Tell Yo La Tengo to Fuck Off - (ILM artist poll #61). Voting open until Monday May 18, 2015

http://matablog.matadorrecords.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/tumblr_mwyf92jsEu1sgqyc4o1_500.jpg

Welcome to the big big Yo La Tengo poll. This is going to be fun.

First part: Tracks! List your top 25 Yo La Tengo tracks. Lists can be unranked. I need a minimum of 5. Same as usual: #1 is your top, #25 the bottom of your list.

If there is two tracks with the same name please give me the # of the track. Example: Big Day Coming #1 and Big Day Coming #2.
If there is two tracks with the same name but they are on different albums just the state the album in parenthesis. Example: Today is The Day (Todays is the Day EP) and Today is The Day (Summer Sun)

Second part: ALBUMS AND EPs! List your 5 favorites albums and/or EPs. Lists can be unranked. Same as usual.

Third and fourth part: As per Yo La Tengo tradition, I will take request from the public for other types of poll and I will see as we go along.

Ballots to be sent to: maxime.seguela at gmail dot com

Voting ends Monday May 18 2015, when it strikes midnight in your country.

PS: Thanks Bee OK, you fellow Giants fan that I adore, I took all the queues from your Boo Radleys poll.

There was a Boo Radleys poll?!?

ballot sent

I was actually kidding about the title...but I like it!

PS: Thanks Bee OK, you fellow Giants fan that I adore, I took all the queues from your Boo Radleys poll.

nice, thought this looked familiar. good luck with your poll VHS!

There was a Boo Radleys poll?!?

i think you are being sarcastic but just in case:

Just a simple song but God I love it Embedded in me, so bittersweet I’m addicted, I’m a melancholic Sing it again, I’ll be your Poll forever: THE BOO RADLEYS - ILM artist poll #60 or new numbering #65

i fogot, GO Giants!

as in San Francisco

also VHS, i think this is your first poll, so if you have any questions regarding points ect, don't hesitate to email me. i will help any way i can...

I'm blanking on ideas for the third and fourth polls. Cover versions? Favourite bits from the video for "Sugarcube"?

Covers is good fit because YLT have done so many outstanding covers of other people's songs, especially with the WFMU fundraisers.

I originally suggested opening the poll up to side projects (Dumptruck especially). I'll include a couple of their songs in any event, even if they don't count.

Dump, I mean--Dumptruck was a whole other crew.

Best pre-McNew track.

Submitted for your consideration: the glorious Detouring America with Horns from May I Sing With Me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2crST10hP-s

I'll definitely vote in this one. If there must be a part 3, I vote for best cover versions.

I sh(c)ould vote, but I didn't bother with the last 2 albums...

You shouldn't let that stop you. Judging by the activity of this thread, we're going to need all the votes we can get.

I didn't bother with the last 4, and I voted. Because that run of MISWM-Shaker-Painful-EOP is as strong as any artist's, ever.

xp

What is "Shaker"?

3-song EP released a few months before Painful, included "Shaker," "For Shame of Doing Wrong" (Richard & Linda Thompson cover), and "What She Wants."

If there is two tracks with the same name but they are on different albums

haha, like in my dotage i would remember

One of the famous examples if both Tom Courtenays (I'm partial to the acoustic one on Camp Yo La Tengo).

hmmmph, the original is my likely #1 track

also iLX triviots know which track on Yo La Tengo Is Murdering the Classics was a request from me.

Go ahead and slap up a ballot based on current favorites, Morbs, don't worry about recent albums. My ballot won't have anything after 2000.

If you had to check one out, I'd go for Popular Songs...though I think they're both worth a spin.

I'll vote! Going to be tough.

"Detouring America with Horns" will definitely be on my list--I'd have to check, but I think it's the earliest song of theirs I really love.

Fade has some jams

this is gonna be fun

I seriously doubt I'll vote for anything post-2000 other than "Nuclear War"

all the recent ones are good, just not as good as the 90s run ... Fade is probably the best, Popular Songs is the most skippable imo.

Yes. Popular Songs is probably my least favorite.

I Am Not Afraid Of You is really good.

I Am Not Afraid of You... is better than And Then Nothing...

And Then Nothing... is a bit sleepy for me

Yeah, it's slow but it's high quality. I'm just relistning to the newest one, and it's better than I remembered.

