(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.
If all goes well, on iTunes you’ll be able to purchase Fucked Up’s star-studded cover of Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? All proceeds will go to benefit three organizations in Canada working to bring to end to the epidemic of missing and murdered native women.
The song is a tongue-in-cheek take on the ’80s classic written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, and features vocals from Yo La Tengo, GZA, Ezra Koenig (Vampire Weekend), Bob Mould (Husker Du), Tegan & Sara, Andrew W.K., Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio), David Cross (comedian) and Kevin Drew (Broken Social Scene).
Fucked Up’s frontman Damian Abraham, a.k.a. “Pink Eyes”, says “it’s hard to find a balance between the song being a fun, playful holiday classic and the reason we’re putting it out, to benefit organizations dealing with a deadly, serious issue.” Since 1980, there have been 520 known cases of missing or murdered Aboriginal women across Canada and many believe the true number to be significantly higher. If compared to the rest of the population their death and disappearance rate would be equivalent to over 18,000 Canadian women and girls missing or murdered. Approximately 50% of the murders and disappearances have occurred during or since 2000.
The recording of this track was funded in full by a portion of the $20,000 award Fucked Up received for winning the Polaris Music Prize for their recent album, The Chemistry of Common Life.
‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ should be available from iTunes on Tuesday December 8, and will be released as a 7″ single with an unreleased Fucked Up song on the b-side in February 2010.
Fucked Up are also releasing a compilation of their many rare singles recorded between 2002 and 2009, Couple Tracks, accompanied by a two-song limited-edition 7″ and in stores on January 26.
Photo used without permission, taken from Christoph!’s photostream on Flickr
There’s a whole host of Yo La action to update you with this week. Tonight, the band will be speaking to Gideon Coe live on BBC 6 Music, show starting at 9pm. You can listen live via DAB digital radio, or log onto Gideon’s 6Music page here for a live stream. The band will be discussing Popular Songs, their career and playing some of their favourite tracks from their most loved artists.
And tomorrow, at 7pm, Yo La Tengo will be playing a rare instore show, Freewheeling style, at London’s Rough Trade East store. It’s a free show, but you’ll only get in with a wristband. WRISTBAND COLLECTION 1 HOUR PRIOR TO STAGE TIME, STRICTLY ONE PER PERSON. So get down to the store early to guarantee entry.
Rough Trade East can be found :
‘Dray Walk’
Old Truman Brewery
91 Brick Lane
London
E1 6QL
The band will also be playing this weekend’s All Tomorrow’s Parties Nightmare Before Christmas festival at Butlins, Minehead.
Yo La Tengo : Friday 4th December, 8.30pm-9.45pm
As well as YLT, you can also catch Sonic Youth and Fucked Up down at ATP. Check the ATP listings for everyone else playing.
Photo taken from turgidson’sFlickr, used without permission.
Following their largest ever UK date earlier this month at The Roundhouse, Camden; Yo La Tengo will be returning to London early next month to play a very rare instore performance at Rough Trade East in advance of their performance at ATP’s Nightmare Before Christmas.
More details to come, but what I can tell you at this time is that this will be a stripped-down ‘Freewheeling’ style set as seen on these shores earlier in the year. Wristbands to gain access to the instore will only be available on the day from the store.
December 3rd. 7pm.
Rough Trade East
‘Dray Walk’
Old Truman Brewery
91 Brick Lane
London
E1 6QL
Though Yo La Tengo have hit many of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities while touring in support of the monumentally great ‘Popular Songs’, there are a number of Mid-American locales that haven’t thrilled to Ira, Georgia and James at the height of their performing powers. Not until January, that is, at which time Yo La Tengo return to the domestic touring circuit, but this time, with a twist.
For each of the (reasonably priced) concert dates below, tickets are available with no additional surcharge from area record stores and/or directly from the venues. Yo La Tengo, their booking agency and local promoters have put a fair bit of time into these arrangements, and here’s our contribution to the effort ; a Google Map that will help you find the outlets listed individually below.
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)
TICKETS AT THE PAGEANT BOX OFFICE ONLY WILL BE 4 FOR THE PRICE OF 3 THROUGH NOV. 21
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
With apologies to Yogi Berra for the above headline, here’s Ira, Georgia and James performing ‘Popular Songs” climactic “And The Glitter Is Gone”, just prior to play being called on account of darkness. Video shot and hosted by Pitchfork TV. Please watch responsibly!
“Here To Fall” from the staggeringly great ‘Popular Songs’ LP/CD/digital album, as filmed and posted by PF TV. Nice view of the Empire State Building behind Georgia, too. More rooftop Yo La Tengo to come later this week.
