Sunsquashed

New Discography coming to Sunsquashed
Updates have been few and far between since managed.com (hisssss) deleted this and many other websites about a year ago. However, I am working on a new & updated discography, with help from Matthew, who scanned some hard to find items in his collection for me.

YLT on KEXP
YLT will be on KEXP in Seattle on Oct 24, 2006 at 3PM (assuming Pacific time). Schedule here. I'm assuming it will be on their webcast as well...

Website Updates
My tradelist, the complete list of setlists, and the discography are back up for those seeking them. Thanks for your patience!

Like Deja Vu All Over Again (Happy Birthday Yogi)
Sunsquashed has been down for a week due to a total lack of competence of managed.com's part (AKA webhostplus AKA my ex-webhoster). The details are lengthy and not worth rehashing (you can read all about it here if you have the stomach for it). But my advice is never, ever, ever do business with webhostplus or managed.com.

Sunsquashed is back up and my email is working - if something has bounced in the past week, please re-send it. You may notice most links on this page don't work, I'm still working on that.

And One More...
Neil emails me a link from brooklynvegan (and SPIN confirms) that YLT will be playing the Prospect Park Bandshell once again this year, on Thursday, July 13. I guess this is unconfirmed until the band lists it. Buy your tickets now! Oh wait, it's free (donation requested).

Italian dates added to schedule...and a request.
The official YLT tour schedule has been updated with two late-May dates in Italy.

On a completely separate note, if you recorded the over-the-air signal of the WFMU show last weekend or recorded the live webstream, please email me (the dot kthomas at sunsquashed.com) ASAP! I need a complete copy.

2006 WFMU Setlist. Please post to Jesse's blog any updates/corrections. Thanks Jesse!

From the Too Lazy To Keep This Regularly Updated Dept...
The following scintillating smattering of bulletins you've already heard about:

Maxwell's Blogging
Jesse's Frank and Earthy Blog will have continuing coverage of Hanukkah@Maxwell's - the first installment is up now. Thanks Jesse! And the band is running their own diary on the official site as well, with photos.

Hanukkah in Hoboken 2005
It's official: YLT will play Maxwell's December 25 to January 1. Official Announcement with ticket-buying details. No special guests announced yet.

Emo's blogging & photos
St. Murse is blogging here about the Emo's show in Austin last week. Also tons of photos here and here (thank you, John!).

Two New Torrents
The following torrents are now available at dimeadozen.org:

Online YLT show
Jason Koffman pointed me to the following live show archive, which features a YLT show from SUNY Binghamton on May 8, 1992. The show is set up to stream through an online Flash player.

Brandon will be seeding the entire 2002 Hanukkah series (8 shows!) over the next few weeks at dimeadozen.org. He's started with a best-of sampler. (registration required)

I have re-seeded the wonderful May 13, 2000 in Glasgow. A great show, with Robyn Hitchcock and Sonic Boom.

"New" torrent available
PROBABLY should have mentioned that the July 4 show at Battery Park is now available at dimeadozen.org. Thanks to Neil for recording and sharing!

Battery Park concert notes
Neil sent the following notes about the Independence Day show in Battery Park:

Highlights of the show included:

* YLT opening with "We're An American Band" (the YLT song) followed 
immediately by "We're An American Band" (the Grand Funk Railroad song). 

* A long, slow instrumental that I at first thought might be something
from "Sounds of Science," but which ultimately became the intro, a la Blue
Line Swinger, for what I'm guessing was a new song.

* Ira wishing "Happy birthday to America, and to my dad." (And also 
wishing the U.S. "a better year next year than the one we just had.")

* "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" as the show closer.

Dave Schramm played with Laura Cantrell during the opening set, so I 
assumed he'd stick around to play with YLT, but I assumed wrong. Just the 
usual threesome for the duration.

Aside from the above, I remember "Tears Are
In Your Eyes," "The Summer" (on piano), "Cherry Chapstick," "Autumn
Sweater," "Big Day Coming," "Tom Courtenay," and a Beach Boys song.

Official Website update
YLT updated their website recently - most sections have new content, including a Swing State tour mini-diary and 2 mp3's from the tour.

