Yesterday, indie pioneers Yo La Tengo played an in-store at Amoeba Records in San Francisco to promote the release of their new album – Fade. YLT mixed originals with covers by the likes of The Beach Boys and Sun Ra. Included in the eight-song set was the Hoboken band’s version of the opening track from SF legends the Grateful Dead’s debut album – The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion).

Watch as Ira, James and Georgia add their own spin to the classic tune which they work into YLT original Double Dare off 1993′s Painful LP…

Yo La Tengo – The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

The current reality is that all new  album releases are going to leak, whether the artists and  labels like it or not. In the most guarded cases, a new album hits the web only  a couple of days before its scheduled release date. In worst case scenarios, an unreleased album leaks a good couple of weeks before intended. That’s why in the past year there has been a dramatic increase in bands streaming advanced copies of their albums on their own terms, most notably via NPR Online. It makes perfect sense: instead of having the only way to listen be an illegally (often via BitTorrent) downloaded copy, the record labels and artists get to control the message and marketing that surrounds a music fan’s first listen.

Enter Pitchfork Advance, a new streaming service from the online music magazine where you can go listen to Yo La Tengo’s new LP Fade right now (Matador, releases Jan. 15). And it’s not just a stream of the audio files, an interactive booklet of information and artwork being served up while listeners have their first taste is a key component of the service. Pitchfork founder Ryan Schreiber told Mashable, ”I’ve been surprised by the lack of innovation in digital album art over the last decade, especially because artists and labels are still designing elaborate packaging for physical releases.”

It’s a great idea and another new option for artists on how to maintain control of the album release process. As far as Pitchfork’s efforts into this technology? We give it a solid 7.4.

With the dust barely settled on another triumphant eight-night Hanukkah run at Maxwell’s, Yo La Tengo won’t have much time to sit back and reflect back on what went down, as now the Hoboken-based band will turn their attention to promoting their new studio album. On January 15, the iconic indie-rock act will release their 13th full-length effort – Fade – via their longtime label Matador Records.

Last week Ira Kaplan & Co. released the music video for the record’s second single Ohm – which is nearly seven minutes of everything we love about this band: drone-y, noisy rock that somehow finds a way to be melodic. Let’s check it out…

Yo La Tengo – Ohm

Yo La Tengo will kick off the North American leg of their lengthy winter world tour at the Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, North Carolina on January 23.

For the past three nights (and for the next five nights) alt-rock pioneers Yo La Tengo have been holding court at Maxwell’s for their annual Hanukkah run in Hoboken. Jesse Jarnow has been keeping those who can’t make it up to date on the setlists via his blog, while our friends at NYCTaper have been sharing amazing matrix recordings of the guest and cover-laden festivities.

On Sunday night YLT revisited their cover of Velvet Underground’s Who Loves The Sun. Check it out as an example of how good the shows (and the NYCTaper recordings) are…

Yo La Tengo’s Hanukkah run continues tonight through Saturday at Maxwell’s.

• NYCTaper Yo La Tengo @ Maxwell’s Recordings: Night One, Night Two

It’s a great time of year to be a Yo La Tengo fan, as the indie-rock trio will once again take up residence at Maxwell’s in their hometown of Hoboken for their semi-annual, eight-night, guest-laden Hannukah run, which gets underway on December 8. If that’s not enough, Ira Kaplan & Co. have also announced that on January 15, they will release their latest studio effort Fade via their long-time label Matador Records, their first since 2009. The band has lined up a lengthy world tour in support, whose U.S. leg kicks off on January 23 at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, North Carolina and wraps roughly three weeks later with a show at New York City’s Town Hall on February 16.

If you’re not into a night with indie-rock trio, then maybe you’ll be interested in hitting one of these recently announced tours…

• Shuggie Otis: Spring North American Tour (4/14 – 4/26)
• Leftover Salmon: Winter West Coast Tour (2/13 – 3/3)
• Grace Potter & The Nocturnals: Winter Tour (1/10 – 2/17)
• Assembly of Dust: Winter Tour (1/11 – 3/9)
• Matisyahu: Acoustic Tour (1/19 – 2/24)
• They Might Be Giants: Late Winter U.S. Tour (2/27 – 4/14)
• Kenny Rogers: 31st Annual Christmas & Hits Tour (11/23 – 12/23)

Drummer for The Roots, record producer (and collector) extraordinaire, master tweeter – Questlove (@questlove) is a man of many talents, and you can add wedding photographer to the list. On Saturday actor/comedian David Cross married actress Amber Tamblyn at a ceremony “in the woods” in front of a group that included several well known actors and musicians. Also serving as the party’s DJ, Questlove has been firing off images from the event using the hashtag #weddinginthewoods, which included a performance from a pretty kick-ass wedding band in Yo La Tengo.

