On Sunday, March 2nd, one of my favorite bands in the world, Yo La Tengo, will once again be doing their fundraising requestathon (their thirteenth, and responsible for the wonderful Yo La Tengo Is Murdering The Classics), where Yo La Tengo plays (or, more important, attempts to play) donors’ song requests, for the Jersey City-based radio station WFMU, and, even though I’ll be away from the radio, and if I remember, I will, God help me, do the following three things:

1. I will call 1-800-989-9368 between the hours of 5 and 7 Eastern Standard Time.

2. If I get through, I will make my donor pledge.

3. And then I will make a request for my fellow Filipino Renaldo Lapuz‘s smash hit of 2008, “We’re Brothers Forever.”

If Yo La Tengo actually plays the song in its entirety — and it’s really only a couple of stanzas — I think my year will be made. If they somehow make it segue into “Speeding Motorcycle” my head will probably explode from the sheer awesomeness.

If not, maybe some good reader out there can do it for me.

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Again, in alphabetical order:

Current 93, Black Ships Ate The Sky (2006)

David Tibet has recorded two undisputed masterpieces — at least in my opinion, Dogs Blood Rising and All the Pretty Little Horses, though Thunder Perfect Mind and Sleep Has His House are close — and this is his third. Representing, perhaps, the feverish, apocalyptic culmination of over 25 years of death-haunted meditations, Current 93 — here augmented by an all-star cast — weaves a stunning album, what Tibet calls “a Hallucinatory Patripassianist Dream.” (Okay, the fact that my name is listed as one of the album’s “subscribers” on the last page of the booklet is cool too.)

Dengue Fever, Escape from Dragon House (2005)

I’ve written about the coolest band in America many times on my blog, so this should be no surprise. Working off the same template that made their debut album one of my favorites of 2002 — covers of Cambodian rock tracks — Dengue Fever’s second album makes a huge leap to original songs, albeit throwing in psychedelia, spy-movie chase scenes, surf guitar, and Cambodian lyrics into the mix. But you folks really have to catch them live.

Easy Star All-Stars, Radiodread (2006)

In which they follow up their song-by-song reggae cover of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon with an equally impressive reggae version of Radiohead’s OK Computer. It’s nowhere near as immediate as the former — basically because Radiohead just isn’t Pink Floyd — but both Thom Yorke fans and reggae fans should enjoy this in equal measure. The highlight: an impossibly happy version of “Let Down,” sung by Toots & The Maytals.)

Linus’ Blanket, Labor in Vain (2005)

Delicate Korean twee pop, sounding much like a Siesta Records release from the late ’90s but without the archness. Fifteen-minute EPs should be as perfect as this.

Mclusky, Mcluskyism (2006)

There’s a ragged, furious, nasty joy to this compilation by the recently-disbanded (alas) Welsh band Mclusky, appealing to that ragged, furious, nasty part of you that would sing along to refrains like “Our old singer is a sex criminal.” (Hunt down the three-disc set, as it comes with rarities and live versions, including some of the most withering put-downs of a heckler in the audience — “You tape Sex and the City, you fuck?” — I’ve heard on record.)

Spangle call Lilli line, or (2003)

It’s not easy to describe this album: delicate vocals, guitar filigree, electronic crackle, the virtue of repetition and stretched-out instrumentals. Just gorgeous.

Bruce Springsteen, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006)

Springsteen hardly does studio recordings of songs he didn’t write — maybe a cover like “Deportee” on a couple of tribute albums here and there, “Jersey Girl” from the live box set, so that doesn’t even count — so this new album was either going to be extra-special or evidence of a creative drought. Thankfully, it’s the former; it’s the most exuberantly angry and joyful music I’ve heard all year. Music to want the wide American earth by.

Up dharma Down, Fragmented (2006)

What I wrote earlier, on my favorite album of 2006, hands down:

It’s only April, and I think I already have one of my favorite albums of the year. Up dharma Down’s Fragmented is an urban soul chronicle from the streets of Manila, both tense and laid back, full of nervous energy one moment and suffused with post-club comedown the next.

I still remember the first time I saw the video for the fantastic first single, “Maybe.” I was idly flipping channels one December night in Los Banos last year when the video came on, and I was transfixed by its evocation of claustrophobia, as the camera followed a near-hysterical woman pacing inside a hotel room, then down a narrow stairwell, tear-smeared mascara on her face.

But it was, of course, the music which kept me glued to the TV: an insistent, propulsive reverbed guitar riff; a skittering, distorted “Amen” break; a bass line turned up way high in the mix; and that voice which stretched “Maybe” into 27 different syllables. (I had to grab paper and pen to scribble down the name of the band; alas, their album wasn’t coming out until a few months later, as the kind women at Odyssey and Tower Records had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.)

