I Have Never Been So Excited For a Book-Release

"Whether you're a fan of Beat Happening, Bikini Kill, or Nirvana, this book will help you understand a scene that changed music history."

 - Charles R. Cross, author of Heavier Than Heaven 

Not even when it was announced last month that a book chronicling Yo La Tengo and the rise of indie rock was going to be released, and I was pretty damned excited about that.

Love Rock Revolution: K Records and the Rise of Independent Music, out July 10, details the history of the seminal Olympia, WA-based label co-founded by Beat Happening's Calvin Johnson in 1982. Featuring interviews with figures associated with the label over its thirty-year-existence, there's a good chance artists including Beck, Mirah and members of Modest Mouse, Built To Spill and Bikini Kill will make appearances. Here's hoping.  

Love Rock Revolution will also be accompanied by a soundtrack that will be available from the author's website here between July 10 and July 17.

Sunny-Day Music/Those Memories: Yo La Tengo Edition

I'm starting a new feature called "Those Memories" (named after the Brian Jonestown Massacre song of the same name which you can listen to here), and the first edition is this very post, mashed up with my Yo La Tengo edition of "Sunny-Day Music." "Those Memories" will basically be posts in which I reminisce about specific songs, artists and albums. Pretty straightforward.

My favourite sunny-day Yo La Tengo songs were all made for pool-side/beach lounging. Yo La Tengo has always been an incredibly versatile band (from noisy, droney alt-rock on 1993's Painful to near-pure pop on 2006's I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass to scuzzy garage-rock with their alter ego band Condo Fucks on 2009's Fuckbook), but one thing I've always felt Yo La Tengo has been able to pull off particularly well is capture a very drifting, aquatic feeling, and I'm not merely referring to their instrumental soundtrack to the 2001 underwater documentary the Sounds of the Sounds of Science. Hear for yourself:



"Little Eyes" is my favourite summer song of all time. Every year, I can't wait for summer to start so I can listen to "Little Eyes" the way, to me, it is meant to be listened to. It's the most perfect chill, soak-in-the-sun-with-your-eyes-closed kind of song. My favourite memory of listening to "Little Eyes" was at Cribbons Beach back home in Nova Scotia last summer. I was laying on a flat rock that was pretty much just big enough for me to lay on while the merciless sun beat down on me. The rock was shaped like a spoon insofar as it narrowly stemmed a couple of meters from the coast towards the ocean so that looking around me, I felt as if I was afloat in the middle of the ocean.



"Return To Hot Chicken" gives me almost the exact same feeling as "Little Eyes," except I feel even more afloat when I listen to "Hot Chicken" due to its pure ambience. I usually listen to "Return To Hot Chicken" as a segue into "Little Eyes."

In addition to "Little Eyes" and "Return To Hot Chicken," Yo La Tengo has less ambient but still kind of watery/aquatic songs that are more acoustic and more lyric-oriented to lounge to too:

Yo La Tengo - Popular (Matador Records, 2009)

Last month, Yo La Tengo returned with their twelfth – count it: twelfth – full-length studio album Popular Songs. Formed in 1984, the Hoboken, New Jersey trio have attained a longevity of which most bands can only dream.

Popular Songs opens with the kaleidoscopic “Here to Fall” which features Yo La Tengo’s most dramatic use of strings to date. Immediately following, “Avalon or Someone Very Similar” bursts through the psychedelic debris like a ray of light to reveal all of YLT’s familiar traits. Drummer Georgia Hubley’s sweet vocals fill the album’s quota for simple, distinctly charming pop. “By Two’s” is light, Summer Sun-era ambience, as is the dreamy, bongo tap-filled “I’m on My Way,” a perfect choice for an afternoon spent floating in a sunlit pool (imagery better fit for a season recently past). The up-tempo “Nothing to Hide” recalls the rough-cut fuzz-rock of I Can Here the Heart Beating as One’s “Sugar Cube” and Beach Boys cover “Little Honda.” Retro keys are backed by a groovy bass line and Ira Kaplan’s soft, buoyant falsetto on “Periodically Double or Triple,” and male-female vocal swaps and honeydew harmonies color the bouncy “If It’s True.”

The last three tracks move away from soothing, momentary pop to classic YLT drone and sprawl, clocking in at nine, eleven and sixteen minutes, respectively. Subtle guitar effects string along a dreamy undertow on “More Stars Than There Are in Heaven” and placidly wash upon listeners’ ears like a calm, early evening tide. Dabs of translucent guitars on “The Fireside” recall the aquatic sound collages of YLT’s The Sounds of the Sounds of Science but with an added human touch from Ira’s lofty vocals. And finally, “And the Glitter is Gone” completes the album’s bookend of agitated energy with lively drumming and dramatic cymbal crashes drenched in feedback. There’s not much build on this one, as YLT characteristically fade in with noise, before distortion and myriad effects invade the sonic splash-zone.

Like many seasoned alternative rock icons (such as The Flaming Lips and Sonic Youth), Yo La Tengo have essentially evolved beyond the need for reinvention. Even when they rest on their laurels, they trump most other new releases in terms of quality. I’m confident, however, Yo La Tengo have too much artistic integrity to coast on their past merits for too long. The key to Yo La Tengo’s longevity is maybe not their near-constant evolution but their overall flexibility and perhaps even honesty. Popular Songs is exactly what the title says: an unabashed ensemble of perfect pop songs, even if the latter portion is a little more “difficult” than the rest. Popular Songs is Yo La Tengo at their most unmitigated yet accessible – a shining example of their aptitude for synthesizing countless diverse styles without sounding derivative. Indeed, Popular Songs is an ideal choice for new Yo La Tengo listeners.