President Yo La Tengo/New Wave Hot Dogs [ORIGINAL RECORDING REISSUED]

Yo La Tengo

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 18, 1996)
• Original Release Date: 1996
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued
• Label: Matador Records
• ASIN: B0000036WH
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #143,914 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording
Indie darlings Yo La Tengo have enjoyed a long and esteemed career, and now sit atop a respectable discography. Among Yo La Tengo's past gems, 1989's President Yo La Tengo/New Wave Hotdogs may rank among the best. Barely preceding Yo La Tengo's destined-to-be-a-classic cover collection Fakebook, President Yo La Tengo finds husband-and-wife duo Georgia Hubley and Ira Kaplan bounding from garage rock anthems like "Orange Song" to looping, sonic sculptures like "Barnaby, Hardly Working." This rare disc is often a proud feature of any true fan's Yo La Tengo library. --Nick Heil

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good stuff., March 3, 2000

By A Customer

I'm not sure I get the previous reviewer's point - other than that this record is really, really great.

This CD puts together YLT's second and third album, for some reason starting with the latter (maybe because "Barnaby" makes a better opener than "Clunk"). The music on both is quite different from what they are doing now; in fact, this album gets its 5 stars from me for entirely different reasons than I'd give 5 stars to their more recent releases.

Nowadays, YLT's music is lush, epic, rich-textured, a beautiful soundscape. Back then in 1987/89 it was instead lean, direct, and relentlessly moving forward. Still, it featured the same degree of musical craftmanship and the same uncanny feeling for melody that have been YLT trademarks since their very beginnings.

I know a number of YLT fans who don't like this. I can't blame them. First, it's still proto-YLT; many of the musical elements they embraced later are here only in their earliest, unrefined form. Second, it's musical understatement - almost too easy to overlook the great melodies behind the almost-too-simple songs.

Still, apart from the ten-minute version of "The Evil That Men Do" (which I find was an evil thing to record), there's some true gems here: an uptempo version of "Barnaby, Hardly Working", an extremely tender version of Bob Dylan's "I Threw It All Away", and from the rest, "Did I Tell You", "Lewis" and "A Shy Dog" seem particularly noteworthy.

If you're prepared to encounter a kind of YLT that's different from "Heart Beating" and "Nothing", then go for this one. It's well worth it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yo La Tengo's Come a Long Way, June 19, 2000

By	Borkus (Richmond, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This is a very different Yo La Tengo (pre- James McNew) and has a very different sound. Ira and Georgia were still working with similar sounds to bands like the Feelies, Phantom Tollbooth and other Hoboken peers. However there are two Yo La Tengo universals here - great song writing and intelligent ecclectic tastes. Lewis and Shy Dog from "New Wave Hot Dogs" along with pretty much all of "President Yo La Tengo" have more than just glimpses of genius in them. I saw YLT when they toured in support of "New Wave Hot Dogs" and the live cuts on "President" definitely capture the energy and love of music possessed by the band. It's a great CD for rounding out your YLT collection, has a LOT of music for the money - of course, it was the first one I ever bought (I have the Coyote records). IMHO, "President Yo La Tengo" is where the light just starts to break through - and like the dawn, it can take your breathe away.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two greats in one!, October 24, 2002

By	Devin Cowling (Canada) - See all my reviews

President Yo La Tengo and New Wave Hot Dogs are two of Yo La Tengo's best albums on their own. With both of them together, you get a good mix of what is Yo La Tengo. There are some of the harder Yo La Tengo songs with "Orange Song", and some of the more folksy rock with "Alyda" and "Did I Tell You". Overall, I would recommend them both by themsleves, but together you can't lose.