MP3: Rock N Roll Santa

Released in 2002 at one of their famous run of Hannukah Shows in Hoboken, here’s Yo La Tengo celebrating the other holiday in December.

Yo La Tengo

The slightly damp crowd waits for Sean Lennon’s new band, The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger.

Sean Lennon (The Ghost of a Saber tooth Tiger)

Charlotte Kemp Muhl (The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger)

Cheyenne Marie Mize

Lost in the Trees

Chooglin’

Nick Tolford

You can check out my complete (and large) set of NMF11 Day 2 photos here

We are excited to announce the following additions to this years line-up.

Yo La Tengo (saturday)
Wanda Jackson (sunday)
Michael Hurley (fri, sat, sun)
Drakkar Sauna (fri, sat, sun)
Baby Dee (saturday)
Nick Tolford & Company (fri & sat)
Todd Burge (sat, kid’s area)

Weekend Passes: $70
Friday Only: $50
Saturday Only: $65
Sunday Only: $50

Order tickets here. Lineup so far for the May 13-15 Nelsonville Music Festival:

Flaming Lips
George Jones
Neko Case
Yo La Tengo
Wanda Jackson
Justin Townes Earle
Lost in the Trees
Bomba Estereo
Mucca Pazza
The Growlers
Michael Hurley
Drakkar Sauna
Baby Dee
Nick Tolford and Co.
Todd Burge
Duke Junior + The Smokey Boots
Scubadog
Whale Zombie
Chris Biester

(via Pitchfork Media)

So Yo La Tengo covering Times New Viking at an English Music Festivalwasn’t the most rehearsed thing ever..but its prolly coming from a place of genuine love for the Columbus band.
I would say check TNV on tour with Pavement and Guided By Voices and and also at the Bilken Club in Missouri ..Dates after jump…

Wednesday 22 New York, NY Rumsey Playfield @ Central Park w/Pavement
Sunday 26 Atlanta, GA The Tabernacle w/Pavement
Thursday 30 Austin, TX The East Side Drive In w/Guided By Voices
October
Monday 04 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern w/Guided By Voices
Tuesday 05 San Francisco, CA Warfield Theatre w/Guided By Voices
Thursday 07 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom w/Guided By Voices
Saturday 09 Seattle Wa, WA Showbox SODO w/Guided By Voices
Tuesday 12 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue w/Guided By Voices
Wednesday 13 Chicago, IL Vic Theatre w/Guided By Voices
Thursday 14 St. Louis, MO St. Louis University / Billken Club

1. Larry Jon Wilson – Larry Jon Wilson
I won’t lie. Talking to Larry Jon and producer Jerry DeCicca (Black Swans) about this album, learning about its origins, and visiting Wilson’s back catalog gave me a heightened appreciation for this masterpiece. So context helps, but even if you know nothing about the back story, this is a stark, beautiful album from start to finish from one of the forgotten country outlaws. Wilson’s Georgia baritone is the sweetest thing I heard this year. For Townes Van Zandt fans, this is required listening.

MP3: Feel Alright Again

2. The Love Language – The Love Language
It’s a rock n’ roll cliché and a PR flack’s dream: Guy breaks up with girl, drinks heavily, pisses off all his friends, eventually sobers up and retreats to his parents’ house to record an album on a four-track. But man does this cliché jangle with some of the best in-the-red pop songs I’ve heard in a while. Stuart McLamb’s Chapel Hill band signed to Merge in October and is slated to have a new release in August, and after seeing the full band (now a 7-piece) put on a terrific show at the Wexner Center in the fall, McLamb’s next outing could be even better with a little help from his friends.

MP3: Manteo I MP3: Lalita

3. Andrew Bird – Noble Beast
Every aspect of Andrew Bird just keeps getting better—his voice; his gorgeous, multi-layered violin arrangements; his whistling. It makes for a backdrop so compelling that he can sing about proto-Sanskrit Minoans, porto-centric Lisboans, Greek Cypriots and Hobis-hots and have you nodding your head in agreement instead of scratching it in confusion.

