Friday, June 5th, 2009

Iā€™m On My Way

Yo La Tengo make a bid for popularity

Photo By Michael LavineMichael LavineI had thought that their Condo Fucks excursion earlier this year would represent Yo La Tengo’s recorded output for 2009 – after all, crafting a recording of such depth and intricacy has to be exhausting for a band, mentally, emotionally and physically. But as it turns out, that was just a warm-up and Hoboken’s finest will release a proper new collection of tunes this Fall in the form of Popular Songs.

From the write-up in the official bio, it sounds like the band are continuing on with the “everything goes” aesthetic that made 2006’s I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass such a welcome return to form, after a couple of pretty but overly snoozy albums to open the century. Expect sharp pop songs, extended jammed-out excursions and tender balladry, expect them to make preorders worth your while, expect touring this Fall and expect the record to be out September 8.

And expect the first MP3 released to sound exactly like this.

MP3: Yo La Tengo – “Periodically Double Or Triple”

Yo La labelmates Sonic Youth will release their new album The Eternal next week, and are currently streaming it all on iLike. And be forewarned, PitchforkTV is marking the occasion by declaring next week to be Sonic Youth Week – there’ll be video content galore. Canada.com talks to Lee Ranaldo, The Guardian to the whole band and you can look for Sonic Youth at Massey Hall on June 30.

Stream: Sonic Youth / The Eternal

Currently on PitchforkTV is the entirety of Jarvis Cocker’s set at last year’s Pitchfork Festival, and there’s not much to say to that besides, “JARVIS COME TO TORONTO”. The Age has an interview.

Incidentally, the lineup to Virgin Festival BC was announced yesterday, and both Jarvis Cocker and Sonic Youth are part of it. But before you think that the festival’s good name has recovered from the Montreal fiasco, note that the BC headliners are Ben Harper and Our Lady Peace. So feel free to continue to despair, and no, I won’t be buying a plane ticket to Vancouver for that weekend. And they still have to announce Calgary before they get to Ontario, so it’ll probably be a couple weeks before we know what they’ve got in store for us come the end of August.

Dean Wareham talks to the Live Arts & Fringe Festival blog, Decider, QRO and Philadelphia Weekly about memoirs and Warhol, amongst other things. And via A Head Full Of Wishes, check out this video of Dean reading maybe the greatest Luna fan letter ever.

Dinosaur Jr and their stunt doubles unwind a bit (and fall down) while on tour in the new video from Farm, out June 23.

Video: Dinosaur Jr – “Over It”

NOW, The Times, Rolling Stone, The Montreal Mirror and hour.ca talk to Grizzly Bear, playing a sold-out show at the Phoenix tonight.

Interview interviews Bjork.

Maximo Park’s Paul Smith tells NME about needing strategically reinforced suits for live performance. See him not split his crotch while doing a jump at Lee’s Palace on September 18.

Austin’s Ume have plotted a tour up and down American en route to Toronto for NxNE in a couple weeks, where they’ll play Neutral on Thursday, June 18 at 10PM. They’ve also made available another MP3 from their Sunshower EP available to download.

MP3: Ume – “Pendulum”

Gemma Hayes recently released a new digital EP and made a video for the title track.

Video: Gemma Hayes – “Oliver”

Singing Lamb talks to Lucas Jensen of Venice Is Sinking.

The Rural Alberta Advantage is conducting an interesting project over at Kickstarter.com wherein they’re soliciting donations to record and press a super-limited edition 7″ single that their backers will be able to take home for their very own. There’s also various tiers of support – for example, chip in a measly $3K and the RAA will come to your home and play you your own show. They’re running this campaign for a couple months, almost exactly until their July 30 show at the Horseshoe to mark the release of Hometowns on Saddle Creek July 7.

Billboard talks to drummer Jody Stephens about the forthcoming Big Star box set Keep An Eye On The Sky, due out September 15.

