(Yo La Tengo at the Granada, Dallas, last Saturday night. Pic taken from SilentKid70’s Flickr stream)
Through a series of failed relationships, family disputes and horrible recriminations with dear friends, I’ve come to learn there is no greater gift you can give your loved ones than simply being there. This works rather well if you’re cheap or have nothing else to to ; not nearly so well if you’re me and you’ve got tickets to sit in the studio audience of a very serious chat show.
Fortunately for the good people of San Francisco, Yo La Tengo aren’t like that at all. Sure, Ira, Georgia and James could issue a press release about how “we’re looking forward to seeing you at Coachella”, or they could fob you off with some YouTube footage from their most recent US tour. But they care far too much about their fans in one of America’s most beautiful cities (to spend 3 or 4 days in), and for that we should all be grateful.
Thu, 4/22 – San Francisco CA – The Fillmore with Camera Obscura (tickets)
Fri, 4/23 – San Francisco CA – The Fillmore with Thee Oh Sees (tickets)
Sat, 4/24 – San Francisco CA – The Fillmore with Sic Alps (tickets)
If you’d rather not give Live Nation your personal details, tickets for the above shows are also available from the following ;
Aquarius Records
1055 Valencia St, SF 94110
415 647 3448 /
* tickets will have a $1 surcharge
Mod Lang
6328 Fairmount Ave. (Rear Unit), El Cerrito, CA 94530
510 486 1880
*No surcharge on cash purchase / 2% surcharge on credit card purchases
(‘Popular Songs’, still available on LP/CD or digital album from The Matador Store)
It’s the greatest thing to hit Pontiac, MI since Wayne Fontes’ hair. Greater, perhaps. Yo La Tengo and Times New Viking hit the road starting today in support of their respective 2009 masterpieces, ‘Popular Songs’ and ‘Born Again Revisited’. While the Jan. 29 show in Austin, TX is a sellout, tickets still remain for the rest of the following shows (prices below include NO ADDITIONAL SERVICE CHARGE) ;
Fri., 1/22 – Pontiac MI – Crofoot Ballroom – $17
Tickets available from Stormy, 13210 Michigan Ave., Dearborn MI 48126
Wazoo, 336 1/2 State St., Ann Arbor MI 48104
Crofoot box office, 1 South Saginaw St., Pontiac MI 48342
Sat., 1/23 – Madison WI – Barrymore Theatre – $20
Tickets available from B Side, 436 State St., Madison WI 53703
Barrymore box office, 2090 Atwood Ave., Madison WI 53704)
Sun., 1/24 – St Louis MO – The Pageant – $19.50
Tickets available from Vintage Vinyl, 6610 Del Mar Ave., St. Louis MO 63130
Euclid, 601 East Lockwood, St. Louis MO 63119
Pageant box office, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis MO 63112-1200 (cash only)
Tue., 1/26 – Lawrence KS – Granada Theatre – $17
Tickets : Love Garden, 822 Massachusetts St., Lawrence KS 66044
Granada box office, 1020 Massachusetts St., Lawrence KS 66044
Tonight in Manhattan, Yo La Tengo are slated to appear alongside Patti Smith, The Antlers, The Swell Season, John Wesley Harding and others as part of the City Winery’s four day benefit concert series for emergency relief in Haiti.
More information here: http://www.citywinery.com/events/59379
As you might recall, we polled a number of number of medium-to-high profile Yo La Tengo fans and asked for their favorite YLT song. Said results were supposed to appear in this space during each of Hanukkah’s 8 nights, but after an all too typical Matablog orgy of buck-passing, we’re (ahem) a little late. Also, we suck at math : there are ten total entries instead of 8. Happy belated Hanukkah to all!
JULIA RYDHOLM, The Ladybug Transistor “Sugarcube” from I Can hear The Heart Beating As One
I have a lot of favorite Yo La Tengo songs, but I am going to single out “Sugarcube”. I love how the song kicks off with a lawless, tumbling drum fill, barrelling into the disciplined, driving, over-driven guitar chords that sustain the frame of the song. I love the song’s metamorphic layers of fuzzy chords, persistent shakers, splashy cymbals, and hazy vocals with Ira’s guitar solos weaving through the lot of it. I love that the song sounds like the blurry, night-windowed artwork on the back of the album. I love that the tension between the head-over-heels drum introduction and the song suddenly trying to get a hold of itself, is mirrored in the lyrics’ struggle with over-the-top acrobatic desperation and trying to keep one’s cool. I love that the lyrics sound like the mantra anyone really feeling something recites to reassure oneself, and wants to, but tries so hard not to plead out loud to the one they want.
GLENN MERCER, The Feelies “Stockholm Syndrome” from I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One
I got married this year, and we used this song for our first dance at the wedding. My wife loves it and I love it and James sings so sweetly on it. I asked him what the lyrics were about, and he told me that it was a message from him today to himself in the past, circa 2005. A message to hang on.
