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indie-snob>+!#
Yo la tengo @ the vic (6-7-03)
With the clean |
I'm not going to lie and tell you that I'm the biggest Yo La Tengo fan to walk this earth. In fact, the only album previous to Summer Sun I've heard was Painful along with a few scattered songs. But that's just me. But since the moment I first heard Yo La Tengo, I fell in love with the spaceyness of the perfectly sensible indie rock. Let's face it, YLT's music is not as wild (and I use wild in the most calming sense possible), insane or inventive as bands like Sigur Rós, Godspeed You Black Emperor! or even someone more along the lines of Boards of Canada or Múm. But what YLT has done is create the most Americana-sensitive atmospheric music in today's main-stream-indie market. The Clean opened things up, and at first, I was moderately impressed. I soon began to realize, though, that the bands sound truly could have been best described by: "clean." There was nothing gritty and rough or strange and beautiful. It was just there. There was a sort of Brit-poppy elegance to it and parts of pure indie rock charm, but overall, nothing stood out. The music was bland, uninteresting, et cetera. I say that about a lot of things, I guess, but I'm a snob, so what are you going to do? They really weren't terrible, but there have been too many British Boys making pop music that just doesn't quite work out, and I think it's about time to stop. (I can only respect so many Brit-Pop bands at a time, you know.) Yo La Tengo came out, starting off magically, every note pure ecstasy from the very beginning. I think what's perhaps most amazing about these Hoboken, NJ middle aged art freaks is how subtle yet rich they create music. Throughout every song, there isn't a whole lot going on--some drums with lots of crescending cymbal, occasional electronic bleeps, keyboard, bass and guitar. Somehow, though, the band creates this beautiful, atmospheric goldmine, from beginning to end. Hoenstly, you can't help but be impressed. I must admit, that my knowledge of Yo La Tengo is faltering compared to other bands I review. I'm not familiar with very many albums or specific hit songs, but what struck me the most from the show were the jazzier numbers off the new album. The music was definitely moving, although I've never quite considered Yo La Tengo to be a band one gets up to dance to. The most definitive highlight of the show, though, was "Nuclear War," a near single for the band released this past year as an EP on Matador. The call-and-response type lyrics were the first to involve the audience fully, somehow reaching a humorous point when the song goes "Nuclear War... your ass has gotta go... you'll be assless... no place to sit down." For some reason, the irony and cynicism of this song just gets to a breaking point where the lyrics are funny, and the song never seems to end. To end the first encore, the band did a more electronic number with Georgia singing. It reminded me a lot of the PJ Harvey show I saw two years ago when she ended with her beautiful "Nina in Ecstacy." At that point, I left, because the show could not have ended on a better note. It was harmonic, joyous and at the same time, unsettling, making me want more of the enigma that is Yo La Tengo. |