#ira kaplan

[shihlun]

John & Faith Hubley

- Cockaboody

1974

#faith hubley #john hubley #cockaboody #animation #1974 #ira kaplan

[guessimdumb]

Yo La Tengo - The Crying of Lot G (2000)

Perfect late night listening. 

You don't want to listen When I can't shut up

#Yo La Tengo #The Crying of Lot G #And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out #Ira Kaplan

[dinosaursr66]

Yo La Tengo warms my soul especially when Georgia Hubley sings. This band has created so many incredible wonderful moments in a wide variety of song styles. I love them.

SONG OF THE DAY - Thursday, February 8, 2024

#song of the day #yo la tengo #ira kaplan #Georgia hubley #new jersey #Youtube

[spilladabalia]

Yo La Tengo - Sinatra Drive Breakdown

#yo la tengo #sinatra drive breakdown #ira kaplan #georgia hubley #james mcnew #post punk #noise pop #noise rock #psychedelic pop #this stupid world #2023 #Youtube

[the-birth-of-art]

#yo la tengo #ira kaplan #new york mets #baseball #first pitch #Youtube

[brownwork]

Very pleased that Karl Records of Berlin have released a 2LP vinyl version of our previously Bandcamp-only concoction Power Failures

#75 dollar bill #che chen #rick brown #75dollarbill #Power Failures #Karl Records #sue garner #ira kaplan #yasi perera #steve maing #barry weisblat

[serpentizlord]

#ylt #yo la tengo #me #ira kaplan

[martystlouis]

#ira kaplan #georgia hubley #james mcnew #yo la tengo #fade

[bandcampsnoop]

8/24/23.

I've really been listening to a lot of great music on Bandcamp lately. I'm sure that if I had the time, I could queue up 7 posts just based on things I've been listening to over the past couple of days.

But, instead, I'm finally getting around to posting the release from Madison, Wisconsin based band Red Pants. I mean, they're described as "Ira Kaplanmaniacs". I sprayed painted a t-shirt with the name Ira Kaplan, so Red Pants immediately have my backing.

The sound of "Witching Hour" definitely jibes with Yo La Tengo. But I also hear Deaf Wish and Sonic Youth. And the Bandcamp page also mentions Special Friend and Semi Trucks as touchstones.

"Not Quite There Yet" is being released by Meritorio Records (Spain). Meritorio has a distribution relationship with Jigsaw Records (Portland) so shipping is affordable. And if you've ever received a package from Jigsaw, you know the packing effort is top notch.

#Red Pants #Madison #Wisconsin #Meritorio Records #Ira Kaplan #Yo La Tengo #Deaf Wish #Sonic Youth #Special Friend #Semi Trucks #Jigsaw Records #Bandcamp

[sinceileftyoublog]

Yo La Tengo Live Show Review: 3/24, Metro, Chicago

BY JORDAN MAINZER

When Yo La Tengo released “Fallout”, the lead single from their latest album This Stupid World (Matador), journalist Matthew Perpetua likened it to “them doing their best to answer the question ‘what's so special about Yo La Tengo?’ and nailing it.” The name of the album comes from a refrain in the title track, wherein Ira Kaplan sings, “This stupid world is all we have.” The two ideas are connected: Throughout their almost 40 years of existence, the Hoboken indie rock band have engaged with the globe, musical and otherwise, by shapeshifting and always experimenting, not even ideas like performing an hour and a half drone set instead of actual songs too outlandish. They’re still looking for “something interesting” to them, but it seems like they’re always questioning and ultimately deciding what makes them interesting to listeners. For lack of better terms, their music--gentle even when noisy--has always sounded gorgeously internal. Appropriately, This Stupid World was made without outside producers, mixers, and recorders (Greg Calbi mastered it), and it was billed as the most “live sounding” Yo La Tengo album in years. As it turns out, “most live” is not just an aesthetic descriptor: like the best YLT live sets, the album’s lyrics are filled with encyclopedic references to music history, warm tenderness, and dry and dark humor.

Not since the Fade tour have I seen Yo La Tengo divide their setlists in two: one generally gentle, one generally loud (as opposed to arbitrarily acoustic vs. electric). The songs on This Stupid World perfectly fit this dynamic, as evidenced by the band’s masterful show Friday night at Metro. Ever since I heard album opener “Sinatra Drive Breakdown”, I figured it would be an ideal set opener, perhaps for years to come, effectively building up with steady drums and nervy guitars. “Until we all break,” Kaplan and Georgia Hubley repeated on Friday, as if to refer to anything and everything from the songs themselves, scrawling into a noisy mess, to even the human race that’s spurred the band’s sardonic attitude. The Hubley-delivered melancholia of “Aselestine” and “Miles Away” were wonderfully atmospheric, the calm shoegaze and drum machine skitter of the latter acting as a segue into the increasingly swirling noise of the second set. The James McNew-led “Tonight’s Episode” and jazzy “Apology Letter” settled into playful grooves, rifle with playful call and response (about yo-yo tricks, nonetheless) and self-deprecation.

