Yo La Tengo – Mr. Tough

Yo La Tengo has been called "the quintessential critics' band" and has a strong cult following. The band was formed in 1984 by husband/wife duo, guitarist Ira Kaplan and drummer Georgia Hubley and solidified into a trio with bassist James McNew. They love to explore and expand their music with each album; doing a full acoustic album covering songs from almost everybody, recording the instrumental score for eight short undersea documentaries by Jean Painlevé and even collaborating with Yoko Ono on the 2003 charity album Wig in a Box: Songs from and Inspired by Hedwig and the Angry Inch in support of the Harvey Milk High School.

Mr. Tough is a fun track off one my favorite album titles, I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass.

Great Trivia: The name "Yo La Tengo" (Spanish for "I've got it!") came from a baseball anecdote. During the 1962 season, New York Mets center fielder Richie Ashburn and Venezuelan shortstop Elio Chacón found themselves colliding in the outfield. When Ashburn went for a catch, he would scream, "I got it! I got it!" only to run into Chacón, who spoke only Spanish. Ashburn learned to yell, "¡Yo la tengo! ¡Yo la tengo!" instead. In a later game, Ashburn happily saw Chacón backing off. He relaxed, positioned himself to catch the ball, and was instead run over by left fielder Frank Thomas, who understood no Spanish and had missed a team meeting that proposed using the words "¡Yo la tengo! as a way to avoid outfield collisions. After getting up, Thomas asked Ashburn, "What the heck is a Yellow Tango?".

Sound Tribe Sector 9 - Moon Socket

Sound Tribe Sector 9 is known for their live performances. They blend many genres creating a sound based heavily on instrumental rock and electronic music crossed with elements of funk, jazz, drum and bass, psychedelia, and hip hop. Based on that description, you can see why they cannot really be categorized.

They formed in Atlanta in the late 90's, but moved to Northern California in 2000 where they have built a loyal local fan base. Occasionally they have billed themselves under the name Tzolkin, which is all five members of STS9. They have done this so they could perform in very experimental concerts to debut brand new material in a live setting without having the audience expectation of hearing existing STS9 material. The term Tzolkin means sequence of days and refers to a 260-day harmonic module calendar cycle.

Moon Socket is off their 1999 release, Interplanetary Escape Vehicle.