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.

listened to the CD this morning on the busride to work -- sounded awesome, awesome, awesome. only song I'm not sure about is the ira/georgia Motown-pop duet -- kind of seems like they don't quite pull it off.

I have a feeling this is a very solid to pretty good YLT album, but the horrible sequencing is keeping it from truly being a great YLT album. As some of the reviews I've read have mentioned, the decision to dump all three 10 minute plus songs at the end really does no favors. The last two are probably my favorites, with the 16 minute closer being absolutely sublime, but I was pretty worn out by the time I got there. I feel like mixing them up with some of the poppier tracks would have made for a better journey. Maybe when I don't have all these Beatles remasters to sift through I'll play around with some reconfiguring of the tracklist.

I think the Motown duet is kinda cute.

This is very nice, but yes, the sequencing is lazy and stupid, and this is gonna suffer massively in my mind for getting lost in the Beatles rush.

Are any YLT albums NOT too long?

I don't think Electr-O-Pura, ICHtHBaO, or AtNTIIO are too long but then, yeah, much better sequencing on those.

I Can Hear the Heart whatever is too long (too long title too). I've rarely made it past "Little Honda" when listening from the beginning.

Electropura on the other hand is just about right, as is Painful.

I think it's only really since Summer Sun where the albums have gotten to be a little too long for me. Don't get me wrong, still good to great albums all, but a bit wearing on a full listen.

this is gonna suffer massively in my mind for getting lost in the Beatles rush.

I hadn't really thought about that but tbh I just assumed that YLT albums were bought by basically the same people every time for the last decade

All the long tracks on one end haven't bothered me, since some of their long instrumentals placed in the middle of their albums (looking at you "Daphnia") don't work out that well.

Since I've got it on vinyl I've been thinking of it more as two separate releases, the first with the short, poppier numbers and the second with the extended tunes.

yeah i like having the epics at the end ... almost like a separate album -- which is maybe the way the vinyl is? are all of those long tracks on the second LP?

This is a good album. I've lived with it a full month without getting bored, yet it's mildly boring. Does that make sense?

it's understated? i kind of agree -- other than maybe the epics, no track really stands out as an instant classic kind of thing. but they all sound good.

Speaking of sequencing, I just now realized that the Summer Sun on my iPod is all kinds of out of order.

i love yo la tengo. this new one, however, is barely registering. well i guess there's always ICHTHBAO to salvage those wounds.

This is a good album. I've lived with it a full month without getting bored, yet it's mildly boring. Does that make sense?

― vulva eyes (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), viernes 11 de septiembre de 2009 06:23 PM (3 hours ago)

It does when you consider it's a Yo La Tengo album.

i just ordered it. but my expectations are low. will report later. it seems that they have lost it with the last album before. the one with the ass in the title. i never listened to the cd. the tracks were too long, too predictable and too boring. it hurts when your fave band doesn't deliver the goods anymore.

As some of the reviews I've read have mentioned, the decision to dump all three 10 minute plus songs at the end really does no favors.

Is this really what the reviews are saying? To me that's completely off the mark. The last three tracks in a row are what takes the album to the next level. It's a spectacular way to end an album, taking something they've done a few times before and going so much further with it. If anything it was the last album where the sequencing bothered me a bit. I liked a lot of the individual songs but as an album it didn't have as much of an impact, was kind of dreary.

From the Pitchfork review:

After nine tracks, the only thing missing would be the usual YLT epic, and well, the band doesn't disappoint. In an odd bit of sequencing, all the long tracks are clumped together at the end, forming a trilogy of nine-minute-plus jams with wildly varying results.

I guess Mitchum just calls it "odd", but I'm trying to dig up some other reviews saying this.

I think "The Fireside" might be my fave track here -- kind of makes me think of Fairport Convention's "Reynardine" for some reason -- sleepier, but still that sort of tense, hanging in space feeling.

even more disappointing than i assumed. the album is much too long, the tracks are too long, too much repetition. and hardly any spark anywhere. a band who sounds old, really fucking old. without any interesting new ideas. they have lost me, sorry. the last track is a waste of time like no other i have ever heard by them. they should retire, please. it's not too late. their oeuvre is big and varied enough to make them one of the most subtle bands of all time.

well, to each his own! have been listening to this a lot in the last week, and loving it more w/ each spin. maybe i'm just old, really fucking old.

older than 46?

oh god no, not that old

So after giving this a few listens I'm not that crazy about it. It's definitely pleasant and enjoyable, but not that interesting (outside of the first track, which I thought was terrific). The sequencing doesn't bother me, especially on vinyl, where all the short songs are on the first LP and the 2nd is epics. However the epics aren't that compelling. I'm nearly always game for an extended jam, and YLT rarely disappoint me in this regard... but somehow a 16 minutes of the hook to My Cherie Amour and Ira's feedback isn't doing it for me. All in all I much prefer the previous one.

My opinion of this record has grown slightly, but I still think its a second-tier Yo La Tengo album. After another listen today, I decided that shifting "More Stars Than There Are In Heaven" to the first half and completely eliminating "The Fireside" (such a snooze) would make it a lot easier to take. The closing epic really works well though.

james mcnew's track ('i'm on my way', assuming it's him singing) is one of the highlights of an otherwise inconsistent record, though it does go on for a bit too long. vocally, it recalls stephen prina and jim o'rourke for me. the instrumental parts are pretty nice.

It's definitely pleasant and enjoyable, but not that interesting

this has been my view of YLT records since 'turned itself inside-out'

I haven't heard that one or Summer Sun...

this has been my view of YLT records since 'turned itself inside-out'

+1

This is the last one I'm paying for.

+2, though change that to "since 'Electr-O-Pura'" for me.

I still haven't bought a copy of the new record, but I loved "The Story of Yo La Tango" off of the last one.

Does this have any equally excellent epic guitar tunes on it?

Two of the three long ones at the end I guess, especially the 16 minute finale - lots and lots of feedback.

Exactly what I wanted to hear! I'll have to pick this up. They have it on sale for $6.99 at Newbury Comics.

Thanks, jon.

condo fucks >>> this

I'll pop in here once again with a dissenting voice -- listening to this now, and it is wonderful.

Again, I don't dislike the album, I'm just not finding enough of what I love in a YLT to see myself coming back to it very often. I'd imagine most of the songs will sound just fine when I'm in the mood to shuffle my YLT collection on random, but the album as whole just won't have me reaching back for it like I do with half a dozen of their other records.

Yeah, as with all bands 25 years into their career, it's not like the world *needs* a new Yo La Tengo album desperately. I don't know if, in a year or two, this new one will be the one I reach for when I'm in the mood for Yo La Tengo. But for now, it's sounding great!

as with all bands 25 years into their career

section 25 and for against make me heavily disagree with this!

saw them last night in los angeles. excellent two hour set, equally split between motorik, quiet tunes, and noise freakouts. pretty dope. and there was almost a fight!

