group, died Feb. 28, 2019, in the city after a long battle with a chronic degenerative illness. He was 65.

In recent years, Goodkind served as the conductor of the Lower Manhattan-based all-volunteer group TriBattery Pops, described as something of a contemporary spin on the traditional marching band. Earlier in his career Goodkind was instrumental in creating and/or managing such popular New York music venues as Irving Plaza, the Peppermint Lounge and Roseland.

Yeah that New York Rocker connection certainly makes more sense than my Terry Goodkind reading.

I realized I haven't seen them since Pitchfork 2006, so I'm really excited to see them again in March.

idk ylt definitely have more stylistic variety than gbv

i'm buying that? no la tengo

Love the idea of a seven plus minute album opener from these guys, but since my preorder shipped I’m gonna save it for the first spin.

i'm buying that? no la tengo

― CerebralCaustic, Thursday, January 26, 2023 4:17 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

They’ll have the last laugh in 2-5 years, when they title an LP that

It’s like the YLT version of “Schmilco”

I started to listen to the new song but when I realized the new album is coming out Friday I stopped, so I could just take the whole thing in at once. I liked what I heard though!

Well I listened to the whole track and NO SPOILERS or anything but it's good. This album might be exactly what I'm in the mood for this year.

I’ve heard the promo of the full thing, it’s the most Classic YLT album in forever

Well I listened to the whole track and NO SPOILERS or anything but it's good.

Lol I can’t wait to hear how the song ends

I’ve heard the promo of the full thing, it’s the most Classic YLT album in forever

best YLT album since Fade (which is somehow already a decade old) and the most YLT album since I Am Not Afraid of You, at least. it's a good one.

I don't think YLT have released anything less than a very good record since James joined, at least, but hearing those two particular records cited really makes me excited for this one.

Can't wait to listen to this.

starting to think crazy things like 'the new album is better than i can hear the heart beating as one'

I can hear that heart beating as one a weird album as the years go by. A fantastic collection of songs, but it doesn't have that cohesive "great album" feel that "and then nothingess" or "electr-o-pura" has. Maybe sum this up to me inadvertently listening to it 10-times through in alphabetical order rather than its canonical track listing (when I first learnt not to pirate music). Some amazing highs in "the heart beating" (maybe the best high's they ever hit? re: we're an american band), but a few slogs in the middle section which are instant-skips.

Loving this new one so far.

Also co-sign stuff like that there being one of their best. The originals on that album are some of the best they've ever done and the covers replace the normal "yeah it's good but not great" tracks with some very fun blasts from the past.

yeah i can hear the heart has a lot of their very best material but the sprawl doesn't really work in its favour, so that's the caveat

is "Brain Capers" a Mott cover?

this is excellent! i thought 'there's a riot going on' was pretty boring so i'm glad this is hitting me the right way

I’ve never liked YLT but I figured I’d give the new one a fair shot given the hype…the verse of Sinatra Drive Breakdown sounds like another song and it’s been driving me nuts…I got a brief flash of Vitalogy in my head just now and I think it’s the verse of Not For You

the first track is more explicitly VU-indebted than I've heard from'em in years: the unchanging beat, the feedback peel at 4:35, they remind me of "Sister Ray."

I had "Sinatra Drive Breakdown" on in the car yesterday, and my son — unfamiliar with YLT — said offhandedly, "Sounds like they listen to a lot of krautrock." Proud parenting moment.

aw

Your son OTM

It's going to be hard to patient for this one with all the glowing reviews. Turns out my shipping notice was just the label being printed and it hasn't been shipped yet. :/

Seeing them in a week and a half, and it will be the first time ever I'm actually seeing them headline on their own (the show with Robyn Hitchcock pre-pandemic doing Black Snake Diamond Role was top notch but again, a Robyn H show). But keep in mind the last time before that was them opening for MBV...in 1992. (The subsequent music crit uber-worship of them over here for the rest of that decade often had a sense of 'we have an AMERICAN band doing REAL underground music the right way unlike all those shoegaze trendoids here or there' as I sensed it and it honestly put me off the band even casually until the mid-late 2000s, so while I may have some baggage, weirdly it actually means I'm coming in fairly fresh.)

Hard for me to say this is better than any particular album… nor could I say it’s worse. There’s nothing shockingly different—it’s YLT! But the quality level is, as usual, high. (It’s YLT!)

