Because I wrote about Title Tracks’ versions of songs by The Flamin’ Groovies and The Merseybeats earlier this week, and because Bob Dylan’s truly atrocious new disc of Christmas standards leaked yesterday, I’ve been thinking a lot about covers.

Let’s put aside the illustrious history of ill-advised tributes (read: the entire Me First and the Gimme Gimmes oeuvre). A good cover can both satisfy a simple, dorky impulse—to hear one artist you admire spin another in an interesting way—and prove rather instructional. For example, it can tell you that Title Tracks frontman John Davis is probably a sucker for semi-obscure gems (he is), as well as a student of infectious, pop-classicist hooks. With that in mind, I’ve collected some recent covers by local artists.

My short list, after the jump, is fairly folk- and indie-centric, and by no means complete. Tell me what I missed in the comments.

Read More “Your Local Faves, Playing Other People’s Songs” »

Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley, of Hoboken, N.J.’s Yo La Tengo, are married. Despite the rumors, Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino, better known as the Brooklyn band Matt & Kim, are not.

At Matt & Kim’s sold-out show at the Black Cat Wednesday, Schifino showed off what has to be indie pop’s most expressive face, while Johnson—with his Von Trapp good looks and overstimulated banter—spent half of the band’s hyperactive set pogoing on his stool. No drums-and-keys duo is more animated and entertaining, nor more modest, nor more, well, annoying. The set was all minute-long brat-pop nuggets and synthed-up arena themes (”Rock And Roll Part 2,” “The Final Countdown,” ODB’s “Shimmy Shimmy Ya”), and the crowd (youngish) ate it up. As for me, it was hard to begrudge Johnson and Schifino their success: They were too adorable.

Kaplan and Hubley (along with their bandmate James McNew) offer little in the way of body language. A shared smile and a quip from Kaplan after the couple forgot the lyrics to a Beach Boys cover (”Farmer’s Daughter”) was about all the physical rapport on display at a sold-out 9:30 Club last night. Here was a headier affair, and a nerdier one: Yo La Tengo opened with an acid test (”Here To Fall”), continued with 10-plus minutes of deep drone and blissed-out harmonies (”More Stars Than There Are In Heaven”), dug deep into its repertory (covers of Black Flag and Half Japanese), and even deeper into its celebrated discography (I counted a half-dozen crowd-pleasers, give or take).

Read More “Lover’s Rock: Yo La Tengo @ 9:30 Club, Matt & Kim @ Black Cat” »

Jon Fischer will be recapping last night’s Yo La Tengo show at the 9:30 Club. In the meantime, check out some photos from the evening after the jump and at the full gallery.

Read More “Photos: Yo La Tengo @ 9:30 Club” »

“When it comes to interviews , it’s whatever people ask, and I try my best not to answer it,” said Ira Kaplan, Yo La Tengo’s jocular guitarist and singer, at the end of our phone chat yesterday, dodging the most customary of questions: “Do you have anything else to add?”

It wasn’t his first demurral. I floated a few theories about the deceptively simple title of the Hoboken, N.J., trio’s excellent new album, Popular Songs—how the band has long been indie rock’s best synthesizer of cool aesthetic and good (read: rock-nerd) taste, and how now, more than ever, the group seems to be playing with ideas of nostalgia and shifting media. “Well I think that … ,” Kaplan said, trailing off. Strike one. “I’m not really going to tell you. We had the title for a while, and when we approached [cover artist] Dario Robleto about using his work, the way he used physical materials in his work seemed to really resonate with the title.”

Read More “An Awkward Chat With Yo La Tengo” »

Jay-Z: “Death of Autotune”
Cranky old fogey Jay-Z steps up to the mic and lets the young people know how it used to be back in the day, when a real rapper, like, say, Biz Markie, could take a quivering, reedy voice and make a hit. “You rappers singing too much/ get back to rap/ you’re T-Pain-ing too much,” he shouts, laying forth his anti-voice-correction manifesto. Alas, Lil’ Wayne and T-Pain’s retort is basically already written for them. “Hey, remember when famous rappers had better things to rap about than software?”

Read More “Leak Proof: Jay-Z, Yo La Tengo, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, The Clean” »