The Cows that Agriculture Won't Allow

If you started with the videos, there's really no point in reading what I've got to say, is there. For while this performance wasn't from Yo La Tengo's concert last night at Velvet Jones in Santa Barbara, it certainly is close enough to the version essayed yesterday to give you the full meaty flavor of what was a typically terrific show from the veteran outfit. "More Stars than There Are in Heaven" is probably my favorite track from their most recent CD, the tongue-in-cheekily named Popular Songs, with its lovely noisy wanting-keening, so it was wonderful for it to get such a mind-blowing, Ira-bending workout. Not that those of us who have been following the band for years expect any less--even back in the early mid 1980 days when 10 people might show up for a show and a peeved Kaplan would merely feedback solo for a half hour, the mild-mannered guitar hero was always in the making. Here, though, such control of that chaos. Such beauty out of noise. If only it were a land we could walk hand-in-hand in. (How fitting it can't be contained in one video.)

For it has to be said, Kaplan is a man possessed in concert. For not only was there this work out, and the set-ending opus that the magisterial instrumental "I Heard You Looking" became, but there was his all out attack on the keyboards for "Sudden Organ," too, blatty-blasts punctuating the song as he'd seemingly randomly fall onto his right elbow. In many ways while they performed much of the latest disc, the heart of this live set was Painful, a hint both of when the band came together with not just alternately but often simultaneously supple and muscular bassist James McNew, but a world view: Beauty hurts, it has to--it teaches us how much is ugly then it ups and leaves.

Take McNew's prime turn at the mic (well, except for the encore's "Ant Music," just as fun as you would have hoped) "Stockholm Syndrome." I'm far from the first person to point out its Neil Young-ish folk rock charms, but just as you get used to the gentle ride, Kaplan jumps in with a guitar solo that makes the tune a mad mash-up: if it were Disneyland, it would be like getting ripped from the carousel, and you're not even on one of the up-and-down horses, and ending up on Tower of Terror, everything about you free-fall guitar.

Alas, I don't mean to ignore Georgia Hubley, whose drumming keeps her wildman husband's ways pinned tight to the songs. How steady she is, mallets-aswinging. How unwilling she seems to want to step into the spotlight, even during a rousing encore version of "Emulsified" when she was called on to take a drum solo. (Perhaps, though, it was Kaplan saying, "take it my little lady," that kept her laughing, instead of drumming crazy.) And then, despite the crowd's noisy rumble (stupid crowd), she also got to sing "Hanky Panky Nohow," that gorgeous John Cale lullabye of sorts, and totally make it her own.

Forget about Ant Music. Let's hear it for YLT Music.

I Make a Wrong Turn Right

I want to think it isn't that long ago, but Fakebook is already nearly 20 years old, so I guess this video, which I'm not sure I've ever seen before despite it being official and all (but we're talking Yo La Tengo, so even the official stuff disappears within seconds of being created), is fair game for this feature, now a whole 2 weeks old. And despite my snarkiness about YLT's commercial chops, I assume anyone wandering into this here blog knows who they are, as next to the Mekons (perhaps even before them) they've sustained me for longer than any musical group, while other faves, like XTC, say, easily fell by the wayside. Part of that is they seem to be able to do anything, from the super sweet and wistful (witness this video) to totally rocking pop ("Sugarcube") to stuff out there in numerous ways (a whole ep of Sun Ra "Nuclear War" covers, say). Maybe it's the NJ thing, too. They're even Mets fans. Plus the couple of times I've managed to meet them, they sure seemed nice.

As for this song, well, is there a better advertisement for the ease and ache of decay? How seductive it is to measure our lives in seasons, to think the calendar cares a whit. Yo La Tengo has consistently, of course, been drawn to fall, from "Autumn Sweater" to "Here to Fall" on the latest CD, which says I'm here to fall with you but also worries about worry, in such a YLT way. It's never easy, is it, even in summer when the pretty guitar parts let out string creaks as if to say you've got to earn that pretty, sucker.

