Alienation and Despair - Faves

A Bald Head?!?!

and one more announcement,
whoever stole the faucets 
from the men's room sink
just bring 'em back, man,
no questions asked.
...ira

 

 hey kids,

 we've passed the century mark - by my count we have 101 ylt digest
 subscribers.  when did i become a mr. anyway?
 
 as ever,

 tim
 tim@vestek.com



 from Sam Adams <sadams1@cfc.swarthmore.edu>

 PRIVATE DALMATION:
 Tired of tracking down those elusive and rare Yo La Tengo songs?  Bet
 you'd like to have them all in one place.  Well, the waiting is over. 
 Private Dalmation is a 90-min., 26-track cassette compiled by yrs. truly
 (w/help from Mr. McGinnis and Patrick Leek) which contains almost every
 single non-album track in the YLT discography, including many tracks which
 are now out-of-print and impossible to find.  Of particular interest is
 their cover of Neil Young's "For the Turnstiles" the flip side of 1987's
 "Asparagus Song" single which has been seen retailing for up to $30, and a
 five-song live set, recorded in 1987, off the promo-only Here Comes My Baby
 CD EP.  Track List is as follows:

 Side 1:                         Side 2:

 Private Doberman                (The) Farmer's Daughter
 For the Turnstiles              Upside-Down (One More Time)
 Somebody's Baby                 Lewis (live)
                                 Dreaming
 Speeding Motorcycle (w/         Some Kinda Fatigue (live)
   Daniel Johnston)              Artificial Heart
 The Story of Jazz               For Shame of Doing Wrong (7" version)
 Barstool Blues                  Double Dare (live)
 Let's Comrpromise               Ashes on the Ground
 At the River's Edge             Nutricia
 Ecstasy Blues                   From a Motel 6 (remix)
 Hanky Panky Nohow
 Walking Away From You
 Cast a Shadow
 Fog over Frisco
 Something to Do
 Out of Control

 Note that the tape contains almost every single YLT non-album track. (The
 only things missing are: 1)a remix of Upside-Down very similar to the album
 version, 2)a 25-minute burst of noise called "Sunsquashed" 3)the "Shaker"
 CD, which you'll just have to buy since nothing else would fit on the
 tape).  My rough estimate is that 12 of the 26 tracks are out-of-print or
 very difficult to find (and pricey to obtain once found) and a lot of the
 others are trapped on compilations or CD-singles (the most appalingly
 overpriced music format ever, in my opinion).  Let me stress that my intent
 is not to defraud the band or take money out of their pocket (hence the
 focus on out-of-print/unavailable stuff) but instead to put all these songs
 together in one place for the diehard YLT fan.  The tape also has liner
 notes done by myself and a very nice cover done by Mr. Tim McGinnis.
 
 Here's how you get it:  My preference is overwhelmingly for trades (of YLT
 boots, duh) rather than cash.  Please keep in mind that this is a full
 90-min. cassette and it's taken me several months to put it together, so
 try and give me something good. Please check w/me on email before just
 dropping a tape into an envelope and sending it off.

 My address is:
 
 Sam Adams
 Swarthmore College
 500 College Ave.
 Swarthmore, PA 19081

 email: sadams1@cc.swarthmore.edu

 If you must, you may send me $4.00 instead (tape+packaging+postage) and
 you'll get your copy that way.  



 from dxweiler@watarts.uwaterloo.ca Tue Oct 25 14:37:11 1994

 Yo La Tengo testimonial:
 Upon hearing *Fakebook* (which I bought on a whim three or four years ago, 
 not having heard much of Yo La Tengo before) I was struck by all the 
 obscure and semi-obscure covers (The Scene Is Now? "Emulsified"?). So, in 
 retrospect I'm amazed at my gall, but I wrote Ira and asked if he could 
 possibly play DJ with a couple blank tapes I would send him. He replied 
 that he would, I sent 'em, and a while later they were playing TO 
 (supporting *May I Sing with Me*; this would have been April or May of 
 '92) and he had brought them along. Ira and James both stressed how much 
 they'd been enjoying those tapes on the road, and I must say they are 
 quite a treasure to me.

 Anyway, Tim says the digest has been running a little dry, so I thought 
 I'd toss in the track listing.