Lol

I feel you

I've only seen them once, on the And Then Nothing ... tour, and thought they were great. After hearing the pre-release tracks from this, I checked the tour schedule and grabbed a ticket to see them next month in Asheville, should be fun.

And Ned, thanks for sharing that early media perspective on YLT, which I (for one) hadn’t been aware of.

That's my impression too. There's a Riot Going On was no drop-off either.

xxxpost

I saw them in D.C. in the late spring of ‘97, and that remains one of the best shows I’ve seen by anyone.

Haven’t seen them since, need to rectify that this year.

I get the critique that Riot was boring but I really enjoyed it. I liked seeing them indulge one facet of their sound for a full album’s length.

This is a good record but I prefer their recent boring albums

oh cool -- consensus!

I know this is a lame/pointless critique, but the cover art of this new one, Painful, and And Then Nothing kind of overwork the same aesthetic. (I do like how it sounds!)

7-and-23-year gaps, respecitvely.

I saw them in D.C. in the late spring of ‘97, and that remains one of the best shows I’ve seen by anyone.

same

Ok listened to the whole album (had to listen to the new Paramore first) and I like it a lot. Its looseness is v appealing.

Fade has a very special place in my heart as far as the new ones go but this is right up there. Nice blend of krautrock inspired tracks, shoegaze-y stuff and genuinely beautiful moments. I love it.

mookieproof, we were at the same show?!?

assuming this was the 9:30 club, yes! i was leaning against the sound booth at the back, which made nice vibrations. iirc 'deeper into movies' was a particular highlight

Nice!

I’m sure it was the 930, where I saw a lot of shows in those days since bands didn’t make it to Baltimore.

I’d just gotten a new car stereo a few days before, and someone stole it during the show, but the show was so good that I wasn’t as angry or scared as I should’ve been.

Incredible live band. Saw them on their Fade tour, and even though the material from that album is not my favourite, their gig still stands out as one of my favourite ever. Was most impressed that these 50/60yo's were rocking harder than any of the 20yo bands I was guzzling up week by week at other shows. Consummate professionals

feels incredibly rude to say it, but -- i could generally, for 35 years, do without the slow songs sung by ira

nah I feel ya

Georgia doing "Ruler Of My Heart" otoh, that slayed me when I (finally) saw them on that tour where they spun the wheel for the first set (I forget which great album that tour was for)

The second half of "Brain Capers" is my favorite thing on the album.

I was reading the lyrics for "Brain Capers" and got curious what the line about Rick Moranis was referring to. Apparently it's this SCTV sketch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JLbhEUE_5U

(For anyone keeping track, that's [at least] the second Rick Moranis reference in the YLT catalog, if you count namechecking Big Bully in "We're an American Band")

I don't think I was at the Yo La Tengo show at 930 in 1997, but I remember seeing Yo La Tengo doing a bunch of old punk covers at an in-store at Vinyl Ink Records in Silver Spring (store was open from 1986 to 1999). I forget the exact year.

I like it when they shake things up a bit live, like when they play as the Condo Fucks or, a highpoint, when iirc Mac from Superchunk, David Kilgour and Susie Ibarra played with them for the "And then Nothing ..." show I saw in 2000. A personal highlight was Eleventh Dream Day with Ira as second guitarist at Lounge Ax around 1994. Maybe it's just been projection, since the albums haven't clicked with me, but a couple of shows I've seen in the past 20 (!) years seemed less interesting, or at least the band seemed less interested. I was hoping to see them here next month, but it's sold out, and secondary market has priced tickets at $100+ (lol).

finally getting some repeat listens of the new one, and I'm really enjoying it. i can see why it's being compared a bit to their late nineties stuff - the ones which most closely approximate that era are stacked up front in the track order, and at times it seems like they're almost returning to certain melodies from ICHTHBAO and ATNTIIO (these acronyms kick ass to type!). but the album doesn't come off like a nostalgia trip at all. and i'm not sure i've heard them in the mode of "miles away" before, with the heavy synth action reminiscent of some of Adore, which is not a late nineties guitar band comparison i usually think about with yo la tengo!

they carried over there's a riot going on's focus on texture and ambience into a mostly louder and more energetic context

What’s up with that moment at 6:50 of “Sinatra Drive Breakdown” where McNew plays a different bass progression exactly once? Sounds like it's about to finally start a new section and then it just… doesn't. Gets me every time

with the heavy synth action reminiscent of some of Adore, which is not a late nineties guitar band comparison i usually think about with yo la tengo!