I'm not usually a huge fan of Georgia's singing, but "By Two's" is amazing.

I was at the Avalon show too! I wanted more skronk in the encores, but other than that it was a good show. What/where was the fight about?

some dude with big hair was being annoying and blocking someone else's view with his head.

the world *needs* very few albums by bands 2 years into their career

well, sure. I'm just saying that with Yo La Tengo, if I'm in the mood to listen to them, I've got plenty of options at this point. I like that they're still making music, but if they stopped suddenly, there'd be more than enough of them for me to enjoy.

new tune is sounding great
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDojbuBQlmo
big production touches working nicely.

since I Am Not Afraid it's felt like most YLT songs go on almost exactly twice as long as they need to. This isn't breaking the trend.

also the bombastic production would be cooler if they weren't burying the vocal melody - is there a term for that yet? Schmaltzgaze?

IANAOYAIWBYA is their best

schmaltzgaze! oof. i dunno, i've listened to this song three times this morning and it's getting better with each play.

new cover is neat. that is a big tree, man.
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdjdgzBDCl1qga7lvo1_500.jpg

Georgia's drumming gets better and better and better with every record, which makes me look forward to every new one.

leaked

I'm assuming that this will be exactly as good as the last... four Yo La Tengo albums? I have no idea whether. Want a new one or not. Just listening to Popular Songs and, guess what? It's really good, like a Yo La Tengo album.

The idea of a 45 minute YLT album appeals.

"Ohm" is terrific, and "Paddle Forward" not far behind. The rest is boilerplate.

agreed, a single slab of vinyl would be welcome--as much as I've enjoyed their last couple I felt they could have used some trimming. Popular Songs was about 1/3 too long. (xpost)

God, I'm in awe at how many witty references to the band's back catalog Stuart Berman was able to shoehorn into that Pitchfork review.

Georgia Hubley's fuzz-pop standout "Paddle Forward" squeezes another drop of blood from "Sugarcube..."

And even in Fade's most sanguine moments, there's a sense of unease creeping into Yo La Tengo's little corner of the world.

It may not herald another big day coming, but Fade is a thoroughly immersive dusk-to-dawn soundtrack to a dark night's passing.

It would be hilarious if all reviews were written this way. "Now, I'm not saying Sonic Youth's new album is SCHIZOPHRENIC, but half of it sounds RATHER RIPPED from Branca while the other half features JAMS that RUN FREE..."

Sorry, I'm in a bad mood.

Hahaha

I've thought I was done with YLT for a long time (assumed all their output was now pleasant and forgettable) but have to admit to liking Ohm a bit. First Bowie, now Yo La Tengo... Next I guess I have to go nuts over a Big Black reunion single?

i think they have lost the marbles. they used to be my favourite band but they do not evolve in a good way anymore. it sounds all so wishy-washy, so unfocused and fuzzy. no tunes anymore. totally exchangeable. uninteresting and superfluous. who needs this kind of lame indie rock of a band which is just a sad shadow of what it used to be. they have become crap. the last good album is already ten years old, aftr summer sun they did some decent soundtracks and some good classics murdering but the real albums were rubbish.

^^^ sadly otm

haha, harsh! i'll be a dissenting voice: this album is awesome.

I'd argue the last time they sounded inspired was "And then nothing ..." They could have called it a day after that and I would have been fine with it. But nothing since then has been terrible, so it's sort of been like one long collection of perfectly fine leftovers from the vaults.

i think the problem is that in a sense their career was building to I Can Hear The Heart Beating, where they showed how they could turn everything under the sun in to Yo La Tengo. They're never going to top it, artistically or commercially, so while they've found little nooks and crannies since, they just don't have ambitions beyond More Soundscapes About Marriage & Simpsons (If Listen Hard For The Words). Their evolution pre-I Can Hear was unpredictable enough that this second half can't help but see a little attrition in the audience.

also, while every later album sounds a little better every time i get around to revisiting it, they really have lost the knack for bubblegum hooks, or don't care about throwing them in

yeah, i am liking this a lot too. after one spin, i'm getting the vibe of a jammy, gauzier, bit more dynamic "Summer Sun". and i love "Summer Sun". on first impression, i am liking it a bit less than Popular Songs, which was much stronger than "I Am Not Afraid..." IMO.

i do miss the requisite electric gtr skronk workout. maybe that's the 11-minute bonus download.

never liked summer sun much (although i loved the plugged-in single version of 'today is the day') but there are always bits in the more recent records that i can get into e.g. 'pass the hatchet'.

i mean yeah they're not going to top painless-through-i can hear the heart but i'll still look forward to new things as long as they don't get too quiet.

they held me through I Am Not Afraid Of Kicking Your Ass For Not Loving Our Albums -- an attempt to do an I Can Feel The Heart sequel -- but I don't love them like a lot of you do, so now that I have to concentrate on filigrees instead of hooks it's like why boher.

"Painful" and "Fakebook" and "And Then Nothing ..." are the only three I absolutely love. "I Can Hear the Heart" and "May I Sing With Me" I pull out occasionally. The rest I don't dig too much as albums, though there's always a song or two.

Starting with May I Sing With Me each record was, "Holy shit...they topped themselves?!"

But things started to level off around I Can Hear The Heart, and Summer Sun made me angry. I'd never been more disappointed in a record by a favorite band. I couldn't even bear to listen to it in one sitting; I had to spread it out over two days. I never heard anything after that until Stupid Things, which is OK, but not enough to make me think they'll be back to their frighteningly risk-taking ways anytime soon.

For me, what hurts most is admitting that I now dread coming across them live. Which is such a weird feeling for a band I generally have no problem with. I just can't take it.

I saw'em in '07 and they were still fine but it was a looooong set

I think my brain is just wired differently now. It used to be when I saw Ira writhe and flail around with his squalling guitar, eyes closed, I'd think it was cool. Now my first thought is man, just play a fucking song. I love the noise drones on "May I Sing With Me." But now they just ... drone.

Xgau.

Why does he call this their quietest and most delicate album or whatever, when "And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out" clearly fills that role? Probably because he forgot it existed.

it's heavily orchestrated, diffident, but it's also yo la tengo. a-

makes it sound like season 9 of his favorite family drama

Why does he call this their quietest and most delicate album or whatever, when "And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out"

srsly

More Soundscapes About Marriage & Simpsons

LOLZ

It used to be when I saw Ira writhe and flail around with his squalling guitar, eyes closed, I'd think it was cool. Now my first thought is man, just play a fucking song.

songist!

Guilty as charged.

I once saw Tony Conrad and Jim O'Rourke play some lame violin drone behind a hung bedsheet for 45 minutes, before I finally left. The next day I got into an argument with David Grubbs about it, and he was all "you just don't get it, man!"

that is very lazy, lame and arrogant. drones on their own are boring as hell. they need a melody or a kind of destination to be good. to draw the listener in. otherwise they are just wanking in front of a public.

