sex without stress (possible?)

Play Hurt-American Analog Set

I began loving this song at the 7th song, when the lone guitar is joined by the saddest melody you have heard. What's amazing about this song is that shows how you can do so much without histrionics and tricks. It just chugs along at a Galaxie 500 tempo while Andrew Kenny sings forlorn lonely rainy afternoon lyrics about a past lover....heartbreaking

And you don't know what you're doin'
You can only play hurt so much
When you're calling me all about him
And I can't hang up
And you don't know what you're doin'
'Cause he can't be enough
But I could even believe
That he loves you like me 'cause
It's hard when your heart's all cracked up

So sad...

Also, this is one of those bands that if you get into now, you have a huge back catalog to explore.

Barnaby, Hardly Working-Yo La Tengo

Back when I was a 19 or 20 year old college student, I found this newspaper called Alternative Press. It was based out of Ohio and I couldn't always get it every month. Just a few issues later it morphed into a magazine. And for the next 14-15 years, I was a loyal subscriber. I was a loyal subscriber long after I needed to be a loyal subscriber. I forgave them many a sin....from the endless reviews of Fall Out Boy and Rancid-esque punk bands to the disappearance of reviews of artists from all over the spectrum....long gone were the days that a band like The Gossip were covered in the early stages of their career. Too much major label, too many of the same sort of bands...I stayed on principle. Then...the Ashlee Simpson review. Oh, dare I mention a positive review. A talentless horse-like girl, oh I'm sorry, now she's had a nose job, now she looks like a talentless horse with a nose job. My bad.

So I stopped reading and subscribing (each month I'd read less and less of the issue). Maybe I just got old...maybe college kids care to read endless articles about the Distillers Rancid Fall Out Boy etc etc, but I couldn't (but I sure loved to read endless articles about The Smiths, The Cure, Sonic Youth etc etc.). It was fun while it lasted...come back to the five & dime, AP....ah, I won't go there.

During that time, I bought tons of records off of the review alone (this was pre-internet days, kiddos). AP introduced me to countless artists, as crazy diverse as Diamanda Galas, Sleater Kinney, Laika...and this band. Yo La Tengo. I went out and bought President the day after I read the interview.

And the review was right. Pretty much spot on. Its a really good record...not their best, that would come later (I've been a fan ever since remarkable album after remarkable album).

Ah but this song....4:36 of swirling gorgeous hazy beauty....its sounds like condensing Lost In Translation into one sad lonely moment. I think its still my favorite Yo La Tengo song....they've come close over the 20 approximate years they've been releasing records...but this, this is the one.

Sex Without Stress-The Au Pairs

The Au Pairs were an all-girl band from Birmingham England. I'm not sure what they called this kind of music back in 1982, which was when the record that this song is off of came out (Sense And Sensuality). Today it'd be lumped into the post-punk category.

Its dubby and disjointed and very very sexy. If I was a DJ, I'd play this out...its somehow manages to be dirty and grimey and spacey and sexy all at the same time. Not easy to do. Maybe if the Go-Go's and James Brown had a kid....

Unison-Bjork (Ital Tek Remix)

This isn't out officially...I found it floating about on the net....if you love/like the original (I love it...think its one of Bjorks most underrated tracks) then definitely track this down. Its very dubby and clanking and sexy.