Yo La Tengo's New LP, Popular Songs, Due September

Tuesday June 9, 2009

Earlier this year, the occasionally-venerable Matador Records released a record by the Condo F**ks, a wink-wink 'comedy' rock set in which the perpetrators were those wacky pranksters in genre-hopping indie-rockers Yo La Tengo.

Immediately undermining the notion that their 2009 will only be populated by questionable novelty records, Yo La Tengo have polished off their latest longplayer. Due out September, the 12th official album for Hoboken's heroes also has the funny-ha-ha name: Popular Songs.

Speaking of comedy, the first taste of the album, "Periodically Double or Triple," finds Ira Kaplan crooning, over groovy organ stabs, things like "I've got time on my hands/that I can't wash off." Not to mention that, if we're to believe the mangled cassette that serves as Popular Songs' cover, the set'll feature cuts called "Ghosts Don't Always Want to Come Back" and "Hippies and a Ouija Board." Let's Save Tony Orlando's House!, indeed.