nice summer sun write up alex.
― Piers (piers), Thursday, 18 November 2004 05:52 (nineteen years ago) link
classic or dud album title? (will be out soon).
― coco the kid, Sunday, 28 May 2006 11:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― dave's good arm (facsimile) (dave225.3), Sunday, 28 May 2006 13:20 (seventeen years ago) link
― willem -- (willem), Sunday, 28 May 2006 14:11 (seventeen years ago) link
Their summer concert in NYC last summer was fun.
― mts (theoreticalgirl), Sunday, 28 May 2006 15:17 (seventeen years ago) link
Does Louis Jagger like Yo La Tengo?
― Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 12:06 (fifteen years ago) link
who cares? great band.
― stephen, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 18:54 (fifteen years ago) link
Painful, still in my top 10 albums of the '90s. gorgeous, unforgettable album.
― stephen, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 18:55 (fifteen years ago) link
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?
― Pillbox, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 19:57 (fifteen years ago) link
the last show of theirs i saw (Sept 07), YLT opened with a nearly 30-min. version of "I Heard You Looking" :)
― stephen, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 20:28 (fifteen years ago) link
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..
― Pillbox, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 20:37 (fifteen years ago) link
oh the live shows are still GREAT.
― stephen, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 20:46 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Sara Sara Sara, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 20:50 (fifteen years ago) link
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.)
― Rock Hardy, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 21:01 (fifteen years ago) link
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!"
― dad a, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 21:05 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Pillbox, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 21:31 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Surmounter, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 21:33 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Pillbox, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 21:36 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― dad a, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 21:49 (fifteen years ago) link
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
― Charlie Howard, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 05:34 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― schlump, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 12:00 (fifteen years ago) link
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
― dad a, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 14:41 (fifteen years ago) link
There's like 25 threads about this band and it's still not enough.
― billstevejim, Tuesday, 15 September 2009 06:35 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 5 February 2013 13:22 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― willem, Tuesday, 5 February 2013 13:32 (eleven years ago) link
Derp.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 5 February 2013 17:59 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― da croupier, Tuesday, 5 February 2013 18:06 (eleven years ago) link
That's Andy Schafly-level derp. (xpost)
― Nataly Dawn's echoey swamp sound (Dan Peterson), Tuesday, 5 February 2013 18:06 (eleven years ago) link
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!"
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 11 June 2013 18:18 (ten years ago) link
Clickhole knows.
http://www.clickhole.com/blogpost/i-regret-waiting-until-marriage-have-sex-all-3-mem-1258
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 23 October 2014 17:52 (nine years ago) link
just checked and the onion's yo la tengo roof collapse article is over twelve years old. christ.
― da croupier, Thursday, 23 October 2014 17:55 (nine years ago) link
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/
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 31 October 2022 20:39 (one year ago) link
8 Days of Chanukah shows in NY sold out quick
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 1 November 2022 03:53 (one year ago) link
Annnnnd new album
https://yolatengo.bandcamp.com/album/this-stupid-world
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 2 November 2022 14:05 (one year ago) link
new song rules
― na (NA), Wednesday, 2 November 2022 14:08 (one year ago) link
sounds grrrrrreat
― tylerw, Wednesday, 2 November 2022 14:42 (one year ago) link
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.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 2 November 2022 17:45 (one year ago) link
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).
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 2 November 2022 19:24 (one year ago) link
oh man that sounds incredible
― sleeve, Wednesday, 2 November 2022 19:27 (one year ago) link
Worth seeking out, I assume there's a recording somewhere!
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 2 November 2022 19:27 (one year ago) link
Good tune! Promising.
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 2 November 2022 19:35 (one year ago) link
ooh this is classic ylt, how long has it been since they've sounded like that?
― ufo, Wednesday, 2 November 2022 21:57 (one year ago) link
Riot was my fav YLT album in 15+ years but I am also ready for them to get loud again, bring it on
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Wednesday, 2 November 2022 23:26 (one year ago) link
Aaaah, that hits the spot.
― Cow_Art, Wednesday, 2 November 2022 23:51 (one year ago) link
Tix on sale today. Glad to be seeing them again finally.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 4 November 2022 15:36 (one year ago) link
And another new song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J9fV29AuOQ
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 11 January 2023 17:56 (one year ago) link
It's great, of course.
― Evan, Wednesday, 11 January 2023 20:27 (one year ago) link
new album is very good
― ufo, Tuesday, 17 January 2023 13:12 (one year ago) link
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.
― Cow_Art, Tuesday, 17 January 2023 14:06 (one year ago) link
Yeah both are great! Zoned out experiments are great indeed.
― Evan, Tuesday, 17 January 2023 14:46 (one year ago) link