The Ways and Means of Mets-LovingBig Shots 2013

[metirish]

The guy from Glee ushers in the New Year sporting blue




"outfielders?, what outfielders?"

[Ceetar]

Jon Stewart, to Anne Hathaway on watching Les Miz: "I usually only cry when I'm watching the Mets"

[Edgy MD]

"HahahahahahahaDOUCHE!" --- Anne Hathaway

[A Boy Named Seo]

Yo La Tengo's Ira Kaplan touches on Mets, Wilpons, and perspective. Mets-related crap in italics.

http://www.spin.com/articles/yo-la-tengo-fade-ira-kaplan-interview?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=011013

Singer-guitarist looks back on what he's learned in a lifetime of indie rock Fade, the forthcoming 13th album from Hoboken, New Jersey dream-fuzz trio Yo La Tengo, is somewhat curiously titled. Despite the album's mellow vibe, its 10 John McEntire-produced tracks illuminate a range of emotion that suggests singer-guitarist Ira Kaplan, his wife, drummer-vocalist Georgia Hubley, and bassist James McNew are still burning brightly. But perhaps the titular irony is intentional. YLT are, after all, known as much for their canny sense of humor as they are their sneakily consistent discography of swooning feedback-rock. Enjoying a much-deserved post-holiday break at a friend's home in Montauk, Long Island, Kaplan, 56, spoke on the phone about Yo La Tengo's nearly 30-year history and how his undying New York Mets fandom serves as both inspiration and cautionary tale. You never know if you're gonna feel inspired enough to make another record. There was actually a time quite a while ago when I remember our booking agent saying, "Ya know, you can now do this as long as you want. Whatever audience fluctuations will happen, you can count on there being enough people to make it possible for you to do this. It's up to you at this point." But on the other hand, I would say every time we finish making a record, there is that question, like, "Wow, I wonder if we'll ever make another one?" You always feel so depleted. Not in a bad way, but we're all sports fans, so we rely on the sports clich� as much as any athlete. You just leave it all out on the floor and wonder: Will anything come back? You're gonna feel horrible at times. Just try and ride that part out without too much collateral damage. I think one of the things we have learned � which has made it a lot easier � is that we really know there's gonna be low moments, and they don't necessarily mean what they feel like in that low moment. We literally got home from recording [1997's critically acclaimed] I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One and called up [producer] Roger Moutenot and said, "We listened to the rough mixes on the way home, and it's a complete disaster. We're just gonna have to start from scratch and throw this in the garbage." And he very calmly just said, "Well, if that's what we have to do, that's what we have to do, but why don't you listen to it again tomorrow and maybe it will sound a little different?" And, of course, that's exactly what happened. What we learned was, stop listening to your rough mixes when you're in the van leaving Nashville. Change happens whether you want it to or not. We've never done much other than try to do something that sounds good to us, and that's really kind of it. Things that have changed have changed naturally, not because we felt any pressure to be different. It's something we've spoken about before � that if we made a record that sounded exactly like the one before it, that in itself would be so different it would qualify as change. So it's not something we've worked very hard at trying to make happen. It's pretty easy to forget anyone's actually going to listen to our record while we're making it. We have no perspective. We've got our eyes one half-inch from this. When people started reacting to And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out, focusing on the words so much, I was completely taken by surprise. On that one, I knew the words were different than previous records had been, and there definitely were times when the ones I wrote, I'd show them to Georgia and James and with their support and encouragement, we kept moving forward and taking that as encouragement to go deeper. But I really thought that was the end of it. I didn't think anybody else was gonna be listening. That's one of the pleasures of immersing yourself in [the recording process]: You're really just dealing with how best to make the songs work and not really thinking about other aspects, like how to play it live. I also don't think any of us think that much about our old records. I know [Fade] is open and emotional. Whether it's more so than previous records, I just don't know. You just listen and count on yourself to know it when you hear it. We were writing [Fade] as a band, and some songs happened very quickly. We can be just jamming and a full-fledged song without lyrics can emerge. And then other songs won't come out that quickly, and it's the same way in the studio. Some things are getting tinkered with pretty elaborately while we're mixing, and other things are kind of moving in a pretty straight line. It's the Mets fan in me that recognized success and failure in a variety of ways. The aspect of being a Mets fan that I think is helpful to me is contrasting it with the stereotypical Yankee fan who thinks that to not win the World Series is to equate that with failure. I feel, at this point, like [Mets owners] the Wilpons are my friends in ways I never realized. I'm now thinking these guys are looking out for my best interests and saying, "You've spent a lot of time worrying about New York sports teams, and maybe it's time to stop caring and move on to other things. And as deplorably as ownership has behaved over the years, we're gonna be even worse and keep being even worse until you stop caring and really get the message that there's no earthly reason to invest any of your emotion in these teams." And I appreciate them looking out for me that way. I can understand why we're not for everybody. I'm sure there are people who would look at us and say, "Why would I want wisdom from this group? Why would I ever want to be doing this for 25 years and never become any more popular than we've become?" I do understand why some people would look at us and think, "Wow, that's amazing," 'cause I think so. But I think some people would want to know, "How can I make sure that my band never becomes like this?"