The problem with this poll is the winner basically set in stone, though I'm hesitant to say what it is.

I Am Not Afraid of Challoping This Thread.

I don't think cutting to 25 will be a problem, but ranking is going to be tough. I can think of 4 or 5 songs that might be my #1.

the winner basically set in stone

Opposite for me--I never thought they were strongly identified with one or two songs.

And Then Nothing... is my fave. I heart sleepy YLT.

yeah me too. i love the sleepy summer sun tracks.

I've never thought of I Am Not Afraid of You ... as sleepy. It's got two 10+ minute jams plus "I Should Have Known Better" and "Watch Out For Me Ronnie" ... I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One has about the same ratio of uptempo jams to ballads/slower songs.

We should probably do covers-I went through my YLT collection last night and saw a few that I would hate to leave off a top 25.

I have no idea what will win...it looks like You Can Have It All is pretty high overall on last.fm, but I'd predict From a Motel 6.

might vote in this if i only need to vote for 5 songs.

The problem with this poll is the winner basically set in stone, though I'm hesitant to say what it is.

come on, everybody loves "Green Arrow"

just admit it

I've never thought of I Am Not Afraid of You ... as sleepy.
think they were referring to And Nothing as sleepy. Which it is, except that Cherry Chapstick is right there in the middle of it...

Yeah, I misread that.

I love the sequencing of I Am Not Afraid of You ... two epic jams bookending a bunch of (mostly) short songs.

The only album of theirs I never revisit is Summer Sun.

but i think summer sun is their last great album. it's light and breezy, slightly sleepy. perfect music to listen to when driving with an open car in the south of france in summer just after the siesta when you are still a little in your dreams and the unbearable heat is turning into cosy late afternoon warmth.

I can't seem to find a link to The Onion's famous "37 Record-Store Clerks Feared Dead In Yo La Tengo Concert Disaster" piece. Thing I still remember: the phrase "the great Sebadoh Fire of '93."

elsewhere i have described my first sighting of YLT live (opening for Jonathan Richman circa 1987): "Oh, it's the sound guy from Maxwells."

we are allowed to cite covers in the track list, right? is there a separate covers category, say of 5?

there should be!

is there a list of covers? i don't have a ton of YLT's stuff but i love what i have, might vote just because i love those songs so much
also because i love georgia

I'm adding the covers poll and will do a list of covers during the weekend for reference. I'll officiate things a little more when I'm done with this &?#$%?& verbatim.

whoa boy

here is a (probably incomplete/mislabeled) list of 'officially' released covers i'm aware of

