Yo La Tengo & Stephen Malkmus Tour Dates

[bmurphyfl]

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks

FEBRUARY

tuesday 25 San Francisco, CA Bimbo's 365 Club Noise Pop Festival

MARCH

friday 21 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom with Scene Creamers
saturday 22 Seattle, WA Graceland with Scene Creamers

MAY

friday 16 Boston, MA Paradise
sunday 25 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue



Yo La Tengo

MARCH

monday 10 Carrboro, NC Cat's Cradle
tuesday 11 Athens, GA 40 Watt Club
wednesday 12 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
friday 14 Austin, TX Stubb's BBQ South By Southwest with Dead Meadow, Spoon, Cat Power

APRIL

thursday 10 Columbus, OH Music Factory
friday 11 Cincinnati, OH Southgate House
saturday 12 Cleveland, OH Beachland Ballroom
monday 14 Toronto, ON The Phoenix
wednesday 16 Boston, MA The Roxy
friday 18 Philadelphia, PA Trocadero
saturday 19 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
sunday 20 Towson, MD Recher Theater
thursday 24 Providence, RI Lupo's
friday 25 New York, NY Beacon Theater

JUNE

saturday 21 Los Angeles, CA All Tomorrow's Parties


Well, the midweek YLT show will be a pain in the ass but I think I'll be going to the Boston shows for both of them since they both are blowing off Montreal and Burlington.

Murf

[sebakoole]

Murph, have you seen SM live before? I've only seen Pavement on their Terror Twilight tour.

I'll definitely check out the Yo La show in DC. Seen them 4 times now. Seems like they just keep getting better.

[hangthadj]

tell Malkmus to get his ass to the midwest.

Oddly enough I was at Pavement's final North American show before they broke up. Helluva show.

[bmurphyfl]

Originally posted by sebakoole
Murph, have you seen SM live before? I've only seen Pavement on their Terror Twilight tour.

I'll definitely check out the Yo La show in DC. Seen them 4 times now. Seems like they just keep getting better.

I saw Malkmus once on his last tour and saw/have seen Pavement and Yo La Tengo about 15 times each.

Mlakmus played almost his entire first album and threw in a b-side and I think two covers (one of which was CCR's "Born On a Bayou"). He did the songs pretty straight; no new interpretations of the tunes.

Overall, it was a fun night but a little ordinary. The Jicks are just not as colorful of a band as Pavement was. There is no Steve West wearing goofy clothing. No Bob Nastanovich making Kentucky Derby picks between tunes. No Mark Ibold struggling to follow the songs with that demented smile on his face. Malkmus was still playful with the crowd but overall it wasn't the same as Pavement. Worth going to but don't expect Pavement tunes or the same atmosphere.

I haven't heard any of YLT's upcoming album but they are just a great live band. They can play an amazingly wide array of songs and do different interpretations of them each night. They are truely a "band of musicians". They seem to listen to each other like jazz musicians do which keeps it fresh each night.

Murf

[BlueMeanie]

Makes me think of that Onion article from last year...37 Record Store Clerks Feared Dead in Yo La Tengo Concert Disaster (http://www.theonion.com/onion3813/record-store_clerks.html)

[obie]

Damn, I saw the title of this thread and thought that Malkmus & YLT were playing together. As you might be able to discern from my avatar, I am anxiously awaiting the new YLT album. The Beacon is a huge venue for them (2600+ capacity).

I was just listening to "Blue Line Swinger" from Electr-O-Pura. Nine minutes of pure bliss.

[TheWakeUpBomb]

Originally posted by BlueMeanie
Makes me think of that Onion article from last year...37 Record Store Clerks Feared Dead in Yo La Tengo Concert Disaster (http://www.theonion.com/onion3813/record-store_clerks.html)
I know the wife of the owner of a record store next to the 40 Watt, and she told me that people were calling for weeks afterwards to see if everyone was alright.

[bmurphyfl]

Originally posted by obie
Damn, I saw the title of this thread and thought that Malkmus & YLT were playing together. As you might be able to discern from my avatar, I am anxiously awaiting the new YLT album. The Beacon is a huge venue for them (2600+ capacity).

I was just listening to "Blue Line Swinger" from Electr-O-Pura. Nine minutes of pure bliss.

Have you heard any tunes from the new album? Did they play any of them at the Hanakuh shows last year?

Do you have the EP Camp Yo La Tengo with the alternate version of "Blue Line Swinger"? It doesn't have the long drum intro and starts acoustically but ultimately gets to the same place. There is also an acoustic version of "Tom Courtenay" with Georgia singing that makes the EP very worthwhile.

Murf

[sebakoole]

The only 3 Yo La albums I don't have are:
May I Sing with Me
Electr-O-Pura
Genius + Love

Any recommendations on which one I should get if I can only get one?

[bmurphyfl]

Originally posted by sebakoole
The only 3 Yo La albums I don't have are:
May I Sing with Me
Electr-O-Pura
Genius + Love

Any recommendations on which one I should get if I can only get one?

My three favorites are Painless, Fakebook and I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One (ICHTHBAO for short).

Painless is similar to Electr-O-Pura but in place of the seering guitar on Electr-O-Pura, there is an omnipresent organ guiding the tunes into a blissful blur.

Fakebook is largely acoustic covers of relatively obscure songs. It doesn't sound like any other YLT album so it is a poor entry into their sound. But as a stand-alone album, it is one of the best in my collection.

ICHTHBAO is their most varied album. While YLT is capable of a large spectrum of sounds (particularly for a band of just three people), they usually choose one sound for an album and then spend the album exploring the depths of that sound. It's differnent on ICHTHBAO. On ICHTHBAO, they do everything from punk to country to tropicalia to jazz to electronic to rock and they pull it off. There isn't a dud on the album. This is the one that got the most critical acclaim from music journalists. Plus, it holds a special place for me because the last track was my wife and mine's wedding song.

So, it is your call with regards to which one you should choose. If you like Electr-O-Pura, then you may want to try Painful. If you like the variety of Genius+Love=YLT, then you may enjoy ICHTHBAO. Or if you want to hear a completely different sound from them, then try Fakebook.

Murf

[hangthadj]

I was thinking of buying tickets for these and scalping the, anyone interested in joining my business venture?

[bmurphyfl]

Originally posted by hangthadj
I was thinking of buying tickets for these and scalping the, anyone interested in joining my business venture?

Now, that's funny.

[obie]

Originally posted by bmurphyfl
Have you heard any tunes from the new album? Did they play any of them at the Hanakuh shows last year?

Do you have the EP Camp Yo La Tengo with the alternate version of "Blue Line Swinger"? It doesn't have the long drum intro and starts acoustically but ultimately gets to the same place. There is also an acoustic version of "Tom Courtenay" with Georgia singing that makes the EP very worthwhile.

Murf I think the answer to all of your questions is "no". I didn't know there was another version of BLS, but IMO it's the buildup on EOP that makes it a great song. Tom Courtenay was never one of my faves.

Other thoughts:

-- sebakoole: If I had to pick one of those 3 albums, it would be Electr-O-Pura. To me it's #2 on their all-time list, ahead of President but behind ICHTHBAO.

-- Oh yeah, scalpers are going to have a field day with YLT tickets this tour! ;)