Weirdly enough, I keep hearing the the verse melody from "Rocket" in "This Stupid World"

Like JiC I missed my chance to get tickets to see them this time around and I'm bummed. Saw them for the first time in many years on the Riot tour and they were really good.

Wow, can't believe three figure tickets for theses guys! Really happy I didn't sleep on grabbing my ticket.

It felt really good to be able to buy the CD at a local store this past weekend.

Brooklyn Steel still has plenty - $53.70 after fees and some new feature will you pay $15 more to get in earlier if you want a prime spot.

Ha, it was kind of painful to be at a shop this weekend and NOT buy it, since I'm still waiting for my copy. Danger of pre-ordering directly through Bandcamp, means you usually have to wait a little longer.

Been resisting listening to this all week because I'm a stubborn contrarian dumbass and I wanted to wait until the hype died down a bit, but I gave in today, and this record is really good. I'm actually less enthusiastic about the jam-ier ons on this one, but the run of songs between "Fallout" and "Apology Letter" contains maybe some of my favorite YLT music in years. "Miles Away" is a beaut, too

Every time I put it on my family comes in during a noisy stretch and makes me turn it off, so I haven't really heard it yet.

Also, anyone notice how the "Until It Happens" chorus melody bears a striking similarity to "Teenage Riot?" (not a complaint)

It’s wild to me that they haven’t released a live record.

I was very pleased that the track "Brain Capers" contains a reference to this sketch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JLbhEUE_5U

(Rick Moranis as Michael McDonald on SCTV)

Fuck me sideways, This Stupid World is a great listen.

In particular, "Miles Away" has the rare quality of sounding softer and gentler the louder I turn it up. The warm, enveloping, shoegazy chord progression and wordless chorus have such a timeless feeling. Don't get me wrong, the skronky tracks are great, but "Miles Away" is my runaway favorite on the album.

yeah I love it

(the whole thing, to be clear, particularly the assured motorik of the opening track)

Saw them last night, they were so good. Like, best-American-rock-band good, the quiet songs were pindrop beautiful, the noisy songs were SO LOUD, the way they all switched off on vocals, keys and percussion. And Ira's guitar playing at some mythical meeting place of Verlaine and Garcia, with a little McGuinn thrown in. (Best American rock guitarist?) Loved every bit of it.

I was recently hanging with some people and a dude was going on about the Foo Fighters being the Last Great American Rock Band. His wife knows I'm a music nerd and asked me who I thought that would be and I immediately answered Yo La Tengo. "Who?" I tried to sell them on it but I doubt they checked it out later.

One thing I love about seeing them live is really getting how crucial James McNew is. A fantastic bass player who's also a fantastic singer, he adds a lot of layers.

Also I feel like they might be at their peak RIGHT NOW, I don't think they've ever been better.

xp
And he knows how to tape a key down on his keyboard to get a drone going. ;)

I've read so many great reviews of this tour, cannot wait for my chance to catch it.

really hope there will be West Coast dates after Europe

Didn't they just play a bunch of West Coast dates? Thought they kicked the tour off in Seattle and worked their way down to LA.

oh damn, you're right, they took them off the calendar, I lose

I have my fingers crossed for at least one Colorado tour date.

coming up on eight (!) years since their last show in Boulder ...

It's kind of a weird tour, two nights each in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Carrboro and Nashville, three nights in LA but only one night each in Chicago, New York, Philly and DC.

Bigger venues?

they're gonna tour more this year for sure--can't wait to see them

xpost - Not really? I mean they played two nights in Neptune Theater which seats 1,000 but only one night at the Metro here in Chicago that seats 1,100. Didn't compare all the others though.

Gonna see them this week, psyched! One bonus of James growing up in Charlottesville, VA, is that they actually come here to play. We are very lucky.

Show I was at (in Asheville) was sold out and PACKED, looks like they've been selling out pretty much everywhere on this tour. Which is awesome but maybe they actually need to be at bigger places, I don't know.

i've never seen them but they're skipping michigan so alas

this is only the first leg--they will likely announce more dates for the summer/fall in the US soon I'd bet.

did the last tour sell out so much like this? anyone remember?

