Yo La Tengo

The Six Indie Rock Songs That Sound Most Like Ska Songs

Indie rock is the vaguest of all genres, sort of the "none of the above" of rock and roll. There are no hard and fast rules. In rare cases, the result sounds an awful lot like ska. Here are the six indie rock songs that sound most like ska songs. Let us know your favorites in the comments. Oi.

Yo La Tengo - The Pageant - 1/31/13

While Georgia Hubley sang "Cornelia & Jane," last night at the Pageant I thought about her band's Twitter handle, @therealYLT, and wondered if I expected to see the real Yo La Tengo or my imaginary "best live band ever" version of the group constructed of only the most exciting scraps of its 29-year ... More >>

Yo La Tengo's Six Best Cover Songs

Legendary Hoboken, New Jersey indie rock trio Yo La Tengo is gracing the Pageant with its presence this Thursday, January 31. The band is notoriously unpredictable live, in part thanks to its virtual encyclopedia of cover songs. Here is a list of Yo La Tengo's six best cover songs. Let us know your ... More >>

Win Tickets to Yo La Tengo and Calexico at the Pageant

Yo La Tengo is coming to the Pageant on Thursday, January 31, and we have a pair of tickets right here at RFT Music headquarters! The band will be joined on stage by New Orleans Americana sextet Calexico. Die-hard music nerds and record store clerks all over town can barely contain their excitement. ... More >>

The Ten Best Concerts in St. Louis this Week: January 28 to February 3

February's shaping up to be a pretty crazy month for music. And by crazy, I mean crazy. With the likes of Lady Gaga and Blowfly in only the first week, it'll be hard to compete with the level of shenanigans that are sure to ensue (also, what's this business about Bearhug?). Hell, we're not exactly s ... More >>

The Six Best Sloppy Drummers

Of all rock and roll instruments, drums require the most physical ability and coordination. Sometimes musicians get so preoccupied with the technical aspect, they forgot that drums are also these loud things that sound cool when you hit them. Here are the six best sloppy drummers. Let us know your f ... More >>

Comedians Are The New Rock Stars

Art and life co-habitate, informing, imitating, and enriching each other constantly. Each week in Better Living Through Music, RFT Music writer Ryan Wasoba explores this symbiotic relationship. No phrase encapsulates the worst elements of music quite like the phrase "rock star." My disdain is s ... More >>

Official First-Ballot Inductees to the Simpsons' Music Hall of Fame: I Bent My Wookie

The sheer longevity of The Simpsons would be impressive if it wasn't so frightening. Consider: A person born on the day of the first non-Tracey Ullman Show episode is now 22 years old. And if characters from the show actually aged, Bart Simpson would be three years away from being able to assume the ... More >>

The Six Best "Bad" Guitar Solos

Eddie Van Halen demonstrates the exact opposite of this idea.​The guitar solo has become an integral part of the rock and roll formula, either as a melodic counterpoint to a vocal line or an excuse for showing off. But there's a different kind of solo out there. The kind that, by all technical ... More >>

Yo La Tengo at The Blue Note, 6/20/11: Review and Setlist

Photo from a previous show by Kiernan Maletsky​Yo La Tengo The Blue Note June 20, 2011 Should the New Jersey Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ever become a brick-and-mortar reality, Yo La Tengo had better have a wing to rival Springsteen's. For more than a quarter of a century now (and close to 20 y ... More >>

The Riverfront Times Has a New Music Editor, As of April 6

​There's no easy way to say this, and for once I've been at a loss for words on how to tell people, so I'll simply say this: Tuesday, April 5, is my last day as RFT music editor. In mid-April I'm moving back to Cleveland and taking a job with Alternative Press as their managing editor. This wi ... More >>

Holiday Jams 2010: Yo La Tengo, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," Live at Cicero's, 1987

(Every day in December, we'll be posting holiday jams for your enjoyment. Have any favorites you want featured? Email me.) Hoboken, New Jersey, noisemongers Yo La Tengo are known for their (mostly) annual Hanukkah residency, where special guests and pals join the trio in seasonal merriment. In hono ... More >>

The Ponys

8 p.m. Friday, October 1. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

10 Things to Do for $10 This Weekend in St. Louis, Aug. 20-22, 2010

Pace yourself on Friday and Saturday nights, because St. Louis has a surprising amount in store this Sunday. This weekend is chock full of activities both highbrow (wine tasting, abstract art, Oscar Wilde plays) and lowbrow (rock shows, swap meets, amateur photography), so whether you get down in ev ... More >>

Wye Oak

7:30 p.m. Sunday, August 22. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

Show Review Setlist: Yo La Tengo at the Pageant, Sunday, January 24

Annie ZaleskiIra Kaplan of Yo La Tengo at the Pageant, 1/24/10​ Yo La Tengo fandom is a labor of love. The adventurous diversity which makes the band's albums so captivating also wreaks havoc on its consistency. Never is this more apparent than in the live setting, where the group lives and d ... More >>

