Well, today is the big day. I've been listening to the track available on the Matador site for awhile now and love it. So, my anticipation of Summer Sun is pretty damn high right now. I'll be picking up a copy during lunch today. Does anyone have any early reviews or comments? Murf
You absolutely cannot go wrong with Yo La Tengo. They rock SXSW every year they play, so yeah, I think I'll be adding that disc to my collectioin. Vive le AFC! OPArsenal
can't WAIT!!!! especially since Youssou N'Dour cancelled the N. Amer. portion of his tour, I'm just champing for some great new music!
<--- Yes, today is the day. I'm picking it up on the way home today and will give a review before the end of the week.
Good News: I got my copy of it during lunch. I've listened to it once and my intial feelings about it are good. It sounds interesting but not repetitive of their previous few albums. Bad News: The Cabaret Music Hall in Montreal is sold out. Do I risk the two-hours each way on a Tuesday night in the hopes of scalping a ticket? Tough call. Murf
After just a few listens I really like this album. Ever since I heard their take on bossa nova in "Center of Gravity" I wanted to hear them do some more laid back Latin songs and "Moonrock Mambo" is stellar. Love that slide from the 4/4 verse into the 3/4 "chorus". "Nothing But You and Me" sounds like Al Green bumping into Brian Eno in an echo chamber. Yo La really digs looping these days. Sweet. "Let's Be Still" sounds like it was concocted when Yo La missed their ride home from the Knitting Factory. Mixing it up with the downtown jazz scene. I can't complain about that. Not a bad album at all. So now I'm forced to choose between the DCU home opener and Yo La at the 9:30 on the 19th. It's a hard life.
if only.....no MLS team in my town, no yo la. count yer blessings, you bastard!!! obie, looking forward to your review!
Man i had this cd on hold ready to pick up, went to the atm took out the cash and realized i had about 230 less in my checking account than i thought. oh, yep...forgot to record a check...so it looks like i'll have to wait for a few days till i get it...sounds like i'll like it though...
I couldn't get it yesterday; will pick it up after work today. bmurphy, Montreal show -- just go, and you'll get a ticket outside. YLT ain't the Dead. Somebody will have tickets. Somebody always has tickets for a show like this, and likely at below face value. I still don't have tickets for the NYC Beacon show in two weeks (not sold out & likely won't), and so now I'm thinking that I'm just going to go that night and pick one up from someone outside. Robert Christgau from the Village Voice interviews Georgia & Ira here.
After one day of listening to it, I sense that Summer Sun is going to be tough to top for my Album of the Year. It is clearly a YLT album. Roger Moutenot' production feel is all over it too. It starts with a mellow atmospheric instrumental tune like their other albums and most shows do and has a long experimentation in sound towards the end. In between, Georgia sings a few and James takes one while Ira sings the rest (with lots of goofy song titles as usual). It even has the usual cool cover tune (Big Star's "Take Care") and guest appearences from members of Lambchop. But with all of those similarities to their previous albums, it would seem that I'm suggesting that the album is a cookie cutter job. However, as I said earlier, the songs don't sound repetitive of their earlier tunes. It's fresh. I'd challenge anyone to name a three-person band that is able to explore such a wide array of sounds in their tunes. They move from atmosphere tunes to jazzy numbers to pop to country to bossa nova and back to rock again. The only thing it is missing is a loud thrasher like "Cherry Chapstick", "Little Honda" or "From a Motel 6". Although my wife said she kind of liked the abscence of such a song as we listened to it over dinner last night. My 14-month-old son did his little butt-shaking dance to "Season of the Shark" but became rather concerned looking during the thunder sounds on "Nothing But You and Me". I'll have more to say later as my opinion solidifies even further but so far I'm damn happy to have this album. Murf
OK, I've given it one listen through, and I have some early impressions. It starts out slow -- literally -- with the aptly mistitled "Beach Party Tonight" (which sounds like they've been listening to too much Deep Forest and Album Leaf), but from "Little Eyes" on it's very strong and upbeat, especially in the second half. The songs are more developed and just plain happier than on and then nothing..., which I think is a very good thing. On this album, they've brought out more of those great little melodies that were there on and then nothing... but required a lot of searching to find. It's probably not at the level of the sublime I Can Hear The Heart, and it might not even be at the level of Electr-O-Pura, but it's still damn good. Other thoughts... -- Someone help me here: the guitar line from "Little Eyes" is stolen from some earlier YLT song, but I can't remember which. Anyone? -- Some definite influences from Nashville and, more specifically, Kurt Wagner. When I was listening to "Season of the Shark" I had to check out the liner notes (what there are of them) to see if Kurt was a co-writer. And of course, there's "Take Care" at the end, which is downright country. -- This is the first YLT record in a long time on which James stands out. There's a point about 80% of the way through "Little Eyes" when they turn the bass up ever so slightly, and it just propels the rest of the song forward. He goes front & center on "Nothing But You and Me" and "Moonrock Mambo", both of which are fantastic. I think that overall, James makes this record. -- "Georgia vs. YLT" was likely a single-take improv jam session, but it's fabulous. Maybe the coolest thing on the album.
I think you may be thinking of the guitar line from "I Heard You Looking" off of Painful. They are pretty similar but the one on "Little Eyes" is a bit faster (at least compared to the beginning of "I Heard You Looking") and a little fancier. I agree with your points about the album. Regarding Lambchop, without knowing anything specific, I'd imagine that Wagner and Jonathan Marx and the rest of the Lambchop crew made a few trips to the YLT sessions in Nashville. And obviously Paul Niehaus was there. I'd figure that there were a few times when Ira played the previous days session back for Wagner and asked for his input. So, you are probably right that there was some influence there. Regarding the jam session on "Georgia vs. YLT", if you like it you should try to find copies of YLT joint project with Other Dimensions in Music. At the YLT/Lambchop tour a few years ago, YLT was selling the two 45s of their sessions with Other Dimensions in Music. The 45s were called Now 2000 and Excalibur 2001 and the band name was Other Dimensions in YLT. The record label might be Egon but I'm not sure. The best chance of finding a copy may be writing to YLT and asking to buy a copy. The jam sessions run about 8 minutes each. They aren't as tight as "Georgia vs. YLT" but still interesting. They sound more like a Sun-Ra session. Georgia and James both play drums. Ira plays the organ. The four members of Other Dimensions in Music play trumpet, alto sax, maracas and tenor sax. No guitar. If you are interested in it and can't find a copy, PM me and I'll burn it for you. Murf
It might be similar (I'd need to go back & listen to it again), but I realized that what I was thinking of was "Barnaby, Hardly Working" from President YLT. Thanks for the Other Dimensions tip, and I'll look for it -- it has to exist somewhere in Hoboken.
finally got it! also got jayhawks' new one, and the first ever uncle tupelo album...why i didn't own that one yet escapes me. LOVE "season of the shark." impossibly beautiful. obie, i think you may have mentioned that you know the people in the band? if so, give them a nod for me. can't wait 'til they come here in june!