!!VAPRANT!! wrote:I'll give Yo La Tengo one more try, then.
Which two songs, Ray?
Er, two songs is a bit difficult John, as there really is a lot out there and it is very varied. From wikipedia:
I make it two albums of covers, but let it go. There are some astonishing variations in style within that too, especially considering that since 1993 they have been a bass-guitar-drums trio (although they can all play keyboards) with three song-writer vocalistsAs of 2016 the band has released fourteen studio albums, six compilation albums, fifteen extended plays, twenty two singles, two film score albums, four collaborative albums, and one album of cover songs.
Unlike other VU-inspired bands (Ira, former rock critic, has always been in love with them, and I think YLT once played the VU in a movie set around the Warhol scene, helped by having a female drummer with wistful vocals) they have taken their cues from the third album and Loaded as well as ...and Nico and WLWH, so they do long noise jams, slightly twisted almost pop stuff and epic rockers, as well as having a sideline in ambient (their film score stuff is remarkable in places), some lightly jazzy pieces, delicately melodic summer pop material, covers of Sun Ra and ’60s garage bands and collaborations with lunatic fringe guys such as Daniel Johnston and Jad Fair. They stray close to prog territory on occasions, but they lack the essential 'look Ma no soul' self-indulgence. What they are, basically, are fans.
I think I'm going to start a thread, but in the meantime, here's a couple of samples. Blue Line Swinger is a wonderful exercise in building tension; I love to blast it as loud as it will go so that I can feel it churning in my ribcage. It takes tension and anger and dissonance and builds something beautiful out of it: my kind of song.
Tom Courtenay, on the other hand, is all about the anglophile and ’60s pop: apart from Georgia's vocals, it could be the TV Personalities
On the whole, I prefer the electric version, with Ira on lead vocals, but the only youtube I could find has 35 secs of crap at the beginning.