Month: February 2014

On this date we made our first visit ever to Paris (1992), Memphis (1994), and uh Palmerston North, New Zealand (1998).  Even those that attended American public schools should be able to figure out which one of those was attended by Jean Luc from Caen.

Hello,
Mon anglais étant très limité, je vous écris dans ma langue, le français.  Mon souvenir de la découverte de Yo La Tengo remonte à l’un des premiers (le premier?) concerts du groupe en France.  C’était à Paris, place Clichy dans la salle l’Européen.  Vous étiez en première partie d’un jeune artiste qui faisait ses débuts: Dominique A.  Il a depuis fait une belle carrière que je suis comme la votre.  C’était un concert assez émouvant.  C’est aussi un beau souvenir de ma (relative) jeunesse.   Je ne me souviens plus de la date exacte, sans doute dans l’année 1992.  Vous saurez sans doute la retrouver plus précisément.  Bonne année à vous aussi et longue vie musicale.

Merci, Jean Luc!  And before we say adieu to February, a quick shout-out to leap years 1988 (at the Lone Star in Kansas City, opening for the dB’s) and 2000 (at Town Hall in NYC with Lambchop).

 

What I remember best about our one-off at Washington University in St. Louis on this day in 1993 is James and I sharing a heaping order of snoots in the student center where our show took place.  Consulting my notes, I am reminded that later that night we debuted “Shaker” and, still later, were joined on drums by “Len” (so say my records) for not just “Cast a Shadow,” but a never-heard-before, never-heard-again cover of “Empty Heart.”  I’m sure we had our reasons.    By comparison, bringing Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci onstage on the first night of our 2004 tour together, in their hometown of Cardiff, to perform “Rebel Rebel” makes perfect sense, what with it being St. David’s Day.

 

In 2008, Eugene Mirman and Bobby Tisdale asked us to take part in the three-night blowout they were throwing to bring their weekly comedy show Invite Them Up to a close.   We planned a four-song set for this date, six years ago, opening with the Condo Fucks favorite “Come On Up” reworded to “Invite Them Up,” and closing with Marcie Blane’s “Bobby’s Girl” (second chorus: Eugene’s girl).  And then Georgia caught the flu and was much too sick to play.   Pulling out our Rolodex, we went to the card that said DRUMMERS and there was only one name: Todd Barry.  He cancelled a few engagements and hightailed it to Rififi to save the day.

In another century and another state, we were playing our one and only show at Passaic’s Loop Lounge in 1987.  For one last time, original bassist, Dave Rick, was on lead guitar, as he had been for most of our dates since Dave Schramm’s departure in August of ’86.    Is it possible that we didn’t play with Dave again till Hanukkah 2007?  What were we thinking?

 

To punctuate the release of And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, we undertook an 11-city U.S. tour, playing (mostly) quietly in sit-down venues.  Lambchop opened all the shows, and our lineup was expanded to a quintet with the addition of David Kilgour and Mac McCaughan on guitar, keyboards, vibes and percussion.  It was an ambitious affair all around, not without its hiccups–Lambchop drummer Allen Lowrey picked the wrong moment to grab some fresh air, got accidentally left behind, and took a bus to the second show in Philadelphia.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Opening night, 14 years ago today at the 9:30 Club in D.C., was also Georgia’s birthday, so we threw her a surprise party.   Without her knowing, the rest of the band learned Gary Lewis’s “Count Me In” and played it for her during the encore.  A bunch of our friends drove down and stayed out of sight till after our set.  Well, most of them did.  Our niece was there, and was having trouble with rock ‘n’ roll hours.  While we were on stage, Joe brought her up to the dressing room, where she could take a nap.  When a surprised Georgia discovered her there, she leaned over to say hi, and got a second surprise.  Assuming it was her older brother trying to wake her up, our niece, eyes still closed, led with a sock to Georgia’s jaw.  Luckily she was cuter than she was strong.

 

Ever wonder about the lyrics to “Attack on Love”?  Of course, you have!  Guest chronicler, James, provides a selection from his diary on the 20th anniversary of their genesis.  Gentleman?  I always remembered it as a young woman. . . .

2/24/94

Short drive to Dallas.  Lizard Lounge has a very small stage, too small for tonight’s three-band bill.  My head hurts.  Too-quiet afternoon walk through deserted, urine-scented Deep Ellum.  We do a good soundcheck.  Local favorites Trish & Darren are on first, and the audience goes WILD for them!!!  Like no exaggerating, legit-type wild.  Crowd is pumped!!!  We are on next.  People really, really do not like us.  At all.  We bring the room way down, very fast.  Most of the people who were up front sat down on the floor.  Several of them voiced their opinions of our band.  At one particularly quiet moment, one gentleman informed us, “Hey man, y’all suck.”   Overall it was a blast, I thought we played great.  We stood by the t-shirt area while the Juliana Hatfield 3 were on and met several people who claimed to have liked our set.  Fight the power.  Went somewhere to eat after, Terry was mad, I don’t remember why.  Great sandwich, though.  The woman who checked us into our hotel rooms was at least 6’6″, maybe 250 lbs, not an ounce of fat, beautiful long blonde hair.  She was the biggest woman I had ever seen in my life.

 

Having received what we in the industry refer to as “mixed reviews,” Sitcom Theater clearly required some retooling.  Don’t get me wrong–we had no problem with its Chicago debut, taking solace in the words of rock critic Ronald Thomas Clontle: Time will vindicate me.  But we were uncomfortable that the cat was out of the bag, that everyone knew that Sitcom Theater = Seinfeld.  So we needed to come up with a curveball for the next time it came up on the wheel.   As with Seinfeld, we wanted a show we genuinely liked, without too many characters, and one that most of the audience would know too (goodbye Car 54, Where Are You?).  Stretching the definition of sitcom slightly, we chose Spongebob Squarepants, and then we waited. . . .  The wheel finally cooperated on February 23, 2011, in Los Angeles, of all perfect places.    Living up to regional stereotypes, audience response to our performance of As Seen on TV was more, let’s say, laid back than it was for The Chinese Restaurant, perhaps pacified by the excellence of Georgia’s Squidward.  By this point in the tour, we had decided to hedge our bets with a bonus mini-set of Condo Fucks material when the wheel landed on certain controversial selections, and we did a long encore that included openers the Urinals joining us for “Surfin’ with the Shah” and “Sex.”  Maybe everyone didn’t go home satisfied, but nobody wrote to us to complain, which is the next best thing.