Sounds of Science at Rose Theater review
Blogger Rajeev attended the Sounds of Science show Wednesday night and wrote a review of the show at One Louder..

New Torrent
I have shared the 1997 New Year's show at Maxwell's at Dimeadozen. Great show, lots of special guests and unusual covers.

Tour Update
The band has updated their tour schedule. Several new dates have been added to their summer tour of Europe.

New torrent available
Last Thursday's performance at The Vic in Chicago is right here at etree.org. Thanks, Brian!

Matador Goodies
Sujan from Beggar's Group pointed me to these two Matador offerings:

- A live broadcast of YLT's new compilation with a new interview. I laughed out loud several more times.

Mexico City Live DVD
Chris (aka portlandindierocker & yltfan) has liberated this video at dimeadozen.org (with the help of a few others).

Torrent Help Request
I'd like to ask those who have downloaded shows from etree.org and still have the source(s) to please head over to bt.etree.org and open a seed for any show listed with "0" seeders. Thanks!

YLT back in England
YLT are confirmed for the Summer Sundae Weekender festival in Leicester for the weekend of August 12-14. Other European festival dates may follow.

New Torrent available
The first new YLT addition to Dimeadozen.org is available - 5-8-1992 at SUNY Binghamton. Thanks to Jason for recording it and sharing it.

June 11 2005 Guadalajara, Mexico at Foro Alterno de la Universidad de Guadalajara (with Sappho, Conpiracio Alfa 5, e. lebleu, Antena)

July 04 2005 New York, NY at Battery Park (with Stephen Malkmus and Laura Cantrell).

Torrents Galore
I've been lazy and failed to mention these shows have become available. Hanukkah chronicler Brandon achieves godhood with the following releases (more to come):

And completely unrelated to YLT except that they played Lollapalooza 1995 together is the following Stephen Malkmus show:
The Bottleneck, Lawrence KS October 26 2001. Thanks to John for this recording, it's a nice one.

Need some assistance with a torrent
If someone downloaded the May 31, 1997 Lounge Ax show from etree.org, can you please re-open the torrent? There are 5 people at 99% who would like to complete their downloads. Details here.

Tonic Benefit
Free plug: In one week YLT will play a benefit to save Tonic, an avant garde showplace in downtown NYC. If you are interested in keeping places like Tonic alive, please consider catching the show (or another show from their benefit series) or making a donation.

MP3 Request
Parental advisory dept: Slack Motherfucker with special guest Jon Spencer is on the mp3 page. A disclaimer: This is from the 10th Anniversary for Matador Records show, and it turns out this song is a springboard for a giant in-joke. Salon.com has the scandalous details.

WFMU Review
(The?) Bruce Bennett sent me a great review of the WFMU fundraiser this past Tuesday. I double-dare the band to do a Rush request next year.

Live show download - Bit Torrent

New live show torrent is now available: Lounge Ax, Chicago IL, April 5, 1991. Thanks to James (from IL) for sending me his master recording of this show to share. James is working on sharing out a 1994 Eleventh Dream Day show (w/ Ira on lead guitar) that promises to be a "motherfucker". Watch this page for details.

WFMU Setlist
It was a great night of music, fun, and threats. Here's what was played:

More MP3 Requests.
I recieved a list of requests from Timo a few months back but couldn't fill most of his requests because they were unique songs from poor recordings, or from WFMU shows. However, I did find two gems, both "Big Day Coming", but on opposite ends of the YLT spectrum. They are on the MP3 page.

Gates of Steel MP3 Repost
For those who missed it the first few times I've posted it, Gates of Steel is available for download, and I believe (but would not swear) it's from the May 31, 1997 show at the Metro in Chicago. This request comes from Gerry Cas...oops, I mean Lane Buschel, bassist for the girl-fronted Devo cover band Deva.