This weekend I went to the most awesome wedding ever. We had to camp in the woods. This sign greeted me. #we http://t.co/uKyRE8E2

Monday, October 8, 2012 11:29 pm via InstagramReplyRetweetFavorite

@questlove

Questo of The Roots

READ ON

Yo La Tengo (@TheRealYLT)  is back in the studio recording the follow-up to their stellar 2009 album, Popular Songs. The trio from Hoboken recently played the Primavera Sound festival in Spain and now find themselves in the studio, presumably in Chicago. For a little over a week they’ve sent daily tweets featuring a picture from inside the studio.  As the tweets below show, they’re spending plenty of time digging through the cool gear and artifacts lying around the studio, while also responding to Emily White and taking in a Mets game against the Cubs at Wrigley field.

Recording, day 1: photo taken just before using all of these at once. http://t.co/aTmfvSTl

Monday, June 18, 2012 4:26 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@TheRealYLT

Yo La Tengo

READ ON

It’s no secret that we here around HT HQ have been giddy with anticipation to hear Move Like This, the first album of new material in over two decades from influential New Wave act The Cars. While it seemed unlikely that that band was going to play any live dates, especially after Ric told Rolling Stone that he was “leery of touring,” last week the reunited act announced that they would in fact be heading out together in support of the new record.

For their first tour together in nearly 25 years, The Cars have lined up a 10-date run that includes stops at the Palladium in Los Angeles (5/12), Riviera Theatre in Chicago (5/18) and New York’s Roseland Ballroom (5/25).

If you’re not into a night with the reunited New Wave act, then maybe you’ll be interested in hitting one of these recently announced tours…

• Canadian rockers Sam Roberts Band line up a four week club run
• Kid Rock & Sheryl Crow will team up for a summer shed tour
• Deep Purple to head out with a full symphony orchestra this June
• White Denim put together a short ten-date west coast swing
• Rob Zombie & Slayer will bring Hell On Earth to select cities
• Go-Go’s head out on their Ladies Gone Wild tour

Finally, while folks in Chicago may disagree with this decision, Yo La Tengo has announced a slew of new Spinning Wheel tour dates. As a refresher the shows on the tour will be split into two sets, with the first part determined by a  spin on their Wheel Of Fortune, which features eight distinct themes like The Freewheeling Yo La Tengo, Condo Fucks, Songs Starting With S and the now infamous Sitcom Theater. The second set features a more straightforward approach with the indie-rock trio selecting their own setlist. The tour will kick off with a two-night stand at The Bell House in Brooklyn, NY on May 10 & 11.

At Maxwell’s in Hoboken last night, Yo La Tengo performed a last-minute show to raise money for Peace Winds Japan. Both David Byrne and Glenn Mercer of The Feelies made guest spots along with SNL’s Fred Armisen, who sat in on the second drumkit. Double J, Jesse Jarnow reviewed the show for the Village Voice and mentions a Tengo-ized version of the Talking Heads classic Thank You For Sending Me An Angel was a highlight.

David Byrne w/ Yo La Tengo

[via Gothamist]

Byrne made the most of his first YLT @ Maxwell’s sit-in since 2002 by performing his own God Draws Straight and Flatt/Scruggs’ Give Me Flowers While I’m Living along with the Yo La Tengo original Tears Are In Your Eyes in addition to Thank You For Sending Me An Angel. Head over to the Voice’s website to read Jarnow’s complete review of what looks to be a memorable night in the Mile Square City.

