YO LA TENGO
OCC, Venlo, Holland
May 19, 1991

Stonecutter Archives #6

AUD > ? > cassette > Tascam 424 Mk II > Sony PCM-M10 (Line In, 24/48) > WAV > SoundStudio > FLAC (16/44)
Recorder unknown, cassette copy provided by Rich B.
Transferred and digitally mastered by neil d

Setlist:
01 Sleeping Pill
02 Action Time Vision (Alternative TV)
03 Serpentine
04 Misty Water
05 Drug Test
06 Swing For Life
07 Five-Cornered Drone (Crispy Duck)
08 86-Second Blowout
09 Artificial Heart
10 Out The Window
11 Mushroom Cloud of Hiss
12 You Tore Me Down
13 Luxury Liner (Gram Parsons)
14 Orange Song
15 Heavy Love (Neil Young)*
16 Time Fades Away (Neil Young)*

* with Rick Rizzo on guitar

Rich B., aka Stonecutter, recorded hundreds of shows in New York in the '80s and '90s, and traded for hundreds more. Until recently, many of these have been stacked up in trays and trays of DATs and cassettes in his basement, never shared beyond a relative handful of tape trades back in the day. Through his generosity, a few of us are helping to digitize and share these hidden gems. No one can say how many of these there will be, as we haven't hit bottom yet.

From one of Ira's posts on yolatengo.com:

"City Slang macher Christof Ellinghaus suggested that Eleventh Dream Day and Yo La Tengo tour Europe together in the spring of 1991, taking turns opening and closing. Twenty-three years ago today we played our fifth show together, all in Holland. The night before we were the headliners and had brought Rick Rizzo up during the encore for a couple of Neil Young songs. Now, at the Burgerweeshuis (which I'm told translates to "burger weeshuis") in Deventer, it was our turn to support. We played our set to palpable indifference, the first and only sign of life from the audience being the perversely persistent clapping for an encore. Our first thought was not to bother, but then we reconsidered. For the last three weeks, we'd opened most of our shows with a new song, a slow, dreamy instrumental, as-yet untitled. We hadn't played it in Deventer, so we decided this was the perfect moment--seemed to strike the right passive aggressive note. Afterwards, I went to the merch table . . . you know, now that I think of it, with the details that follow, perhaps we were the headliner on this night too. Anyway, Eleventh Dream Day guitarist Wink O'Bannon was making a rare appearance as salesman, aided by a bottle of bourbon and two Dutch drinking buddies. Upon my arrival, one of them sneered at me, 'Your music is like a sleeping pill to me.' I don't remember my response, but presumably I was insufficiently chastened because he added, in the withering tone the Dutch have mastered, 'Burger eater! Burger eater!' Naturally the instrumental soon acquired the name 'Sleeping Pill.'"

"The night before" is this night in Venlo, and Eleventh Dream Day guitarist Rick Rizzo indeed guests on a pair of Neil Young covers — one of them the incredible "Heavy Love" from Neil's then-new Japan-and-Europe-only release "Eldorado." This was also just James McNew's second month with the band, though he already fits like a glove.

No source info on this one, as Rich must have received it as a tape trade in days of yore. Thanks to whoever recorded it, and to whatever nameless Dutchman gave Track 1 its title.