Pitchfork: Yo La Tengo: No Hanukkah In Hoboken

Yo La Tengo: No Hanukkah In Hoboken
Band only had enough amp oil for two nights

[Posted Monday, December 1st, 2003 04:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Yo La Tengo have decided not to perform their annual eight-night Hanukkah stint at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ this year, according to a post on the group's official website. "It was a difficult decision to make, and we're not going to provide much in the way of details, although we will categorically deny that the competition between James' mom and Ira's mom for whose hamentashen we preferred last Purim had anything to do with our decision." Oy!! Watch out Woody Allen, the Jewish comedy niche has some new masters.

Instead of the elaborate eight-night Hanukkah stunt, which for the past two years has included rounding up guest performers (Ray Davies, David Byrne, Ronnie Spector, the Sun Ra Arkestra, Portastatic, and the Ladybug Transistor) and emcees (Janeane Garofalo, David Cross, Sarah Silverman, Girls Guitar Club, etc), Yo La Tengo will kick off December with a string of dates in Japan and an appearance at The Onion's Christmas party December 16th. Trumped again by The Onion! We'll be lucky if we can get a Broken Social Scene cover band at Pitchfork's year-end hoedown (though former editor Chris Ott's almost criminally toxic punch is a must).

Yo La Tengo will play a single gig at Maxwell's on New Years' Eve, presumably capturing all of the drunken, kosher holiday madness in one decadent evening. In February and March, the group will depart for a UK tour supported by Welsh act Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. Yo La Tengo recently released an EP entitled Today Is the Day!, and are currently at work fulfilling a lifelong ambition to remix eight minutes of torrential feedback into the closing song of the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. Dates (all 2004 shows with Gorky's Zygotic Mynci):

12-01 Nagoya, Japan - Club Quattro
12-02 Osaka, Japan - Club Quattro
12-03 Tokyo, Japan - Club Quattro
12-04 Tokyo, Japan - Club Quattro
12-16 Brooklyn, NY - North Six (The Onion Christmas party)
12-31 Hoboken, NJ - Maxwell's
02-28 Cardiff, Wales - St. David's Hall
03-01 London, England - Shepherd's Bush Empire
03-02 Brighton, England - Brighton Dome
03-03 Basingstoke, England - The Anvil
03-04 Northampton, England - Roadmenders
03-05 Liverpool, England - Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
03-06 Leeds, England - West Yorkshire Playhouse
03-07 Leicester, England - De Montfort Hall
03-09 Glasgow, Scotland - The Arches
03-10 Edinburgh, Scotland - Usher Hall
03-11 Coventry, England - Warwick Arts Center