Annual WFMU Benefit notice
Tuesday March 15 at 8PM will be the time (10th year in a row!) for YLT's contribution to the the annual WFMU Benefit - three hours of requests and fundraising! It occurs to me that I usually put a recording of the show up on my website. For this year and all subsequent years I won't be doing this, mostly because there is an official "best of" WFMU release pending, but also because I think it is important people listen to the broadcast and donate if they can, not just download it from my site later, sans DJ begging, pleading, etc. Although I'm certain the show will become available eventually, probably via torrent, it won't be here. Also, I get MP3 requests for past WFMU shows from time to time, and because of the official release pending, I won't put those up either. And (in case anyone is wondering) I haven't been leaned on by someone's lawyer, I just think this is the right thing to do.

Live Notes
Some live dates have been trickling in from various places.

First, it's WFMU time again, and YLT are scheduled for Tuesday, March 15, from 8-11 PM Eastern during the Tom Scharpling show. 3 hours!

Michael says "Heads up, YLT are playing in Chicago at the Vic Theater 4/21/05!" Sure enough, it's true. Does anyone know of other midwest dates?

Finally, Matador's tour schedule reports the band is heading to Japan for these three dates:

Friday May 27 Tokyo, JP Shibuya Club Quattro
Saturday May 28 Tokyo, JP Laforet Museum (Sounds of Science film show!)
Sunday May 29 Osaka, JP Club Quattro

Yo La Tengo scores Game 6
imdb.com is listing Yo La Tengo as original music composers for the film Game 6, which is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. I don't know if they scored original music for the film or allowed existing works to be used - no soundtrack is available yet. Great cast!

New torrent (Yo La Tengo related)
One of the three shows Ray Davies did in August 2000 with YLT backing is available here. This is a really good show, but more for Kinks/Ray Davies fans than YLT.

New Compilation
On March 22 Matador will release the compilation Prisoners of Love, which looks to me like a sampling of YLT's most popular songs from each US release. Discs one and two will contain previously released tracks, while a limited edition version will include a third disc of hard-to-find songs from imports, singles, vinyl-only releases, and compilations, and also (oh yes) 5 previously unreleased tracks. A DVD compilation will follow (not related to the material on Prisoners of Love).

Disc One:
1. Shaker
2. Sugarcube
3. Barnaby, Hardly Working
4. Little Eyes
5. Stockholm Syndrome
6. Our Way to Fall
7. From a Motel 6
8. Swing for Life
9. Tom Courtenay
11. I Heard You Looking
12. You Can Have It All
13. Did I Tell You
53:33

Disc Two:

1. The River of Water
2. Autumn Sweater
3. Big Day Coming
4. Pablo and Andrea
5. Drug Test
6. Season of the Shark
7. Upside-Down
8. The Summer
9. Tears Are in Your Eyes
10. Blue Line Swinger
11. The Story of Jazz
12. Nuclear War (version 1)
13. By the Time It Gets Dark
58:43

Disc Three (outtakes and rarities - limited edition triple CD version only):

1. Stay Away From Heaven - from the film "Invisible Circus", original soundtrack released on Chapter II)
2. Pencil Test* - I Can Hear The Heart... session track
3. Almost True* - And Then Nothing... session track
4. Tom Courtenay (acoustic) - Camp YLT EP
5. Big Day Coming (demo)*
6. Dreaming* - used in the film "Ode"
7. Bad Politics - Tom Courtenay single
8. Blue-Green Arrow - Earworm 7"
9. Decora (acoustic)* - KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic session, circa '95
10. Out The Window (original version) - That Is YLT EP
11. Weather Shy - from the film "Invisible Circus"
12. Dreams - Chemical Imbalance cover mount 7"
13. Autumn Sweater (remixed By Kevin Shields) - Autumn Sweater EP
14. Ashes On The Ground - From A Motel 6 EP
15. Mr. Ameche Plays The Stranger - Camp YLT EP
16. Magnet - from the NRBQ tribute album 'The Q People' (Spirithouse Records)
74:58

Hanukkah Reviews
Sean from Toronto is digging the Maxwell's scene this week and sending me reviews for each night. Watch this space for updates.

Rajeev sent me these links to two excellent reviews he wrote for his blog:
December 9
December 12

And Rolling Stone has a writeup, useful only for the Ira zinger at the end:
Rolling Stone

Confirmed guest rockers to date are: the Shams (Dec. 9), the A-Bones (Dec. 10), Eleventh Day Dream (Dec. 11), the Coctails (Dec. 12) and Beat Happening's Calvin Johnson (Dec. 14).