You just don't get it, man.

drones: some people like them, some people don't.

the only people over fifty who should use drones are members of the executive branch

I'd be all for assault drones if they played a little melody, like ice cream trucks. Imagine if you're just walking along and then you hear "Turkey in the Straw" coming from some place in the clouds. They wouldn't even need to fire, you'd just drop dead.

I've had enough of drones. I want queens.

not even gonna address the "boring as hell" comment...heh.

last night on jimmy fallon: http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/video/yo-la-tengo-ohm-1-15-13/1428751/

w/ fred armisen (that guy is everywhere now...) & i believe oneida's kid millions. probably my favorite song on the record, which i am still really digging. the rest of you is crazy!

Bonus jam: http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/video/yo-la-tengo-ill-be-around-11513/1428773/

first time since elecr-o-pura i've liked a new one on first listen

Really surprises me Ira is already 55. I always thought of my own parents as pretty old...and he's not that far behind. I guess he got a late start, relatively speaking, with his band.

The band will turn 30 next year.

The strings and horns on "Before We Run" makes me think they are slowly turning into Lambchop.

http://sickmouthy.com/2013/01/16/yo-la-tengo-and-then-nothing-turned-itself-inside-out-2000-summer-sun-2003-i-am-not-afraid-of-you-and-i-will-beat-your-ass-2006/

encouraged by that, qualmsley, as electr-o-pura is my fave.

saw Ira & Georgia at the movies the other day (not a Tom Courtenay film)

electr-o-pura's my favorite - first album i heard of theirs, plus so many guitar over distorted keybs rave-ups and songier than painful - but i def see Heart Beating as the peak in the sense of their world becoming all-encompassing. Later albums have some lyrical and orchestral experiments, but that was a refinement of the palette more than an extension of it. It's a good problem to have though - most of their peers, if they even tried to break out of guitar-bass-drums, didn't put their mark on genre experimentation the way YLT did, to the point where there were no more worlds to conquer unless Ira was going to start rapping.

I'm liking this one too, but similar to how I liked those Kinks albums from the 1980s - competent, with a moment or two of genuine inspiration. A song that instantly feels "this one will be good live," etc. etc.

Anyone want to start a "Yo La Tengo albums from the 21st Century POX"?

oh man, i wonder how ira of all people would take an "80s kinks" comparison.

ok, he'd probably take it by showing his "no 80s kinks were great!" mixtape.

YLT different in their members recognizing their own vox limitations and working w/in them beautifully imo, generally avoiding cracked "plaintive" caterwauling.

though in the past i think they did that a bit more.

also the difference between a thrice-divorced guy and his brother saying everything was better before and a married for decades guy and his wife saying they've got some awesome old shit on dvd

difference songwriting-wise, i mean

i was sort of ruminating on my own there w/r/t their place in "indie" but that's also otm w/r/t to the kinks

xp: electro-p-ura is my fave too. i saw them live a little later in berlin on a hot summer night. the place, the knaack club was packed, sweat was running from the walls, we were pretty close to the stage. ira almost melded with his guitar and became a new creature. he coaxed noisy feedback, sweet tunes, psychedelic drones, a whole cosmos of sounds out of the instrument. that night he was god. someone mentioned that he is about 55 today. no wonder that his music really feels insipid and weary these days. the thrill is gone.

^ this is/sounds OTM. Electr-O-Pura is my favorite too, but the show I saw on the Painful tour will be forever etched in my memory. Hearing "Sudden Organ" emerge from the massive feedback/looped wreckage of the "Out The Window" breakdown was like witnessing a sunrise for the first time.

he is about 55 today. no wonder that his music really feels insipid and weary these days

i am going to insert my insipid AARP card in you.

His age is irrelevant, but his knack for making tunes stick isn't.

i think age is relevant, especially in rock music. there are few good albums by people over 60 except maybe some blues men. but let's not get further into this, yo la tengo really should retire by now. otherwise they'll become the rolling stones of indie rock.

dubious comparison on a dozen levels

haha, seriously. making me think of that horrible "Sonic Youth, please break up" article.

because listening to the new one makes one rethink if this kind of hollowness wasn't already incrusted in the old albums which i used to love. there is this nagging doubt coming up. maybe they were never good at all. they should be able to judge themselves and not release stuff which is below their standard. but maybe they aren't. do they need the money? that would be an excuse i could accept.

*hugs*

wow that is brutal!

do they need the money? that would be an excuse i could accept.

while i don't doubt they enjoy what they do, i think it worth remembering that a professional musician is not just an artist but someone that makes their living by playing music. while i find their last decade of music to be less engaging than the one before it, i don't begrudge it and wish they'd evaporate just because i think they've stagnated.

"I wish they'd stop doing this thing that I stopped paying attention to years ago!"

it's cool if you're not into what they're doing now, but ... chill pill?

the new one isn't hollow. it's loose

Man, "Painful"-era YLT was just soooo good.

Still don't own it. Saving myself!

It's really good, Alfred. "Electropura" and "Heart" are fine, but so scattershot compared to the perfect concision that is "Painful."

Weird that President Yo La Tengo doesn't pop up here. I've always thought that was their peak. Electropura and surrounding albums also up there...

I'd go with Painful too--the big doubles have great peaks, but I love almost every song on Painful. Looking forward to the new one; will be content with two or three great songs.

i don't think fade is amazing or anything, but it's certainly not embarrassing. did james steal alex in mainhattan's gf or something?

Man, "Painful"-era YLT was just soooo good.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, January 16, 2013 4:05 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Still don't own it. Saving myself!

TS: Yo La Tengo's "I Heard You Looking" vs Yo La Tengo's "Blue Line Swinger"

been here too long jeez

Weird that President Yo La Tengo doesn't pop up here. I've always thought that was their peak. Electropura and surrounding albums also up there...

i have been meaning to bring up President - it's a solid album and i almost wonder if people underrate it since most people who hopped on in the 90s first heard sandwiched with New Wave Hot Dogs. "Barnaby, hardly Working" is really the blueprint for a lot of what was to come.

I first heard President on the CD with New Wave; love President, have middling-at-best interest in NWHD.

yeah nwhd only sounds good compared to ride the tiger

there are some gems on those early records though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJqrglXJgXw

guess i'm just the resident ylt fanboy here, but i can't find a song on Fade I don't like.

i'll second "fanboy" status. if "well you better" and "ohm" and "paddle forward" are hollow, money-grabbin' tunes...well, i guess i'm a soul-less capitalist schmuck.

There's very little YLT I don't like. There's a whole lot more, however, I never feel a need to hear more than once, unfortunately.