smh if anyone votes for something off 'murdering the classics' tho

Anita Bryant - My Little Corner of the World (I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One)
Antietam - Orange Song (President Yo La Tengo)
Archie Bell & the Drells - Tighten Up (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Bachman-Turner Overdrive - You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Beach Boys - (The) Farmer's Daughter (Upside-Down)
Beach Boys - A Day in the Life of a Tree (Fade)
Beach Boys - Little Honda (I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One)
Beat Happening - Cast a Shadow (Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo)
Bert Jansch - Needle of Death (Today Is the Day)
Big Star - Take Care (Summer Sun)
Bill Katz & Ruth Roberts - Meet the Mets (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Billy Joel - You May Be Right (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Bob Dylan - I Threw It All Away (President Yo La Tengo)
Bonzo Dog Band - Ready-Mades (You Can Have It All)
Brian Eno - Baby's on Fire (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Brian Wilson & Roger McGuinn - Ding Dang (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Burt Bacharach - Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Carole King - You've Got a Friend (Popular Songs)
Cat Stevens - Here Comes My Baby (Fakebook)
Channel 3 - Out of Control (Upside-Down)
Clamtones - Griselda (Fakebook)
Daniel Johnston - Speeding Motorcycle (Fakebook)
Dead C - Bad Politics (Tom Courtenay)
Eddie Cantor - Looney Toons (Sugarcube)
Eric Burdon/Three Dog Night - Mama Told Me Not to Come (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Ervan Coleman - Tijuana Taxi (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Escorts - The One to Cry (Fakebook)
Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Flamin' Groovies - You Tore Me Down (Fakebook)
Fleetwood Mac - Dreams (Prisoners of Love A Smattering of Scintillating Senescent Songs)
Flying Burrito Brothers - Tried So Hard (Fakebook)
George McCrae - You Can Have It All (And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out)
Half Japanese - Ashes on the Ground (From a Motel 6)
Hokey Pokey (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
[b]Hues Corporation - Rock the Boat (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Huey 'Piano' Smith - Sea Cruise (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Information - Let's Compromise (New Wave Hot Dogs)
Jackson Browne - Somebody's Baby (Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo)
Jan Terri - Rock N Roll Santa (Merry Christmas From Yo La Tengo)
John Cale - Andalucia (Fakebook)
John Cale - Hanky Panky Nohow (Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo)
Kinks - Big Sky (Ride the Tiger)
Kinks - No Return (Little Honda)
Kinks - Oklahoma, U.S.A. (Fakebook)
Love - A House is Not a Motel (Ride the Tiger)
Manos Hadjidakis - Never on Sunday (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Mighty Cravers - Emulsified (Fakebook)
Modern Lovers - Roadrunner (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
NRBQ - Captain Lou (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
NRBQ - Magnet (Prisoners of Love A Smattering of Scintillating Senescent Songs)
NRBQ - What Can I Say (Fakebook)
Nat King Cole - Route 66 (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Neil Young - Barstool Blues (Here Comes My Baby EP)
Nightmares - Baseball Altamont (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Only Ones - The Whole of the Law (Painful)
Paper Lace - The Night Chicago Died (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Pete Seeger - Living in the Country (Ride the Tiger)
Petula Clark - Downtown (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Queen - We Are the Champions (Little Honda)
Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop (Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo)
Replacements - Favorite Thing (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Richard Thompson - For Shame of Doing Wrong (Shaker)
Sammy Walker - Closing Time (Ride the Tiger)
Sandy Denny - By the Time It Gets Dark (Little Honda)
Scene is Now - Yellow Sarong (Fakebook)
Seeds - Can't Seem to Make You Mine (Camp Yo La Tengo)
Shirley & Lee - Let the Good Times Roll (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Sir Douglas Quintet - Mendocino (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Stooges - Raw Power (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Sun Ra - Dreaming (Prisoners of Love A Smattering of Scintillating Senescent Songs)
Sun Ra - Interplanetary Music (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Sun Ra - It's Christmas Time (Merry Christmas From Yo La Tengo)
Sun Ra - Nuclear War (Nuclear War)
Sun Ra - Rocket #9 (Rocket #9)
Sven Swanson - Santa Claus Goes Modern (Merry Christmas From Yo La Tengo)
T. Rex - 20th Century Boy (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Times New Viking - Move to California (Fade)
Todd Rundgren - I Saw the Light (Fade)
Urinals - Black Hole (Little Honda)
Urinals - Surfin' With the Shah (Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo)
Velvet Underground - I'm Set Free (Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo)
Velvet Underground - It's Alright (The Way That You Live) (New Wave Hot Dogs)
Velvet Underground - Oh! Sweet Nuthin' (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Who - Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
William DeVaughn - Be Thankful for What You Got (Little Honda)
Wire - Too Late (Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo)
X-Ray Spex - Oh Bondage, Up Yours! (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Yes - Roundabout (Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics)
Yung Wu - The Empty Pool (Ride the Tiger)
ZZ Top - La Grange (Fade)

well, if only Bruce Bennett had remembered all the lyrics to "Baseball Altamont"

otm

but he was the only one who knew it at all -- Ira said so.

I'm bitter that they didn't put my WFMU Yo La Tengo request on the Murdering The Classics album. Back in 1998 I paid my $50 to hear them play Shake Some Action, and it was sublime.

There were two covers on the I'm Not There album, I Wanna Be Your Lover and Fourth Time Around

also iLX triviots know which track on Yo La Tengo Is Murdering the Classics was a request from me.

― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius)

I'm going to assume the obvious and guess "Meet the Mets"?

no, too easy. it was "Baseball Altamont."

the original btw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m-401129SA

Little Eyes is a fantastic song.

It truly is.

Yo La Tengo seems like a band that never would have stopped releasing vinyl, so the review copy I still have of New Wave Hot Dogs probably isn't anything special. I did review it at the time, and promptly forgot about them for the next seven or eight years, until a friend got me onto I Can Hear The Heart...; never remotely suspected they'd one day be among my very favourite bands.

This is yet another band I owe to Christgau. My brother bought Electr-o-Pura based on his review and fifteen seconds into Decora I was hooked. They are astoundingly good.