The rest of the album doesn’t quite approach the succinct drama of “Maybe,” but it’s quite strong nevertheless, and I suspect more songs will float their way to the top as the year proceeds… I can’t wait to see them live.

Yo La Tengo, I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass (2006)

Scattered, undisciplined, almost self-indulgent, uncontained, all over the place: my second-favorite band ever (after the Beatles) returns to the heights of I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One. And it has the best album title too.

Plus some more YouTube fun:

- Dengue Fever, “Sni Bong”
- Easy Star All-Stars, “Let Down”
- Mclusky, “She Will Only Bring You Happiness” (though I rather like the Flash animation for “Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues” more)
- Spangle call Lilli line, “nano”
- Bruce Springsteen, “John Henry”
- Up dharma Down, “Maybe”
- Yo La Tengo, “Mr. Tough” (Live)

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There’s really quite nothing like the sight of Ira Kaplan during, say, the 11th minute of “I Heard You Looking” — body bent over his guitar, eyes clenched shut, neck snapping hard enough to cause an aneurysm, lifting the guitar over his head to elicit more feedback, but looking like he was paying obeisance to the speakers and the gods of rock in turn. The two Yo La Tengo concerts I attended last week (couldn’t make the third because it was sold out) delivered their brand of rock-and-roll joy in spades: whammy-bar abuse on one hand, lullabies and heartbreak on the other.

The setlist was, of course, drawn from their latest album, I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass. (They couldn’t say the title on NPR, so Ira thought he should repeat it for the audience, simply because it sounded good.) These remained in place, though in scrambled order, for the second night, although none of the old songs were recycled. (Note, then, to you lucky folks out there who will have them play more than once in your fair cities: go to both dates.)

From the latest album, in no order:

- Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind (this opened the first show)
- The Weakest Part (this opened the second show)
- Mr. Tough (this had the girls dancing)
- The Story of Yo La Tango (this was right before the encore)
- Beanbag Chair
- I Feel Like Going Home (Georgia on vocals and piano — nothing better. But it’s the quiet guitar solo at the end that’s the icing on the cake)
- The Race Is On Again
- Sometimes I Don’t Get You
- I Should Have Known Better
- Watch Out For Me Ronnie (Ira’s a cappella shouting at the beginning is always a treat)
- Song for Mahila (I think)

The old songs, in no order, from both nights:

- Little Eyes
- Artificial Heart
- Stockholm Syndrome
- I Heard You Looking (which segued into TSOYLT on the second night)
- Four-Cornered Drone (I think — this may have been the song played twice with the Chairs of Perception). Or was it Detouring America with Horns?
- The Crying of Lot G (not one of my favorites on And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, but damn, the live version was incredible)
- Big Day Coming (the fast version)
- Decora
- Deeper into Movies (perhaps my favorite YLT song ever; they played it just after I yelled it out)
- We’re An American Band
- and there were more, but I can’t remember. Did we get “Walking Away from You?” “Drug Test,” perhaps?

And the covers, on both nights:

- Gram Parsons’ “A Song for You”
- Sun Ra’s “Somebody’s in Love” (this ended the second show)
- Cat Stevens’ “Here Comes My Baby” (this ended the first show)
- The Beach Boys’ “Little Honda” (before segueing into TSOYLT, this turned into something like a 10-minute descent into total metal-machine-music guitar squall)
- a 13th Floor Elevators song?
- Richard Hell’s “The Kid with the Replaceable Head” (folks up on front — about two rows ahead of me — asked for something to commemorate the closing of CBGB’s)
- Daniel Johnston’s “Speeding Motorcycle” (“We’re playing the People’s Choice,” Ira said)

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All right, here’s a bootleg offering for you folks: the best band in America, Yo La Tengo, doing a blistering cover of Brinsley Schwarz’s “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love And Understanding” on the first night of their series of Hanukkah concerts in Hoboken back in 2001. (Okay, it’s really Elvis Costello’s cover version they cover here.)

Earlier this year I was driving up and down Interstate 80 from San Francisco to Davis and back and was overly conscious of the “No War On Iraq” bumper sticker on my car. I have to admit that, at the height of my paranoia (and anger and confusion), I was a little worried every time I’d step out to get gas; I looked different, and my politics were probably different too. But no matter: when this song came on my car stereo, practically at the beginning of Yo La Tengo’s set, I felt oddly… invincible. Like the war would never begin and everything would be all right. Or something like that.

(It’s not the clearest recording, but it’s still a great version, and anything Yo La Tengo performs is still tops in my book.)

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