Hessischer Jung, are you crying
Over YLT being unsatisfying?
Tunes, like the works of bands, you
With your unfunky Germanness care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep and know why.
Now no matter, Piefke, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What héart héard of, ghóst guéssed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Alex in Mainhattan you mourn for.

couple weeks later and this album has worn through in places but is still great!

it is funny to have a yo la tengo album where it ends and I think "oh it's over already?" wonder if there's more material and there won't be 3+ years in between records this time?

three word username
who might you be?
your poem is not lame
but unfunky like me

we are all getting older
and we look for bands
to lean on their shoulder
and not following trends

ylt, i wanted to age with thee
you seemed perfect to my ear
but it wasn't meant to be
now it's all so clear

we don't know tomorrow
neither you nor me nor georgia
right now ylt cause only sorrow
but the hope dies last, i tell ya

I'm really liking "Fade", a lot more than I thought I would based on some of the things I'd been reading about it. Sure, they've stopped trying to break new ground, but even YLT on autopilot is better than just about any other band when they've reached that "comfortable" phase of their career and have supposedly stopped trying to be inventive.

The band will turn 30 next year.

The strings and horns on "Before We Run" makes me think they are slowly turning into Lambchop.

― Jah Creature (WilliamC), Wednesday, January 16, 2013 11:40 AM (1 week ago)

At the Maxwell's holiday party I said hi to Ira and in our conversation he mentioned Lambchop as the only current release he could say he's a big fan of. Feel free to make fun of me for assuming I cornered him to ask really boring questions.

Very interesting video (which stars Mac McCaughan as the singer/guitarist), seems at first to suggest that "I'll Be Around" is the third part of a trilogy ("Deeper Into Movies"->"I'm On My Way"->"I'll Be Around") but by the end it's essentially a visual text montage of many of their lyrics (and other texts?) superimposed over a nice home cooking session (which sounds ridiculous but it works):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?fv=KJyjzHIgqr4

Interview about new vid here on bonappetit.com!
http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandforums/blogs/badaily/2013/01/yo-la-tengo.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJyjzHIgqr4

This:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNCc561-KLQ

really annoying to listen to this with the asshole and his expensive camera clicking away every 30 seconds. his flickr stream is going to be AWESOME though.

thankfully it seems he gets all the shots he needs during the first 10mins. my blood pressure has leveled. carry on.

Paddle Foward is so lovely.

This finally showed up in my mailbox this morning--seemed to take forever. I've only played it once in the car so far (once through, and my two favourite songs a second time).

"Ohm"'s pretty good as an opener; I like the music, the vocal not as much. The next four songs more or less went right past me--one I disliked. Maybe they'll get better. The first really great song for me is "I'll Be Around," the beginning of which makes me think of CSNY's "4 + 20."(Speaking of whom, I think they've done that before--like Neil Young, they'll take a title from some other great song.) And from that point forward, I love everything. I think that last half, #6-10, is one of the most beautiful stretches on any of their albums. I don't like Yo La Tengo when they try to write overly cute pop songs, and I don't like them much when they try to sound noisy. (For anyone who despises Yo La Tengo and finds the last half of that sentence really funny, it's true--sometimes they try to sound noisy.) Really the one thing I love about them--and I think they consistently do this better than any band ever--is their gift for a kind of formless beauty that's like a guitar-based version of Another Green World or something, with words that just fill in the space between (for me; I know they write songs about marriage and domesticity and such).

Yeah, this is really growing on me, especially the back half as clemeza points out. "Two Trains" really hits a sweet spot for me, I think it might secretly be the best song on here.

eir gift for a kind of formless beauty that's like a guitar-based version of Another Green World or something

well said. This album doesn't quite hit the mark but certainly your observation is true of most of their other albums. I've kept "Ohm," "Paddle Forward," and that last lovely horn-anchored track.

New Snore La Tengo

calsnores

"Paddle Forward" sounds like "Sugarcube," but that's a good one too. It's either the second or third song that to my ears doesn't seem to fit. Otherwise, I think this is a classic (within the narrow confines of the Yo La Tengo universe...if you hate them, this album would reinforce everything you hate about them). Love that video for "I'll Be Around"--the unexplained twist is a great joke, I think.

still really enjoying this one -- i think "is that enough" is probably the weakest track, but it's pleasant enough. jon otm about "two trains" that one is fantastic. recent live show here: http://www.speakersincode.com/2013/02/download-yo-la-tengo-january-31-2013.html -- the more rocked out coda to "before we run" is great.

Electric in-store @ Easy Street:
http://youtu.be/BH5I3gqkmV8

Bleargh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH5I3gqkmV8

hey, i was at that show. it was the final day of easy street before it was taken over by a Chase bank.

ah so that's the reason for the stones cover...bummer.

That's one of them, Tyler--"Is That Enough?" Don't care much for that or the next song. But I was wrong about "Paddle Forward" (great title), and the fifth song's really strong too. They're doing it the way all great albums were 40 years ago: 10 songs, 45 minutes, a couple of wayward tracks to mix things up. (I always say that Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere is literally the only album ever where there isn't a track or two I like noticably less than everything else--Beatles, Dylan, Velvets, doesn't matter.)

"Two Trains" really hits a sweet spot for me, I think it might secretly be the best song on here.

― HAPPY BDAY TOOTS (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, February 5, 2013 9:12 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

2 trains gives me heavy phish 'billy breathes' album vibes, which i heard playing before a movie @ a college theater like last wk for the 1st time prob since i was in lol college

also there shd be a two trains rmx f/ 2 chainz obv

Another live version

http://www.npr.org/event/music/171803705/yo-la-tengo-still-around-thank-god

WFMU Live Cover session so far: http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/49819

Almost forgot it was today! Glad I brought headphones.

Thanks for the reminder! Fun show so far.

live from berlin! they just murdered "this time tomorrow"

I have so many request ideas but don't necessarily have the guts to drop the $100 for it.

ha yeah. maybe someday when i am flush with cash. this "disguises" is pretty rad.

Wait, does the band have a second guitarist again?

It looks like they have a whole gang of helpers.

Bruce Bennett is the 2nd guitarist

yeah he's usually on these fmu things, right? did he fly out to berlin for it?

he did! he's also the one who knew "Baseball Altamont" by the Nightmares the year i requested it.

i had to explain to my sister that old Neil Diamond is considered cool

Sounding so good this year. Is it the air in Berlin?

Yoo Doo Right, indeed.

this is the leftover hash medley finale

haha, ira's mom is donating.

she sometimes sings the last encore at the hanukkah shows.

My fantasy song for this kinda thing would be:

Lilys - Radiotricity

James McNew, rock critic:

http://www.adequacy.net/2013/04/artists-on-albums-aoa34-yo-la-tengos-james-mcnew-on-seizure/

Haven't read it, but I noticed the unusual adjective "Beatle-y," and the even more unusual "Eno-y."

Fade is still my favorite YLT record since ATNTIIO

It's really great, but seriously fuck a Matador for this bullshit deluxe reissue already. Unlike the Kurt Vile deluxe thing, you CAN'T get the bonus material separately in any form. Well, unless you want to buy each of the tracks separately for $1.29 each on iTunes, but even that still won't get you the 11-minute track, "Oriole 5". The Matador website doesn't offer a digital version either, only the full 2-disc package.