Covers will work like albums, please vote for your favorite covers. A little list of 5 covers is all I need. :)

My #1 song choice - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI7coYKrt_Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PZh451ppoM

rep for this slow-burner, which would make for a great wedding-day aisle walkdown number.

Voted! Ended up voting Fuckbook my #5 album because I couldn't decided between I Am Not Afraid Of You...and Fade.

Probably too late, but just thought of a side-poll: the fake albums in the ICHTHBAO liner notes!

so we will tend not to include covers in the tracks ranking bcz there is a covers category?

11th hour lobby for this overlooked early jammer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJqrglXJgXw

https://youtu.be/UpnBQD_-n0s

^wasnt in the covers list but can I vote for this? I think this video was recorded the night Arthur Lee died

I included a bunch of covers. this is one of the only bands where I bought *everything* they put out in the mid 90s, singles, eps, etc, and I got a lot of covers that way. in particular "Somebody's Baby" gets a lotta love around here.

that being said: 25 songs was hard for me! I didn't just want to vote for songs from/around the two big albums, even though in retrospect that's mostly what I liked from this band (though my #1 isn't from those two albums). but I don't love enough originals on their other albums. later songs I like, like "Today Is The Day" on the EP, sound very similar to better songs on the earlier albums. so covers it was.

"Somebody's Baby" is great and will probably make my ballot

Pretty sure this was the first poll I ever posted here:

The Bert Blyleven Poll

I know people hate talking about the HOF, but in my world, 10 or 15 years down the road, they're in. Their body of work is very large now, and a pretty sizable part of it I consider good-to-great.

I keep 36 songs in a folder on my hard-drive, which is more than anyone except Neil Young--another five by Dump, too. Just have to spend a little time clicking through to see where things fall.

I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass #1 without hesitation. Every song on there is classic. No other album comes close.

Trying to narrow to 25. This is hard.

As with all other records, i haven't played these in YEARS. And I own no pods.

I really can't vote unless I cram my ears all weekend. I don't even remember what song "Blue Line Swinger" is.

Then you're in for a treat because Blue Line Swinger is a doozy. Last song on Electro-Pura. I've been having a blast revisiting YLT. Their 90s stuff has aged fantastically well. New records are great too.

Electro-Pura is my least favorite of the classics. Meanwhile I like Summer Bunch. "Little Eyes" is my favorite YLT second song.

how do people rate fakebook? my favorite ylt album by far, but it seems to have not been mentioned anywhere except in the one post listing all their covers, and none of the originals from it have been mentioned anywhere either.

xp The Summer almost cracked my top 10 and their Flamin Groovies take was my top cover. one of my favorites of theirs.

fakebook is perfecto, probably their first great record.

not voting 'cause i stopped paying attention after i can heart the heart beating as one, but "can't forget" would have been top 2 or 3 for me, if not my #1.

i stopped paying attention after i can heart the heart beating as one

Vote anyway.

For a long time, Facebook was my favorite YLT album, and it's probably still my #2.

they never recorded their version of "Love Power" from The Producers, right?

I wanna give a shoutout to the instrumental disc of Genius+Love, some great stuff on there - "Nutricia", "Enough", "Sunsquashed", etc.

I was late to Fakebook but it is great and I may vote for "Griselda"

agreed-'Nutricia' was one of my last cuts.

Gee I forgot I have to do my own ballot.

was really hoping to find Oneida's live cover of "The Room Got Heavy" they did back in maybe 07-08 at a show I saw in Boston. so great.

there is another great cover missing in the list upthread. yoko ono's "don't worry, kyoko (mommy's only looking for her hand in the snow" on "yo la tengo is murdering the classics".

Need to revisit the last few albums before I submit my ballot, I'm a casual YLT fan compared to most people here I'm sure but they have a lot of songs I love.

VHS: I'll get my list to you today. I have 25 images ready to go--I assume you'll need more than that (40?). It's pretty easy to get another 15 ready.

yeah, i can't do this. usta know the catalog really well, but... i threw it all away.

got my ballot in. top 10 or so was very easy to figure out but then the rest took forever to narrow down

I will send mine tomorrow

Ballot sent.

yeah, i can't do this. usta know the catalog really well, but... i threw it all away.

― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius)

Just go on instinct dude. I didn't have time to relisten to stuff either.

