A music-obsessed, retired San Francisco lawyer, and author of the rock & roll memoir Jittery White Guy Music (available on Amazon)... picking a random album or song in his collection every day or so and sharing a few thoughts.
While I'm trying to avoid instrumentals on this list, I'm breaking that loose rule for yet a second time with Yo La Tengo. Much like "I Heard You Looking," "And The Glitter Is Gone"--the closing track from 2009's Popular Songs--is one of their epic freak-outs, a brief riff serving as the basis for repeated explorations of sonic devastation by guitarist Ira Kaplan. In this case, the basic song structure, such as it is, reminds me of a Robert Fripp-styled Frippertronics tape loop, a slithery lick that sounds almost like an electronic sample. And while the extended 15-minute track falls back on that loop a few times, its largely an excuse for Ira to go particularly batshit with the noise pedals and the feedback whirlwind howl, all as James & George dutifully and relentlessly pound away at a particularly ferocious rhythm.
As a mere piece of audio, it's not exactly one of their most mixtape-friendly tunes, and might be something you only sit through from start to finish on rare occasions. But they recorded it live on a Brooklyn rooftop, and that YouTube video performance is something I've returned to dozens of times, usually late at night with the headphones on when I just want to be blast into deep space for a little while before going to sleep.
Album version, with a bit of helpful keyboard:
Live rooftop version: Live 2017 with the Sun Ra Arkestra:
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