Fade is going from "hey a good yo la tengo record" for me to a pretty much a great yo la tengo record. don't think there's a bad song on it.

this leaked about a year ago!

it sure did!

I've been thinking this is a really solid, unspectacular album and will probably age well. Oddly, was reading this thread and comments about "Is That Enough" while listening to a great power pop song which, when I checked, turned out to be "Is That Enough" by The Shivvers. Shivvers track>YLT track.

"Cornelia and Jane" is on my personal tracks list this year.

yeahhh, that is probably the best georgia showcase since ... "tears are in your eyes" or "today is the day"?

Yeah, for sure.

after track 2, album really gets going.

I've always dipped in and out of Yo La Tengo. Always liked/loved the records I knew but was never a huge fanatic and in fact 100% missed the boat on them for the entirety of the 1990s. Still, in the last 15 years or so (since ATNTIIO), I've had three or four YLT albums I considered either great or classic. In the last few weeks I've made my way chronologically through all of their proper albums and I have now come to the conclusion that they are arguably the best band of the last 30 years. I actually really love the phase they've reached--the last four albums or so--where they have just settled into being effortlessly brilliant.

give us a geheimtip, then, from the depths of their oeuvre :)

hey there is actually some new yo la tengo -- part II of Murdering The Classics

http://yolatengo.com/wp-content/uploads/YLT2-high-res-for-SD-300.jpg

First volume was really fun. Also lol at the Tomine cover art on this one

They are certainly some sort of mid-Atlantic indie apotheosis.

new one out in march
http://store.matadorrecords.com/there-s-a-riot-going-on

what are the post-2006 highlights? my favorite YLT album is I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, by a long shot.

Flappy I would put Fade up with any of their best work.

that batch of new songs is pretty snoozy

xp those 2 are my favourite yeah

i've heard the whole new one and i was kind of surprised at the tracks they chose to preview ... there's definitely more immediate / catchy material on there. it's a great album.

but it is pretty close in tone to Summer Sun, so make what you will of that ...

Flappy I would put Fade up with any of their best work.

― campreverb, Thursday, January 18, 2018 2:16 PM (fifty-nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

me too

sweet, i'll check that one out

i wouldn't put Fade quite up with their best but it's solid and definitely better than Popular Songs

yeah i was not into Popular Songs at all, listened to it maybe once, there was a 3 year break between IANAOYAIWBYA and that, I haven't listened to anything new since. still, love them. saw them in early 2007 and they were fucking awesome, I lucked out because they m/l played the entirety of IANAOYAIWBYA. vividly remember Pass the Hatchet, The Story Of, and I Feel Like Going Home.

You cannot skip Stuff Like That There, which is one of their very best.

is that the rarities/b-sides/re-recorded comp? sounds good

Stuff Like That There is the Fakebook sequel

like most sequels it's not as good but it is still a good record

the acoustic tour was as good a show as I've seen them do however.

yeah, it's really good (and that tour was great, too). think the acoustic/electric split they did live after Fade came out was a good approach. will be interesting to see how they attack these new songs live.

There are honestly only three or four Yo La Tengo albums I return to regularly, and the last couple times I have seen them I was totally bored by them seeming totally bored, which was a turn off. it got to the point in the last, Jesus, 15 years or so? that I was more interested in the songs they chose to cover than in their originals.

fwiw for the longest time my favorite show of all time was seeing eleventh dream day with Ira as a second guitarist sometime around 1994 or 5 or so.

Wow, it seems I'll Be Around is their most played song on Spotify, and it's not close.

at this point YLT seems more like family. I'll always buy and listen to their records, even if I only ever return to Painful & Fakebook.

xp looks like it's on the "Productive Morning" Spotify playlist. Welcome to the new music industry!

Fade, yes. They're here in a few weeks...I've seen them twice, very different shows; that was enough for me.

Didn't catch that the new one's called There's a Riot Going On. That's, uh, quite interesting--like calling your next film The Seventh Seal or something. Timely, though. Look forward to "Thank You for Talkin' to Me Hoboken."

Popular Songs would've worked really well if they'd ditched the last two tracks. "More Stars Than There Are in Heaven" just screams YLT album closing track.

really do not like the new album title. timely, but maybe not for this band to use.

yeah thats's what i thought. corny... at best

If it were something loud or profane, I'd say a bad idea. But a quiet set of songs (tyler compared it to Summer Sun) from this older domesticated couple--the most un-riot band around--I think that's interesting.

Kings of Convenience did that - Riot on an Empty Street

They should have called it Raw Power

"For You Too" from the upcoming album:
https://www.npr.org/2018/02/27/589090811/songs-we-love-yo-la-tengo-for-you-too
Sounds gorgeous.

Absolutely, this is great.

That's pretty. Didn't one (or both?) of them have a recent health scare?

only health scare i heard about was with Ira at least 6-7 years ago.
"For You Too" is great — definitely the most straightforward YLT-ish tune on the album, I think.

way to immediately push expectations down back to where they were before I heard the song.

haha, sorry. (the whole album is fantastic, though)

Haha, the payoff at the end...

KAPLAN: We played Albuquerque, one of our most memorable shows, in 19… Oh god, it might be 1988. We were on our first cross country trip. From the moment we walked in the door, we were fighting with the people who worked there about really dumb shit. We had this thing we started doing which was really important in our development, I thought, where if we thought we were really not being respected, we would do this song by Love called “A House is Not a Motel.” It ended with a guitar solo that we frequently used as a bridge to our first noisy song called “The Evil That Men Do.” And we started doing this thing occasionally, if we were pushed too far, we would play basically noise for as long as we felt like it. This night, Georgia came back from being mad at me and I said, “Alright, fuck the set list, this is what we’re going to do.”

For the first three minutes, it’s just a very relatively gentle folk rock song, so there was no sign of what was about to happen for a good five minutes. And then all hell broke loose, and we would not stop playing feedback. It was essentially an empty club, but people were trying to find a way to unplug the band and we were fending them off. The promoter came up to me while we were playing, apologizing for everything. It was just nuts. And when it ended, there were one or two people who thought it was fantastic, but mostly people were incensed and screaming at us. At some point I’d gone outside, probably lightheaded from the altitude and the pretty heavy emotional experience we’d just gone through and somebody, who I don’t even think was there, he must have been listening, spoke really slowly and thoughtfully and he goes, “That was the best thing I’ve ever heard. You are as good as the Eagles. You are better than Ace Frehley.”

from here: https://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/indie-rockers-yo-la-tengo-talk-rioting-breaking-bads-bob-odenkirk

ha, that's awesome

Wow is this album chill. I've been listening to it in the background and I'm not convinced that's not the right place for it. I'll have to play it again and pay closer attention, unless (per Eno) I don't need to.