On February 4th, Yo La Tengo brought their Wheel of Fate? tour to Chicago’s legendary Metro for a night of genre-spanning rock and other surprises. On this tour, YLT has been selecting an audience member to spin a wheel set up on stage, and whatever the wheel landed on would be the first 45 minute set. Options included a set by the band’s garage rock alter-ego Condo Fucks, an audience Q&A known as ‘The Freewheeling Yo La Tengo’, ‘Sitcom Theater’ where YLT and crew would perform a classic sitcom and plenty of other goofy ideas.

On this night, the wheel landed on ‘Spinner’s Choice’, and the audience member chose Sitcom Theater. Shortly after, the famous bassline from Seinfeld pumped through the PA, and YLT’s Ira Kaplan came out and began reading the script for the classic The Chinese Restaurant episode. The band then read through the whole episode, even though a sizable portion of the audience had grown audibly restless. It was hilarious.

The set proper opened up with the mellow classics The Room Got Heavy and Autumn Sweater before getting into some of the feedback-drenched introspective noiserock that YLT is so great at. The evening was an excellent snapshot of the incredibly wide breadth of Yo La Tengo’s sound. From acoustic-based love songs through loud thrashing rock, YLT played every song to perfection. Opener Willian Tyler joined the band for Don’t Have to be So Sad, and lent a hand again later on a brilliant reworking of Neil Young’s classic For The Turnstiles.

Sitcom Theater: Seinfeld – The Chinese Restaurant

Set: The Room Got Heavy, Autumn Sweater, Flying Lesson (Hot Chicken #1), Stockholm Syndrome, The Weakest Part, Gentle Hour (Snapper cover), Don’t Have To Be So Sad (with William Tyler), Periodically Double Or Triple, Nothing To Hide, Sugarcube, Blue Line Swinger

Encore: Come On Up (Condo Fucks, The Rascals), For the Turnstiles (Neil Young cover) (with William Tyler), Griselda (The Holy Modal Rounders cover), Did I Tell You

Encore 2: Somebody’s In Love (Sun Ra cover)

READ ON for more of Joel’s photos from a unique YLT show…

In this week’s audio and video recap, we lead off with a section from Big Sam’s Funky Nation that taper Z-Man pulled in Cambridge, MA. Z-Man is one of the tapers with the quickest turnaround, and he recently has moved to Massachusetts, so expect to see more uploads from that area. Also, we’ve got a rarely played cover from Gov’t Mule that Warren likes busting out in Caribbean climates it seems, a recording from a concert by Keller Williams showcasing his children’s songs, Umphrey’s McGee laying down a fantastic jam on an old classic and a crisp recording from Yo La Tengo.

If you don’t want to stay on the site for an hour streaming the individual tracks, you can download all of this week’s audio in one easy to listen to MP3 that we call the Last Week’s Sauce Podcast. Click here to download.

[Thanks to AHappyHourHero for this week's photo]

Big Sam’s Funky Nation – I Came To Party > Big Sam Funky Nation > Gimme That Funky Horn
Date & Venue: 2011-02-03 – Middle East – Cambridge, MA
Taper & Show Download: Z-Man

Fresh off wowing fans on Jam Cruise, Big Sam’s Funky Nation delivers this 19+ minute segment to start us off this week. Big Sam’s Funky Nation [tour dates] plays tonight at Dan Electro’s Guitar Bar in Houston, TX.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Video from Saturday’s For the One Month to Mardi Gras party in NYC:

READ ON for tracks from Mule, Keller, Umphrey’s and Yo La Tengo…

It sort of seems hard to believe, but it’s been ten years since Jack Johnson put out his debut album Brushfire Fairytales via the small indie-label Enjoy Records (which is now known as Everloving). When the pro-surfer turned musician’s record was picked up for wider distribution, the label’s co-founder and album’s producer JP Plunier struck a unique deal with Universal, in which they could only have the masters for ten years. With masters tapes back in the hands of Everloving, the label has announced that on April 12 they will be releasing a remastered version of the album. The digital download version of this release will also include live versions of Flake and Inaudible Melodies.