Over the Weekend: Club F15teen Turns Jersey Shore, Owl City Postpones Show, Fiery Furnaces at Old Rock House and Yo La Tengo at the Pageant

Good morning, St. Louis! Here's a recap of our weekend coverage."The Situation" at Club F15teenPhtoo: Egan O'KeefeSee more photos from Saturday night at F15teen.​Despite the jaw-dropping douche-baggery that takes place on MTV's Jersey Shore -- but with ratings like the show's received, more of us ... More >>

Into the Groove: Yo La Tengo stays the course — with a little bit more soul — on Popular Songs

Holiday Jam Countdown '09: 1987-Era Yo La Tengo, Fishbone, The Connells and Drivin' N Cryin' in St. Louis

Euclid Records' YouTube account has been a holiday goldmine lately. In the past few weeks, high-quality videos of bands doing holiday tunes for the TV show Psychotic Reaction -- performances filmed in the old Cicero's basement -- have popped up. Check out a very young Yo La Tengo from 1987 performin ... More >>

Happy 9-9-09 Day!

Last year, the calendar gods smiled upon us with the uber-nerdy date of August 8, 2008 (see Happy 808 Day! in honor of the drum machine). In 2009, however, we have the awe-inspiring date of 9-9-09 -- which, among other things, inspired Threadless to put its entire line of T-shirts on sale for $9! OM ... More >>

2009's Pitchfork Coverage: Videos, Interviews and Photos of Flaming Lips, Vivian Girls, Fucked Up, Black Lips, M83, more!

Last weekend, Nick Lucchesi headed up to Chicago to cover this year's Pitchfork Music Festival. In case you missed his reports, here's a handy-dandy list of links to his photos, interviews and reviews: *A Flaming Lips photo essay *A video interview with M83's Anthony Gonzalez *Black Lips and the N ... More >>

All Forked Up: Pitchfork Music Festival Day 1

That's Doug Martsch of Built to Spill behind that hat.It's the end of Day 1 of Pitchfork Music Festival here in Chicago, which by Sunday, should see 40 bands play and welcome 50,000 -- ahem, hipsters -- through the fences of Union Park. More than a few bands who have made their way through St. Louis ... More >>

Homespun: Target Market

Up On The Moon
(Afternoon Records)

Rural Alberta Advantage

9 p.m. Tuesday, March 31. The Billiken Club, in the Busch Student Center on the campus of Saint Louis University, 20 North Grand Boulevard.

Evangelicals

8 p.m. Tuesday, September 16. Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center, 3301 Lemp Avenue.

Modey Lemon

8:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 25. The Bluebird, 2706 Olive Street

Mogwai to Reissue Young Team -- Plus Win a Signed Copy!

Songs to Listen to While Watching the Snow

Funny Ha Ha

B-Sides finds out why Neil Hamburger isn't Yo La Tengo's favorite comic, then gets cinematic with Undertow Records' Monahans.

Alina Simone

8:30 p.m. Monday, July 23. Lemp Arts Center, 3301 Lemp Avenue.

How has Yo La Tengo stayed on top of its game for nearly a quarter-century?

Marriage, progress and communication.

The Fake Fictions

8 p.m. Saturday, March 24. Schlafly Tap Room (2100 Locust Street).

2006: The Year in Music

Week of December 28, 2006

Yo La Tengo

I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass (Matador)

Stars and Bars

Slumber Party's Aliccia B.B. goes it alone, while B-Sides gives good Download and makes a mix of anti-patriotic songs

Hungry, So (Not) Angry

A local music fan starts Broke & Hungry Records, Matador Records gets its videogame on and the debut of "Yo! RFT Raps"

Rogue Wave/Sam Champion/Dirty on Purpose

Monday, March 13, at 9 p.m. Blueberry Hill's Duck Room (6504 Delmar Boulevard, University City)

Letters

Week of July 6, 2005

Belle & Sebastian

Push Barman to Open Old Wounds (Matador)

Series/Festivals

Week of April 20, 2005

Here Comes the Ocean

Yo La Tengo creates "The Sounds of Science" at Webster University

Yo La Tengo

Monday, October 4; the Gargoyle at Washington University

Yo La Tengo

Thursday, June 10; Mississippi Nights

'03, Oh My!

Our critics weigh in on a questionable year’s best music

Mates of State with I Am The World Trade Center and The Thermals

Saturday, October 18; Rocket Bar

Yo La Tengo

Thursday, September 25; Pageant

Yo La Tengo

Summer Sun (Matador)

Potomac Accord, the Julia Sets and the Mouse That Roared

Saturday, Aug. 25; Tin Ceiling

Fuck with the Julia Sets

Thursday, April 5; Rocket Bar

Yo La Tengo with Quickspace

Thursday, March 30; Firehouse