Updated: Rich reports that Maxwell's is listing Calexico as Wednesday night's special guest.

Live show download - Bit Torrent
Let's kick off the Hanukkah season with a bit torrent of the October 10, 2004 show at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro NC. This is a great 3+ hour show with special guests Mac McCaughan, Chris Stamey, David Kilgour, and Soundtracapella.

Maxwell's 2001 torrents
YLT's entire run of Hanukkah shows from 2001 are hitting Easytree's bit torrent tracker. The first one is here, others will follow (try searching for "Maxwell" or "Hoboken" to find subsequent uploads). Login is required, and big thanks once again to Brandon for recording the shows AND sharing them out. The recordings include the supporting acts (Yung Wu, etc) and photos.

"Vintage" Fakebook radio show bit torrent
Better late than never department: Easytree.org (registration required) has this torrent for download. Very high quality - in fact, probably the best I've heard from circa-1990. Thanks to Jason for alerting me and sharing this show.

Yo La Tengo releases Fall schedule
Yo La Tengo has scheduled a tour through the US battleground states in an effort to get John Kerry elected. The format for these shows sounds like a travelling Hanukkahpalooza, with special musical guests and comedians joining in.

New mp3's
Barbara Manning performed two songs with Yo La Tengo at a recent show at the Fillmore, both are available for download on the mp3 page. Barbara sings both, with help from her sister Terri.

New YLT item for sale
The Official Yo La Tengo website has a new item for sale - a Japanese fan guide called "Yo La Tengo Map". I have one of these (sent to me by my Japanese friend Mariko, owner of the Japanese fan site You Can Have It All) and it is a really high quality item. I can remember ever being more entertained and confused at the same time.

Tucson photos
Bill in Tucson sent me links to a collection of photos he took of the band onstage June 2 at City Limits in Tucson.

New KEXP link
KEXP has created a permanent link to the May 24 studio preformance - Here it is. Thanks to Neil for sending this link to me.

Yo La Tengo on KEXP
YLT stopped by KEXP before their gig at the Showbox last week for an interview and a couple of songs. The show is archived here. Enter May 25 at 1:58 PM in the "Listen By Time" form. This is probably only going to be available for a few more days.

Yo La Tengo St. Louis in-store announced
I just received an announcement that Euclid Records in St. Louis will have a live in-store acoustic performance by YLT at 5:30 PM on June 10. This show isn't listed on YLT's tour schedule. I'm a big fan of these in-store appearances and would GREATLY appreciate someone getting a recording of this event. Contact joe@euclidrecords.com for more information.

Live show download - Bit Torrent
A new live show torrent is now available: Cat's Cradle 9-18-2000. This one is courtesy Craig and it is posted here at easytree.org and here at sharingthegroove.org. Both of these require a login to access the torrent, but I've mirrored the torrent file here. This is a really nice show.

News Bits
A google search turned up a few news items on America's Favorite Band as they hit the road...happy surfing...

Tour update
Yolatengo.com has an updated tour schedule. May-June will see them hit the Left Coast and drive through the South, including a Sunday night D-Day stop in Dallas (I have to thank the Gypsy Tea Room for making Dallas a less-than-miserable place to play). Antietem will open on all dates, except May 24 and Bonnaroo in June.

Moby Octopad lyrics
While putting together the Dallas torrent a few days ago I realized for the first time I could make out all of Moby Octopad's lyrics. Here they are:

Locked in a kiss, outside eyes cease to exist, we'll shut 'em out
Flick of the fist, spying eyes cease to exist, we'll shut 'em out
8 o'clock, the lights are on at Shea
Phone turned down, we've nothing much to say
Dozing off the TV drones
Huskey makes the turn and heads for home

2004 WFMU (again)
Joe sent me an edited version (no DJ segments) of the 2004 WFMU show which I have put on the mp3 page in place of the full version. This is a zip file with 28 mp3's and a setlist, and it is half the size of the previous full mp3. Once again, this is a 128k mp3 from the webcast, so set your expectations accordingly. Please remember to support WFMU - they make programs like this possible.