Beatroute interviews Malajube, who’ll be playing a free show at Lee’s Palace on June 12.

Their June 16 show at Lee’s is already sold out, but if you’re ducat-less, fear not – Passion Pit have already scheduled another show at the Phoenix for August 11, tickets $15. I guess they were really serious about making up each of those canceled shows from earlier this year.

MP3: Passion Pit – “Sleepyhead”
Video: Passion Pit – “Sleepyhead”

Boston’s Drug Rug have a date at the Horseshoe on August 18.

MP3: Drug Rug – “Day I Die”

Words? Mono and Maserati don’t need no stinking words – just volume and grandeur, and they’ll prove it October 2 at Lee’s Palace.

MP3: Mono – “Follow The Map”
MP3: Mono – “Ashes In The Snow”
MP3: Maserati – “The World Outside”
Video: Mono – “Follow The Map”
Video: Maserati – “This Is A Sight We Had One Day From The High Mountain”

And congratulations to Scott Marchi, who won the contest for the National t-shirt.

By : Frank Yang at 8:34 am
Category: General

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

RSS Feed for this post18 Responses.
  1. Greg says:

    Pound for pound “And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out” is easily their best record in my humble opinion eventhough it may be “snoozy” to soon.

  2. Greg says:

    *snoozy to some

  3. Frank Yang says:

    I like it a lot too, but following it up with “Summer Sun” was alarming. In a snoozy way.

  4. Greg says:

    Without question one of the best bands to experience live and I truly hope there will be a Toronto date in the near future with the Phoenix being the choice of space once again.

  5. Colin says:

    I’m with Greg on this on. ATNTIIO is my favourite Yo La Tengo album, though I’m sure I’ll like the new one one a lot too.

  6. toni says:

    I’m still mystified and horrified over the Montreal VirginFest Lineup. Being a Montrealer, I can’t figure out why they chose these acts. It’s so not what people really listen to here.

  7. Frank Yang says:

    Montreal only makes sense to the extent that they weren’t going to compete with Osheaga.

    What I find more unsettling are the number of soccer moms on twitter excitedly going back and forth with the New Kids’ accounts. It’s… unsavory.

  8. scott says:

    Yo La Tengo’s “Beautiful Noise” show (did that ever air in Canada?) was a highlight for me – I went in only owning ATNTIIO and came away a total fan… they are CRAZY charismatic and I would LOVE to see them again…

  9. Frank Yang says:

    I suspect the Beautiful Noise shows were a casualty of the economy one way or another. Hopefully the actual performances have been cut and produced and will air one way or another eventually.

  10. Bob says:

    I did end up seeing one of the Beautiful Noise performances on TV in Toronto. It was the Sloan one, which I had attended, but I can’t remember which channel it was on.

    I suspect this thread pertains to there not being any more tapings this summer? Too bad…

  11. boris says:

    im hearing beastie boys in toronto vfest

  12. Frank Yang says:

    I think Sloan was a couple seasons ago – I’m talking about the ones taped last March which, to my knowledge, haven’t aired anywhere.

  13. Frank Yang says:

    Bob: that wouldn’t surprise me. wouldn’t impress me either.

  14. vinceinthemiz says:

    Great post. Really looking forward to the new YLT. Caught them at Primavera and their show was absolutely fantastic. Never saw them better before. They played a couple of new songs – also revealing the news about the new record – and they were funky and really really great.

  15. Adam says:

    Beastie Boys will be in San Francisco that weekend so they wont be at V Fest.

  16. Patrick says:

    I take it The Black Angels and MMJ Beautiful Noise shows never aired?

    Hopefully you can provide us with an update if they are ever scheduled to.

  17. Adam says:

    Yeah, any news about the Beautiful Noise tapings from last March would be great. I was at the Cons/Ted Leo one, and both were in fine form.

  18. Chuck says:

    I know the Sarah Slean taping aired once or twice (I was at that one but missed it on TV)