New Yo La Tengo

I think I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One and And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out are good places to start. Then carry on going backwards if you like, but they'll keep you happy for many a moon.

That said, I listen to Painful most frequently, closely followed by And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out. Both of those really feel like complete albums rather than collections of unconnected songs, and are absolutely gorgeous.

I don't think it's as good as Painful, I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One, Sounds Of The Sounds Of Science, or And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out, but I would say that it's about as good as Electr-O-Pura, Fakebook, or the Genius + Love compilation.

Is Summer Sun out yet and if not when's the date?

I'm probably in the minority here, but the albums from Ride the Tiger thru May I Sing With Me are my favourite albums of theirs, but I do like Electr-o-pura and And Nothing... quite a bit. I Can Hear the Heart... never really made much of an impression on me.

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/ylt452.jpg

Taster track available to download here - http://www.matadorrecords.com/mpeg/yo_la_tengo/yo_la_tengo_periodically_double_or_triple.mp3

As mentioned in the PFM news story, it's quite Booker T.

i like ylt a lot but the ylt play ____ path kinda bums me out a bit, like well observed ersatz funk and authentic punk recreations etc.

Best album cover of the year.

Really, really looking forward to this as well.

was sort of not excited by the new mp3 when it started, but it had totally won me over by the end. awesome organ solo! wish this album was coming out sooner! and yeah, great album cover ...

the new song sounds like a demo bonus track, a little joke maybe.
i also hope the rest of the album is richer in sound

ha I was just coming to post that terrible album cover! anyway, excited nonetheless.

what was that 'this is not the new yo la tengo album' about?

what was that 'this is not the new yo la tengo album' album about?

Have acquired this. Seems very nice on first listen. What can you say about a new Yo la Tengo record in 2009? it sounds like YLT. They're good.

If there's a USP it seems that organ is quite key.

I'm only about 1/4 of the way through it but so far I like it more than anything since "and nothing...", maybe more than that album too.

Excellent. Really looking forward to this - YLT rarely disappoint.

Wow, this IS a pleasant surprise. Agree with you up above, YLT are consistently awesome but this record (so far) is really drawing me in. The band sounds inspired.

good to hear these early raves! i haven't heard it yet, but i am looking forward to it. was just thinking that YLT is the only band whose new records I'll always automatically buy. i love 'em all.

by two's is really nice

This is wayyyyy better than the last one...

yeah I like the first track on the last one and didn't care for the rest at all

yeah? I liked that last one quite a bit -- could've been cut by a song or three, but that's pretty much par for the course with YLT ...

loved the assbeating last one, this one needs a to incubate a bit longer i think, not really grabbing me on first listen. maybe because i'm in a bit of a loud rock mood lately

listening to the new one for the first time now - sounds great, but like I said, I like everything by these guys. So, grain of salt, etc.

More Stars Than There Are In Heaven sounds particularly glorious

love that the last three tunes are the big epics ...

love how proggy the first song is, almost a stereolab pastiche at times

The Story Of Yo La Tango is still one of the best indie rock songs of the decade.

i've totally missed they had a new one out?? and it sounds good, the last one never really grew on me.

well it's not "out" yet ... technically. If you preordered it, Matador has a stream up. you also get an LP of their score to Adventureland. So there's that.

bought the new one a few days ago. haven't had a chance to form a proper opinion on it, but did have a phone interview with ira a couple of weeks ago. i wasn't in prime form and didn't get much valuable information from him. nothing that i hadn't already picked on from what i'd read in any case. he did talk at length about the recording process for this new record though, specifying how as usual he didn't approach it with any kind of set goal in mind.

"Avalon or Someone Very Similar" off of Popular Songs is staggeringly well done for a genre-exercise, which these guys never seem to get bored of. I pretty much fell off after "And Then Nothing.." but the aforementioned song stopped me dead in my tracks the first time I heard it.

didnt know a new one was imminent

espied Ira at a NYC indie-film rep house last night

"She May, She Might", "For You Too", and "Ashes" is up there with my favorite run of YLT songs in this century. "Above the Sound", too - great mood music. such a good band.

The new one sounds to me like the record they were aiming for but didnt quite nail with Summer Sun. Their first front-to-back classic of the 2000s for me (aside from Sounds of Science, which is probably the 21st century YLT album that I spin the most these days tbh.)

yeah i'd love it if they put out more of that soundtrack-y / instrumental stuff in between the "proper" albums.

didnt know a new one was imminent

I think they might be working on one, but we're still talking about their 2018 one.

