Beatnik Affectations - Faves
Beatnik Affectations - Faves| Volume 2 , Number 4 | Yo La Digest | Jun 30, 1995 |
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Unfortunately it'll never be a hit because: 1) it's 4:06 long and 2) its subject matter is a bit controversial. ...Ed Ward on The Kink's new single "Lola" Rolling Stone September 3, 1970
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Since, most people lose net access rather than "unsub", I've decided to make The Yo La Digest available in hardcopy form. Just send me a $0.32 stamp for every future issue that you'd like to receive. Gift subscriptions for friends are also available. The Yo La show at The Great American Music Hall was a highlight of my concert going year. The German band, 18th Dye, opened to an appreciative crowd. The eight years on the ylt patents must have run out, because the dye were copping all the best ylt moves - changing instruments, noisy feedback, cool demeanor, excellent song selection. Unique between song banter as each member insisted upon expressing themselves as much as possible (and interupting one another) . I guess they were just so overjoyed to be playing that they couldn't contain themselves. A fun band, I highly recommend them. By grouping all of the slower numbers at the beginning of the set, it was clear that Yo La Tengo were building up it to something. that something hit like a bomb about 35 minutes into the set - from Artificial Heart to the remainder of the show Ira and co really tore it up, wow! I found myself thinking, "*this* is why i love ylt". One note, before the show I requested Jad Fair's "karen's got a secret admirer" from Ira who seemed deep in thought for what seemed like an eternity. "Yeah", he said, "We used to play that one, but we couldn't play it tonight. It's been to long". I lowered my hopes a bit, and asked for "Any Jad Fair song". Late in the set, ylt came through with Fair's "Acupuncture" featuring B. Manning as special guest. Ira embarrassed me a bit by announcing," This is for Tim, i think, who requested a Jad Fair song". I felt pretty silly esp. when my friend Oscar yelled from the balcony,"Tim, where are you! Where are you, Tim?". Oh shit. tim tim@vestek.com
from: Sam Adams <sadams1@cc.swarthmore.edu> More YLT concert news: Friday, May 19 @ Tramps, NYC: Paul is Dead / 5-Cornered Drone (Cripsy Duck) / Decora / The Ballad of Red Buckets / Tom Courtenay / Double Dare / Don't Say a Word (Hot Chicken #2) / My Heart's Reflection / Shaker / False Alarm / Sudden Organ / Blue Line Swinger // When U Were Mine / "We Don't Wanna Be Good" / Yellow Sarong // Fog Over Frisco / (We're An) American Band Great opening set by Merge 9-piece (!!) Lambchop. A little bit country, a little bit really, really strange. Some great roaring steel guitar, and the lead singer seemed genuinely shocked that all those people (Tramps was near-full three hours before YLT took the stage) were applauding. They opened with a song by Georgia Hubley that YLT has never recorded. Next a surprisingly disappointing set from the S.F. Seals. Barbara Manning seemed energetic enough, but the band never really clicked. Apparently, they'd all taken a week off from work to do a brief east-coast tour, so maybe under-rehearsal was the problem. And the lousy bass playing was mixed way, way too high. They did play a Faust cover, though. And the moment we've all been waiting for. Tramps was hot, sweaty, and packed, so we received a much more high-energy show than the one I saw in Philadelphia a week earlier. Ira seemed a little out of it at times, but there were some transcendent moments here, like an unforgettable "Heart's Reflection" featuring some surprisingly sexual grunting in the lead vocal. Again they repeated the closing trio of False Alarm / Sudden Organ / Blue Line Swinger, which proved to be the highlight of the show. Blue Line was looser, noiser, and rougher than the LP version, all of which made for a very pleasant rendition. By the way, I figured out the "mystery" of how James plays the organ with his foot--they just hold down the keys with duct tape and run it through an on/off pedal. Let's hear it for technology. Encores: The singer and steel player from Lambchop came on for a drastically stripped down, countryish "When U Were Mine" that sounded absolutely nothing like Cyndi Lauper but was lovely all the same. Followed by an unidentified cover whose lyrics spoke of trouble with the "record company man" and proclaimed "We Don't Wanna Be Good". And then a beautiful "Yellow Sarong" (by request). Off they went, but the audience didn't settle, so they came back out to do another request, an interesting version of "Fog Over Frisco". And then that closing cover again. A sweaty, messy, groovy good time from America's best band. Oh, and David Byrne was on the guest list. He didn't show. that's all for now, --Sam