The middle stretch, in the wrong frame of mind, is a stone bore.

in the right frame of mind, though, it's absolutely gorgeous

really enjoying this. it's headphone music

that ira/albuquerque story reminds me of the one time i saw them play, in columbia MO, sometime in 2003 i think. the crowd was really loud and crappy and YLT looked visibly pissed. so they played an antagonistic version of nuclear war that was at least 20 minutes, maybe 30. it was awful. i can definitely understand where they were coming from - that crowd sucked and deserved nothing - but it was also very disappointing as someone who had waited several years for a chance to see them

thinking about going to see them in a couple weeks, if the show is as sleepy as this record though maybe not because i can just picture the room full of people chatting. i've seen them on nights when they're great and others where they're just tired

haha, i've seen them do a 15 minute "nuclear war" and I don't think it was to punish the crowd — it was pretty great, actually!

yeah, will be interesting to see how they approach this new stuff live.

only saw them once, in early 2007 when they were touring IANAOYAIWBYA and it was amazing. that's still my favorite record of theirs by a long shot, I feel lucky to have seen them when the setlist was more or less all songs from that album, only oldie I remember them playing was Tom Courtenay but there must've been more.

I've seen them a bunch, but I don't recall being terribly impressed by any of the sets since I saw them tour And Then Nothing ... with Susie Ibarra on second drums. They've just seemed sort of bored or rote or something, especially for a band that's released at least a couple of my fave albums of all time, and who I've seen be killer live before. Could be just that the first time I saw them be blah that sort of predisposed me against them the next time, when they were also blah, which also coincided with a couple of blah records (or at least Summer Sun, though tbh I can't remember anything about any of the next few albums, either, except that they felt very by the books), so I simply haven't made much of an effort to catch them the past several years, save a set as the Condo Fucks, which didn't impress me much, either. That's on me, mea culpa, but at this point I'm five or six records past a record where off the top of my head I can think of several songs I like and would recognize.

I've seen three times, the best of which was the Summer Sun in September 2003, for which we drove up to Jacksonville. I loved how enthusiastically they switched instruments and alternated between originals and covers.

I love their covers. My two fave may have been Adam Ant's "Dog Eat Dog" and the other was Grand Funk's "We're An American Band" (augmented by most of Lambchop) when they just pounded away at the song, said their goodbyes, then left the stage. Then came back five minutes and went right back into "We're An American Band."

New-In: somehow we missed that there is a Michael Hurley cover on the new @TheRealYLT LP. Meeting of the minds!! Out today, folks. pic.twitter.com/iO9yXiVld9

— Record Grouch (@RecordGrouch) March 16, 2018

I chatted with them after the Hurley show at Union Pool! They were so nice and patient. We bonded over Hoboken.

Saw all four YLT/Lambchop shows at the GAMH on the And Then Nothing.../Nixon tour. Amazing experience, seeing the variations set to set, particularly the two-show day. Cover-wise, James McNew belting "Gates of Steel" was transformational.

^^^ I was at the 2-show day at the GAMH as well. Possibly the most enjoyable day of live music of my life.

a minute into "Dream Dream Away" i straight up thought it was developing into a "Free Fallin'" cover

xposts

is that the back cover? it is much, much better (and more fitting) than the front cover.

but at this point I'm five or six records past a record where off the top of my head I can think of several songs I like and would recognize.

i'm pretty much with you there. ATNTIIO was kind of the peak of fandom for me, but i really liked summer sun too. but then for some reason i didn't end up giving endless replays to all their albums since then, even though when i'd listen to them they all sounded decent.

parts of this new album are really good, though. i'm only halfway through so i should stfu and listen some more.

xp yes the cover is terrible, they shoulda gone with the vaguely Green River vibe of the back

New album is my favorite since Fade (underrated record), but I'll say what I say about every YLT album since ICHTHBAO: no one buys Yo La Tengo records for new age drones, free jazz, or lengthy psych jams. This is not the band's strength, and there are a zillion bands that do it better. Live, these excursions can be amazing and transcendent, but on record they are almost invariably a major snooze and they make the average YLT album about 30 minutes longer than it needs to be

then why do people buy YLT records?

So is this record in the same vein as 'Nothing'?That record and their "By The Time It Gets Dark" cover are what's stood the test of time for me as someone with generally less than no interest in indie rock. So I think I might be in it for the new age drones, etc.

There are songs on Nothing. Can't remember if there were any songs on this one.

The middle stretch -- the quietest -- is the most memorable.

then why do people buy YLT records?

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, March 17, 2018 12:57 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I assume for more songs like "Big Day Coming" and less for songs like "Night Falls on Hoboken." Is this not true?

You're digging a hole. Obviously fun songs are fun but artists can express themselves however they'd like.

Well, of course. And I think YLT's versatility is one of their greatest attributes. I just don't think anyone going to see them is dying to hear "The Evil That Men Do," for instance.

Listening again this morning. If your shit is And Then Nothing...you'll love this one

"Ashes" is a jam

And Then Nothing is so pretty and atmospheric, but there are also several truly great songs. There may be great songs on this one, but it mostly feels like just atmosphere to me, like listening to air. Which can be cool, but only in the right context.

Are you kidding me — I buy Yo La Tengo records for new age drones, free jazz and lengthy psych jams.

For a while my fave was May I Sing With Me, which may have the best of all of those. Well, maybe not free jazz. And songs, too!

Listening to Fade right now, I think it's a better brand of boring than the new one.

Yeah, the strings and horns at the end... this is the stuff.

whoa is there something like "Night Falls on Hoboken" on the new one?

The entire middle stretch.

Are you kidding me — I buy Yo La Tengo records for new age drones, free jazz and lengthy psych jams.

― tylerw, Saturday, March 17, 2018 10:49 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^^^^

i really want to like the middle stretch. "night falls on hoboken" is one of my favorite YLT songs.

i do like the closing song of that ambient center a lot, "above the sound". it reminds me of their Sounds of the Sounds of Science album from 2001/2, which is kind of my benchmark for how good instrumental YLT can be. and i love how it introduces the vocals back to the mix. it's natural to place the ambient songs all at the end (like "hoboken"), because it's so hard to work your way back to vox afterward. but they pull it off with "above the sound".

but the 11 minutes before that doesn't really resonate with me. i still can't hear "dream dream away" as anything but someone idly working through the Free Fallin' chords. "shortwave" is the most straight up ambient that i've ever heard YLT, but i'm not sure there's much there.

Painful was their peak imo

Ok, the argument and comparisons against this one have convinced me to buy my first YLT album in a decade+.

I think my second favorite thing by them, as time passes, is that 'Sounds of the Sounds of Science' documentary soundtrack. Actually, since they're great at covers, they should do a full-album cover of Sven Libaek's 'Inner Space'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfBnl7SUfKQ

"What Chance Have I Got" emerges well from the haze of the middle stretch, which my attention this time couldn't handle.

hmmmm https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/mar/16/yo-la-tengo-on-their-greatest-hits-maybe-no-one-else-is-listening

i still can't hear "dream dream away" as anything but someone idly working through the Free Fallin' chords

can't unhear this now

Are you kidding me — I buy Yo La Tengo records for new age drones, free jazz and lengthy psych jams.

