Alienation and Despair - Faves

A Bald Head?!?!

I don't know how to put a perspective
on it. I don't fully understand my 
relationship with God.


...Will Oldham

 from: casey@imsa.edu

 YO LA TENGO PLAYS CHICAGO ONCE IN A BLUE MOON!

 Okay, maybe a little more often than that, but the Lounge Ax Benefit 
 Concert on Sunday, June 30 did coincide with the second full moon of 
 the month.  It was a pretty damn fine little show, although admittedly 
 I haven't anything to compare it to, since it was my first live YLT 
 experience.

 The show took place at the Congress Theater (2135 N. Milwaukee, if I 
 recall correctly), a nifty big venue with really high ceilings and 
 plenty of room to stand; tickets were only $10; the doors opened at 7 
 and the music started before 8.

 Red Red Meat opened in an interesting fashion; the bass player, who was
 out on stage for the sound check, was sort of thumping a drum with his 
 hand, and eventually settled into a rhythm, after which the two drummers
 came out and joined in.  At about this time the tape which had been 
 playing over the speakers was turned off; they kept at it for a few more
 minutes before the guitarists joined them on stage.  Really interesting 
 vibe this band has... short on hooks, long on groove.  I'm not rushing out
 to buy their records but I'd like to see them again.

 Their set (like all the others) was about 45 minutes long.  Next was Eleventh
 Dream Day, which in this case was Rick Rizzo and Janet Beveridge Bean joined
 by Ira and James.  Rick started off by saying "I'd like to welcome you all
 to the third Lounge Ax benefit show... and also to Yo La Tengo's annual
 concert." Really great set from these guys; Ira and James really took the 
 support roll here and let Rick and Janet seriously rock out.  At the end 
 of the last number, Rick just trashed his guitar (nothing broken but the
 strings, but it was painful to watch)--the audience really wanted an 
 encore from them, but without a guitar EDD couldn't oblige.

 Seam followed.  These guys are really nice--they looked like utter dorks
 up on stage, which I can certainly appreciate.  Their music didn't really
 move me though... everything was the same mid-tempo Smashing Pumpkins    
 influenced melancholy stuff that tends to put me to sleep.  They're not
 bad at their instruments, though, and maybe they'll get better.

 And then Yo La Tengo came out.  Ira said a few words to us ("Hello, we're 
 Yo La Tengo"), but he seemed kind of shy.  Then they started the show.  
 Here's what I wrote down as they played:

 ATTACK ON LOVE
 ?
 DECORA
 ?
 DEMONS
 FALSE ALARM
 ?
 BIG DAY COMING
 ?
 BLUE LINE SWINGER

 I was amazed at how much stuff they did that I'd never heard before; Susan
 and Chris, who hadn't seen YLT in 9 years and haven't heard Electr-O-Pura
 yet, didn't recognize anything but Big Day Coming.

 Attack on Love was great--it had a lot more melody and rhythm than the 
 recorded version, at least at certain times.  I didn't realize the song
 actually had _lyrics_ until I heard it live...  I thought they were just 
 shouted non sequiturs.

 The next song was loud and incomprehensible.  Ira kept shouting something 
 into the microphone, which I heard as "stuck in the middle with", but which 
 Susan heard as "I can't stand the Midwest".

 Decora was lovely, but unfortunately you couldn't hear Georgia's voice at 
 all. She had a blissful look on her face anyway, and it felt terrific to 
 know that I was singing along with her.

 I don't remember what the next one sounded like, sorry...

 Demons was great.  Georgia's voice actually came through on this (probably
 because the drums are quieter), and Ira's harmonies fit perfectly.  This 
 one sounded pretty close to the recorded version.

 False Alarm started with Ira over at the Ace Tone organ.  James's bass on
 thisone kicked a lot of hiney and Georgia looked furious as she pounded 
 the drums. They segued into an instrumental I didn't recognize, but which 
 was kind of similar, only with Ira back on guitar.  Then _this_ segued into
 Big Day Coming (the fast version), which was the big singalong of the night.
 They didn't have the false ending that the album version has.
 
 Next was something else I didn't recognize.  This one had vocals by Ira, and
 involved a tape loop of guitar, which Ira set up and then played over.  Neat,
 neat, neat.

 The last song, aside from the encore, was Blue Line Swinger.  James, while
 still wearing the bass, went over to the Ace Tone and played the organ part;
 Georgia kept playing that great "come on, let's get on with it" drum part, 
 but very very slowly; and Ira just went apeshit on guitar.  I think it took
 them about 5 minutes to get around to starting the song; Georgia was a little
 hard to hear but it was still as close to perfection as I've heard live 
 music be since the last time I saw Richard Thompson.  And yes, the dead stop
 at the end was about six times as breathtaking as the album version, which 
 itself is one of my favorite existing recorded moments.