Following a busy weekend in Northern California, with a show in Santa Cruz on Saturday night, a brunch style in-store at Aquarius in San Francisco on Sunday, and a festival appearance at the Treasure Island Music Festival, Yo La Tengo are continuing to bring their music and insight to the people of Northern California and beyond by appearing live on KQED.
Sunday afternoons, there are just nothing like them. Get a little brunch, listen to some music, and simply relax, forgetting about the worries of your previous week. Well this Sunday should be no different, except well if you’re in San Francisco because then you can also spend it with Yo La Tengo. Yep you read that right, drop by Aquarius Records this Sunday for an intimate, brunch-style in-store appearance by Yo La Tengo. Aquarius Records have been long time supporters of the band, look no further than their recent Record of the Week review (below) of Popular Songs as evidence. Yo La Tengo have equally supported independent record stores throughout the years too. So to us this really sounds like a perfect match, the likes of a bagel and cream cheese or a donut and coffee, and from what we hear, arrive early enough and you’ll have dibs on both. Most important you’ll also get a chance to see Yo La Tengo perform a special, intimate set at Aquarius, and well we can’t imagine anything better than that on a Sunday afternoon!
Aquarius Records
1055 Valencia St, SF 94110
Sun, Oct 18 / 1-2pm
Aquarius Records / Record of the Week
They never ever disappoint, in fact more often than not, they totally blow us away. And with Popular Songs, Yo La Tengo remind us once again why they are one of the best bands of the last quarter century. From start to finish this is an album with so many different sounds, styles, moods and motifs, yet it’s all so deliciously Yo La Tengo! Like their best albums, the first time you hear this record you know it’s going to be an album that you’ll listen to for the rest of your life. And in this day and age of disposable culture it’s so incredibly refreshing to have YLT, whose music has such a timeless element, and sounds so personal and passionate, and will undoubtedly stand the test of time. YLT never aspired to be the hippest or trendiest or coolest band around. Simply stated, slow and steady wins the race! They’ve definitely won, and continue to win, and in turn so have we. They’ve made their indelible mark by just being themselves, and when it comes to pure substance it just doesn’t get more richly rewarding than YLT.
Popular Songs is like an album that represent the best friend we all wish we could have. Someone you can turn to when it’s time to get deep or vent some bittersweet sadness, someone you can also have fun sleepover parties with and let loose and experience total joy together. These are a set of songs that really do hit at almost the entire spectrum of emotion, and the pacing/sequencing of the album just couldn’t be more perfect. Whether being melted away by one of Georgia Hubley’s beautifully aching drift-away numbers or being swept up in a Motown like fury or rocked by a straight ahead burner, there is such immaculate skill in the crafting of each song.
The album features wonderfully lush string arrangements provided by Richard Evans, the legendary soul pioneer who contributed so much to the amazing ’60s Chicago/Cadet soul scene, who many of you might know and love for his work on the great Afro-Harping album by Dorothy Ashby. So awesome, and yet after taking so many wonderful twist and turns, it is the ending of the album that really leaves us so stunned and in awe.
The last two tracks are very long and mostly instrumental. “The Fireside” is eleven minutes of total shoegaze bliss, that puts most actual ‘shoegaze’ bands to shame, letting the listener get lost in a slow glowing haze. And then the album’s closer “And The Glitter Is Gone”, an almost sixteen minute sonic smolder brimming with a droning and triumphant psychedelic spirit that we could listen to forever.
One of those rare records that is all ‘favorite songs’, every listen, a new song gets stuck in your head and fills your heart, only to be supplanted by another the next time, and on it goes, favorite after favorite after favorite. We think it’s fair to say this is a total masterpiece from one of our favorite groups!
Citizens of the Twin Cities and environs are blessed with not one but two opportunities for live Yo La Tengo today. In addition to going to their show tonight at First Avenue (which you surely already planned on doing), you can catch an interview and live performance by Ira, Georgia & James on 89.3 The Current. Those of you not in the area only get the one live experience, and it can be had by clicking here to listen online. The fun starts at 6 PM EDT/5 PM CDT.
You may have noticed that we’ve been going on a bit about tonight’s epic Yo La Tengo show at Roseland in New York City, and well, what can I say? We’re excited. Other excited parties, and human beings in general, should tune in to WFMU at 3:00 this afternoon, when Yo La Tengo’s always entertaining bassist James McNew will chat by phone with David Suisman on his Inner Ear Detour show. Also, I do believe David will be playing some music from the new album Popular Songs, which as I’m sure you can imagine is a favorite around these parts.
You can engage with WFMU on the radio dial at 91.1 FM (NYC/East Central NJ) and on WMFU, 90.1 FM (Hudson Valley, Lower Catskills, Western NJ). If those parenthetical locations don’t work for you, there’s always online listening at wfmu.org.
