ZapTown

Yo La Tengo
Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo
1996 – Matador

Origin: Hoboken, New Jersey
Style: Alternative

A simple homage in name to Ray Charles’ Genius + Soul = Jazz, it’s a shame that this double-CD compilation did not get more recognition. Trouser Press gave the album one sentence of attention calling it no more than “thoroughly fine.” (http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=yo_la_tengo)

And even though Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo is “thoroughly fine,” it is so much more. On the surface, this collection is a build up of compilation tracks, rarities, covers, and b-sides that has accumulated throughout the ‘90s, Genius + Love marks an end point from the Electr-O-Pura days prior and the transformation that fully takes effect with I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One.

Usually when a band releases a collection like this, it contains throw-away tunes that they release to suck in the fans as much as possible and not really adding anything substantial to the band’s perspective. Extra songs, studio outtakes, demos, whatever, many of these collective compilations are not as relevant as the band sometimes want you to believe in.

Guy Peters Reviews take things further. “To get one thing straight from the start: it’s perfectly clear why most of this material was never used and, by consequence, it’s rather self-indulgent that it was packaged in a 2-CD (one with vocals, one instrumental).” (http://www.guypetersreviews.com/yolatengo.php).

Sure there are some eclectic throwaways like the sort-of cover of Daniel Johnston’s “Speeding Motorcycle,” where Johnston sang the song through a phone, and the couple instrumental versions of “From A Motel 6” that further beat up and bastardize the powerful haze of sound from Painful. But there are plenty of songs that stand on their own and are just as much and maybe sometimes more important than any song released before this.

The immediate one that stands out is “Demons.” A song that was used on the I Shot Andy Warhol soundtrack (Yo La Tengo appeared in the movie as a Velvet Underground-esque band, and a song that was originally to be titled “White Rabbit,”) Georgia Hubley’s dreamy-eyed vocals is what makes the force behind it so hauntingly beautiful and luminesce. It’s a song that is a standout in the band’s career and one that gets re-visited time and time again. Follow that with the passive observance of “Fog Over Frisco” and you have a hell of an introduction into this collection.

The band reverts to some cover tunes. The first one up is a raucous Sonic Youth-like noise bash of Wire’s “Too Late.” They also revert to their VU love with a modest cover of “I’m Set Free” that does not stray far from the original version. Take that and add John Cale’s “Hanky Panky Nohow” and you understand just how far their love goes.

They also give homage to lo-fi masters Beat Happening with “Cast A Shadow.” The band cleans up the song, adds a fuzzed-out reverb guitar to the pop mix and creates a slick version that takes an already great song and makes it better.

Disc 2 is more about abstraction than conventionalism. But you will find a surf-style/muzak version of  “Blitzkrieg Bop” that is lightweight and as fun as the Ramones meant for that song to be. Argue that it’s a throwaway, but the band knows how to create quality even in good spirits.

This collection ends with a 26-minute psych-out jam called “Sunsquashed.” It’s an epic adventure into sound and space that explores the depths of reverb and feedback that is a monster of an ending to an album. This idea would later return at the end of And Then Everything Turned Inside Out with “Night Falls On Hoboken.” Although “Hoboken” is much more sedate and looming than “Sunsquatched,” both songs explore music to their outer limits and after 26-minutes of this song, you realize how far this band can bend.

Cross-Reference: Sonic Youth, Velvet Underground, Beat Happening