The album’s title track and lead single found their way into the band’s second set, the former leading them off with a cornucopia of squeaking guitars and pounding percussion. “Fallout”, meanwhile, is already on my shortlist of top YLT fuzz-pop classics, up there with “From A Motel 6″, “Tom Courtenay”, and “For You Too”. “I wanna fall out of time,” Kaplan sang, as if to recognize the timelessness of the sounds the band was conjuring. It should fit nicely in future sets, sandwiched in between songs like “Evanescent Psychic Pez Drop” and “Drug Test” released decades prior. If there was one song from This Stupid World I wished they had played during this set, it was “Brain Capers”. (According to setlist.fm, the band has been playing most of the record each time out, switching off night by night which songs they exclude.) It’s quintessential Yo La Tengo, referencing tunes by Alice Cooper and The Kinks, and a Rick Moranis Second City Television sketch where he plays Michael McDonald singing backup, walking into the recording room for only seconds at a time to belt his notes, before walking out. The sketch reminds me, funny enough, of whenever Yo La Tengo perform “Ashes”, as they did during their first set of the night: When it was time for the cymbals to be brushed, Kaplan nonchalantly walked over, brushed them once, and walked back to the microphone. The crowd cheered and laughed.

After I took photos during the first three songs of the night, as per venue policy, I checked my camera bag, missing the fourth song of the night Yo La Tengo played: a cover of Wilco’s “If I Ever Was A Child”. If I had seen it, and realized Wilco had an off night during a three-shows-in-four-days stint at the Riviera, I would have expected something was up. Nonetheless, when during the band’s per-usual covers encore, Kaplan admitted to the band being “really beat” and needing help, the last thing I thought I would see would be Wilco walking out on stage to burn though Beatles, Dylan, The Heartbreakers, and Fairport Convention covers. It was a fitting moment, the stage full of the members of two bands who continue to thrive by listening to the crowd and each other, paying tribute to what compels them.

#live music #yo la tengo #metro #matador #mikael jorgensen #this stupid world #matador records #metro chicago #matthew perpetua #greg calbi #fade #ira kaplan #georgia hubley #james mcnew #alice cooper #the kinks #rick moranis #second city television #michael mcdonald #wilco #riviera #riviera theatre #the beatles #bob dylan #the heartbreakers #fairport convention

[stevenvenn]

Yo La Tengo - Sinatra Drive Breakdown (from This Stupid World) Happy Yo La Tengo DAY! Friday, I’m in love. YLT (one of a handful of my  favourite all-time bands) have released a great new album today This Stupid World. So excited! Sounding a lot more like old-school YLT with the guitars on this one! I’ll buy anything you release.

#yo la tengo #sinatra drive breakdown #this stupid world #ira kaplan #georgia hubley #james mcnew #hoboken #new jersey #matador records #indie rock #music

[dinosaursr66]

Yo La Tengo is an exceptionally versatile band. Their original songs are always worth repeated listening. Their live shows are wonderful. Their covers are fantastic. The album Fakebook is all covers. I play it a lot.

SONG OF THE DAY - May 10, 2023

#song of the day #youtube #yo la tengo #fakebook #alternative music #ira kaplan

[krispyweiss]

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like 2021

- Yo La Tengo ask fans to mask up during annual Hanukkah run

Yo La Tengo are asking fans to mask up during the band’s annual Hanukkah run in New York.

Citing rising COVID-19 numbers generally and “so many of our friends testing positive” specifically, Ira Kaplan asked fans to take precautions. And he used a stick to make his plea.

“We know it’s less fun that way, but if (any of the band or crew) test positive, the remaining dates will most certainly be canceled, and I think we can all agree that’s worse,” Kaplan said in a statement.

This appears to be a request rather than a requirement. The band’s residency runs Dec. 18-25.

“We’re so excited about what’s coming that even this message can’t put a damper on it,” Kaplan said. “Hope you feel the same.”