• List Time: 10 Soulful Artists Bringing Back The Motown Sound
• Oscar nominated actor Jesse Eisenberg loves him some Ween
• Cover Alert: Band Of Horses tackle Steely Dan
• Two Boots on Bleeker Street honors CBGB’s with its own pizza
• Download This: Candy Cane Children (White Stripes Rarities)
• Rock Hall to open a Women Who Rock exhibit this spring

Finally, as we previously reported, on their current cross-country tour indie-rock trio, Yo La Tengo have been splitting their shows into two distinct  sets, with the first one being determined by a spin of their Wheel Of Fortune. This past weekend at the band’s stop at The Metro in Chicago, the randomness of the wheel, which features eight different categories, got put to the test when it landed on Sitcom Theater. Over the next half-hour plus the crowd was “treated” to Ira Kaplan & Co. reenacting the classic Chinese Restaurant episode of Seinfeld, with Ira doing a heck of a job as Jerry.

Check it out…

Hidden Track’s Joel Berk was on hand at The Metro and we’ll post his thoughts and photos from this incredibly unique rock show soon.

Over the last five nights, Yo La Tengo has been holding court at the tiny rock club/restaurant Maxwell’s, their home away from home in Hoboken, NJ, with their mostly annual Hannukah run. After taking 2009 off from the tradition, the indie-rock trio have made up for the lost year in a major way, by recruiting an impressive roster of heavyweight talent to open from them, ranging from singer-songwriter M. Ward to Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy, as well as comedians like Jim Gaffigan, Todd Barry and Eugene Mirman, with the details of who’s playing revealed just before showtime each night.

While ever the gracious hosts, make no mistake the reason these shows sell out almost instantly is the opportunity to see Ira Kaplan & Co. throw down in an intimate setting. The band reaches deep into their bag of tricks for these shows, mixing YLT classics, alongside rock geek recognizable covers, but it’s their sly nod to Jewish songwriters like Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan and Lou Reed that help tie the Hannukah theme together.

Let’s check out this blistering, ten-plus minute psychedelic freak-out take on The Velvet Underground’s Heroin from the second night…

Yo La Tengo continue their eight-night run tonight at Maxwell’s, with only three more chances to catch the band before Hannukah ends.

Weekends in the NYC area are usually packed with rock shows, but we can’t remember a night filled with as many special moments around town as last night. We wanted to recap a few of the highlights from an amazing night.

[Photo by Rob Chapman]

Uptown at the Beacon, Hot Tuna was joined by a cavalcade of guests as part of a two-night celebration honoring Jorma Kaukonen’s 70th birthday. Larry Campbell spent the most time on stage with the band, adding fiddle and guitar to the proceedings. Bruce Hornsby’s guest spot included a blazing I Know You Rider, while Warren Haynes added slide to Come Back Baby and three other songs. Bill Kirchen, Chris Smither, Happy Traum, Byron House and John Hammond all sat-in during the concert as well. Head over to Jorma’s blog for his take on the evening as well as the setlist. Each artist made sure to wish Jorma a Happy Birthday and Jorma told the tale of his association with each of the guests. The marathon show ended around midnight and you can expect a whole new set of guests tonight. READ ON for more…

As Yo La Tengo gears up for the start of their semi-annual eight-night Hannukah run at Maxwell’s, which gets underway on December 1, the Hoboken-based band has announced a unique twist for their winter tour. The iconic indie-rock trio will split their nights into two sets, with the first 45 minutes of music to be determined by a spin on a Wheel Of Fortune. The wheel will feature eight distinct themes, which include The Freewheeling Yo La Tengo, Condo Fucks, Sitcom Theater and Songs Starting With S – full descriptions of each can be found on the band’s website.

If you’re not into a night with YLT, then maybe you’ll be interested in hitting one of these recently announced tours…

• Wu-Tang Clan add a string of December dates to their reunion tour
• Jersey-bred singer-songwriter Pete Yorn heads coast to coast
• NOLA funk act Galactic will bring a slew of guests out on the road
• SXSW has revealed its initial list of showcasing bands for 2011
• Mash up artist Girl Talk lines up a massive cross-country run
• Interpol heads out on a 13-date North American tour

Finally, in our never ending quest to keep you up to date on the seemingly non-stop  festival lineup announcements we’ve got news for the roots and bluegrass fans out there, as the initial artist announcement for the 24th edition of Merlefest had been revealed. The three day festie, which will take place April 28 – May 1 on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkes, NC, will be hosted by Doc Watson, will feature sets from the likes of Sam Bush, Emmitt-Nershi Band, Peter Rowan, Del McCoury Band and more.