I don't know the answer to that, but I was somewhat (and happily) surprised by the age range of the show I saw. I expected a lot of Gen Xers like me, and we were certainly a good chunk of the audience, but a lot of 20-30-somethings too. I don't even know where people hear Yo La Tengo these days, but the crowd seemed well versed in the material.

really hope there will be West Coast dates after Europe

― obsidian crocogolem (sleeve), Monday, March 13, 2023 10:32 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

And East Coast dates for additional markets

I think the last couple of shows they played in Chicago were sold out. The one next week is so sold out I didn't even see any secondary market tickets available, though I lucked into a pair. Psyched, it's been possibly 10 years since I last saw them.

I don't know the answer to that, but I was somewhat (and happily) surprised by the age range of the show I saw. I expected a lot of Gen Xers like me, and we were certainly a good chunk of the audience, but a lot of 20-30-somethings too. I don't even know where people hear Yo La Tengo these days, but the crowd seemed well versed in the material.

When I saw their free show in Central Park in 2017, that was pretty much the age group around me - not far from college age, if at all.

FWIW, I was in the very front and the highlight was when Ira climbed over the barrier, seemingly towards me. When he jumped down the stage holding his guitar, I got a little concerned - irrationally but given the determination and speed with which he was moving, it just instinctively felt like he was going to come after me or something. Instead, he thrust his guitar into the hands of the guy next to me and told him to play. He stepped away for a bit, and then after about 10 or 15 seconds, he motioned to the guy to pass the guitar to me, i.e. we all get a turn going down the line. It was awesome, and with my guitar experience limited to a classical guitar class I took in school, I was mightily impressed by how much that guitar weighed and how poorly I would do to just hold it for a few hours.

My story is back in 1993 or so they played at my college for a handful of people, and a friend insisted I get my picture taken with Ira:

https://i.imgur.com/GsEuN9L.jpg

He wrote a note on the back of a promo "Painful" sticker:

https://i.imgur.com/PPtoifK.jpg

That's awesome.

Ahh, that's so cool!

Was waiting for a band/musician to do this, and apparently based on a picture posted on Instagram earlier Yo La Tengo were one of them. Seems like Ira and James played in drag last night (or some version of it) to make a point. Good on them.

Yep, this is what I saw:

yo la tengo protesting anti-drag laws tonight in tennessee, courtesy @JohnQBoxler. pic.twitter.com/kB6IvqUeZX

— jesse jarnow (parody, i think?) (@bourgwick) March 14, 2023

xpost that's so awesome josh

Aw I'm kinda sad I didn't see them in drag. What I get for seeing them in slightly-less-batshit NC. But good for them.

Been 9 years since Australia, fingers crossed they get back around here sometime

Saw em in DC Sunday night. As an encore they did Adam & the Ants “Ant Music.” On Twitter I read that they had done that same song 25 years at the 930 Club in DC . James was on vocals and Ira was second drummer with Georgia

They did that here in ... 2000? When Lambchop opened, and came out later to help with "Antmusic." Iirc not only was Susie Ibarra there to help with the new stuff, but the ranks of Yo La were fleshed out with Mac from Superchunk and David Kilgour!

https://www.setlist.fm/stats/songs/yo-la-tengo-7bd6ae90.html?songid=73dade9d

Per guy on Twitter they have played Antmusic 29 times

Show is tonight, nice to learn it's one of those An Evening With ... performances, with an acoustic set and an electric set. Also means it won't go that late, because they're old!

They sure don't act old on stage. I just saw them last weekend and Ira was bunnyhopping all over stage during one song.

The two sets when I saw them weren't so neatly divided — the second set was noisier, but both had loud and quiet parts.

so far so good! with a friend who has never heard them, he seemed to dig set one.

Songs:
Fallout
Aselestine
Big Day Coming
This Stupid World

I haven't watched it yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV4R0T64RF0

lol they just brought out Wilco as guests. the whole band.

Even before that encore it was one of my favorites YLT shows I’ve seen, they are at a peak now. Just every sing was great.

And yeah, I’ll take a Wiltengo album now.

lol, fat fingers and autocorrect strikes again

killer show, go see them if you can.

What was the third Wiltengo cover? Beatles, Dylan, something I didn't know, and then ... Sandy Denny?

