Making their debut in 1985 with a 45 that paired the group's own "The River of Water" with a take on
Love's "A House Is Not a Motel,"
Yo La Tengo established their love of both the single format and the eclectic cover version from the get-go. Subsequent years produced a steady stream of between-album releases, tour-only singles, compilation appearances, and, of course, more memorable covers. Beginning in 1988, with the group on the cusp of unleashing their President Yo La Tengo album,
Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo gathers 30 rarities, selected and annotated by the band itself, and divided into vocal and instrumental discs.
John Cale's "Hanky Panky Nohow,"
the Velvet Underground's "I'm Set Free," and
Beat Happening's "Cast a Shadow" are all spared by fairly faithful renditions. Elsewhere the group infuse
Jackson Browne's "Somebody's Baby" with new, anthemic life, play
the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop" as a surf instrumental, find themselves joined by a phoned-in
Daniel Johnston for a radio performance of the singer's "Speeding Motorcycle," and nearly lose the reigns on a blistering live-in-studio version of
Wire's "Too Late." Housed on the vocal disc are a handful of originals that rival the band's official output. "Evanescent Psychic Pez Drop" rides a motorik drum beat and organ drone, fractured by
Ira Kaplan's splintering guitar.
Georgia Hubley takes the lead on the dreamy "Demons" (whose working title, the band admits, was "White Rabbit") and the trio sets its sound adrift on the languid "Up to You," a song that would have fit comfortably on the stunning
And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out six years later. Though the instrumental disc isn't nearly as impressive (comprised largely of failed experiments and song sketches), it's still well worth looking beyond
YLT's studio albums for the hidden gems packaged here. ~ Nathan Bush