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Posts Tagged ‘Yo La Tengo’

Day 87. Brahms and Yo La Tengo.

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Tonight I finished ripping the Julius Katchen complete Brahms piano works and a stack of Yo La Tengo. The Katchen set is very well done, and I remember when it came out because Jim the manager at Tower Berkeley held the box up when it was unpacked, had a great smile spread over his face, and snapped ‘KATCHEN!’. He had been waiting for this set for a number of years (since his days playing piano in college), and he took the single copy of the set we got in and immediately purchased it. I asked him if it was good, he looked at me, held up the set and again snapped ‘KATCHEN!’. I picked it up a few weeks after that and really enjoyed it as well, especially the late sets of piano pieces.

I had already ripped a few Yo La Tengo discs early on in the project, so I went ahead and grabbed the rest that were on the shelves. Included in this stack was ‘I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One’, the album that I consider, hands down, to be the best album of the ’90s. The flow of the album goes between rockers, folk songs and out there shoegazer drones. There is a great Beach Boys cover, and the last 20 minutes (“Spec Bebop”, “We’re and American Band” and “My Little Corner Of The World”) is a great outro to a great album. And for personal reasons, it was also the album that introduced me to the band. I first heard it being played at the old Wall Berlin cafe in Berkeley (I think I heard ‘Autumn Sweater’ leading into ‘Little Honda’) one night while I was closing at Tower, and bought the disc that night. Honestly though, the first time I heard it all the way through, I thought it was a bit tough to get through. Then I listened again and probably by the fourth or fifth time I couldn’t believe how good of an album it is. From then on, it just continued to grow on me. I picked up a few more records before ‘And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out’ came out. Within those couple years, Yo La Tengo became probably my favorite rock band. I still pick up any of their releases as soon as they come out (and since the last few have been available as pre-orders on iTunes, Yo La Tengo also tends to be one of the only bands where I buy the album BEFORE I can get it).

This album still stands up incredibly well. And I see it as the start of a great run for the band. After this album, they have been releasing a new album about once every three years (with a few side projects thrown in here and there in between). And they have held up a pretty high level of consistency. As of right now, ‘I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One’ lies at the mid point of their career. So far. ‘Popular Songs’ came out last year, and I imagine the next album should be out sometime around 2012.

I can’t wait.

And if you are one of those unfortunate people that thinks that the 90s topped out with ‘OK Computer’ or ‘Nevermind’ or any of Björk’s great albums, then you should treat yourself and go pick up the real best album of the 90s.

Day 48. Yo La Tengo and The The.

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Tonight’s grabs were a couple of discs by ‘The The’ and a few from ‘Yo La Tengo’. ‘Dusk’ and ‘Hanky Panky’ were both released in the early / mid 90s. Matt Johnson (the only constant member of The The) puts a group together, makes a record and may do a tour. Dusk’s most notable contributor was, by far, major contributor Johnny Marr. And like just about anything Johnny Marr touches (The Smiths, The Pretenders, Modest Mouse) the album was golden. I still remember getting to work at the Tower on Sunrise early on morning to hear the ‘Dogs of Lust’ blasting on the stereo. The harmonica opening leading to a great heavy bass riff caught my attention pretty quickly, and I was listening to ‘Slow Emotion Replay’ on my car stereo on the way home that afternoon. While Johnny Marr wasn’t on the next album (Hanky Panky) his sound lingered a bit with the group. ‘Hanky Panky’ was an entire album of Hank Williams songs. What I liked most about the album was the sound it created. Like most good covers the songs don’t sound like Hank Williams, but like The The taking the poetry and lonesome feel and creating a The The record.

Along similar lines is the CD single Yo La Tengo released of multiple versions of Sun Ra’s ‘Nuclear War’. It was the groups first Top 10 single. The versions are all pretty much brilliant, starting with just the group singing with drums (though there is some bleed through from the second tracks tapes … if you play it that loudly you can hear it, and yes, I have played it that loudly), where version 2 features a chorus of kids singing the backing parts. Version 3 features an extended jazz jam that is simply phenomenal. To read about how this single (perhaps the most profane disc I own) became such a sensation, it really is best to just read it from Yo La Tengo themselves:

http://www.yolatengo.com/billboard.html

That same year also saw the release of ‘The Sounds of the Sounds of Silence’ which is an instrumental soundtrack based on performances by Yo La Tengo over film viewings of Painleve films. Painleve’s films are French documentaries about sea life, many filmed under water. The music is stunningly beautiful and it became even more so when I finally was able to pick up Criterion’s release of these films with Yo La Tengo playing over them (different versions of the songs even!!!). Tamiko, me and our friend Bryn watched the films a few months ago and were blown away by the marriage of film and sound. Between these two discs alone, I think 2002 may have been Yo La Tengo’s most creative year. These followed up ‘And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out’, a moody, mostly quiet album. Except for possibly my favorite Yo La Tengo song ‘Cherry Chapstick’ which can get me going whenever nothing else will. But the last track ‘Night Falls on Hoboken’ is probably my favorite tracks on the album… a 17 minute instrumental mood piece that makes me feel floaty. It reminds me of ‘Green Arrow’ (from 1997’s ‘I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One’ – the best album of the 90s in my opinion). And it definitely looks ahead to ‘The Sounds of the Sounds of Silence’.

Yo La Tengo is one of the few bands that I eagerly await new releases from, and will buy them the day they come out. Yo La Tengo is one of my favorite bands. Ever.