If you ever wanted to hear Richard Hell sing for Yo La Tengo, you might like this as much as I do. I'm talking about "Living Wage" by Tiers La Familia. Sef Sidney, Cheryl Kingan (75 Dollar Bill, The Scene Is Now), and Jeff Tobias (Sunwatchers, Modern Nature) have conspired to make something wonderful here.
With the "My living wage puts my shame on center stage" refrain stuck in my head, I've been playing this a lot. There are similarities to the tunes of Dehd, I think, but there's also something wonderfully resigned here in the vocal, and that clashes with the wit of the main vocals on the verses. This is sort of clever stuff, but it goes down like honey, thanks to those Side Two of Brotherhood-keyboards from Tobias.
This single is pay-what-you-want on Bandcamp so please pay for it. More details on this and Jeff Tobias via StrategyofTension.org.
[Photo: Joe Sidney]