Johnny Thunders’ “One Track Mind” was the last with Wilco and before the Fairport convention song.

Thanks!

I loved taking a friend who didn't know nothing from nothing. He asked me which one was Tweedy, and then later, when he looked up Wilco, learned some of them used to be in Uncle Tupelo, who he and some of his friends used to listen to in college in Texas. He loved the physicality of Ira's playing, how Ira treated the guitar as a physical object to be manipulated into getting different results. He also commented on the size of James relative to his bass. He couldn't tell if it had a skinny neck or if James was really that huge compared to the instrument.

He thought the show was great, of course. Because it was. And I owe the collective enthusiasm of ILM for getting me out there, since as I've posted I've been taking them for granted for years, but this one was indeed up there with some of the mid to late '90s shows I saw. It was funny when Ira introduced "Nowhere Near" as "really old" and Georgia emphasized "really, *really* old," because I remember that song when it came out and I'm not ol ... wait a minute!

Speaking of old, they played "Drug Test," which might be the first time I've heard them play anything *really* old.

I saw someone refer to collective assembly as as Yankee Yo La Tengo Foxtrot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dgyWCkNF6A

thanks, that's awesome

what Beastie Boys song did they do?

when i saw them a decade ago they dug up "did i tell you" from new wave hotdogs & fakebook

I didn't have "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac with Alan Sparhawk on lead guitar on my bingo card

they also did like 8 minutes of Time Fades Away with Mark Freeman of NNB maybe the most storied old Minneapolis post punk band

Slack by NNB one of the great Minneapolis rock song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AWTGExPigI

Time Fades Away (Neil Young) feat. Mark Freeman from NNB pic.twitter.com/qlTDFMTQSM

— solace (@kyle_matteson) March 27, 2023

they are not wholly unlike alan lomax/lenny kaye but for . . . other stuff

like, wfmucore

what a great show, I wondered if other ilxors might be there

"I Heard You Looking" was somehow the wildest Ira Kaplan I've ever seen, couldn't always tell what Alan Sparhawk was playing on that but seeing him in that noise was pretty emotional

and many other moments for my personal live music mythology, a YLT guarantee

don't know how I've never encountered the name NNB! thx ums

a record store by me has the Slack 7 inch but it's $100

Dick Champ from NNB moved to NYC and formed The Scene is Now and hung with Sonic Youth

https://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2015/05/12/kim-gordon-girl-in-a-band-giveaway

xpost they are great, hope we cross paths sometime geoffreyeyes feel like we've been in the same room tons of times probably

.@therealylt + Alan from @lowtheband ‘Dreams’ (Fleetwood Mac) pic.twitter.com/JH1j1RyxYh

— solace (@kyle_matteson) March 27, 2023

Low Ya Tengo pic.twitter.com/Ag15H0W3ZH

— solace (@kyle_matteson) March 27, 2023

ah these sound great! seems like alan was mostly just doing the organ drone on "i heard you looking" that they usually get one of the sound guys to do, just with some added chaos when fitting

saw Alan and Zak Sally hanging out too which was nice they seemed very close, I think things were strained for a long time

With all the guests and everything this tour has kind of a valedictory feel, like everybody coming together to celebrate YLT. Deservedly!

Also (and I know it's kind of his deal) when the guests come out it's often the only time Ira smiles and seems to be enjoying himself.

what Beastie Boys song did they do?

Beatles, not Beasties - "She's a Woman".

lol thank u I was very confused

We got I Heard Her Call My Name encore in Milwaukee but no guests. And yes, my mind did indeed split open - twice even!

Like I said, even without the encore, it was probably one of the best YLT shows I've ever seen. They just feel so locked in and Ira was really leaning into the noise, at a few points he was giving me some Thurston Moore vibes with the way he was playing with feedback and hunched over his guitar. The new album sounded incredible in a live context.

Can't miss with this tour: raucous 2nd set closer in DC was "Pass the Hatchet..." with Ira jamming Georgia's drumsticks in his guitar. I especially enjoyed hearing an extended "From a Motel 6," and "Can't Forget" from Fakebook.

setlists are really all over the place

makes sense, 40 years as a band, around 20 albums ...

and on those extended Hanukkah runs they don't repeat any songs (or at least they don't repeat any arrangements, they might do like the slow "Big Day Coming" one night and the fast one on another) — their repertoire is impressively deep. i saw them looking at lyric sheets in the yo la wilco encore, but i think that's a rarity.