― tylerw, Saturday, March 17, 2018 3:49 PM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just can't imagine a person going "you know what I'm in the mood for? Some droney drifty ambient. Let's see...Tangerine Dream? Nope. Stars of the Lid? Nope. Oh HERE WE GO it's the new YO LA TENGO. Bingo!"

well, now you can imagine it

I buy yo la tengo albums for all of the above. Although tbh I wasn't that into atntiio or summer sun or the 1st one. I probably would go along with painful and electro-pura as best. I love blue line swinger and that's quite long iirc

I'm enjoying this quite a lot, the atmospherics are really lovely even though the songs don't really stand out, though Here You Are is a highlight. It holds together really well as an album, the sequencing is excellent. It kinda reminds me of Talk Talk in places.

I don't think it's as good as Fade (which is excellent and underrated) but certainly better than Popular Songs as far as their recent-ish albums go. I'm glad they can still manage to find new variations on their sound, it feels much more free-form than their previous quiet albums.

Fade is definitely excellent and underrated

Is it? It got properly rated at the time (Pitchfork and Christgau loved it)

Maybe "undeservedly forgotten" more than "underrated" then, but that's inevitable with any band with a big discography. A few are bound to fall through the cracks

Assembled and augmented by McNew from a trove of experiments and works-in-progress...

Did not know this about the new record.

why people buy YLT albums & what they're looking for: this is why I love I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass the most. Bookended by two amazing stone jams, the first funky, the second desperate and soaring. And in between, a diversity of material similar to The White Album: beautiful ballads like I Feel Like Going Home, Black Flowers, The Weakest Part... genre experiments like The Race is On Again and Sometimes I Don't Get You, and killer pop songs like Beanbag Chair and Mr. Tough.

was behind ira in a food line last night, forgot to tell him to lose the noise jams

you nutters

This record is pretty much a YLT record as one could expect and I'm having a hard time understanding the direction of this thread.

This band - they’re good but they don’t have the performance or songwriting chops to last 10 + albums, jeez.

I liked it: https://www.spin.com/2018/03/yo-la-tengo-theres-a-riot-going-on-review/

calsnores

― mookieproof, Tuesday, February 5, 2013 9:32 PM (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is why I love I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass the most.

― flappy bird, Monday, March 19, 2018 9:03 AM (five days ago)

lol!

Really? You’re going to put them in the same league as Steely Dan or something? What a ducking joke

I feel like most ppl [not some of the ppl on this thread, obv.] only need one or two YLT albums. Take your pick, I guess. I don’t blame any band for soldiering on, though.

that advice goes for most artists

It makes me angry that my ex favourite band degenerates into rubbishness. I already wrote about it a couple of years ago. How can a once dear band become so generic and uninteresting? This is bad computer music without any interesting turns. They have totally lost it. They are not even shadows of themselves anymore, they are their own gravediggers. I cannot by any means understand what happened to this band. RIP YLT.

What are some of your other favorite bands?

Joy division
Giant sand
the smiths
Gun club
The breeders
Low
The House of love
Pixies
Cocteau twins
My bloody valentin
velvet underground

Just to name a few. Why?

It's true that the Pixies have sustained excellence well into their 50s.

Thx – just curious! I’m always interested...

I mean how many Painful and I Can Hear the Heart can a band make in a career? The usual career arc of a good band usually just goes from acclaimed records to a bunch of good not great follow ups at some point; the good not great records can feel great if it is exactly the type of stuff you enjoy, in which case YLT still 100% does for me. If it doesn't then its okay, but holding artists to a lofty standards 20 years after their peak seems truly unfair to me.

Xp. There are lots of other bands i love eg the wipers, the blue aeroplanes, the chills, roxy music etc.

"bad computer music" whuh? What does that mean in this context, or at all?

I've only just started listening to the album--does it become a Looper album or something, later on?

I like this new one

Yo La Tengo is a band where I literally like *the sound* of them playing together

obv some songs are better than others but ultimately they are kinda almost an ambient indie rock band to me

"bad computer music"
I mean that the last album sounds very deterministic. It is just plodding along. Or am i missing something?

They have been so varied for so many years. Starting with indie guitar rock with a folkish background, changing to more noisy stuff, doing open space night time music. Whatever they touched before roundabout 2005 was excellent. I even loved sounds of the sounds of science. And the other soundtracks. But suddenly it was over. There was no more spark anymore. It would be better they'd stop doing music. Really.

Ambient is a good term to summarize their new stuff. That kind of music has never been my cup of tea.

maybe that's just it and they shouldn't stop playing music just because they ain't your cup of tea no more.

(i get a bit defensive with YLT)

I am lapsed fan of YLT who hasn't bought their last five or six records and they should just keep on doing what they are doing because they are excellent people and seem to be enjoying it

"Dream Dream Away" is the first thing that's really hitting me. . . So yeah, I think I go in for gauzy ambient droney YLT.

Ooh, "Shortwave," yes very nice, too. I think I'll probably end up doing for this album what I did for the last YLT album I bought ('Summer Sun') and whittle it down to a really strong 30 minute +/- album.

This could practically pass for a collab between My Bloody Valentine, Low, and the instrumental unit of the Cocteau Twins, so I'm surprised you're so opposed, Alex in Mainhattan. . . Personally I'm excited to hear them take certain aspects of the 'Nothing' sound and follow them to their logical ends. Kudos to a band of people in their (presumably) late 40s/early 50s for trying new things.

I think they're in their early 60s actually. However, James might be late 40s?

I'm kind of ending up on it being a misstep, even though I like it-interesting failures are some of my favorite records. 'Forever' is a good example of this, ambient doo-wop that sounds interesting on paper, but I can't even listen to all the way through.

YLT is one of my favorite bands, but there is usually accidental intelligence when bands do press tours, and the "Assembled and augmented" quote is somewhat related to the "going back to the basics" thread, meaning to me it has the feel of 'we didn't have enough songs'. That's reinforced by how demo-like I find stuff like 'Polynesia #1', which feels like a riff and placeholder lyrics. 'Shortwave' I love, but I hope they never subject an audience to 'Dream Dream Away', and then on the back half you get retread YLT in Esportes Casual ('Center of Gravity'), the aforementioned 'Forever' and then ambient-Isaac Hayes in 'Out of the Pool', and never has a pool sounded less fun.

I don't know, I've been wrong about YLT records before but then 'Popular Songs' never clicked, and never has.

Polynesia #1 is a cover actually

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zdmWAkZ2PM

the only albums of theirs that feel like missteps to me are Summer Sun and Popular Songs, which both just feel like lesser versions of the preceding albums.

ha, I'll probably get kicked out of Portland for not knowing that was a Michael Hurley song.