[metirish]

ha!, that's some strong stuff right there on Fred and co., not what i was expecting when he mentioned how ownership is his friend.

[bmfc1]

Thanks for the YLT article, A Boy Named Seo. I'm looking forward to seeing them at the 9:30 Club on February 15.

[A Boy Named Seo]

I'm gonna see em next Wednesday here in Long Beach. Gonna wear some Mets shit & see if I can bro down w/ Ira.

[bmfc1]

ABNS: Please file a report in the Live & Shvitzy Thread elsewhere on the CPF.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Aye-aye.

[stevejrogers]

A lot better than 'rasslers wearing gear as they throw out ceremonial first pitches, here a WWE wrestler has some designs from The7Line in his wrestling gear:



http://the7line.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/CurtHawkins_The7Line.jpg

[TransMonk]

Facebook

WWW.FACEBOOK.COM

Minority owner Bill Maher touring Graceland yesterday in his ill-fitting black Mets cap. You'd think even Fred would tell him to get with the times and put on a new cap.

[TransMonk]

And again today in Baton Rouge...

http://www.nola.com/entertainment/baton-rouge/index.ssf/2013/01/bill_maher_receives_standing_o.html#incart_river_default

[bmfc1]

Keith Alberstadt. A very funny comedian who has been on Letterman twice (and was at the Gotham Comedy Club with me):
http://sasstag.com/2013/03/01/newyorkers-32/

[Edgy MD]

Standing up for bad hats.

[metirish]

Maher is sporting the blue lately

[TransMonk]

metirish wrote: Maher is sporting the blue lately.

Yea!!!

[Edgy MD]

This has been an uninspiring page one.

[metirish]

It surely has.....where are all the MLBS?

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

How about playwright and screenwriter Peter Mercutio whose New York Times opinion piece "We Found Our Son in the Subway" is a big internet sensation. And he's wearing a Mets' cap in his author photo.

[Edgy MD]

Now that's a good find.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Edgy MD wrote: Now that's a good find.

Credit my wife.

[metirish]

What a great story....kudos to that judge......

[Vic Sage]

metirish wrote: Maher is sporting the blue lately

HEY LOOK! A JACKASS... standing next to a statue.

[Vic Sage]

metirish wrote:

is that the chick from DOLLHOUSE?

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Vic Sage wrote: metirish wrote: Maher is sporting the blue lately HEY LOOK! A JACKASS... standing next to a statue.

Oh good, Vic agrees with me that Maher is a jackass.

[Vic Sage]

i agree with him way more than i don't, but i find him nearly intolerable and not nearly as funny as he thinks he is.

[G-Fafif]

Phil Griffin, who (accidentally, if this New Republic profile is accurate) set MSNBC on track, has a favorite team that doesn't include Rachel Maddow.

Griffin�s corner office overlooks Rockefeller Plaza, and the wall space that isn�t covered by televisions is devoted to photographs of his children and his beloved New York Mets.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Are the members of Blue Oyster Cult MLBS?

The answer may affect my decision whether to watch them next month. I've spent too much money following Yankee Loving Musos in the last month or so and would to readdress this imbalance.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Eric Bloom ?@eric_bloom 23 Jun #Delta cancelled my flight today. Made a gig at Ft. Knox KY after a lot of hustle. Let's go Mets! Expand

Eric Bloom ?@eric_bloom 26 May Congrats to Mike Nikeas of the NY Mets! 1st Grand Slam HR. Expand

The B�C was second billed and limited to a 45-minute set but their seven songs rocked the house. The band was loose, clearly having some fun as they mixed the obvious (�Don�t Fear the Reaper,� �Godzilla,� and �Burning for You�) with other material from their deep catalogue. At one point Eric talked about traffic on I-95 and then surveyed the packed house about their baseball allegiances. While there was a smattering of applause for the Mets, it was clearly a Boston house. He didn�t care, he said, he was a Mets fan and they were still in first place. Overall, they filled the time pretty well and got everyone to their feet more than once. Donald (Buck Dharma) remains one of the most amazing and underrated guitarists I�ve ever seen.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Thanks Habib. I can�t pass up a twin-bill of MLBSs; after all the sins I�ve committed worshipping Yankee idols, what would the Met God think if I don�t go?