TGIF with YLT. That’s right, this Friday (Sept 25th), should you find yourself in New York City with nothing to do, fear not. Yo La Tengo return home (or very very close to home) to play a show celebrating their brand new album Popular Songs.
The event is being hosted by the Daily Show’s John Oliver. Second the Black Lips are opening up for YLT and well those guys never let you down live. And finally Yo La Tengo. Their set sounds like one for the ages, as they’ll be accompanied by both a string section and a very special, one night only light show by Joshua White & Gary Panter.
And since there are no plans for Hanukkah shows this year, this is your last chance to see YLT in the NYC area this year. Tickets are still available!
As mentioned earlier, Yo La Tengo’s September 25 homecoming concerto at NYC’s Roseland Ballroom is likely to be the hottest rock event $28.50 will buy these days. But in addition to the star studded bill of YLT, Black Lips and the Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co., the evening will be hosted by John Oliver, whose contributions to Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” you are no doubt, very familiar with.
I’d like to think my suggestion of Fred Travalena was taken very seriously by the band, and were it not for Fred’s recent passing, I’d be announcing his participation at this very moment.
We’d also like to congratulate Yo La Tengo on the new LP/CD/digital full-length ‘Popular Songs’ entering the Billboard chart at #58 — the highest chart entry of the band’s career. To paraphrase a great, if misunderstood American artist, we’re very happy for the Beatles, but ‘Popular Songs’ is one of the best albums of all-time.
NYC’s venerable Roseland Ballroom’s been host to a number of historic rock shows over the years. Once, I saw a Slayer gig that featured almost a dozen women amongst the 4000 paying customers. On Friday, September 25, 2009, a new chapter in Roseland history will be written as Yo La Tengo headline their biggest hometown show to date, with support from Atlanta’s Black Lips and a lobby performance from Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co.
Aside from the Yo La Tengo lineup of Ira, Georgia and James being augmented by additional strings on this evening, the staging and lighting will be a one-off presentation from Joshua White and Gary Panter. There’s talk of an MC, and while we can’t divulge any names, I am personally hoping and praying it is anyone other than this guy.
Tickets are available here. I realize the streets of NYC are safer than when I was living in Manhattan, but trust me, you don’t wanna be wandering around Hell’s Kitchen looking for a Yo La Tengo ticket the night of the show. For one thing, it might rain. For another, Yo La Tengo will not be playing their annual Hanukkah shows at Maxwell’s this December, so this is your last chance to see the band in the greater NY area this year.
Because just when we thought you couldn’t go and get any better, you go ahead and do something totally awesome like making this killer Yo La Tengo window display to celebrate today’s release of “Popular Songs.”
So if you find yourself in Bloomington, Indiana and you happen to pass by Landlocked Music be sure to stop in and tell them that we love them… very, very much.
We are letting the secret slip early, right here…. Matador Records, Brooklyn Vegan, and Other Music are proud to announce that we are combining forces to celebrate the new album Popular Songs on the date of release, next Tuesday, September 8th here in New York City. The event will be held at D’amelio Terras Gallery (located at 525 W. 22nd St) from 7-930 pm, however, get there EARLY, as the first hour will be an album signing by the band (yes, Ira, James, and Georgia will be in attendance), and the album artist (and gallery owner) Dario Robleto. Other Music will be set up at the gallery to sell you your personal copy of the new album (while you hear it) on the day of release! Goodies will be raffled like: Popular Songs LPs, autographed tour posters, and concert tickets to their upcoming New York headlining show at ROSELAND BALLROOM.
The office feels a little empty now that Popular Songs is shipping to Buy Early Get Now participants. It seems like only yesterday, Popular Songs was a just a BEGN preorder, full of promise. Today, the 2nd bonus mp3 is up for download, a demo version of “Periodically Double or Triple,” in mp3 and FLAC formats. Before you know it the album will be on your doorstep, in your hands, real. They grow up so fast…
Also, Entertainment Weekly has premiered the final video in the John McSwain series, this one for the gorgeous Popular Songs standout “When It’s Dark”:
….what John Stossel did for “Doctor D” David Schultz. OK, it’s friendlier than that. Anytime a national news program uses words like “sanctum sanctorum” and “late to the party” in relation to Yo La Tengo, we could not be more pleased.
(ADDENDUM : not to look positive media coverage in the mouth or anything, but please accept our apologies in advance for the advertisement that plays prior to the YLT/ABC clip. Blackberry Loves U2. U2 Loves The Virgin Prunes. Does Blackberry love the Virgin Prunes? You can’t presume anything.)