2004 WFMU
I have archived the 2004 WFMU show on the mp3 page.. This is a 128k mp3 from the webcast, so set your expectations accordingly. Please remember to support WFMU - they make programs like this possible. This is the complete broadcast, and may be removed if server activity gets too heavy.

MP3 link
The MP3 links at sunsquashed.com are temporarily dead. To access the old links (which are still active), go here.

Update
Apologies for the lack of updates lately. Hopefully things will get rolling back to normal around here after the first of April. Another server switch is in the cards for sunsquashed.com. I will probably be returning to mp3 format for my music downloads, mostly because of complaints from Mac users. Note: The BBC show link previously referenced in this comment is no longer valid. The BBC only makes these shows available for one week.

Japanese YLT site
Mariko wrote to tell me about her Japanese Yo La Tengo page. She is taking all of the items I post here and translating them into Japanese on her "News and Info" page. There's discographies, live reviews, and lots of other stuff here, so please check it out.

Photos
Mike Baehr pointed me to his excellent indie rock photography site. Six pages of YLT photos from various gigs dating back to 1995, plus three recent dates in the Northeast US. In addition to the YLT goodies, there's also a set of photos from Dump's recent show in Chicago. By the way, I'm still looking for a recording of that show. Mike is promising to post even more YLT photos very soon, so keep checking back.

Even more new song uploads...
Well, just one...something a little different...The Forest Green is on the download page. This version features Clint Conley (not sure if he's playing bass or guitar) and it's from one of my favorite shows of all time - December 15, 2001 at Maxwell's.

Belated Dump info
I just caught a note in the Chicago Sun-Times that Dump opened for the 11th Dream Day reunion this past Saturday (the 22nd) at the Double Door in Chicago. If anyone has news of upcoming Dump shows, please let me know! Did anyone see the show, or better yet, tape it? If so, drop me a line...

Interview/Live performance from March 2000
VPRO Radio has this great little interview with Ira from March 2000 that includes two acoustic songs. The interview is about 23 minutes into the first hour of the show. I liked "Madeline" from this show so much I cleaned up the sound and put it on the download page. Thanks to Christian for bringing this to my attention!

First Oggs hit the download page
Three new songs to download, and it's a strange group fer sure. A completely unique version of "Madeline", with Ira singing and playing solo acoustic guitar. I really dig this version, thanks to Christian and VPRO for this one. Also available is "Busy With My Thoughts", requested by Christian and happily provided by me. Last is an unknown song from 1990 that I've been trying to identify for years, please contact me if you know what it is...

Sunsquashed moving from MP3 to Ogg Vorbis
Future posts on the "MP3" page will be in Ogg Vorbis format instead of MP3. There are several reasons for this change, and all of them are good news for you, dear listener. From my own tests of live YLT source material, I am convinced Ogg sounds better, closer to the source material, and produces a smaller file size compared to MP3. The move to Ogg will mean I can post more songs, and make songs available longer, without going over my bandwidth limits (which is expensive). It also jibes more with my desire to support open source software and open standards. Most of you won't see a change, many players already support Ogg Vorbis. Read more about Ogg Vorbis here, and about Ogg's parent organization Xiph here. Feel free to email me with questions if you have difficulty with the new format.

YLT announces Spring 2004 UK tour
YLT have scheduled a whirlwind tour of England/Scotland for Febuary and March of 2004, playing 10 dates in 12 days. The list of dates and venues is on their official schedule. Many of these venues are seated halls, so the band may be planning a seated tour, similar to the early dates of the 2000 Tour...

YLT Custom Surfboard on Ebay
The surfboard prize given away by Matador in their Summer Sun contest is for sale on Ebay. I'm not providing a link because Sunsquashed is not about making money for anyone (myself included), but it's easy enough to find, and it would be cool to see the surfboard find a nice home. In a bizarre personal twist, the surfboard is now located in Irving, Texas, which happens to be my birthplace. I can guarantee the surf is NOT up in Irving.