In My Room With The Curtains Drawn

Yo La Tengo “Tom Courtenay (Georgia Version)” – At their best, Yo La Tengo mask their potent emotions with a stoic affect, lending a consistently low key vibe to their work, along with a quiet subtext of repression. Ira Kaplan in particular always seems to be slightly embarassed by his heavier feelings, insisting on framing everything in the context of the everyday and burying his often whispered vocals under the squall and drones of his guitar. Their emphasis on the nuances of domesticity is rarely found in rock music (particularly in rock music that can actually rock), and has wisely become the band’s general niche over the years. (Well, that and the penchant for obscure cover versions.)

“Tom Courtenay” is one of the band’s most impressive songs, and is rightfully featured on their new career retrospective, Prisoners Of Love. It appears twice in the set – the first is the album recording, and this is the alternate b-side version featuring drummer Georgia Hubley on vocals rather than Kaplan. This take on the song manages to be even more low-key than the original, which struggles to smother its lovely melodies and lonely nostalgia with loud feedback and a diffident lead vocal. I’m sure that someone out there can and will one day record “Tom Courtenay” will all the passionate emoting that Yo La Tengo are holding back, but I suspect that it would not work as well, since their aloof restraint rings so true to a song about memory and distant longing. (Click here to buy it from the Matador store.)

KaitO “Nng (Demo)” -Fluxblog exclusive! This is a demo for a song that will appear on the forthcoming new KaitO album on SpinArt. On this track, the band sounds as relentless and urgent as ever, but the guitars seem to have been replaced entirely by the sound of very disagreeable computers. (Click here to visit the official KaitO site.)