MP3: Oh No

4. Kurt Vile – Constant Hitmaker; God is Saying This to You…; Childish Prodigy
I’m grouping these together so I can squeeze more in, but all three LPs probably deserve a separate spot for different reasons. God finds Vile filtering his psychedelia through John Fahey and Neil Young; Childish kicks the volume up a notch and tones the lo-fi down; and Hitmaker, the best of the three, plays both sides with casual brilliance. “Freeway” is one of my favorite songs of 2009.

MP3: Freeway

5. The Antlers – Hospice
Hospice is one of only a few albums this year that completely transports me whenever I give it my full attention. (Brian Harnetty’s Silent City is another.) A concept album about a hospice worker and a young patient, the songs swell like Sigur Ros then retreat into gingerly tapped piano, lightly strummed guitar or shimmery synth. It’s in those quiet portions that Silberman employs his alabaster falsetto — more hushed than Jeff Buckley but less wispy than Antony Hegarty. Back in March, the Antlers played a show at Cafe Bourbon St. in front of me and maybe three other people. I’m thinking there’ll be a few more in attendance next time.

MP3: Bear

#6 onward + Columbus list after the jump.

6. David Bazan – Curse Your Branches
We’ve talked about Bazan a lot recently, so I’ll let this photo/video/recap do the explaining. Just know that Bazan’s crisis of faith led him to create the best album of his career.

MP3: Bless This Mess

7. Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs
Yo La Tengo’s performance at Stuart’s Opera House in Nelsonville was my favorite show of the year. It helps that they played a whole lot from this record. I love that no matter how many perfect, three-minute pop songs Ira, Georgia and James write, they’re still not afraid to beat your ass with 10- and 15-minute feedback-laden wallops.

MP3: Here to Fall

8. Bill Callahan – Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle
“Well I used to be darker, then I got lighter, then I got dark again.” This is post-Smog Callahan at his best — sinister and sweet. And the pristine production on this record complements his deep deadpan perfectly. (P.S. It’s been a good year for Drag City.) (P.P.S. Remember that Used Kids performance? Good times.)

MP3: Eid Ma Clack Shaw


9. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
The great thing about Dirty Projectors is that anything that may come across as high-minded is balanced with something high-spirited. No other band is this brainy and this fun.


10. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
I know, if you’re a blog reader (or even if you’re not), you’re likely beyond tired of this band and this album. But seriously. The deliciousness of this record cannot be denied.

11. Atlas Sound – Logos
“Walkabout” just may be the best song released this year. More Bradford Cox/Noah Lennox collabs, please.

MP3: Walkabout


12. Justin Townes Earle – Midnight at the Movies
Steve Earle’s boy plays country- and blues-inspired folk songs with the conviction of a modern-day Leadbelly, yet his take on the Replacements’ “Can’t Hardly Wait” shows that though he’s indebted to Americana music, it’s more of a gate than a fence.

MP3: Mama’s Eyes I MP3: What I Mean to You


13. fun. – Aim and Ignite
I wrote earlier that this record “sounds like Freddie Mercury and Paul McCartney getting drunk at a carnival, then catching a Broadway show. There’s copious strings and accordions and Wurlitzers galore, all gallivanting next to Nate Ruess’ impressive, addictive tenor. So ‘fun.’ is exactly that.” This is the best ready-for-radio pop album of 2009.


14. The Mountain Goats – The Life of the World to Come
John Darnielle’s best songs capture the darkness of the human condition yet still feel uplifting in some way—a thread of human dignity facing an overwhelming heartache or obstacle. This Biblical concept album is no different.

MP3: Genesis 3:23


15. Volcano Choir – Unmap
Justin Vernon’s collaboration with Collections of Colonies of Bees proves his voice goes well with anything and everything. Even when he’s talking gibberish in a digital haze.