Clem: I think 40 is a good number for now.

Voted!

Voted. I wish the covers portion could have been 10 spots instead of 5.

It's not too late to submit a ballot, is it?

No it isn't

Submitting today!

VHS, are you sending out confirmations?

I think so as I got a confirmation shortly after I submitted my ballot.

I didn't get a confirmation?

i can't really listen to this band but i wouldn't tell them to fuck off cuz they look like people who would buy records from me.

Yes, just a couple confirmations!

I'm extending the deadline to Wednesday, 12pm, eastern time.

good man

hooray

Just voted!

I'll send mine in soon, def including this in covers list:

https://youtu.be/EqM86E962w4

How many ballots do we have so far, approximately?

around 17

...voted!

Thanks for the deadline extension.

I have my ballot but will not be able to send it until tonight, thanks

No rush sleeve :)

There will be a surge of votes for "Ohm" after last night.

Why so?

Going back and listening to this band deeply for the first time in over a decade, what's really struck me is Ira Kaplan is pretty much a guitar God.

(xpost) Mad Men...in the last scene, Don Draper invents electricity.

Also because Ohm is an incredible song

Fade is one of my favorites post-2000, I had 2 tracks make my top 25. Actually, when people say post-2000 I don't know if that means they dislike And Then Nothing, or the stuff after.

In my case, it's the stuff after.

among the early albums i probly favor May I Sing with Me

may i ask when the roll-out is going to take place?

I was targeting Wednesday 27th

You guys better vote for "You Can Have It All."

oh hell yeah I will

only cover that cracked my top 25.

man, mine is like half covers

Just sent

sent

sent

reconstructed from memory and sent, what a fuckin week

sent

#lazyweb: What are the 3rd and 4th parts of the poll?

Covers is the 3rd part, we did not do a 4th part.

Until midnight tonight!!

Give me a few! I'm in the #tengozone.

Ballot submitted... thanks again, that was pretty exhausting!

I'm probably the only one who voted for "A Shy Dog"... love those new wave hotdog jammers from 87!

A Shy Dog is my favourite from New Wave Hotdogs but I couldn't find space for it

last minute voted!

Poll is closed! Thanks everyone for participating. I'll come with results as soon as possible.

Oh man. I'd love to see this. (from the Village Voice)
<i>Friday, 5/22 Condo Fucks Cake Shop 8 p.m., $12
Cake Shop — the venerable concert venue/record store/coffee joint that has persevered in the face of the LES's high-brow overhaul — is celebrating its tenth birthday with a slew of shows, and the seventh show of its 10 Days for 10 Years bacchanal promises to be a helluva shredder. This stellar lineup is a groovy one that harkens back to Maxwell's classic days of yore. Indie rock institution and the pride of Hoboken Yo La Tengo will slip into their gloriously shit-fi garage cover alter-ego Condo Fucks, ripping into covers galore. (Expect a hodgepodge of cuts from the Troggs, Slade, the Kinks, Richard Hell and other luminaries explored on 2009's hilariously-titled Fuckbook, a hilarious play on YLT's own Fakebook from 1990). Longtime buds Antietam — led by guitar goddess Tara Key — and another Jerz mainstay, Speed the Plough, set the stage for the bat-shit festivities. The presence of WFMU DJ and music journo Gaylord Fields is sure to make this one raucous event. -- Brad Cohan </i>

VHS -- I've got 40 images ready for text; send me the results when you can.

(Click on my username and you'll find your way to my regular e-mail address.)

anticipating

I can hear the crickets chirping as one.

relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWYPkODdxI4

maybe this was all an elaborate scheme to pretend poll YLT, thus the thread title.

Ha, on it, results rolling next monday.

I read that as next MONTH... which happens to be true too.

It's Florida 2000 all over again.

I Can See The Chad Hanging As One

Blue Line Linger

Our Way to Stall

Mushroom Cloud of Zzzzzzz

Picture guy is ready. I believe VHS may have absconded to Russia with the ballots.

Detouring America with Polls

VHS has sent me the results; I'll finalize the images, and he'll start the countdown on Monday.

are the rumors true?

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2214/2165441249_2bf4e1e514.jpg

We'll do covers and albums today, as soon as I get back from work.

when night falls on Hoboken...

I Heard You Polling - The Yo La Tengo Poll Results Thread. (ILM Poll #61)