New Yo La Tengo

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.