March Music Madness: Yo La Tengo vs. Fleetwood Mac

[MindGoneHaywire]

I know people who swear Yo La Tengo is Satan...I mean...oh, never mind. I'm not one of 'em. I've heard a couple of recs that were decent enough, but over the years they seemed to morph from a decent alterna-indie rock thing into a third-rate Sonic Youth. That's what they were when I saw them open up for Big Star a few years ago. Pointless meandering, uninvolving songs, pretentiousness at its most galling. I want to vote for Fleetwood Mac in any poll about as much as I'd like root canal, but then again maybe I'd at least end up with some Vicodin or something. Always liked the Rumours album & still have it, the only record I own by either band. As commercial as it is, I always thought the songs were great pop from start to finish & Lindsey Buckingham was a heck of a player even if he's part of that commercial 70s 'California' ROCK thing I can't stand...but if you're going to at listen to one record in that Jackson Browne/Eagles/Linda Ronstadt vein, I think this is the one. For that they get my vote. I just don't think YLT has contributed all that much & that they went from one thing I would've liked into something I have no use for is enough to vote against 'em.

[Davey]

...but over the years they seemed to morph from a decent alterna-indie rock thing into a third-rate Sonic Youth.

Yeah, different stokes and all that. Not too surprisingly, my assessment would be almost just the opposite of yours, but I suspect you haven't heard much from them in the last few years. Might not sway your opinion and there's no denying that YLT doesn't still sound a little like Sonic Youth, but to me they are so much more enjoyable than listening to the modern version of Sonic Youth, at least from about 1995 till now. I mean, who's done a better feedback-drenched rave-up of a Beach Boy's tune than Yo La Tengo covering Little Honda? Just brilliant! And who can resist the playful guitar squalor surrounding the girl with nothing on but Cherry Chapstick?

Someone else's date
In someone else's door
There's a girl with cherry Chapstick on and nothing more.
It's such a lurid pose
and she seems this close
But not to me

[Davey]

Your Fun In The Sun Comp turned up in my mailbox today.....I did like the cover art a lot. We have a room in our house that those pictures would look great in!

Yeah, I love those Gockel paintings. I have a print of #1 (upper left on the cover) and used it briefly for my avatar a few weeks ago and with the weather heating up so much down here already thought the series would make a nice cover. After doing the cover I felt the same way as you, an array of the four prints would go nice in my room too. I think the one I have is about 10" square. He does a lot of paintings wth a musical theme too. I bought a 24" x 36" oil reproduction of one of my favorite Wassily Kandinsky paintings a few months ago that I also used on one of my comp covers (Beneath the Mambo Sun) and haven't got around to framing it yet so just have the canvas tacked up on the wall above the sofa

[-Jar-]

I'm sure FM will win, and that's fine, probably they deserve to. But I am glad that YLT is getting a lot of votes too.

-jar

[Troy]

I'm sure FM will win, and that's fine, probably they deserve to. But I am glad that YLT is getting a lot of votes too.

I gotta say, there aren't many BBs on the www where that would happen.