The critically-acclaimed Hoboken-based band Yo La Tengo has pretty much been on tour since the release of their latest album, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, in late February. Because the new recording had a softer and quieter sound than their previous works, Yo La Tengo requested their first few weeks of shows to be seated venues.
But this indie rock band – who revamped the theme music to The Simpsons for a show in 1998 – is back to their regular format, and has just recently returned from a European tour to play a sold-out show at Maxwell’s on Monday, July 24. For locals who didn’t get tickets within the first few minutes they went on sale, the Current is providing this recent Q&A session with bassist James McNew, so that their unlucky fans and followers can at least get a taste of Tengo.The critically-acclaimed Hoboken-based band Yo La Tengo has pretty much been on tour since the
release of their latest album, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, in late February.
Because the new recording had a softer and quieter sound than their previous works, Yo La Tengo
requested their first few weeks of shows to be seated venues.
But this indie rock band – who revamped the theme music to The Simpsons for a show in 1998 –
is back to their regular format, and has just recently returned from a European tour to play a sold-out
show at Maxwell’s on Monday, July 24. For locals who didn’t get tickets within the first few minutes
they went on sale, the Current is providing this recent Q&A session with bassist James McNew,
so that their unlucky fans and followers can at least get a taste of Tengo.
Louise Thach: How is your following abroad different from the U.S.?
James McNew: I’ve been thinking about it recently, and I realized that the major difference is that in
the U.S., somebody always tries to make that joke of yelling for “Free Bird” at every show. I’m not
kidding, every single show that we ever played, and I’m sure it happens to just about every band, but in
Europe they don’t do that. So I have to say that’s definitely a point in favor of touring overseas. You
know, I understand the reference of that joke, but I don’t understand why it still happens. I don’t
understand why people, who weren’t even born when the Lynyrd Skynyrd record came out, decide to
carry on the rich tradition of making that joke.
LT: But you’ve mostly been playing festivals, right?
JM: I guess the summertime is festival season, and we played eight shows and half of them were
outdoor festivals, and three out of those four were in torrential rainstorms. And the European people
don’t seem to mind, which is shocking. We played and people basically stood out in the rain. Yeah, that
was pretty shocking now that I think about it, because if it rains, I’m not going out. And I don’t mean
going out to stand outside and watch a band in the rain, I mean like, I’m not going out in my car to then
run into shelter and eat dinner and go see a movie or something. Whereas, the European rugged outdoor
enthusiastic spirit blows mine away.
LT: So the new album is pretty quiet compared to band’s prior recordings. What state were you
guys in when you were writing and recording it?
JM: I’m not sure, really. We took a really long time to make it, probably close to a year and a half or
so, and I’m sure it was a combination of a lot of things like taking our time, as far as coming up with
ideas. We just kind of would go and play and record things on a little tape recorder as we were going.
And the more we kept working and actually accumulating ideas, it’s seemed that the quieter-sounding
ones were more appealing to us. So I guess as some point we decided to follow that all the way through.
A lot of things lead up to it, just kind of playing around with different instruments. And we moved out of
the room where we rehearsed for 10 years into a new room, and it sounded completely different from the
old room, so it took a lot of getting used to. It was a very gradual, natural process. I think we definitely
prefer things to happen on their own rather than rush or force ideas.
LT: There was no pressure from your label?
JM: No, there was really just pressure from ourselves, you know, wanting it to be right, wanting it
to be good, trying to be patient and letting it happen. Matador is really great about that stuff, you know.
I guess after a while they did get a little nervous, but they were really cool about it. They were like, ‘So,
are you guys gonna make a record?’ But they were great about it. They’re very hands off in matters like
that.
LT: I read that you’re the drummer on some of the songs.
JM: Yeah, everybody switches around fairly regularly, now that I think about it. It did kind of occur
to me at one point on tour this year that, at some point or another, I’ve played every instrument that was
on stage. It’s really fun to do that stuff, to play instruments that you’re not very good at, such as me
playing drums.
LT: You also had a different recording process for this record, right?