 For the encore, they brought out some guy named George who claimed to have
 never sung live before.  He looked pretty nervous (actually, he looked a lot
 like Steve Albini... hmm...), and they ripped through "He's a Whore", which 
 was just hilarious.  Ira said we had to go home now because "It's getting 
 kind of late," which was fine for us since we had to be back in Champaign...

 I was trying to figure out how to get one of the setlists, so Susan just 
 yelled at Ira: "Hey!  Ira!  Can we have that setlist?" and he smiled and 
 handed it to her, and then she gave it to me.  I'm eternally grateful, 
 Susan, and here's your public acknowledgement :).  The official setlist reads:

 ATTACK
 CAN'T STAND
 DECORA       tremolo
 DREAMY THING  rub  tremolo  delay  rat
 DEMONS     reset tremolo
 FALSE
 ROCKET
 BIG DAY
 DEEPER
 BLS

 We were out of there by 11:15 and home by 2:00 AM.  My sincerest thanks 
 to the lovely Susan Braxton and her lovely and reticent husband Chris for
 driving me up, and for a really memorable day spent tooling around 
 Chicago.  Thanks also to fate (without which I wouldn't have been in the
 Naperville Record Swap and wouldn't have noticed the poster advertising
 the show, which I only found out about 2 weeks in advance) and to the 
 short girl in the front row who looked like Susan Sarandon.

 Casey Westerman
 casey@imsa.edu




 from: Tony <lopez@cybsol.com>


 The Lounge Ax benefit show was of course amazing. Unfortunately, I 
 arrived to find Ira and James playing with Eleventh Dream Day for 
 their last song. I'm not familiar with this band, but if they sound 
 like they did during this jam, go buy every album they've released. On 
 the other hand, the YLT boys have been known to encite audio xtc out 
 of dust. 

 My only complaint with YLT performance was the length. Yeah sure, 50 
 minute is a standard length for a multi-band bill, but when I read 
 about 2 hour sets for great radio stations my mouth starts to waters 
 [did anyone get a recording of this?]. I also think that they tend to 
 play better sets when they're taking requests. On some of the live 
 recordings they'll do anything that you yell at them, but not on this 
 day. Ira even remarked, "just so there's no surprises, were going to 
 play these [pointing at the set list]." Despite this, their rendition 
 of Demons was mesmerizing, and Blue Line Swinger drew the show to a 
 fitting climax. To top it off I think that Steve Albini[?!] joined 
 them on stage for a their encore. As usual this was an obscure cover 
 that could be called by only the most academic of musical 
 affecionados.

 I got a hold of a really good recording of the show if anyone is 
 interested in a trade [Tony McCartan are you out there?].


 Thanks,
 Tony



 from: KGM9@aol.com

 
    YO LA TENGO at the Save Lounge Ax series:
  
    Frontier was "playing" live on the balcony above the doors as we came in.
 Lots of smoke and light and feedback.  I don't think there's anything more
 minimal.  Kind of boring to me.  I could do their show in my bedroom if only
 I had the desire to burn something and had a strobe light.  
    When we went and sat down, Red Red Meat was running through the last song
 of their soundcheck, and they seemed unaware that actual people and not just
 security was in the building whenever people clapped for them.  About ten
 minutes before RR Meat came back on, myself and my friend Ryan spotted James
 at the side of the stage talking to some guy, so we went to say "Hey."  He
 split rapidly, though, as the place started to fill up, so we just got really
 close to the stage and stayed there. 
    They played a good set, a lot better than the last time I saw them, when
 the lead singer/guitarist had broken at least four or five strings in their
 set, about one per song.  They also had two drummers, which is always rad
 sounding.  Georgia was spotted watching just off the side of the stage.  
    Time for Eleventh Dream Day, who were joined by Ira and James, to help
 fill out the line up.  I'm not sure why, and my query to Ira is in the mail,
 so for now all I know is that it was great.  I really had high expectations,
 which were fully met.  
    Seam played next and  I wasn't sure what to expect live from them, since
 their songs do tend to be more relaxed and constructed sounding, but they,
 too, were amazing live.
    After that, YLT was up.  We were really really stoked.  I hadn't seen
 them in a year, and Ryan had never seen them live before.  the set list as 
 I remember it was:
 
 Attack On Love
 Caught Up
 Decora
 Demons
 False Alarm
 Dreaming
 Big Day Coming
 Blue Line Swinger

