C or D : Yo La Tengo

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.