12/18/22

#yo la tengo #ira kaplan #georgia hubley #james mcnew

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Yo La Tengo - Radio 3, Barcelona, Spain, April 1995

Can it be that I'm finally seeing Yo La Tengo again this weekend? Twice?!!! It's been way too long since the band made it out to my part of the world — and even these shows were delayed from last year due to Georgia Hubley's knee surgery. But if the various tapes of YLT's 2023 Hanukkah run tell me anything, Georgia is as powerful (if not more powerful) than ever. Big Days Coming!

“If anyone’s tempted to go to both nights, I guarantee they will be extremely different from a song-choice perspective,” Ira Kaplan told the Boulder Weekly this week. “Except for perhaps a couple songs from This Stupid World, we likely won’t repeat any of the old songs. We’re going to treat Boulder and Fort Collins like one long night at two locations.”

Hell yeah. It's been awhile since I did two nights in a row with Yo La Tengo ... I did it in NYC in 1997 ... and I did it in Santa Monica in 1995. (Holy christ, I am old.) As a little prep, let's listen to two songs from Spanish radio back in '95 — just Georgia and Ira and an acoustic guitar here, sounding perfect, as they play stripped-down versions of the Electr-O-Pura faves "The Ballad of Red Buckets" and "Blue Line Swinger." Here it comes again ...

#yo la tengo

[dustedmagazine]

Sparklehorse — Bird Machine (Anti-)

Photo by Danny Clinch

Bird Machine by Sparklehorse

When Sparklehorse released Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot in 1995, it felt like an outlier. At the time, during the height of Britpop, there weren’t many artists making slow-motion, country-influenced, lo-fi rock music like Mark Linkous. His aesthetic brought together a classic pop sensibility with a junkshop approach to instrumentation and timbre, where a song like “Chaos of the Galaxy / Happy Man” from second album Good Morning Spider literally sounded like tuning into a radio transmission. He collaborated with PJ Harvey and Tom Waits on It’s a Wonderful Life, and on the title track of fourth album Slept For Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain, he painfully evoked the syrup-thick sensation of depression. Though Linkous was candid about his mental-health struggles, when he took his own life in March 2010, it was still a shocking and tragic loss.

Bird Machine is technically the fifth Sparklehorse record, and was worked on by Linkous in the months leading up to his death. This posthumous release has been lovingly put together by Linkous’s brother, Matt, and his sister-in-law, Melissa — and they’ve done a fantastic job. It sounds just as a Sparklehorse album should, and is a surprisingly upbeat listening experience given it was recorded during Linkous’s final months. Among the 14 songs are some searingly fuzzy numbers, such as opener “It Will Never Stop,” “I Fucked It Up,” and “Listening to the Higsons,” a Robyn Hitchcock cover. There’s the sparklingly Beatles-esque “Daddy’s Gone,” the bright, Mellotron-laced “Evening Star Supercharger,” and “The Scull of Lucia” is reminiscent of Radiohead’s “No Surprises,” with a naïve, music-box feel to its melodies.

It’s in Bird Machine’s heavier moments, though, where the album really hits home — and the loss of a unique artist is most keenly felt. The harrowing “O Child” is so slow and sparse that it feels like it could fall apart at any moment, and the lengthy instrumental outro includes fractured, static-flecked dictaphone recordings. On “Everybody’s Gone to Sleep,” Linkous taps into a mellow Yo La Tengo vibe, his vocal sounding uncannily like Ira Kaplan. After the brief guitar instrumental “Blue,” “Stay” is a heartbreaking piano-driven closer, reassuring a loved one “It’s gonna get brighter,” yet sounding as if Linkous is already heading towards the light. And on standout “Kind Ghosts,” which belongs among Sparklehorse’s finest songs, the lyrics are all the more bittersweet given the context: “Where were you, my kind ghosts, when I needed you?” Let’s hope they were waiting for him on the other side.

Tim Clarke

#sparklehorse #bird machine #anti- #tim clarke #albumreview #dusted magazine #mark linkous #posthumous music #songwriter #indie #alternative

[dollarbin]

Dollar Bin #20:

Dump's International Airport

My famous brother's always been a big deal.

I remember his first peewee soccer game. Both teams just ran after him in a pack while he scored goal after goal. "Dear Lord Baby Jesus," I asked, "why is my little brother already a bigger deal than me?"

Nothing's happened ever since to disabuse me of my inherent secondary status. Just check him out today. He's in a killer band and I can't sing Happy Birthday on key; he blogs about Pharaoh Sanders and Sonic Youth for the mad rushing crowd while I blog about him for you twelve people; he's interviewed 2/3 of Crazy Horse, Richard Thompson and Robyn Hitchcock (twice!) and my cat won't even listen to me; he has a glorious head of hipster hair on top of his six foot frame; my bald spot swells and shines far beneath his stately chin.