 Ira's Mix-- Tape One.
 *****Side A.
 The Groovers-- Groovy
 Sun Ra-- Love in Outer Space
 Ugly Ducklings-- Just in Case You're Wondering
 Fish and Roses-- Monks Hate You
 Beat Happening-- I Spy
 100 Flowers-- I Don't Know My Own Mind
 Rod Rogers, Teri Sommers and the Librettes-- Best Behind the Wheel
 Thinking Fellers Union Local 282-- Green-Eyed Lady
 Eyes-- TAQN
 Duke Ellington-- Money Jungle
 Sly and the Family Stone-- (You Caught Me) Smilin'
 The Bats-- Passed By
 Daniel Johnston-- The Monster Inside of Me
 Hypnolovewheel-- Bridget Because
 *****Side B.
 Simply Saucer-- Illegal Bodies
 Chris Stamey-- The Summer Sun
 Barbara Manning-- Breathe Lies
 The Twinkeyz-- Aliens In Our Midst
 Bobby Lloyd and the Skeletons-- The Cowboys
 Esquerita-- Hole In My Heart
 Moe Tucker-- Jad Is a Fink
 Alex Chilton-- Guantanamerika
 Antietam-- Monica
 Chris Knox-- I Wanna!!
 Half Japanese-- Patty Hearst
 Spiritualized-- Why Don't You Smile Now
 Marty Neon-- Voila, Pronounced "Wal-la"
 NRBQ-- Crazy 8s.

 Tape Two.
 *****Side A.
 Kinks-- Where Did the Spring Go
 The Scene Is Now-- Dinah Shore
 Fleetwood Mac-- (The) Farmer's Daughter
 Swell Maps-- Full Moon in My Pocket
 Joe Liggins and the Honeydrippers-- Flying Dutchman
 Chain Gang-- Satanic Rockers
 Television-- Double Exposure
 Funkadelic-- Everybody Is Going to Make It This Time
 DMZ-- Mighty Idy
 Electric Eels-- Jaguar Ride
 Love-- Doggone
 Waves-- Going Down to Liverpool
 The Monks-- Shut Up
 Seam-- Which Way to Go?
 Shaggs-- My Pal Foot Foot
 John Zorn, George Lewis, Bill Frisell-- Windmill
 *****Side B.
 Van Dyke Parks-- Jack Palance
 Tripod Jimmie-- Franco-America
 Shams-- Ice Tea
 Sebadoh-- K-Sensa My Eye
 Culturecide-- (We're an) Industrial Band
 Peter Stampfel-- Griselda
 Lovechild-- All is Loneliness
 Courtney Love-- The Second Most Beautiful Girl in the World
 Stalk Forrest Group-- Arthur Comics
 Neil Young-- Cocaine Eyes
 Dave Allan and the Arrows-- Blues Theme
 Raven-- Write Me a Letter
 Crime-- Hot Wire My Heart
 Syd Barrett-- Let's Split


 Cheers,
 DW.



 from  Oyvind <oyvindst@ifi.uio.no>
 

 Newcomer here, my name's Oyvind, and with the limitations of our
 lovely computers,it can't seem to spell my name right so please fill
 in the slash through the O mentally...

 Well I'd first have to say "kick me hard" for not living in the U.S.! 
 I get such a feeling of longing when reading about all the great shows
 I keep missing. Hrmf! Well thinking about the experience of getting to
 see/hear/feel James/Georgia/Ira this summer at the Roskilde Festival in
 Denmark and stumbling over the CD reissues of 'Ride The Tiger' and 
 'President Yo La Tengo/New Wave Hot Dogs' the very same day makes me
 feel better. If I only could see them one more time (+++), pleeeze...

 In the meantime I've taken the liberty of setting up a YLT WWW
 base (URLaddress http://www.ifi.uio.no/~oyvindst), built up around the 
 discography. I'm hoping to incorporate articles/interviews/reviews as
 time goes by, along with every other possible bit of information
 with any relation to the band or the persons innit. To be able to do 
 this, I'm obviously relying on help from others, so keep sending me 
 that piece of information that's stuck on your harddisk...

 Also, I've been able to make color scans of the CD covers that I have,
 but there's still a lot missing. If there are anybody out there willing
 to send me a color copy of any of the sleeves that's missing -- well, 
 that would be great. (A digitized image via email would be even better 
 of course...).

 Until then...

 Oyvind



 from John F. Butland <butland@nbnet.nb.ca> 


 I think I may have an addition to the Discography. The Knitting Factory 
 show  of 7/14/91 was part of that year's New Music Seminar and that 
 particular show was a Bar/None showcase. They handed out sampler tapes
 to everybody there that night. It's entitled *Smell The Luv* and contains
 "Cast A Shadow" and "Five Corner Drone". There's no catalog number but 
 it is copyrighted 1991 Bar/None.