Thread title otm!

https://thequietus.com/articles/28613-yo-la-tengo-instrumental-album-we-have-amnesia-sometimes-bandcamp

the best of those tracks are the titles. listening to the sounds i ask myself how could this band ever be my fave rock band? they have completely lost it. those tracks are meandering aimlessly around. anybody could make this kind of uninspired rubbish. totally useless and annoying repetitive stuff. zero tunes. ambientish crap. the only track which is okayish is "james gets up and watches mourning bands with abraham". main reason: it is not too long. those drones in the last track what a waste of time. bye bye yo la tengo. i will put on their last decent proper album "summer sun" again tonight i think. after that more or less nada apart from the covers and rehashes which are still fun. they should just call it quits, i think i wrote that already more tahn ten years ago. and i am angry at them & me that they did not retire and that i still give them a a chance. ok then, book closed.

Wow, I've been enjoying these sketches, not sure how to respond to that. I think the main thing is that these are clearly little experiments, quietly released on bandcamp and aren't intended to be taken as "NEW OFFICIAL YO LA TENGO ALBUM" or anything. Even if it were, I think these three have certainly earned the right to chase down these narrower avenues.

there is so much good music out there right now why waste your time with this depressing nothingness? there is jessie ware, there is joan shelley, there is gillian welch, there are the apartments, there are the beths, there is protomartyr etc. and what is weird, they used to make brilliant instrumentals - thinking eg of "detouring america with horns" - and now these rehearsing sessions. maybe they really suffer from amnesia, i don't hope so.

counterpoint: i love this new album!

I haven't heard yesterday's or today's yet, but I thought the first three were really nice.

Sounds pretty good for The End of Yo La Tengo.

It's funny, as these tracks sound a lot like my ambientish band, especially us circa 2001-2003 hah hah. I listen to a lot of stuff like this and enjoy it, but if you had played me these tracks without telling me who it was I would likely never have suggested Yo La Tengo.

That being said, I have zero problem with them doing this. Likely they are doing these simply as exercises for playing music during the pandemic that feels good for them to play. Being "inside the sound" of music that has very little changes and sits in place can be really good for a restless brain. Also, almost every musician I have talked to recently (and I know quite a few) has talked about how difficult it is to be creative/productive right now. Honestly this seems like "where it's at" for a lot of people, so it actually resonates with me kind of heavily from that perspective. I, personally, find it yet another way they are an endearing band.

yeah, i like the unfinished quality here — basically a glimpse into their creative process where you get to imagine how these things might turn into full-fledged YLT songs. definitely get that it's not necessarily everyone's cup of tea but it is my cup of tea.

Also, my version of "good music" is likely different than many people's. Frankly I find a lot of "exciting rock music" tedious to listen to right now, along with singer-songwriter stuff generally (though of course there are always good bands/musicians doing work in this territory). But clearly I am a fan of a lot of stuff people would find "boring nothingness" but I can assure you I am pretty comfortable with it not being a waste of my time. Enjoying what you enjoy is an actual perfectly good use of your time.

there is so much good music out there right now why waste your time with this depressing nothingness?

New board description?

And Then Depressing Nothingness Turned Itself Inside-Out

Enjoying what you enjoy is an actual perfectly good use of your time.

Oh I get that Alex, and I am not sure if I will listen to them again, partly because I have a lot of music that sits in a very similar place and probably does what these tracks do a bit more deeply/successfully. But, time will tell. This type of music tends not to drag me down, but I get why it could for others, especially if it is via a band they have much different expectations for.

To each his own of course, but Alex' criticism goes awry for me because sure, they're instrumentals, but it's not that different from what they've been doing for years and years now, surely? A lot of elements here could be heard on previous records as well. Maybe not brought together in this way, but it still sounds very YLT to me.

And I like it a lot on first listen. 'Depressing nothingness' is a description I'm more than willing to unironically embrace tbf, but this album is not that.

Having said that it's totally fair to conclude 'hey this band just isn't for me anymore'.

'Depressing nothingness' is a description I'm more than willing to unironically embrace tbf

Ditto.

but this album is not that

Ah, that's too bad.

We'll find you one, no worries :)

bye bye yo la tengo. i will put on their last decent proper album "summer sun" again tonight i think.

like what you like i guess, but i gotta say its surprising to me that someone would have such a visceral reaction toward this stuff and then say the last decent thing was Summer Sun, an extremely slow, samey, quiet record with several formless jams.