It makes me angry that my ex favourite band degenerates into rubbishness. I already wrote about it a couple of years ago. How can a once dear band become so generic and uninteresting?

dude really? Aging happens to all of us.

YLT have had a pretty stellar run, even if you cut them off in 2006. Great bands average 3-4 great records. They at least have that, arguably more.

having said that I have not listened to the new one (but will now), I am very much a lapsed fan. "The Crying of Lot G" is one of my favorite songs ever and I've already said which album I love the most. Becoming boring/generic 30 years into a career is unfortunately common. So it goes.

This is actually my favorite YLT album of the OOs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgr8QrJVq6w&list=PLjX2iu_u1e981a7-GHEGSu4ka8dWbUwMj

(It's "Fuckbook" by the Condo Fucks, not sure why the embed isn't working)

Oh I like the new album. It sounds like they set out to make a spacious, atmospheric record and they succeeded. For as much as it "sounds like YLT" I don't think there is another album in their discography that is a better version of this particular thing. Maybe individual songs, but not whole albums.

I hope they never subject an audience to 'Dream Dream Away'

They did last night! Though if you're worried about the new songs (which sound great live), fear not, they're playing a quiet set followed by a loud set, with plenty of feedback and sudden organ freakouts from peak-form Ira, who remains music's goofiest boy. Last night included a particularly breathless run of Double Dare/Decora/Sugarcube/Pass the Hatchet (!). I was hoping for "What Chance Have I Got," my favorite new one, but "Mr. Tough" (and its helpfully reprised refrain) got the message across: all our joy is mere reprieve. Somewhat less subtle: encore cover of The Dead C's "Bad Politics." Anyway, I love love love this band and they've now played two of the best shows of my lifetime.

Also: James McNew was wearing a black t-shirt with the word FUM in small white lettering. I'm still wondering about this.

what does it mean?

i was at that show too... sudden organ was soooo good. and yep still baffled by james's shirt

i was the guy who asked ira what song it was after they played 'i'll be around' haha. as mentioned above sometimes even when you're a fan you lapse now and then

oh also last night was the first time i noticed what a good bass player james mcnew is, his parts are always repetitive and simple but every now and then he'd pull off a little fill or lick that had wonderful finesse

oh man...seen them 5-6 times and never hears sudden organ. super jealous.

you should be tbh. also for pass the hatchet, top tier skronk

yeah sudden organ + deeper into movies + nuclear war with a set finale of i heard you looking was the absolute best when i first saw them live.

FUM maybe wfmu related?

james mcnew was promoting Ultra Music Festival. man that festival was sick. it is the world's premier electronic music festival, boasting elite DJs and unparalleled production located in the beautiful city of Miami.

but he messed up the acronym, easy to do

My dad used to have a shirt from Japan that just said BUM

I heard someone near me asking what it said, and someone else responding "fum, like fee fie foe fum," as if that explained it.

i was the guy who asked ira what song it was after they played 'i'll be around' haha

Howdy from the back. I tend to get some of their more languorous songs mixed up, and was pretty sure they were playing "Today is the Day" at one or two points.

how the new songs sound live?

excellent. sleepy/mellow first set then a ripper second set. one of the better shows i've seen in awhile, you should go

surely the first line of "Shades of Blue" is 'Painted my room', not 'Laid in my room' as all the lyric sites have it?
said song has probably moved into my top 5 Georgia-sung songs.

Damage
Blue line swinger
Nowhere near
Today is the day
Shadows

Pablo and Andrea
Before We Run
Shades of Blue
I Feel Like Going Home
Little Eyes

Ira sings Damage, oops. Sub Pablo and Andrea, how could I forget that one

Ira sings Damage

not entirely, Georgia sings the wordless chorus which makes the song.

the weakest part!

YLT's Instagram account posted some photos taken by James at Tweedy's studio in Chicago. Recording something new?

hopefully!

Listening to the Old Joy tracks from They Shoot, We Score and quietly hoping there's more of this in the vaults. I'd happily take a whole day's worth of it.

that was the last album of them i enjoyed. the sounds of the sounds of silence was even better but that was before, wasn't it?

new Dump album out, on some Spanish cassette-only micro label, because of course. Same playbook as usual - long dreamy jams & obscure covers - which is fine with me, good stuff. Wish he did these more often (and they werent such a pain in the ass to find out about and get)

ugh, so literally ONLY cassette. That's disappointing. Was hoping the bandcamp link would lead to somewhere to at least buy it digitally, but sold out already.

haha, he really is pathologically un-ambitious when it comes to his extracurricular activities ...

lol for real. the cassette i got came with a digital download, which is nice, but no way to buy it digital only apparently. according to his insta theyre doing a new pressing of the cassette "soon"

out, on some Spanish cassette-only micro label

I read this as "out on some Spanish micro-cassette only label"

I mean I get it that this is all super chill for James but, uh, I really want to give him my money for this. Seems weird to not at least offer a digital download option now that both pressings (so far) are sold out.

just remembering that his last full-length was released through some mail-order LP subscription label. my joke theory is that he's trying to keep it a secret from georgie & ira, terrified they'll shitcan him for moonlighting.

Dump, “Blown Dunks” cassette 3rd edition now available. 17 new/unreleased songs. 9 originals, 8 covers (ABBA, Residents, etc). Approx 60 min. https://t.co/wa9nX7DG65

— James McNew (@dumpland) December 31, 2019

thanks, i ordered it. another 4 weeks until the tape is supposed to arrive in berlin.

wasn't really in a Yo La Tengo mode when There's a Riot Going On came out, but right now this is totally hitting the spot for me.

They just have such a good sound. This record is def the all-out dreamy YLT. Feels good on a sunny winter morning.

^^^

It's such a great record, think it's going to play out as one of their high points.

thanks for the reminder to listen to this! i was also not in a YLT mode when it came out; i'm not sure if i even listened to a full track at the time. but it's hard for them to make a "bad" album. the baseline quality of a YLT track is dang good. that was their rep 20 years ago, still true today

nothing to add here except that yes, this one is probably my favorite of the last 20 years

Yeah, there's something to be said for needing to be in a YLT mood first. That wasn't always the case, at least for me. Up to and maaaaybe including I Can Hear the Heart ... I could play just about all of their stuff at any time. Pretty much everything after And Then Nothing ... I need to be in the mood and/or patient enough to explore. And Then Nothing ... might be the only one I put on if I actually want to *be* in a mood. Painful and Facebook remain the ones I play the most for pleasure. The last six or however many records, none of them are bad, I just, yeah, need to be in the right mood and/or have nothing else I want to listen to first.

I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One is probably the one I could reach for any time, but tbh that one is tied to a very specific time and place and nostalgia for certain people

i might say that Popular Songs was my least favorite YLT album overall, but I played it recently and it still sounded damn good. the catalog is pretty strong.

"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.

this is excellent
https://mississippirecords.bandcamp.com/album/old-joy-official-soundtrack

Yes, yes it is!