 Does anyone have good quality, low generation tapes of the 7/13/90 Marquee, 
 NYC and 7/14/91 Knitting Factory shows that they would be willing to trade 
 for blanks and/or sell?  These are the only times that I've seen Yo La Tengo 
 and would really like to have copies.  I'd also be interested in a couple of 
 low generation soundboard of FM broadcasts of other shows - either acoustic 
 or electric. Email me and we can work out the details.

 Thanks
 jfb



 from  Seogju Lee <seogju@uclink2.berkeley.edu> 

 after the bottom of the hill show, i chatted with georgia for a bit as i 
 bought a shirt.  i asked if they were going to rerelease their old 
 material domestically.  she responded that stuff should be available 
 during the fall.  is there any more information on this (such as what is 
 to be reissued and dates)? and is there any news about future albums?  
 thanks
 
 seogju



 from:  Jim O'Donnell <odonnell@madraf.astro.wisc.edu>

 Hey, the ylt newsletter is just one of those small things that makes life
 worth living. I look forward to the next issue.

 Did you know that the latest issue (Nov. 94) of the CMJ new music monthly
 has some excerpts from James McNew's tour diary from last year? I'm feeling
 kind of pleased because he refers to "some pals from Madison" showing up in
 Milwaukee and that might be Greg Howard, me and some friends. 

 Someone made a reference earlier to James always having cool bands on his
 T-shirts. I just picked up a Hypnolovewheel CD called Altered States for the
 sole reason that James had a Hypnolovewheel T-shirt. Good stuff.

 Oh well. I 'll stop rambling and get back to work.

 Jim



 Yo La Tengo - Lo Cientro Pero No Comprende
 
 What's in a name? Should it matter to anyone anyway? well it don't 
 matter to me, but that don't mean it don't matter! We recently asked
 a foot doctor friend of ours to be our escort on a hot double bill
 at the world famous 40 Watt Club, and when i mentioned the name of 
 one band we were goig to see, I got a big completely vacant, stare!
 "This band you like," he asked,"Yo La Tengo. What does that stand for?
 What do they play?"

 It may be impractical to give a concise definition but if you insist,
 in 30 words or less: Musically speaking , Yo La Tengo is high-minded,
 lowdown, hopelessly artistic yet ecletically geeked, intellectually 
 gifted, hard, loud, slow, soft, monumentally poetic, and simply
 irresistible. Oh yeah... and they're a pair of nice happily-married
 folk who make up 2/3 of this love convetion. After a description that
 our friend couldn't take it no mo' and he walked away, leaving us to
 the task of going "college" for the day and conducting this interview.

 In a semi-clean backstage dressing room, the husband and wife tag team 
 from TQ - Rob X and Ann X - spoke with the husband/wife tag team from 
 Yo La Tengo - Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley. So c'mon and check out for
 yourself "what's up" in YLt's philosophical corridors.


 The band's new label, Matador, is based in NYC. Do you find that the
 band has more exposure and live bookings? How about European shows
 or festivals?

 Ira: I don't think it affected our bookings at all. Things are 
 better than they were exposure wise.

 We wondered about this because Tommy Keene is on Matador!

 Ira: Not anymore! His release was a one-off thing. Actually he's
 on Alias now.

 Well, I think Scott Miller's still on there with The Loud Family
 and there's another guy, Matt Keating, who's over on there.
 Tommy seems like he's playing at lot more with his "Roller Coaster" EP.

 Ira: I don't think it's a geographical thing at all.

 On your last release May I Sing With Me (Alias), two songs that
 stand out for me are "86 Second Blowout" which clocks in at one minute,
 twenty six second, and "Mushroom Cloud of Hiss" which is over nine
 minutes long. Tell us about the origins of these two songs.

 Ira: "86 Second Blowout" is a song I just made up playing guitar. I
 was trying to write a urinals song!!!

 Ok, all right. (laughs)

 Ira: Are you familiar with them [urinals]? That song length was probably
 in my head.

 and Mushroom?

 Ira: That song started from shows me and Georgia did in '89, I think.
 We did a European tour with Stephan, our bass player for awhile, on
 and off. It was the last time we played with him. We left him in Europe
 and we got home.  Then somebody asked us to play a special situation.
 I think they we're expecting us to do an acoustic, since we do that 
 a lot, even then. I had the idea that we both should play electric 
 guitar, and that should be the show. So we weren't going to do anything
 remotely acoustic. Instead, it was pretty abrasive. We mostly wrote new 
 songs for that, and some were vague. Songs might be overstating what 
 we wrote - they were song of "pieces". "Mushroom Cloud of Hiss" was
 one of them. It was an instrumnetal at the time. I played what I
 would subsequently play and she made up the chords. I was playing the
 bass line, and Georgia would put chords over it. It was probably less
 organized - when we made it up into a rock song, we organized it a little
 more.