from: "Hilmer, Craig" <chilmer@harcourtbrace.com> Tim, Hi, got hold your Yo La Digest, Vol 2, Number 1 via E-mail a few days back. Found it entertaining and information packed. I was also at the SBSW showcase. They simply blew away anyone else on that stage that evening. A beautiful introduction to what is shaping up,for me at least, to be their finest and most sophisticated release yet. I have a some tour information for you that is kind of late breaking. I assume you know the Atlanta, Austin, Albuquerque NM dates, june 10 13, 16, respectively, you'd have the California dates?. Add June 12 in San Antonio to your calendar. They'll be playing Tacoland, a tiny little venue that is a legend among touring, small, punk bands. Atmosphere plus. Actually not just punks, but a lot of other folks... Eugene Chadbourne, anytime he gets over this way; Peter Zaremba's band, The Fleshtones, has played at least twice, but mainly punky stuff and a cutting ground for local acts. Victor Krummenacher, (ex-CVB, Monks of Doom, 5th Business...) once told me that if he ever played San Antonio again (Dec '85, Bone Club), the only place he wanted to play was Tacoland. Anyway, quite a venue for quite a band. Talking with Ira and Georgia at SXSW they said, depending on their energy level, they may even try the Sleeping Pill stuff there. Since the crowd will be about 150, most hard core fans, promotion of the LP isn't really required. They said if they do play the set, it'll be the first SP show in 3+ years, and the first ever out of NYC. Should be quite an event. Craig Hilmer - CDH
from: Hilmer, Craig <chilmer@harcourtbrace.com> Tim, don't have time to say a lot about the San Antonio date this message - It WAS phenomenal! San Antonio TX 6-12-95 Taco Land Bad Politics Can't Seem to Make You Mine Queen of Eyes Decora Hour Grows Late The Summer Ashes on the Ground Upside Down Barnaby, Hardly Working Satellite Nowhere Near Tom Courtney Out the Window Sudden Organ (with sudden stop - power failure) I Threw it all Away Double Dare From a Motel 6 (at a whisper)
from: Lou J Geese <seogju@uclink2.berkeley.edu> the evening began with an interesting set from 18th dye. their performance was really good. sound wise, they definitely have a yo la tengo flavor in their mix. a little less restrained and a bit more minimalistic in their structures. i'm not that familiar with their material so i can't say what songs they performed but i can say that i think their live performance is better than their recorded material. most interesting part of their show was when the bassist, heika (sp?), bent over and yelled at the top of her lungs into her bass. i'm not too sure what this did but it just added something to their show. now to the band we all care so much about, yo la tengo. their set was a bit less loud and less wild than i was expecting but overall it was good. the set heavily favored new material but it had some surprising old favorites: big day coming (both versions), artificial heart, speeding motorcycle -- to list just a few. my highlights for the evening: 1) blue line swinger. wow, this song live kicks ass. it just keeps building and building and it had my head bobbing nicely. 2)speeding motorcycle with a full band, sebastian of 18th dye of guitar, and piet and heika doing a nice vocal melody near the end of the song. the song itself is great, to see it in a live setting and in this new, interesting full arrangement was amazing. 3)chatting with james mcnew and our tim during the evening. both are very personable and had lots of great yo la tengo information. well that's my small view of this. seogju
from: "Hargrove, Matthew G." <mghargrove@ucdavis.edu> From the time I walked in and found Mr. Kaplan sitting at the t-shirt stand (even though I was kinda expecting this from reading accounts in this Digest, it still surprised me to see him sitting there just chatting away with anyone who wanted to say "hi") to the amazing rendition of "Speeding Motorcycle" which closed-off the set, I had an absolute blast. 18th Dye was such a fabulous choice for an opening band. I started picking up their recordings a while back when I read Ira's extolations about them in some 'zine and have been a fan ever since. During the set the crowd seemed to enjoy them a lot, even though virtually no one seemed familiar with their music, and the band seemed to be immensely enjoying themselves. The drummer took a picture of the audience (which was very cooly "uncool" of him), and the bassist was singing along with all of Sebastian's songs with her mouth nowhere near the mic--just singing because she liked the music. At one point I yelled out "Play 'Go!Song'" and Sebastian broke into a big grin and turned to the bassist and said incredulously "We just got a request!". They never played the song tho'. One of the songs sung by the bassist featured her screaming into her pickups--that was cool. At one point during their set they thanked Yo La Tengo saying that they wouldn't be [there] if it wasn't for them. That was really cool, they seemed to have a great appreciation for YLT. I really liked 18th Dye and hope I get another chance to see them. Then Yo La took the stage opening with "Big Day Coming" (slow vers) and the scene was set. I was standing in "the Ira Zone" (my girlfriend is a Dead Head--I appropriated the term from her) about 20 feet from the stage. (I stayed along the edge of the audience, because to my surprise they had a waitress serving drinks during the the set! That was kinda dangerous tho' because I drank way too much not having to actually walk to the bar.) I was going to try to remember the set-list, but once the band started playing I just became lost in the experience. They did lots off of the new one ("Tom C." "Bitter End" "Blue Line Swinger" "My Heart's Reflection" among others) and a couple off of _Painful!