However, I sure wish they'd take the mic away from Ira. God, I hate his voice. Sometimes, I don't think he's even trying.
― darin (darin), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 00:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― noodle vague (noodle vague), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 00:40 (nineteen years ago) link
Also the Today is the Day , EP version, is pretty fantastic ..
― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 01:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― j.m. lockery (j.m. lockery), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 01:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― sleep (sleep), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 14:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 17:15 (nineteen years ago) link
Electropura is my favorite. All the "rockists" HATED Summer Sun when it came out.
Great taste in covers too. And they named themselves after a Richie Ashburn tall tale, how Classic can you get?
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 17:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dark Horse, Tuesday, 16 November 2004 17:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 18:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― the bellefox, Tuesday, 16 November 2004 18:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ian John50n (orion), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 18:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 18:36 (nineteen years ago) link
They were pretty awful live.
Some of their songs are good, but I can never really make up my mind about them.
― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 18:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 19:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― a banana (alanbanana), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 19:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― j.m. lockery (j.m. lockery), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 00:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 00:57 (nineteen years ago) link
-- Ned Raggett (ne...), November 17th, 2004.
WOW! i'm breaking out in hives of envy right now.
― j.m. lockery (j.m. lockery), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 01:10 (nineteen years ago) link
Loving YLT is like loving your disfunctional relationship with your friend/partner/parents/children. Flawed but cherished.
― Piers (piers), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 01:20 (nineteen years ago) link
Uh, no it wasn't! Sorry, I really didn't like YLT and they've barely registered with me since, and I absolutely hate Buffalo Tom. This was a bill of suffering through the openers to get to the headliner.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 04:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― Porkpie (porkpie), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 15:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― mcd (mcd), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 15:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― Porkpie (porkpie), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 16:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 16:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 18:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 19:01 (nineteen years ago) link
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 (eighteen years ago) link
― dave's good arm (facsimile) (dave225.3), Sunday, 28 May 2006 13:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― willem -- (willem), Sunday, 28 May 2006 14:11 (eighteen years ago) link
Their summer concert in NYC last summer was fun.
― mts (theoreticalgirl), Sunday, 28 May 2006 15:17 (eighteen years ago) link
Does Louis Jagger like Yo La Tengo?
― Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 12:06 (sixteen years ago) link
who cares? great band.
― stephen, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 18:54 (sixteen years ago) link
Painful, still in my top 10 albums of the '90s. gorgeous, unforgettable album.
― stephen, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 18:55 (sixteen 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 (sixteen 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 (sixteen 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 (sixteen years ago) link
oh the live shows are still GREAT.
― stephen, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 20:46 (sixteen 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 (sixteen 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 (sixteen 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 (sixteen 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 (sixteen 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 (sixteen 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 (sixteen 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 (sixteen 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 (sixteen 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 (sixteen 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 (sixteen years ago) link
There's like 25 threads about this band and it's still not enough.
― billstevejim, Tuesday, 15 September 2009 06:35 (fifteen 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
fade and i am not afraid of you... are both very good too
but this stupid world is a top 3 ylt album
― ufo, Thursday, 27 July 2023 20:45 (one year ago) link
hard agree
― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Thursday, 27 July 2023 21:24 (one year ago) link
Their sea creature documentary soundtrack is great too
― hrep (H.P), Thursday, 27 July 2023 22:47 (one year ago) link
yes!
― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Thursday, 27 July 2023 22:49 (one year ago) link
Not bad
https://www.instagram.com/p/C-p5edCOy4d/
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 16:15 (one month ago) link
controversial for some
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 23:50 (one month ago) link
https://pitchfork.com/news/yo-la-tengo-want-to-play-a-fundraiser-for-kamala-harris-and-tim-walz/
― Marten Broadcloak, mild-mannered GOP congressman (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 15 August 2024 10:13 (one month ago) link
I just realized that I’m seeing them in Baltimore in a little over a month!
― Marten Broadcloak, mild-mannered GOP congressman (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 15 August 2024 10:14 (one month ago) link