Ira seems to be wearing the same striped shirt in every photo or video I've seen, he must have a suitcase full of them.

hahaha my friend and I were joking about that at the show

seems like alan was mostly just doing the organ drone on "i heard you looking"

Drone Not Drones lives on. feel like I can hear it better in that clip than in person -- mostly came through at a few shocking moments, and in the single note candlelight flicker he ended with, very beautiful.

Also (and I know it's kind of his deal) when the guests come out it's often the only time Ira smiles and seems to be enjoying himself.

Now that you mention it, he usually seems really serious or focused on the task at hand whenever I saw him perform.

FWIW, the only time I've ever heard him say anything humorous was at a Hanukkah show (from the first run at the Bowery Ballroom), and given the way it came off, I just got the impression he was generally a shy person. Jeff Tweedy was the guest - he did his set and stayed on stage to play with Yo La Tengo. Eventually Ira pointed out that "when Jeff sang 'New York,' I noticed you all clapped, and then when I sang it on that last number, you didn't do anything, so...just thought I'd point that out..." Then after they performed a few more songs, someone in the audience yelled out "New York!" which got some tepid applause. Tweedy responded with "TOO LATE!" So then someone yelled out "Hoboken!" and almost everyone booed, and Ira just grinned and said "I should've kept my mouth shut."

feel like we've been in the same room tons of times probably

bet I could find plenty of evidence on ILM confirming this!

I can't remember exactly what he said, but Ira actually had a few moments of playful banter with the crowd at the Chicago show.

The first was a jokey acknowledgment that he didn't say "hello" to the crowd until four or five songs in and the other was in response to some overzealous "woo"ing when they announced they were going to play a song not from the new album. He seemed in good spirits all night.

Yeah at the show I saw they did 3-4 songs from the new album and Ira made a low-key joke about "For those keeping score — and I know some of you are — those were all from the new record." Kind of a nod to their obsessive-geek fans, also implicitly acknowledging that he's an obsessive-geek music guy himself. Or that's how I took it.

At the DC show he stopped "Periodically Double or Triple" before doing the 2nd verse and humorously explained he regretted writing that part because it was too brash, and didn't want to contribute to today's thoughtless climate.

8 minutes of Time Fades Away with Mark Freeman of NNB

Holy shit, I haven't seen him on a stage since early 80s. NNB and YLT kindred guitar drone/noise spirits for sure.

oh wow you saw NNB?

Yes, Red House moreso. I'm old.

how was NNB live? I don't know Red House, was that a later project?

Great dance and trance band with clashing guitars, like Television. By the time I saw NNB Cindy was already playing drums, so they were halfway to the Red House lineup. There is/was a live Red House song on youtube but I'm not finding it at the moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnSNEymcd_8

Oh they were still NNB at the time, here it is! I know we've had this convo on another thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUSTH7qMwb4

"Slack" rules so hard, yeah we've talked abt this on other threadz

Well, I just learned the bass line for "25 Reasons" this afternoon, so thanks thread!

and here they are, more North American tour dates!

06-09 Jersey City, New Jersey - White Eagle Hall
06-10 Washington, D.C. - The Atlantis
06-13 Portland, ME - State Theatre
06-14 South Deerfield, MA - Tree House Brewing Company (Outdoors)
06-15 Montreal, Quebec - Corona Theatre
06-16 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Concert Theatre
06-18 Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
06-19 Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
06-21 Homer, NY - Center For the Arts
06-22 Detroit, MI - Majestic Theatre
06-23 Kalamazoo, MI - Bell’s Beer Garden
06-24 Chicago, IL -Metro
06-26 Knoxville, TN - Bijou Theatre
06-27 Birmingham, AL - Saturn
06-28 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse

i've never seen em before, def gonna try to go to that jersey city show

man I really blew it not seeing them in the PNW this time, it was right at the start of the tour and I wasn't paying as much attention

omg, I would love to go to that Tree House Brewing Company show.

yesssssssss i couldn't get tickets to the last chicago show but snagged two for this one

Ha, you know a band understands it's hit the sweet spot when it extends the tour.

