Yo La Tengo all-covers Requestathon happening for 2020 WFMU Pledge Drive this weekend

It’s WFMU’s annual Pledge Drive which means it’s also time for Yo La Tengo‘s annual all-covers Requestathon which happens Saturday, March 7 from 3-6 PM during Todd-O-Phonic Todd‘s show. If you pledge $100 or more to WFMU, you can request a song for Yo La Tengo to play on the air. Here’s YLT’s Ira Kaplan with more about how the requestathon works:

A word or two about these request. We will not be consulting computers, phones or anything else to help us play these songs, relying strictly on our “wits and a lifetime of listening to records. We do not pretend to know every song ever written, and by the end of the afternoon, you’ll be wondering if we in fact know even one. If you are of a mind to give us a couple of choices, or “any song by _____,” you’ve got a better chance of hearing us try to take the request. Whether that’s a good thing or not remains to be seen.

As the show goes by, the requests tend to pile up faster than we can keep track of them, so pledging in advance will increase the odds that we play your song. Go to the pledge form and let your fingers do the walking. When you get the opportunity to leave a comment for the DJ, put in your request. We swear on a stack of Hit Paraders that the four of us wil know nothing of the requests until the show begins.

More on the Requesthon, below.

During last year’s Requestathon, Yo La Tengo played such songs as “Puff the Magic Dragon,” The Monkees’ “Daydream Believer,” Ernie K Doe’s “Mother in Law,” Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” Black Flag’s “TV Party,” The Modern Lover’s “She Cracked” and more.

Yo La Tengo’s only upcoming live date is an appearance at Barcelona’s Primavera Sound festival.