Experimental/noise rockers Yo La Tengo are releasing a double vinyl reissue of 1993’s Painful, out December 2nd, 2014.
Photo Credit: Owen Ela
Under the Radar recently reported that indie/noise rock band Yo La Tengo is releasing a vinyl reissue of 1993 album Painful in celebration of their 30th anniversary. The double LP, titled Extra Painful, includes a 7”, a double CD, and digital download coupons.
Yo La Tengo was formed in 1984 in Hoboken, New Jersey by married couple Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley. In 1992, they added bassist James McNew. The band name, which means “I’ve got it,” in Spanish, came from a 1960s baseball anecdote. Influenced by bands such as Sonic Youth and The Velvet Underground, Yo La Tengo has explored experimental and noise rock for the past three decades.
In the 80s, Yo La Tengo’s first three LPs released Ride the Tiger, New Wave Hot Dogs, and President Yo La Tengo were all met with poor sales but great critical acclaim. Their early 90s records Fakebook and May I Sing With Me, released on Bar/None Records and Alias Records, were also critically successful and helped Yo La Tengo cultivate a strong following.
The original album Painful, released in 1993, saw the band shift away from noise rock into more atmospheric and experimental sounds. The band also added bassist James McNew. McNew, who was originally just filling in for a summer tour, became a full-time member who helped round out the band. Rob Sheffield in Rolling Stone said of McNew, “[he] became an essential part of the sound on Painful, the 1993 album that kept every promise Yo La Tengo ever made and blew their previous highlights away.”
Painful, which was released on Matador Records, began Yo La Tengo’s partnership with producer Roger Moutenot, who produced their subsequent albums until 2013. The album was another critical success, and is marked as the foundation of the band and their successive works. In a 2003 interview, lead singer Ira Kaplan told pop music critic Jim DeRogatis,
“I think this group really started when we made the record Painful… Even though I can see connections with the earlier records and things we’ve done since, it really seems like mostly we’ve built on that record. Anything from before then is really, really different to me. Since Painful, I think we’ve gotten more confident and more willing to trust ourselves and trust each other, and probably better at dealing with things that go wrong.“
In 2001, the band went in a different direction, recording the instrumentation for The Sounds of the Sounds of Science, a series of eight short undersea by Jean Painleve. The band reported that experimenting with that kind of instrumentation helped them get more comfortable with bigger arrangements, as featured on their eleventh LP I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass.
Recently, the band released their thirteenth LP Fade, which was produced by John McEntire, marking their first album without producer Roger Moutenot. The album debut at number 26 on the Billboard 200 in January, 2013, making it the first time a Yo La Tengo album cracked the Top 40.
In addition to the vinyl reissue, Yo La Tengo has also announced a 30th anniversary celebratory tour, including a performance at Austin’s Fun Fun Fun Fest.
The double vinyl reissue of Painful is out on December 2nd, 2014.
Extra Painful:
Track 01. Nowhere Near (demo)
Track 02. From A Motel 6 (live acoustic)
Track 03. Tunnel Vision (unreleased instrumental demo)
Track 04. Sudden Organ (demo)
Track 05. Smart Window (unreleased Painful session)
Track 06. Big Day Coming (live acoustic)
Track 07. Slow Learner (unreleased demo)
Track 08. Double Dare (demo)
Track 09. A Worrying Thing (demo)
Track 10. I Heard You Looking (live)
Shaker 7″:
Track 01. Shaker
Track 02. For Shame Of Doing Wrong
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