I guess I'm going to finally visit Bell's beer garden

Phew, I'm glad I went to the Asheville show because I'm going to be out of town for the Knoxville show.

finally got the vinyl. brain capers ends with a lock groove and there's a secret bonus instrumental track on side 4 (though it's kind of annoying)

great acoustic set last night at a benefit. 2 highlights from James, Sun Ra's Nuclear War and Black Flag's Nervous Breakdown.

I put together this little YLT deep cuts mix ... a good listen, I think!

https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2023/05/22/yo-la-tengo-deeper-into-deep-cuts/

Ira throws out the first pitch at a Mets game!

ole pal @noah_s just texted this in from the first base line pic.twitter.com/0DNv21coiy

— joel berk (@pfcidb) June 1, 2023

pretty good!

pretty good pitch too! Ira must have loved that.

(lol xpost)

Matador has tweeted video of Ira's honorary first pitch too.

I need to dig into Tyler's deep cuts mix soon

I just played it, very worthwhile. But not downloadable (didn't they used to be?).

it's just one big mp3 file but if you right click / save as you should be able to download it.

aw yeah "Nutricia" is one of my very faves

that's a song I could just play on a loop forever I think

xp
OK, I got it, thanks. My PC said "save link as" and I thought that would just copy the link, not the file linked to.

been on a big ylt kick, i'm familiar with the core four (painful -> and then nothing) but little outside of it. and then nothing is one of my favorite records of all time so it's been wonderful to discover that they made a few more slow motion nighttime insomniac records just like it (summer sun and there's a riot going on) and i adore them as well!!!

don't sleep on the new one either, fantastic stuff

i'm gonna listen to it today!!! :)

fade and i am not afraid of you... are both very good too

but this stupid world is a top 3 ylt album

hard agree

Their sea creature documentary soundtrack is great too

yes!

Not bad

https://www.instagram.com/p/C-p5edCOy4d/

controversial for some

https://pitchfork.com/news/yo-la-tengo-want-to-play-a-fundraiser-for-kamala-harris-and-tim-walz/

I just realized that I’m seeing them in Baltimore in a little over a month!

I was listening to Summer Sun last night and I had a little thought experiment about how that album might have been received differently were it released now. The gentle jazz influence is all over the place right now, looking at International Anthem's success for one thing, and having multiple tracks with William Parker playing upright bass... well, I just wonder how big it would be now.

It was always a great album, but I remember some lukewarm reviews at the time. Just another example of YLT being ahead of their time I guess.

i can understand at the time SS getting some mediocre opinions. it's an even more subdued ANTIIO and people, myself included, were hoping for maybe some more variety like painful/electropura/ICHTHBAO. if they'd thrown in some of the Today is the Day EP cuts in there maybe it would've been received differently, but nowadays i wouldn't change a thing because i love SS's vibe.

https://matadorrecords.com/blogs/news/yo-la-tengo-hanukkah-2025?srsltid=AfmBOoolK2VAWmaaay85N5cF1qU2weD7tc1DdZTA5REVqQZOD5HNDdbT

8 nights of Hannukah tickets go on sale Friday morning 10 am ET on link included in Matador post

Those went fast

I came in on ANTIIO so SS just felt like a continuation of that and I loved it. It sort of coincided with the shift from BEER COLLEGE PARTY to chilling with friends and getting drunk on wine and SS was perfect for that.

Very bummed that apparently, at least for the time being, I cannot stream "May I Sing With Me?" Yo La's Alias albums are AWOL from Quobuz and Spotify. Reportedly out of the band's hands.

Huh, well glad I still have my CD copies of that stuff.

As I was thinking this morning about how much I'd love a live album from the recent tour, it struck me that these guys have never released an official live album. Have they ever talked about why they haven't?

May I sing with me is on Apple music

Weird. I wonder why there and nowhere else?

licensing

Re: a live album, I remember my older brother asking Ira (probably 30 years ago, haha) why they hadn't released one and Ira said he didn't like the way the band came across on soundboard recordings or something along those lines. still seems like major hole in their discography though.

The Yo La Tengo Upside Down ep also from 1992 I think on Alias is also unavailable on Spotify, Quobuz, and Tidal, but is on Apple music.

I think those are the two missing titles. Odd that it would be licensed exclusively to Apple, even if only for the time being.

Ideally they would put out live Hanukkah box sets, if they were able.