 Are you going to play that tonight?

 Ira: No. We did it the other night. We don't do it too much these days.
 We did it a little bit in the European tour.  These Teenage Fanclub sets 
 are shorter so they don't really allow us much time.

 Other ear catching titles off your new Matador release include "Whole of
 the Law" and "From a Motel Six". These songs sound conservative to songs
 on your previous release on Alias. Does that have anything to do with 
 the new record company's philosophy?

 Ira: No. we don't care about that stuff at all. the record was done before
 we signed to Matador. this is just our new record. We would have made the 
 same record for Matador, for Alias, for anybody. Unless they gave us more 
 money, and then we could have worked on it longer.

 The previous elease had more psychedelic sound to it... the titles.

 Ira: It's just a coincidence. I mean, "Mushroom Cloud of Hiss" was 
 already picked out!
 
 
 Georgia, there are so few female drummers around, were you influenced by
 any particular female drummer?

 Georgia: I have a lot of friends that are female drummers. I like them
 all.

 Are there any specific choices?

 Georgia: Liz Cox form Christmas and Will Rigby of the Db's - he's the king.

 Georgia, like Ira you use inventive percussive techniques to get a full
 sound out of the small drum set you use. How is it done?

 Georgia: There's no technique anywhere.

 Is it more depedent on inspiration?

 G: Yeah, I feel it and I play it.

 I: Georgia's drumkit is smaller than Ringo's was!

 It seems that drummers with nig kits don't use half of it. Metal drummers
 have huge racks, then use four drums out of them.

 I: The other thing is they feel compelled about is playing or bashing on
 all of them. You start doing things just because you've got all those
 drums in front of you. It gives you the need to avail yourself of those
 possibilities and it just becomes more restrictive than having less things.

 Ira, your guitar setup is also pretty basic, yet you create a wide spectrum
 of tones and effects. What do you do with your guitar and amp to
 achieve this?

 I: (laughs) Plug it in!

 We saw you at the Cotton Club in Atlanta, I really like what you did with 
 the feedback and the whammy bar on your guitar.

 I: A lot of that stuff is just "do it" and listen to it and if it sounds 
 good, try to follow it. If it sounds bad...just try to be sensitive to 
 what's playing. I couldn't call it an effect. If you sang something
 you really like from a record, I couldn't do it on command.

 You really have command of that guitar! To me, it was a hundred times better
 than guitarists like Van Halen and Malmsteen who just go through the
 pentanonic scales.

 I: they have command, I don't have command.

 Well, then I like the non-command. It's not calculated at all.

 I: When I think of the great guitar players that I like best, there
 are varying degrees of technical ability, but none of them are - Tom
 Verlain is clearly a great guitar player - He can play a great guitar
 solo without many notes. It's not his technical ability that's great,
 he just happens to have "it".

 Now that you're former bass player Kenny Anderson went "pro", how has 
 your new bassist adapted and expanded the band's sound? Does his playing 
 style differ from Kenny's when you perform older songs?

 I: Wait, wait, what did you say?!! I called him Kenny Anderson?

 Yeah!

 I: That was a joke! when we were in Atlanta, I guess I was joking about
 Kenny Anderson from Georgia Tech.

 You called your bass player Kenny Anderson and we thought that was his name!

 I: You know, I like my idea of jokes. The ones that crack me up but nobody
 else gets. Kenny Anderson was a New york hot-shot high school basketball 
 player who was recruited by everybody. I think he was a freshman here at
 Georgia Tech  and was a big star. He left college early, and now he's 
 playing in the NBA. He made the all-star team this year, and he's doing 
 very well.

 (laughs) Now that we got that straightened out, has your current bassist
 adapted and expanded the playing abilites of the band?

 I: Oh, yeah completely. He's great, in fact we've had James McNew for
 so long.  He joined us after the last tour you saw in '91. He's been
 with us for 3 years now.

 Has the older material changed because James plays bass now?

 I: We don't have to [changed it], but we choose to. In fact, it's
 almost the other way around. I think when we kept changing bass players,
 we would generally teach the new bass player how the song went. We
 rarely played with somebody to get past that. James played some
 new songs with some older one, and after awhile we had the same perception
 [of the music]. That fact that we played the songs for six years and he
 played them for two was immaterial.

 Were there any songs that were on shaky ground when you first tried them
 out, but improved and endured in their live performance?

