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Rating: The Cd format from Matador gathers the second, New Wave Hot Dogs (Coyote/Twin Tone, 1987) and the third work, President Yo La Tengo (Twin Tone, 1989) from our band, plus the single The Asparagus Song (Coyote, 1987).
The band based in Hoboken, New Jersey, built on the marital and artistic partnership of Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley, who make each of the two “half of a larger unit”, features Stephan Wichnewski on bass instead of Mike Lewis, but on President also Gene Holder, while Dave Schramm, the second guitarist, exits the scene to reappear only episodically, but not accidentally, in Fakebook (in 1990) and in Stuff Like That There (in 2015, in a sort of paradoxical commuting). James McNew, the third of a perfectly artistic pair, is not present yet.
Thus freed from Schramm, Kaplan's songwriting, already solid at debut, develops and elaborates, on one hand, the passion and Velvet-like affinities, on the other, perfects its own Folk inclination, innate and unpredictable in its outcomes. Everything hence originates from Kaplan's guitar, from the tightrope walking between Neil Young (urban and rural, electric and acoustic) and Tom Verlaine (cursed poet of Television and the New Wave), but on this side and beyond both, and to the side, in a personal, versatile, and multifaceted idiom. Hubley's percussion, inspired by Maureen Tucker, progresses compelling and incisive, while denying pointless virtuosity, deserves attention in every song. Instead, her soft voice, for the time being, is only in the background, relegated to the choirs. Kaplan's baritone singing results in being understated, reserved, lazy, as opposed to his guitar, ironic and more unyielding than at debut, but also lyrical.
If New Wave Hot Dog, “The new wave of hot dogs”, subtracts from the debut's Country-Rock its very Country, in favor of Folk (nervous but controlled), President, for its part, abounds in sonicism and libertarian dissonances and also shows the psychedelic attitude of YLT.
In NWHD we can encounter:
-Did I Tell You, an intense elegy, fragrant, dog-days, alive and elusive, marked by continuous ascents and descents (do you know how it is to ride a bike along a river's banks, let's say the Piovego, and then descend them at speed, the air void in your belly and not knowing where and when the chorus you are listening to will end... well, add a sultry afternoon in July, a bit of carefree joy, your twenties, and it is this: simply marvelous).
-Clunk, a rowdy rock'n'roll, between jingle jungle and feedback, up-tempo and Ericksonian non-directive hypnosis;
- A Shy Dog, a piece near “Ride the Tiger”, admirable, fast and insistent. It sounds like a peaceful showdown, with any “Stupid Dog”, even an internal one;
- The Story of Jazz, a Tsunami of distortions concentrated in three minutes;
-It's Alright (The Way That You Live), a cover of a “circa” unreleased Velvet Underground track, for guitar buzz and semi-spoken singing.
President then offers: the Acid Rock of Drug Test and Barnaby, Hardly Working (based on a repetitive feedback); the covers of The Evil That Men Do, from the debut LP, in the beautiful Craig's Version, remade with the sounds of the desert, and in Pablo's Version, live, extended, swollen with sonicism and free dissonances, in a stinging feedback free-form freakout. Then there’s Alyda, a Psychedelic Country-Folk ballad and, finally, I Threw It All Away, a disciplined and charming cover from Bob Dylan's Nashville.