_ and _Fakebook_ and of course, "Drug Test" from _President_. "The Summer" was quite appropriate since it was the first day of summer, "Yellow Sarong" was beautiful, and they came back again to "Big Day Coming" to show the flipside of the mellow version they played earlier. I loved it when Ira made his way to the "organ" (shaking maracas the whole time) to show us how one should properly pound on a keyboard--using palms, fists, forearms, elbows, and my friend swears that he even used his forehead at one point. Their good friend Barbara Manning (SF Seals, solo) joined them on stage during an encore to make noise during a Dump song and their rendition of the Dead C's "Bad Politics". They closed the night off with a long version of the "Speeding Motorcycle" cover with Sebastion from 18th Dye joining them on stage. Until I heard this version, this song was not one of my favorites by the band. But the guitar interplay between the two was absolutely incredible and I now see the song in a new light. To sum up the show I offer one word: Wow! I thought I really liked Yo La Tengo a lot before this show....but now I have an even greater respect for the band. It was amazing to watch Georgia pound out so much percussion--she seemed so small behind the drum set. The way they make the sound mesh together is astonishing--Ira was off in guitarland for most of the show which was fine by me. The band and everyone in the audience had zero-attitude. The place was sold-out, I was close to the stage, but I was never so much as bumped into (and even then the person said "Excuse me."). It's so nice not having to deal with mosh-pits and idiots "pogo-ing" all over your feet. What a cool band. What a nice show. And then, to top off the whole night, I bumped into Tim while I was once again consuming at the t-shirt stand (I ended up buying everything they had available--what a geek huh!). The b-side to the "Tom C." 7", "Bi-Sexual Boogie", is really good and really noisy. Sounds like the band had been listening to a lot of Spacemen 3 right before they went into the studio. Ha! I wasn't going to write anything but have ended up writing a ton! Sorry! I hope you had as much fun as I (which I am sure you did). See ya, Matt Hargrove Sacramento, CA
From: Marc Odo <desslok@u.washington.edu> Yo La Tengo in Seattle Well, I had the pleasure of seeing our favorite band play a sold-out show at the Crocodile Cafe here in Seattle last night (6/24). The band was spectacular, to noone's surprise. The set opened with Paul is Dead, followed seamlessly by Nutricia and a wonderful Decora. I think Double Dare was next, and I know Tom Courtenay was somewhere in the middle. Lots of new songs, like My Heart's Reflection and Don't Say a Word, and not too much old stuff. They played all the organ stuff near the end of the show, like Sudden Organ and Blue Line Swinger, I think. It's kinda hard to recognize the tune when they really freak out.... The encore was the best part of the show. In honor of Ray Davies' birthday a few days back they did "Tired of Waiting For You" and ended with a haunting version of "From A Motel 6". I taped the concert on my little recorder, and have good news and bad news regarding that. The show turned out great, which is of course the good news. The bad news is that my batteries died right after the set ended, so I didn't get the encore. AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH. Oh well, so it goes. I'd be happy to trade a copy of this show with anyone out there who's interested. I asked Ira about the split Stereolab 7", but I guess they're out of them. When I asked about the "Cast a Shadow" 7", he said he was considering releasing a collection of rarities and b-sides and such. So keep your fingers crossed.... ...And I almost knocked his beer over onto a big stack of the YLT Gazette. They'll be playing another gig here in Seattle on Friday. However, they'll only be opening up for someone else and the cover for that show is $15. I had my doubts about going, but after last night's show, I think I won't be able to resist. later -Marc
From: MR JUSTIN C ROBERTSON <SYZX45A@prodigy.com> Hey Tim, its good to find so much info on yo la here-i am very interested in becoming a subscriber. I recently saw yo la tengo here (in Atlanta) where they put on a characteristically brilliant show- surprise covers include a lovely version of sloop john b sung by james and georgia. for any interested readers-i have managed to get a copy of the new yo la/stereolab split 7"-i am interested in any live tapes individuals may have-will trade a complete "realbook"-all the original versions of songs covered on fakebook-for any interesting stuff-anyway write back justin robertson
Tour Dates 6/29 - Seattle (opening for Doug Sahm) Lollapalooza Side Stage 7/4 - Gorge WA 7/5 - Vancouver 7/8 - Denver 7/10 - Kansas City 7/11 - St Louis 7/12 - Indianapolis 7/14 - Columbus OH 7/15 - Chicago 7/17 - Cleveland 7/18 - Cincinnati 7/19 - Detroit After that it gets murky... They may stay in the northwest and do some regional dates or drive over to Minneapolis and Chicago. Why the confusion? Lollapalooza... it looks like they'll be on the second stage for a few weeks....
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