Yo La Tengo - Stuff Like That There

Friday I'm In Love (Teil 1)

Zum 30. Bandjubiläum wiederholen Yo La Tengo genau das, was sie 1990 mit "Fakebook" (und so ähnlich 2009 unter dem Bandnamen Condo Fucks mit "Fuckbook") bereits einmal getan haben: Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley und James McNew nehmen ihren früheren Weggefährten Dave Schramm wieder mit ins Boot und veröffentlichen ein ruhiges, getragenes, oftmals akustisches Album, das sich aus a) neuen Songs (2), b) Neuaufnahmen älterer Yo La Tengo-Songs (3) und c) Coverversionen (9) zusammensetzt. Als Quartett starten sie dann ab September mit einer Tournee ins 31. Bandjahr.

"Stuff Like That There" wird am 28. August über Matador Records als CD und LP veröffentlicht werden. Beides gibt es als limitierte Auflage, der eine Tasche und eine Kassette (mit zwei zusätzlichen Songs) beiliegt. Bei den Re-Makes griffen Yo La Tengo auf "All Your Secrets" (von "Popular Songs"), "The Ballad of Red Buckets" (von "Electr-o-pura") und "Deeper Into Movies" (von "I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One") zurück, die Coverversionen sind einerseits recht obskur (Great Planes? Special Pillow?), andererseits sehr populär ("I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" von Hank Williams oder "Friday I'm In Love" von The Cure).

MusicPlayOn - Let the music play on!

On the surface, Stuff Like That There doesn't seem much different from other recent Yo La Tengo efforts, from 2006's Murdering the Classics and 2009's Fuckbook, released under the alias Condo Fucks. But while the album seems to roll by in a gentle, slumberous haze, it also makes a clever musical statement. There's a definite focus, for one, on culling material from acts with shifting identities; nearly all the songs here are collected from artists who were more famous in other incarnations. These span from opener "My Heart's Not in It," the 1964 would-be breakout single of the Cookies member Darlene McRea, to "I Can Feel the Ice Melting," by doo-wop quintet the Parliaments, who later made their biggest mark under George Clinton's leadership, as one half of Parliament-Funkadelic. Both songs are drained of their original fervor, turned into depressive, downtempo shuffles that maintain small cores of upbeat sweetness.

A similar effect occurs with one of the band's own songs, as Electr-o-Pura's "The Ballad of Red Buckets" shifts from a shaggy organ-powered dirge to something more dynamic, pinging guitar harmonics complementing the atmosphere of restless calm. In terms of more recognizable material, the version of "So Lonesome I Could Cry" frees the standard from its usual maudlin moroseness, locating the pitch-black sadness at its core, while "Friday I'm In Love" turns the Cure's spirited original into a strangely restrained ballad. Keeping the surface changes minimal while gradually tweaking the tone of each song, Yo La Tengo manages to further their transparency and place the focus even more on the material, faking their way through another series of delicately adjusted, quietly exquisite reinterpretations.

(Slant Magazine)

Yo La Tengo in Deutschland:
27.10.15 Berlin, Heimathafen
28.10.15 Köln, Kulturkirche