 I: I think the song that was most like that was "Five Cornered Drone,"
 which was one of our first songs. We kind of thougt there was a good 
 song there somewhee.  When we found it wasn't woking we put it away for
 awhile, and we'd come back to it. An acceptable version was finally done
 on May I Sing With Me. We do play it other ways, though.

 Do you tour with a person who does the sound or does the band do the sound
 itself? How is room ambience balanced into the sound?

 I: We pray for good sound. We're completely at the mercy of the person
 running the sound. We hope they're doing a good job, but the way we change
 things that's pretty demanding. the fact that we play on the loud side
 and sing very quietly throws such a challengr to the soundman. A lot
 of them just say "of well". You can hardly blame anybody. Having Terry 
 Pearson doing sound for us is just great! He works Sonic Youth and
 MudHoney. He's very much in demand, and we're very fortunate to have him.
 It's a feeling of confidence when you get up on stage, knowing everything
 is under control.

 How would you rate and compare the sound quality between the Cotton Club
 and the Masquerade in Atlanta?

 I: The Masquerade is a tough place to play because of the disco downstairs.
 Last night, when we played there, the disco was quiet, calm and happy.
 Last time we played here in the fall, it was just roaring. We couldn't
 even hear ourselves play.

 How many dates with Teenage Fanclub?

 I: Los Angeles, San Francisco, denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit,
 Toronto, Boston, NY, DC, Philadelphia... this will be the thirteenth date!
 Hey, how about that!

 Yeah...that's the name of their latest album, Thirteen! How appropriate
 that title describes the number of dates you have played with them on
 this tour (everyone laughs)! All right, all right, let's get back to 
 serious business noe Ira! Maxwell's was the club in Hoboken, New Jersey 
 for the many ineffable bands in the early 1980s. Yo La Tengo recieved 
 a lot of attention east and west of the Hudsen River and was one of
 the clubs favorite acts. Are there any plans for a live album, perhaps
 from one of these early Maxwell's shows?

 I: We're not planning on it. A lot of live albums - if you listen to them -
 are not live albums. They are so colored up, they're usually not that good.

 Some bands go in and overdub the vocals.

 I: That's very common, but that stuff doesn't bother me. We don't make
 our records as if we're recording live. I know sometimes bands do that.
 There a difference between a good listening experience and a good live 
 experience.  We don't care if we sound like our records live. Live records
 usually are "stop gaps" or ways of sneaking a "greatest hits" on the
 market. They rarely seem artistic. "Time Fades Away" is a great live 
 record.

 Neil Young, right?

 I: Yeah. i'm glad those Velvet Underground records exist, live ones and
 bootlegs.

 Have you heard the release from their reunion tour?

 I: I haven't. Actually, I know for a fact it's not doctored because the
 guy who co-produced our new record mixed theirs. He wanted them to change
 some things, but they said no, this is it.

 Taper's Quarterly promotes live music and discourages the exchange
 of money for live material. we have readers all over the world that
 trade live music for the enjoyment of it. What do you think about
 people bringing recorders to your shows and taping them?

 I: I used to do that, but I really don't do it anymore. I've got some
 live tapes and I like to listen to them.

 Who have you taped and who do you have in your collection?

 I: I have some live Television. I didn't tape them myself, I 
 aquired them here and there. I'm sympathetic to wanting live tapes,
 but it's sort of frightening to hear some of the live tapes of ourselves
 that we've heard. To relinquish that kind of control is difficult,
 and sometimes I'd rather not know, and to sanction it almost gives
 more approval. I don't mind, but I also want to be the person who
 says it's OK! I can understand why people have a hard time with it. I
 can understand why people do it, and why bands don't want people to
 do it. of course if things were sold, it would drive me crazy, but 
 look, we've bought them. In New York, on 6th Avenue, we saw this guy
 setting up cassette cases. Georgia bought a "Bob Dylan with Johhny
 Cash" tape. It was great!  What's an artist to do? I mean Bob
 Dylan doesn't release Albert Hall or the basement tapes. It almost seems
 like that those greedy rotten bootlegers put those recrods out, but they
 also stole it.

 Well, then we'll always try to get your permission then, OK? Good luck
 to you'all on the rest of your tour, and thanks to talking with TQ!

 - Ann & Rob Kopfer

 [Taper's Quarterly can be reached at lava@well.sf.ca.us
  Many thanks to Ann & Rob]


 Discography

 available upon request.

It's so very lonely; you're light years from home.
Ultra-fine free Web-Counter ^TM courtesy of http://www.digits.com/.

This page modified on June 2, 1996