 After BLS, they left the stage.  An encore was, of course, imminent.  They
 came back out and Ira said "Tonight we're going to have a special guest, he's
 never sang in public before, so he's kind of nervous, but he's going to come
 out and sing a song w/us." A few seconds later, Steve Albini was on stage
 standing next to the mike by the organ.  Ira said 
 "Since you guys all picked this show over Lollapalooza, we thought we'd play
 something that you might hear if you were there."  ["Hometown Heroes" Cheap
 Trick played the side stage that day assisted by the soon to be retired Joey
 Ramone on one song.]  They played "He's A Whore" which sounded a lot like 
 the Big Black version [obviously].  A perfect end.
    After the show, we hung around a few and got to talk to Ira for a few
 seconds whilst he was messing w/his pedals.  I told him that it was a great
 "He's a whore" and he said  thanks and that they hadn't got to practice it
 before playing it together.  Then this guy who'd hit this guy w/his big
 flashlight the night before during Shellac's set came up and said to Ira
 "We've got to get these kids out of here" so we said "Bye" and then went 
 back to the hotel.




 from: Eric Daniel Barry <edb15@columbia.edu>


 Dump Discography as far as I know

 debut 7" (18 Wheeler)--handmade covers, out of print.  I bid $10 for one,
 hopefully I get it.  James told me all Dump was obsolete and would not be
 repressed.

 Superpowerless cd (Brinkman)--my favorite

 covers 7" (18 Wheeler) orange cover

 one song on "I Like Walt" 7" (Walt Records, who carry all the in-print
 Dump.  341 Lafayette St, Suite 585, NY, NY 10012--run by a Matador
 employee)

 International Airport  10" (Smells Like)--limited to 1000, I think.  Still
 around.

 I Can Hear Music (Brinkman)--First 1000 are double cds with the second cd
 live at the home taping fest in the Netherlands, rec to 16 track analog
 with no eq or nr.  Includes help from Joost Visser, Barbara Manning and
 Chris Knox.  This disc is my second favorite Dump, especially the cover of
 "I Can Hear Music".  James told me last summer this might be released
 separately.

 I believe appearances on both Brinkman Fast Forward comp cds, but I don't
 have them to verify.


 from: QTHD57A@prodigy.com ( MICHAEL P RUDZKI)

 monkees cover

 if anyone could identify the monkees song from the 5/2 show, i would 
 be extremely grateful.  even just a few words from it would probably 
 help.

 thanks, 
 kim rudzki


 from: "Jim O'Donnell" <jim@astroscu.unam.mx>

 I'm in the process of putting together an Antietam
 web page. I wonder if anyone on the YLT list has any
 items they can contribute to it? In particular, I'm
 looking for scanned images of album covers, articles,
 interviews and reviews. If anyone can help out my
 e-mail address is jim@astroscu.unam.mx.

 Someone brought up the Schramms in an earlier digest.
 I recently got their CD Little Apocalypse. It is 
 wonderful, although I found Dave Schramm's nasal voice
 a little off-putting at first. Anyone who liked Dave's
 songs on Ride the Tiger should get this album, though.

 Cheers

 Jim


 from: "Glenn Platt" <plattgj@SBAMail.MUOhio.Edu>

 B-Board is up


 I wanted to let you know the Yo La Tengo B-board is up and running 
 from my web site. The direct URL is 
 http://www.muohio.edu/cgi/~plattgj/Boardylt.pl
 But you can get to it from the hompage. Please feel free to check it 
 out and let me know what you think. Also, please forward this 
 information to the mailing list. I am still a bit slow on the sounds 
 and pictures, and I have a handful of new links to add, so maybe soon 
 on all of that!

 Thanks a lot,
 Glenn



 from: "Robert E. Baker" <Robert.E.Baker23@worldnet.att.net<


 Do you have, or know where I can get the lyrics to 
 Electr-o-Pura?  Thanks.

 -Tim

 Mellon.Collie%Utopia@ivsoft.com




 From: Kevin Ruppenthal <Rupe33@aol.com>

 Am wondering...
 for the list: does anyone have a tape of the show at the Andy Warhol Museum's
 2nd Anniversary??  I was at this show and it was superb: some enterprising
 gent was in fact taping it right then and there, but I was not in any state
 of mind to ask him about it...if you're on this list, would be interested in
 getting a copy...don't have any other YLT for trade, but a lot of GbV and
 other stuff...we can work something out!!!!
 
 Thanks in advance, fellow listers,
 Kevin Ruppenthal
 

 from: acacia29@worldaccess.nl (Martijn Grooten)

 If there are no posts about it on the next digest, could you please 
 add the following message to the digest?

 Does anyone know info about "Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo", which, after I 
 heard, is the next Yo La Tengo-record? 

 Martijn

It's so very lonely; you're light years from home.
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This page modified on August 24, 1996