Even so, there are a few things we have in common, and at the top of that list is the firm conviction that James McNew is a very big deal. A good drinking game would be chugging every time my brother and I mention his name while together. You'd get plastered.

Odds are we'll ruminate on McNew's status as the best musician in Yo La Tengo (even though we revere Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley), next we'll wish he'd make a new solo record, then I'd insist we talk about our close encounters with James (my brother occasionally shares a byline with McNew on Aquarium Drunkard or elsewhere, usually when they're both talking about the Dead, and when he interviews McNew they sound like old friends; I like to wave and shout James's name from the pit, hoping he'll remember the time I helped him move his amps after sneaking into YLT's soundcheck in '95 at the Alligator Lounge; James always politely nods then resumes his job of shredding everyone's soul to pieces with his furious musical chops; humble guy, James).

For the uninitiated: McNew emerged from a parking lot ticket hut in the early 90's and began recording solo music sporadically under the name Dump; he put out three classic full records in the 90's, and since then has issued a collection of Prince covers and a few other sporadic releases, the most recent of which was only released on tape in Spain. That's right, I'm writing about a guy who issues his music only to Spaniards who still have tape decks; I guess we'd better add "obtusely" in front of "humble" when describing McNew.

Meanwhile, he's spent the past 30+ years as the cornerstone of the world's greatest, still-operational, rock band, Yo La Tengo.

If you need any proof that they are the gnarliest group of rock nerds this side of Sterling, Mo, Lou and what's his name, or doubt that James is their pillar of obtusely humble virtuosity, check this out (and please note I was standing next to the dude with the camcorder when this insanity went down; I'm still reeling from the experience, and I still have the setlist):

Please note, I think my expert moving of McNew's amps earlier that same day was a prime contributor to this all out sonic assault on everything Stephen Stills stands for on the band's part. Ira Kaplan appears to be wrestling a giant man-eating octopus while Georgia and James slay the beat.

On his own McNew can be fragile and tender, sounding like a shivering adolescent rather then a human behemoth (when seen from pit and James looks like he's 6'6 / 325; some of this is because Ira, and especially Geogia, are fairly miniature humans, but most of his heft comes from his God-like approach to every instrument you can imagine; he also happens to be a big dude).

Listen to him warble on Into Fall from '94; yes his guitar has a touch of wobbling hippo, but everything here is precious, and McNew shows us he's a later-day Brian Wilson. All that's missing is Wilson's budget, torment and sister-in-law lust:

But McNew can also produce music that's straight up violent, write rock anthems and lay down shambolic funk. In other words, he's a one man Yo La Tengo, masterful in every possible mood.

International Airport, a vinyl-only EP from 95, puts every one of these qualities concisely forward. We open with Words, a droning prayer that sounds like Lou Reed slipped out of a dull stint in rehab so as to sit in on the demo sessions for The Cure's Faith. A song like this should not be interesting. But it's awesome, and when the guitar shoulders in late we tremble and get excited about what lies ahead.

Side two features everything from an a cappella Kinks song sung out the window that comes complete with polite city applause, to a brutal, call the cops on your psychotic neighbor, track Laurdine.

But it's the 12 minute title track, which fills most of the A Side, that raises International Airport, which I bought upon it's release for probably $6, up to Dollar Bin hall of fame status. All hail this sprawling ode.

McNew opens the track with a Casio riff, taking his time. Bass and drums rise only gradually until, around the two minute mark, we suddenly realize we are taking off, the international terminal long gone as a second riff expands and swerves about the first, like joint eagles protecting their nest. It's lovely flying, and we have to remind ourselves that McNew is responsible for everything here. Had McNew taken this song to YLT, I don't know what more his band mate Hubley could have done on the drum track, and I have a hard time remembering that it's McNew, not Kaplan, who's wrestling the octopus this time around. Seven minutes into it we expect things to fade out majestically but McNew instead steers his increasingly interstellar song through a cosmic, psychedelic carwash, the keyboards, then guitars, sounding like angry droids with laser cannons.

Wow.

When McNew's vocals enter at the 11th hour/minute to serenade us and wave good-bye we wish he'd take us with him wherever he's going. But sadly, we're not invited. Rather, James is probably hanging out with my famous brother as we speak: two humble and deeply masterful dudes.

#Youtube #james mcnew #stephen stills still sucks #gloom and doom from the tomb #yo la tengo #aquarium drunkard #prairiewolf