That's the danger of thinking summer is casual as we dress down, heat up, take off. It's anything but. All that sun, all that day, so much that seemed hidden gets revealed. That's what the warning light might be--notice in the video the lovely visual rhyme of the stoplight and the sun. While that light will turn green, the sun is doing its amber hazy set, gorgeous as we've choked the sky with plenty for it to refract through, enough to hide it would blind us if it could. Those who've spent enough time in bars can generalize one of their lessons, for at closing time everyone is beautiful.

For, of course, the summer does come undone. Everything does--the simple pleasures of a simple pop song, the sentence perfectly said, that, yes that, kiss. You and I. If there's a tune we share we better damn well sing it while we can, even if we can barely sing, ants trilling our scraps. At the end we can hope it's sleep, we can.

Oldies but Goodies

I wish the sound were better on this--some lovely flutter--but wow I wish I was there. The Velvets cover rocks, and then they find another gear for the Richman. Of course it's a band of folks my age, joined up with guitarists from a band a decade older, covering two artists who are closing in on 60 and 70.

Geez I'm a geezer....

Brighter than Nothing, Smarter than Nobody

A little something for the weekend. This song popped up on the random when I was drowning out James Blunt today, and it reminded me why I loved it so back in the day. Can't think of another tune that so captures torpor yet it drives so much that you know there might be hope he can break out of it. Maybe. Listening with the headphones on leaves you mighty insulated.

Still, for paralysis to be expressed so forcefully (even on acoustic guitar!) has to mean something. Too bad the lyrics aren't easier to hear on this version. If you don't know the song, there's this clip that has the original audio from President Yo La Tengo with images the person though fit. (oh well) And the homeboy in me has to relish how Ira lets his New Jersey out when he sings "dawn."

Femme-ing at the Mouth

This one's for Marty, although it doesn't quite apply, but when forces as wonderful as the Velvets, Alex Chilton, and Yo La Tengo converge, it's got to be a sign of some sort.

Friday Random Ten

Yo La Tengo "Feel Like Going Home" I'm Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
Yo La Tengo "Autumn Sweater: Tortoise Remix" Autumn Sweater CD single
Run On "Sinnerman" No Way
Built to Spill "Else" Keep It Like a Secret
Brian Eno "Through Hollow Lands (For Harold Budd)" Before and After Science
The Blind Boys of Alabama "Precious Lord" Higher Ground
Ensemble Romulo Larrea & Veronica Larc "Valsisimo" Collection un Siecle de Tango--Astor Piazzolla
Ornette Coleman "Law Years" Ken Burns Jazz: Ornette Coleman
Billy Bragg & Wilco "Hesitating Beauty" Mermaid Avenue
Michael Tilson Thomas: Orchestra of St. Luke's "Contredanse No. 11" Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 "Eroica"

bonus
Brian Eno "The True Wheel" Taking Tiger Mountain

Odd, odd, odd. At least it ends with one of my favorite Eno cuts ("row, row, row").

Friday Random Ten

Habib Koite & Bamada "I Mada" Ma Ya
Graham Parker and the Rumour "Protection" (live) Squeezing Out Sparks & Live Sparks
Wake Ooloo "Get Caught Up" Stop the Ride
Yo La Tengo "Did I Tell You" President Yo La Tengo / New Wave Hot Dogs
They Might Be Giants "Spider" Dial-a-Song: 20 Years of They Might Be Giants
Bjork "I've Seen It All" Selmasongs
Freedy Johnston "The Lucky One" Can You Fly
X-Ray Spex "The Day the World Turned Day-Glo" Germfree Adolescents
Kathleen Edwards "Away" Back to Me
Miracle Legion "Academy Fight Song" A Matter of Degrees (soundtrack)

bonus
Yo La Tengo "Take Care" Summer Sun

That sure has a Hoboken flavor to it. But it's a flavor I like. BTW, has anyone seen the movie A Matter of Degrees? Does it even exist?