Waiting for the first ever Yo La Tengo concert in Poland (25/11/2009 in Katowice) Pontone presents subjective compilation of songs from this constantly great band .
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PLAYLIST:
- Here To Fall (“Popular Songs” Matador, 2009)
- Stockholm Syndrome (“I Can Hear Heart Beating As One” Matador, 1997)
- Our Way To Fall (“And Then Nothing Turned Inside-Out” Matador, 2000)
- Season Of The Shark (“Summer Sun” Matador, 2003)
- Nowhere Near (“Painful” Matador, 1993)
- Black Flowers (“I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass” Matador, 2006)
- Nuclear War: Version 2 (Sun Ra Cover) (“Nuclear War EP” Matador, 2002)
- You Can Have It All (“And Then Nothing Turned Inside-Out” Matador, 2000)
- The Weakest Part (“I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass” Matador, 2006)
- Allrock’s Bells (“Ride The Tiger” Coyote, 1986)
- Autumn Sweater (“I Can Hear Heart Beating As One” Matador, 1997)
- By Two’s (“Popular Songs” Matador)
- I Was The Fool Beside You For Too Long
- The Summer (“Fakebook” Matador, 1990)
- Tears Are In Your Eyes (“And Then Nothing Turned Inside-Out” Matador, 2000)
- Pass That Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind (“I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass” Matador, 2006)
Yo La Tengo started out as an acoustic, country-rock styled outfit, centered around Georgia Hubley (drums and vocals) and Ira Kaplan (vocals and guitar), both bandmates and lovers. Dave Schramm had a big influence on their first two folk-tinged albums; however, by 1989′s President Yo La Tengo, he had moved on to his solo outfit The Schramms and the couple started building up their own distinctive style that matched organ drones with sometimes noisy guitar interplay.
1990′s Fakebook was a laid-back compilation of mostly country and folk cover songs (Yo La Tengo in particular are well known for their covers, most of which are scattered across EPs and other collectibles). 1992′s May I Sing With Me was the first album to feature Dump’s James McNew, who cemented his position in the group with 1993′s Painful, a collection of somber, lulling tunes that relied heavily on repetitious organ drones, hazy guitar feedback, and quiet late-night ambience.
1995′s Electr-o-Pura worked along similar lines, though it stressed, to greater extent, the noise rock tendencies of Yo La Tengo’s music. I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, probably their most successful album to date, arrived in the spring of 1997 and boasted a wide, eclectic range of styles and influences, including: krautrock, tropicalia, country folk, bossa nova, shoegaze, and power pop.
The follow-up, 2000′s And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, featured many hushed and mellow love songs. The summery, nocturnal vibe which emanated throughout helped make it what many consider to be Yo La Tengo’s most thematically consistent release. In addition, the group also showcased their fondness for ambient electronics and sampling.
Over the next few years, Yo La Tengo immersed themselves in film music and jazz (see the Nuclear War EP, featuring three different versions and a remix of the Sun Ra song), and came up with the even mellower and moodier Summer Sun album (released in 2003) as a result.
2006 saw the release of Yo La Tengo Is Murdering the Classics, a collection of impromptu radio session covers, recorded between 1996 and 2006 for the New Jersey-based WFMU station. Yo La Tengo would play listeners’ requests (without rehearsing) to raise money for the station. Also in 2006, Yo La Tengo released their twelfth proper full-length, the aptly titled I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, an album that many felt was a return to the gleeful eclecticism most reminiscent of their output featured on 1997′s I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One. On June 4, Matador announced a new Yo La Tengo album called Popular Songs, which was released on September 8, 2009. The album was recorded in the band’s rehearsal space in New Jersey and features two songs with elaborate string sections (composed by jazz composer Richard Evans The album entered the Billboard chart at #58, the highest entry of the band’s career thus far.
