It's got to be kind of hard to find someone to open for you on Christmas. Maybe that's what led to Dump, the other project of Yo La Tengo's James McNew, opening for Yo La Tengo at Maxwell's on Sunday, December 25th (Hanukkah, night 6). Maybe Dump's recent show at Spike Hill was scheduled as a warm-up.

Yo La Tengo is keeping a diary. Their friend Kelly Reichardt writes:

Dump is on the stage. I know, I know, this reporter is asking herself the same question. How in the world did Yo La Tengo get Dump to play their Christmas night show? I guess everybody in this business has connections. In any case, it's our good fortune and listening from my perch I forget all about my duties and just let myself get lost in the music (not in any kind of freaky arm-waving way, but just in a quiet-inside way). I'm in my zone. Enjoying myself along with everyone else in the room. It's somewhere in the middle of the Prince cover tune, "Another Lonely Christmas" that the older, more disgruntled looking red-shirt-wearing door guy makes a beeline over to me. He's shouting something I can't make out, but I can clearly read his lips as he keeps repeating YOU SURE LOOK GOOD TONIGHT KELLY! I finally lean closer and take out the earplugs and it turns out what he is actually yelling in my face is YOU CAN'T STAND ON THAT STOOL!

Comedian Kurt Braunhohler, who will return to the Hoboken venue to open for Ted Leo, also opened the Christmas show. Tara Key and Rachel Blumberg were the other special guests that night. Full setlist HERE.

Last night, night 7, Kurt Vile & the Violators and Leo Allen opened. Dave Schramm played guitar with Yo La Tengo, and Peter Stampfel also joined the band. Full setlist HERE.

Tonight, 12/27, is the final night of Hanukkah 2011. Who do you think the openers will be? I bet James McNew (not to mention the rest of Yo La Tengo) would be excited if it were the Feelies.

Browse the Yo La Tengo tag for more.

Matador label-mates James McNew of Yo La Tengo and Ted Leo both have December 2011 Maxwell's shows coming up and both contributed 'Best of 2011' lists to Matador Records for the label's annual big list of lists. Maybe their lists contain some clues on what special guests we can expect at their upcoming NJ shows (Yo La Tengo on all nights of Hanukkah, Ted Leo on New Year's Eve). At a minimum, Ted's list contains a great recommendation for vegan pizza in Brooklyn. Both lists are reprinted below...

Continue reading "James McNew of Yo La Tengo & Ted Leo list their favorite things about 2011"

DOWNLOAD: Yo La Tengo - Periodically Double Or Triple (MP3)

We have an old saying at Matador HQ, "the only thing predictable about Yo La Tengo albums is their high level of excellence and crazy amount of musical ground covered". Trouble is, even if you believe we really have an old saying that unwieldly, it doesn't really do justice in this instance. The new Yo La Tengo CD/2XLP/digital album 'Popular Songs" (OLE 856-1,2) could be the bravest musical statement to date in a career full of 'em. Recorded in Hoboken and Nashville in early 2009 with longtime associate Roger Mountenot, 'Popular Songs' finds the trio of Georgia Hubley, Ira Kaplan and James McNew at the height of their creative powers, fashioning an epic work that's cooly confident as it is wildly adventurous.

Yo La Tengo have one NYC show coming up. Ira Kaplan's sometimes-band The A-Bones have three. James McNew's band Dump has two - one with Oneida, and one August 22nd at Union Hall with Choo Choo La Rouge, Clint Michigan, and Jennifer O'Connor. That Brooklyn show is a Kiam Records release party. Kiam Records is Jennifer's label and she's released a bunch of 7" splits...

"Our split 7" single is finished and on sale now, alone or as part of a five record subscription series from KIAM Records, featuring collaborations between Jennifer O'Connor and guest artists. We join Jennifer on the A side for "Little Airplane Heart," and we each contribute a song to the flip: "Mostly Air" from our forthcoming album, and "Watching You Go" from Jennifer.

The artists collaborating with Jennifer on the rest of the series are Dump, Jesse Sykes, Mascott, and the Hotel Lights." [Choo Choo La Rouge]

Clint Michigan will be one of her future releases.

New Yo La Tengo song above. Some clips of YLT playing at last week's Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, below...

Continue reading "Yo La Tengo releasing new album 'Popular Songs' (MP3), Dump (James McNew) playing NYC w/ Choo Choo La Rouge "

Masked men opened many of the YLT Hanukkah shows this year

Yo La Tengo Hanukkah 2008 @ Maxwell's in Hoboken

1. Oneida and Paul F. Tompkins opened. Mix disc by Aesop Rock. Special guests = Janet Weiss & Britt Daniel.
2. The Magnetic Fields opened and John Hodgman opened. Mix disc by Steve Shelley. Special guest = Doug Gillard & Ira's mom.
3. John Zorn & Marc Ribot and Slovin & Allen opened. Mix disc by Gaylord Fields. Special Guests = Yoni Wolf & Smokey Hormel.
4. Jennifer O'Connor and Jon Benjamin opened. Mix disc by Russell Maer.
5. Antietam and Fred Armisen opened. Fred also played drums. Mix disc by Georgia. Special guest = Cyril Jordan.
6. Lambchop and Jon Wurster (as Marky Ramone) opened. Mix disc by James.
7. Willie Alexander and the Boom Boom Band and David Cross (as Rabbi Alan Sugarman) opened. Mix disc by Ira. Special guest = David Mansfield.
8. Metal Mountains and Todd Barry opened. Mix disc by Zooey Deschanel.

That is the list of special guests and openers from this year's 8-night Yo La Tengo Hanukkah concert run at Maxwell's in Hoboken. The eighth night of Chanukah (aka the last show) was December 28th and three nights later The Feelies and Vivian Girls opened for Yo La Tengo at their New Years Eve show at Wellmont Theatre in Montclair (making their grand total nine shows this holiday season).

How was the New Years one? Did anyone go to all nine shows? Other thoughts? Memories? Best night? Anything?

Videos & stuff below...

Continue reading "all of the 2008 Yo La Tengo holiday show openers & guests "

Lambchop w/ James McNew on bass @ Maxwell's - 12/26/08 (Dawn Sutter Madell)

"Having Lambchop on hand to open [Hanukkah] night 6 [at Maxwell's] was like having a holiday family reunion, minus the drama. There are multiple reasons why we've made record after record in Nashville, and one of them is certainly the chance to eat hot chicken with those guys. Their set was gorgeous, mixing songs from OH (ohio) with a few covers, some more aptly chosen (Bob Dylan's "You're a Big Girl Now") than others (Kurt's What State Is Hoboken In topical shoutout to Caroline with the Wedding Present's "Kennedy"). Were it not for the music stand in front of him, you would never have guessed that James was a fill-in on bass."
[Yo La Tengo]

Lambchop is headlining Bowery Ballroom in NYC on February 12th. Tickets go on sale Wednesday. All tour dates below...

Continue reading "Lambchop opened for YLT, playing more 2009 shows (dates)"