BRITT DANIEL, Spoon “Saturday” from And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
This song sends me to another place. That’s powerful, huh? The first time I heard it, it was one of those preview tracks you get to download for free before the record comes out. It must have taken me an hour or two to download it and I remember writing a friend at Matador immediately after hearing it the first time and saying “This has got me excited!” I don’t know, I love it. Every hazy, offhand element comes together into one creepy but magical focus that always gets me.
My favorite Yo La Tengo song is “The Summer,” it just has this lovely vibe to it, a lot of feeling packed into a few words, simple but really effective; the recording too is sweetly moody. I’ve also long been a fan of their version of Gene Clark’s “Tried So Hard,” which just precedes “The Summer” on “Fakebook” — I was pleased many years ago when I requested it at a show and they actually played it! Gene Clark might not have been Jewish, but it would be a good request for one of their Hanukkah shows!
As the year comes to an end and the spirit of revisiting things takes us over, we’ve come across the following comment that Jared Phillips (Times New Viking) made to Pitchfork back in January 2008 when discussing life on the road:
I don’t know where the best place we’ve played would be. Probably one of those places that we played with Yo La Tengo that we’ll never get to play again [ laughs ]. Those were all pretty fun but, you know, if it ever happens we’ll be 40 years old by the time we play in a place that big again.
So I guess we’d just like to be the first to say happy 40th to TNV because this coming January good times are rolling through towns from Michigan south to Texas. That’s right like any good combination (chocolate and peanut butter immediately comes to mind), Yo La Tengo and Times New Viking have decided to revisit the road and live performance format together this coming January. If you’re in one of the towns below be sure to catch what should be the chocolate and peanut butter of live shows, for the early part of 2010 at the very least. Tickets are on sale now!!!!
Fri, Jan 22 / Pontiac, MI / Crofoot Ballroom
Sat, Jan 23 / Madison, WI / Barrymore Theatre
Sun, Jan 24 / St. Louis, MO / The Pageant
Tue, Jan 26 / Lawrence, KS / Granada Theatre
Wed, Jan 27 / Tulsa, OK / Cain’s Ballroom
Thu, Jan 28 / Houston, TX / Warehouse Live
Fri, Jan 29 / Austin, TX / Antone’s
Sat, Jan 30 / Dallas, TX / Granada Theatre
Yo La Tengo are taking a rare year off from their annual Hanukkah shows at Maxwell’s —they’re in Japan right now — and as a result, we polled a bunch of famous name YLT fans and asked them to pick their favorite song from the trio’s vast back catalog. Ideally, we’d planned to roll one of these out each night for 8 days (get it?)….but then the Beggars Group Holiday Party happened….and we all lost our wallets, keys, laptops and senses for a few days. So we’ll start with 5 today, alright?
CLINT CONLEY, Mission Of Burma “The Race Is On Again” from ‘I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Am Going To Beat Your Ass’
To me this song is typical of YLT finding their way into a quiet corner of the Indie-sphere that hasn’t been raked over by the hordes, and is theirs alone. Sweet and beautiful melancholia . With chord changes that feel fresh every time I hear them.
BRIAN TURNER, WFMU/The Mad Scene “Deeper Into Movies” from ‘I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One’
Some YLT songs kinda crack open more and more instrumentally, spiralling up to a total frothing pot of epic noize but never obliterating the fabric of the song and how it’s structured. This one is definitely one of the ceilings in that realm; there’s vocal unity and a swoony melody with a repeated mantra that pokes through as the chaos builds, and it’s really lovely. Anarchic but centered, never forgetting the song and its progression. It’s almost like the Beach Boys backed by a Sonny Sharrock-fronted Rallizes Denudes or something insane that shouldn’t work but does perfectly.
I’ve had the pleasure of playing this with Yo La Tengo a few times. They gave me the job of the slide, which I gleefully took. A unique song from a unique band. Of course I’m biased, but who ain’t?!
My all time favorite YLT song (for now) is Big Day Coming. And the fact that there are two of them only doubles my pleasure. That’s saying quite a bit too as I have over fifty-seven favorite YLT songs. And that, for reasons I won’t go into here, Yo La Tengo will forever be associated with severe stomach cramps and extreme nausea and I STILL love them very much.
KURT WAGNER, Lambchop “Wizard’s Sleeve” from’Short Bus : Original Soundtrack’
The title still haunts me like a Halloween movie. Sure, I have many other favorite YLT songs, but play this one for me and I’ll most likely not recognize it. To me, that really speaks volumes to the special nature of this particular song.
Yo La Tengo launch the brand-new “Live at Moog” series on Paste.com.
“Live at Moog” brings bands into the Moog Music Factory in Asheville, North Carolina, and lets them play with analog toys in service of the bands’ original material.