The YLT, even at their debut, are already a group capable of coining their own personal language, their own stylistic signature. There is no syncretism, no plagiarism in their references, allusions, and digressions; creative and original, intellectual and eclectic, straightforward and credible, passionate and authentic, capable of novelty based on tradition and contemporaneity itself, they revive, in everyone who loves them, their best inclinations and, why not, their work attitude. They are a way of being in music, a “modus vivendi et operandi”, capable of breaking and challenging genres, of changing and remaining faithful to themselves. They have made and, even today, continue to make, after over thirty years of career, a refined art from Indie Rock. You either ignore them or love them. Deeply. Impossible to hate them.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Barnaby, Hardly Working (04:38)
For the moment slipped right through him
Combed his hair, combed his hair
Knew the feeling of contentment
The actors' actor
The actors' actor
Smiled a smile uncomprehending
I took his time, took his time
Wore a hat, so he'd impress her
They took a ride
They took a ride
As I could wait for hours
I could wait and never fall down
Never fall down
Never fall down
He is down beside the river
He is down beside the river
He is down beside the river
He is down beside the river
02 Drug Test (04:06)
You may have left your mistake with breakfast
Watching the sun go down
I've been lying awake till dawn now
I'm not ready to face that
I'm not ready to face that thing today
I wish I was high
Brighter than nothing
Smarter than nobody
I've wasted away
I think of the things that matter
And I think of the things that don't
Whatever it is no matter
I hate feeling the way i feel
I hate feeeling the way I eel today
I wish I was high
Brighter than nothing
Smarter than nobody
I've wasted away
I see myself with headphones on
I'm listening to Wake of the Flood (?) (2x)
now I'm high
I wish I was high
Brighter than nothing
Smarter than nobody
I've wasted away
I wish I was high
Brighter than nothing
Smarter than nobody
I've wasted away
05 Alyda (03:40)
Came the day you made your mind to put you down
Raised your voice and found it made a stronger sound
Alyda, what have you done to you
Did confusion make you act that self assured
To take the step that you were not yet ready for
Alyda, what have you done to you
While you whiled away the hour
Do you still the way i knew
Do you dream of something better
Or just something else to do
He said how you hopped until your feet grew corns
Check for some reaction then just hop some more
Alyda, Alyda, Alyda - what have you done to you, to you, to you
07 I Threw It All Away (02:18)
I once held her in my arms
She said she would always stay
But I was cruel and treated her like a fool
I threw it all away
One side's mountains in the palm of my hand
Rivers that ran through everyday
Now I must've been mad or I never knew what i had
I threw it all away
Love is all there is
And it makes the world go round
Love and only love it can't be denied
No matter what you think about it
You won't be able to live without it
Take a tip from one who's tried
So if you find someone
Who gives you all of their love
Take it to your heart
Don't let it stray
Because one thing is for certain
You'll surely be hurting
if you thow it all away
just don't throw it all away
09 Did I Tell You (03:31)
Did I tell you of the dark lonely road
I was counting my steps as I made my way home
Days of nothing but time on your hands, weighing on me
Can't deny it, undecided
Whether to count what I felt against what I could say
I try not to wonder, or tell you that I'm not willing to wait
'Cause deep in my heart I'm willing, heart's still willing
Brain's impatient, my heart's still willing to wait.
Our love is so important to me
Starts wherever you land, walks right over to me
Days of nothing but time in between, I'll be asleep
So unwary or uncaring
I try not to be part of that, well, that's easy to say
I try not to wonder, or tell you that I'm not willing to wait
'Cause deep in my heart I'm willing, heart's still willing
Brain's impatient, my heart's still willing to wait.
There's a moment to discover no one can take all the blame
and it's finally clear.
I try not to wonder, or tell you that I'm not willing to wait
'Cause deep in my heart I'm willing, heart's still willing
Brain's impatient, my heart's still willing to wait,
willing to wait, willing to wait
16 Serpentine (01:58)
In the middle of nowhere
I thought I heard a sound
Went to seek it out,
Track it down.
In the middle of nowhere,
I broke out in a sweat
I don't know how I got there,
All I knew was I was wet
There was no one knowing this there
I was tired and I was scared
Maybe next time I'll know better
Maybe I've learned nothing at all,
nothing at all, nothing at all,
I should've known, I should've known.
17 A Shy Dog (03:38)
Sitting at home inside yourself
Thinking it's cool to be so reserved
And it's kinda funny
Lying in bed that night, wasting time, wasting time
and I know how that is, want to know how that is
How do these days go by, why does time move so slow
When are my decisions made
Make a new plan that you're gonna be strong
Eat a bit of lunch and the moment's gone,
But not quite forgotten.
When you alone at night, reflecting time, reflecting time.
And I know where that leads, want to know where that leads.
How do these days go by, why does time move so slow
When are my decisions made
When that day comes, you're sure you're gonna know
You're like some shy dog looking for the nerve,
looking for the nerve to bite.
Start to react, too smart to miss
You're coming just til you resent
It's turning into a problem
Lying awake at night, just wasting time, wasting time
And I know where that leads, do you want to know where that leads.
How do these days go by, why does time move so slow
How do these days go by, why does time move so slow
When are my decisions made, I'll never know, I'll wonder.
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