Summer Sun is an album emanating love, warmth and emotion. You must be writing about something else. There is one ten minite jam Let's be Still and it is a late night beauty. That trumpet is bliss. There are definitely not enough instruments on these improvisational sketches.

this is the most heated yo la tengo related discussion since that tragic concert fire

Which concert fire?

the chat room got heavy

A tragic day: 'I gave up my vintage Galaxie 500 shirt just to help some guy bandage his arm. It was horrible.'

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

sincerely,

alex in mainhattan

sorry i can't decipher anything past the first sentence...

I didn't realize they had something new till seeing this thread a few days ago. Bought it and played it twice through in the car today. I can definitely understand thinking it's pointless, and I've reacted that way myself when they start noodling around. I'm in just the right frame of mind right now--whatever that might be--so it was perfect for aimless driving.

Yeah I can see how this might futz with expectations and disappoint those who were hoping for more obvious threads being carried forward from their past few albums (although I'd argue that this does very much feel like one possible natural step removed from There's A Riot Going On) or hoping for a more straightforward "Yo La Tengo" album. But it's been much appreciated this week for getting through some work crunches.

yeah this definitely feels like one thread among others in the YLT sound, so it's not weird or disarming for me to hear a release focusing on this aspect - just like it's not disarming when they put out, say, a record or EP full of covers.

Also I listen to music like this all the time--guitar-based ambient--and I'm enjoying this just as much, or maybe even more than, say, the new Windy & Carl album.

I met a friend in a venerable old Toronto record store today, and mostly as a token of support--it's not particularly anything I was after--I bought There's a Riot Going On.

I like about half of songs #4 through #15. There's some filler near the end, and "Out of the Pool" is the one song I definitely didn't like.

I think the first three songs--"You Are Here," "Shades of Blue," and "She May, She Might"--are masterpieces. Especially "She May, She Might." I may, I might be forgetting something, but I can't think of another Yo La Tengo song like it.

I haven't got tired of the record, just like Fade actually. I think that somehow I prefer 2010s YLT to late 00s YLT.

No doubt on that imo

Went to YouTube and was hoping to find a video for "She May, She Might" as great as the one they made for "I'll Be Around," but there's just something generic and static.

On WFmu they covered:

Yo La Tengo set #1
Yo La Tengo live! Heroes (David Bowie) Options
Yo La Tengo live! Don't You Just Know It (Huey "Piano" Smith Options
Yo La Tengo live! A Girl Like You (Edwyn Collins) Options
Yo La Tengo live! Human Fly (The Cramps) Options
Yo La Tengo live! Flying (The Beatles

Yo La Tengo live set #2
Yo La Tengo live! That's Amore (Dean Martin)
Yo La Tengo live! So Sad About Us (The Who)
Yo La Tengo live! Wonderful World (Sam Cooke/Herman's Hermits)
Yo La Tengo live! Bela Lugosi's Dead (Bauhaus) Honky Tonk Radio Girl request!
Yo La Tengo live! Whole Wide World (Wreckless Eric

Yo La Tengo live! Driver 8 (R.E.M.}
Yo La Tengo live! Sugar Sugar (The Archies)
Yo La Tengo live! Dear Betty Baby (Mayo Thompson)
Yo La Tengo live! At The River's Edge (New Colony Six)
Yo La Tengo live! We Got The Beat (The Go-Go's)

Yo La Tengo live! Street Waves (Pere Ubu)
Yo La Tengo live! Gimme Some Money (Spinal Tap)
Yo La Tengo live! Please Mr. Postman (The Marvelletes/Beatles)
Yo La Tengo live! You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory (Johnny Thunders)
Yo La Tengo live! Touch Me I'm Sick (Mudhoney)

Too many to cut and paste em all

From the March 13, 2021 Todd-aphonic show

https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/102001

wow would love to hear the Huey "Piano" Smith or the Mayo Thompson - 2 fave songs!

Sadly not archived by WFMU

What's the reason they don't archive these specifically? For future release? Bums me out because I almost always have something conflicting with them doing this and I usually only get to hear bits and pieces, at best.

Yo la Tengo play the songs by request during fundraising that must come accompanied by large donations. WFMU & Yo La Tengo probably think making the renditions easily available after will discourage donations and the uniqueness of what they are doing once a year

i always assumed that plus maybe a bit of embarrassment, not wanting those sets hanging out there on the web with their name on them permanently

also risk of lawsuit by music publishers

wow There's A Riot Going On is even better than I remembered, works really well as a whole album listening through.