MP3: Island, IS


(16. XX – XX
OK, last-minute add… I was really late getting around to this record, but, wow… Amazing, super-clean production and sparkling hooks that slowly form like icicles. Good stuff. Looking forward to the Wexner Center show in April.)

Columbus albums:
1. Brian Harnetty – Silent City
2. Wing & Tusk – The Secret of Toadflax Tea
3. The Receiver – Length of Arms
4. Times New Viking – Born Again Revisited
5. The Sun – Don’t Let Your Baby Have All the Fun
6. Sinkane – Sinkane
7. RTFO Bandwagon – Dums Will Survive
8. Monolithic Cloud Parade – Children with Wolf Heads
9. This is My Suitcase – The Keys to Cat Heaven
10. Bird and Flower – Here We Cease Our Motion

Schedule:
Fri, Jan 22 / Pontiac, MI / Crofoot Ballroom
Sat, Jan 23 / Madison, WI / Barrymore Theatre
Sun, Jan 24 / St. Louis, MO / The Pageant
Tue, Jan 26 / Lawrence, KS / Granada Theatre
Wed, Jan 27 / Tulsa, OK / Cain’s Ballroom
Thu, Jan 28 / Houston, TX / Warehouse Live
Fri, Jan 29 / Austin, TX / Antone’s
Sat, Jan 30 / Dallas, TX / Granada Theatre

Ticket info here.

We told you before about Stuart’s Opera House in Nelsonville, and even gave away a pair of tickets to Steve Earle. And now we’re excited to say we’ve got a pair to give away for the legendary Yo La Tengo on Sept. 24. To enter this contest, send a blank e-mail to contest@donewaiting.com with the subject YO LA TENGO. Winners will be randomly chosen on Sept. 23. And for those who want to make sure there’ll be seats waiting for them, you can purchase tickets here.

Here’s a track from Popular Songs, Yo La Tengo’s new one out Sept. 8.

mp3: Yo La Tengo – Here to Fall

Oh, and Columbus’s own The Beatdowns open the show. Nice. And Pat Radio has their just-released Old 3C single,”Disconnected Girl,” here in mp3 and aiff.

Full Yo La Tengo tour dates after the jump.

September 15 Winooski, VT Higher Ground
September 16 Boston, MA Wilbur Theater
September 17 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
September 18 Durham, NC Carolina Theater
September 19 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
September 21 Asheville, NC Orange Peel
September 22 Knoxville, TN Bijou Theater
September 23 Louisville, KY Headliners
September 24 Nelsonville, OH Stuart’s Opera House
September 25 New York, NY Roseland (NYC)
October 02 Montreal, QC Le National
October 03 Toronto, ON Opera House
October 05 Cleveland, OH Beachland Tavern
October 06 Chicago, IL The Vic
October 07 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
October 09 Omaha, NE Slowdown
October 10 Denver, CO Ogden
October 11 Solano Beach, CA Belly Up Tavern
October 12 Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge
October 14 Phoenix, AZ Marquee Theater
October 15 Los Angeles, CA Avalon
October 16 San Diego, CA Soma
October 17 Santa Cruz, CA Rio Theater
October 18 San Francisco, CA 100% Equal Festival
October 20 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom
October 21 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
October 22 Seattle, WA Showbox

Earle is touring solo behind his new Townes Van Zandt tribute album, Townes. I saw him at the Southern Theatre last May, and the man is at his best when his songs tell stories, which bodes well for a show heavy on Van Zandt covers. His wife, Allison Moorer, will kick off the night. And lucky for you, dear Donewaiting reader, we’re giving away a pair of tickets to this show. To enter this contest, send a blank e-mail to contest@donewaiting.com with the subject STEVE EARLE. A winner will be randomly chosen on Wednesday morning, 8/26.

mp3: Steve Earle – To Live is to Fly (Townes Van Zandt cover)

Times New Viking recorded a video for a new Yo La Tengo song at Lost Weekend Records in Columbus OH.