Sunshine & Lollipops - Faves
Sunshine & Lollipops - Faves| Volume 1 , Number 13 | Yo La Digest | Aug 19, 1994 |
|---|
we're gonna play one called thirteen, but we go much younger later. watch out for perverts. ...alex chilton
| in this issue: |
|---|
|
|
georgia & ira's set at the bottom of the hill was delivered to me this week, yeah! i'll make this tape available to anyone who can scrape up $3.50 postage paid. email for details. first person to figure out entire setlist gets their $3.50 back! ciao, tim tim@vestek.com
from: Derek Weiler <dxweiler@watarts.uwaterloo.ca> Here are some notes garnered from this weekend's "Mergefest" in Chapel Hill, NC, July 28--30: ***James McNew was there playing bass and guitar for Odes (i.e. Rebecca Odes, formerly of Lovechild). He's also on the Merge 45 that Odes just put out, although he told me that recording that one was a very "Hollywoody" experience: seems Rebecca recorded her stuff, later the drummer overdubbed his stuff, and finally James went into the studio solo to do his thing. Their set was quite good; picked up the single but I haven't listened to it yet. ***A new Dump track, "Bunny Boy," can be found on a compilation 45 entitled *I Like Walt*, which also includes tracks from Franklin Bruno (Nothing Painted Blue) and Butterglory. Again, I picked it up but haven't listened to it yet. ***First band on Saturday July 30th was called Double Dynamite, and they were made up of Ira on guitar, Yo La's booking agent on vocals, and a couple other friends of the band on drums and bass. As James said, "They've got this guy who 'plays drums' for them, altho' that's kind of exaggerating, and a guy who 'sings' for them, although *that's* kind of exaggerating..." Apparently two of the bandmembers' birthdays fall on July 30th, and so they only ever play on that date. This meant that they hadn't played or rehearsed in three years. (I asked Ira if they only rehearse on July 30th as well, and he said "No, once we did on the 29th.") Anyway, Ira promised that "words would not be able to describe the set," and he was right. The lead singer, decked out in skintight glam fare, had all the lyrics to all the songs in front of him and crumpled them up and tossed them into the crowd as he went. The set was all covers, starting with Sonic Youth ("Winner's Blues") and then including a bunch of early '80s cheese ("Walking On Sunshine," "I Do the Rock," "What's So Funny About Peace Love & Understanding," "Once in a Lifetime," "Brass in Pocket," etc.). At one point they brought out Laura from Superchunk to play Moog, causing the lead singer to exclaim "Last night, Double Dynamite ugly-- tonight, Double Dynamite BEAUTIFUL!!" And they also managed to squeeze in a cover of "Slack Motherfucker" which was a stroke of genius since Superchunk had neglected to play the tune during their set the night before. Crowd loved 'em, they were hilarious, Ira was *still* great as ever on the guitar. ***Ira told me there's no Yo La recording plans afoot for quite a while, saying "it's like when you've been sitting a long time and you wanna get up but you're leg's asleep on you." James also seemed to be at loose ends for the summer, altho' he's amassed a fair bit of unreleased Dump/solo material. BTW, I made plans to do a proper phone interview with James within the next month or so; when it's done and written up, I'll forward it here as well. ***BTW, other highlights of the weekend were The Magnetic Fields (AMAZING) and the Barbara Manning/SF Seals show in nearby Durham. (Altho' James told me he actually found the Seals show quite a bit disappointing, saying they were much better the week before in NYC. But I'd never seen Manning at all before, so I was just thrilled to see her at all.) That's all for now. Cheers, Derek.
from: Michael Pemberton <mrpember@gibbs.oit.unc.edu> Merge Fest Hey all, So I'm heading into night 3 of the big Merge 5th year anniversary party, about 45 minutes late because I was having a hell of a lot of fun playing pool and hanging out with some folks I'd met the night before, and because I'm a bit "Merged out" after 10 bands in the past two nights, plus more bands in the afternoon elsewhere in town. While I'm in line waiting to get in, I hear the band onstage break into a really bad version of Slack Motherfucker, which I thought was pretty ballsy at a Superchunk party. I turn the corner and look up and there's Ira onstage, along with a very strange looking man in very tight pants. I almost had to change my drawers. Had I done my homework before the show, I would have learned that Double Dynamite (band onstage) was Ira and friends' new wave cover band that play only on July 30. I believe the details of the set have been chronicled elsewhere on this list by an actual eyewitness, so I won't rehash, except to say that I've heard that they did "Brass in Pocket", "Once in the Lifetime", "We Care A Lot", "Walkin' on Sunshine", and innumerable others. My favorite quotes about the show, heard on the local e-mail list: "It kind of reminded me of watching someone else's home movies", and "they were kinda like a car wreck; you just had to watch". Crowd was crazy for 'em. I was playing pool. I suck. I'd seen Ira and James in the crowd the night before and should have been prepared. I suck. So I'm stewing around drinking a lot of beer, and I see James up onstage setting up his bass amp. Next band was Odes, which is Rebecca Odes on guitar/vocals, James on bass, plus a drummer I didn't know. I really dug 'em; straight pop stuff, real melodic and catchy, with some fuzzy guitar stuck in once in awhile to maintain indie credibility. Really good songs, though I wasn't crazy about Rebecca's voice (it grew on me as the set went on). James played bass on all but one song, where he and Rebecca switched instruments, and sang some backup. He played a fairly mind blowing, string bending, feedback laden, most un-basslike solo on one song. They have a single out on Merge which I have since heard and really enjoyed. He's billed just as "McNew" on the single, I'm told. Georgia was hanging out, but she didn't play at all. Add Portastatic and Polvo to this, and it was a most enjoyable evening (end of a most enjoyable weekend). Sometimes it's good to live in Chapel Hill. michael
from: Olivier Meirhaeghe <olivier@everest.ee.umn.edu> A question (for the YLT digest): there is a show booked at the metro (in the chicago show list) as Eleventh Dream Day with Ira Kaplan. Do you know if it is going to be Ira Solo or what ? ( It's early august..and as I am moving to Chicago very soon..exciting ). -O.
Discography available upon request.
Bootography - additions only (compilation from traders lists) 9/20/86 Maxwell's Hoboken 25 4/27/90 Knitting Factory NYC 95 8/30/90 Rhino Records Westwood Ca 50 8/16/91 WFMU East Orange NJ 55 3/6/92 Cafe Swing Berlin/D 65 5/92 Formless Radio Oberhausen/D 15 1/3/94 Batschkapp Frankfurt/D 95 7/94 Ira & Georgia (1 of 4 on vaca tour) Yoyo-a-Gogo Olympia Wa 40 7/24/94 Ira & Georgia Bottom of the Hill San Francisco 90
| Contacting the Band |
|---|
| Yo La Tengo can be reached at: |
| Yo La Tengo P.O. Box 6028 Hoboken, N.J. 07030 USA |
angry men
Ultra-fine free
Web-Counter
TM
courtesy of
http://www.digits.com/.
This page modified on June 2, 1996