JM: Kind of. We did a ton of stuff exactly the same as previous records. We worked with the same
producer that we worked with for our last four records. Our usual method of writing songs was the same,
but we did kind of approach it differently. We had a really luxurious amount of time recording it, and we
spent two whole days recording one song, and that was “Night Falls on Hoboken,” which took a really
long time to do. It’s actually recorded in one take, so we had to kind of get it right, knowing that we
would have to go 20 minutes without stopping, and it took a really long time to get it setup right. There’s
things that are going in the process of recording that I still don’t believe actually happened. I mean,
there’s people in the room with us who are actually turning things up and down so we can hear them,
and we were like moving from room to room to go from instrument to instrument. It was really fun. I
wished somebody could have filmed that.
LT: Why were the sit-down venues so important to the band?
JM: I think we were concerned that the material was really quiet, and we really hadn’t played any of
it in front of anyone yet. We thought that it would be a kind of interesting way to present it for the first
time for anybody hearing it, and also fleshing out the band with two extra guys playing with us. And it
was really satisfying. I really loved those shows.
LT: Did any of the club owners get angry, because that means a lot less people?
JM: No, they knew well in advance what we had in mind. The only seated shows we did were in the
first three weeks of touring, and since then, we’ve gone back to many of those cities and played the
same places and lots more people were able to come see us. It actually worked out well.
LT: How did the audiences respond to the sit-down gigs? Was there a lot of polite hand clapping
after each song?
JM: Oh yeah, that’s been know to happen. It was really nice. I guess you’re kind of forced to sittin’
down and shuttin’ up, not to sound rude or anything, but that’s exactly what it was. But yeah, it wasn’t
like Bob Dylan going electric and then the audience screaming at him and cursing him. I just never really
thought about it as being a real radical departure as far as stuff we’ve done in the past, because I think
we’ve always had that side and we show it a lot. And since then, as we’ve been playing as a trio, we’ve
been playing more old songs and louder songs while also still playing the newer songs. So the shows
are different now than in the first three weeks.
LT: You guys seemed to be loved by critics and by people who seem to know a little bit more about
music, but you’re not so well-known by the general public. Does that bother you, or is it better to have a
following of a more musically-educated audience?
JM: It doesn’t really bother me, I don’t really care. It kind of allows us to operate under our own
terms and pretty much do what we want, and I like that a lot better. And what success we do get is from
being ourselves, which is pretty cool. I mean, would I like to sell millions and millions of records? Sure.
But, it’s not keeping us up late at night.
LT: So in ’94, you played a venue in Germany where you had a song suggestion box at the entrance
before the show, and you played a set of all of the audience’s requests. Have you ever since done that,
and will you do it again?
JM: Well, we haven’t. Although, we’re thinking of doing something at the Maxwell’s show. We’re
not sure exactly what, but we do have a few special things in mind. That was an idea that we actually
stole from the band NRBQ. They would have a thing called the ‘magic box,’ and people would just walk
up to it and put their requests in it. And at one point of their show, they would open up the box, and pull
out the songs, and no matter what it was, they would have to play it. We did an entire show that way,
and there were some pretty frightening things that we played that night.
LT: Like what?
JM: We actually released one of the songs from that night, and it was “We are the Champions,” and
we let our road manager sing that song because he said he knew the words, but it turned out he didn’t
really. We actually do something like that every year on WFMU during their pledge drive, where we’ll go
on the air live and take requests in exchange for pledges. And you can request any song, and we’ll try to
play it. And the funnier the better, I always say. When somebody requests “Don’t You Want Me” or
“You Sexy Thing,” I think that usually yields the best results.
LT: Has anyone ever requested The Simpsons theme song?
JM: Oh man, no. I really wanted to work that up on this trip.
LT: That’s what you have to do at Maxwell’s.
JM: I would like to do that. I really want to do a 20-minute version of the theme song. I think the
28-second arrangement that we did for the show could definitely be stretched out into 15 or 20 minutes.
LT: So is that going to be the surprise at Maxwell’s?
JM:I can neither confirm nor deny that. Ugh, the airlines lost all our luggage on Sunday, so I’ve
actually been on hold with the airlines for pretty much the last 48 hours, so I’m sort of stealing their
answers now like, ‘We don’t know where your luggage is.’ So we don’t know, the show could be a magic
box show featuring The Simpsons theme song, and it could not be. I can neither confirm nor
deny that.
LT: All your luggage? So what are you wearing?
JM: You can’t ask me that in an interview. What kind of a newspaper is this?
LT: You’re wearing an old set of pajamas, aren’t you?
JM: Again, I can neither confirm nor deny that.
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