On October 9th, Matador Records will release Yo La Tengo’s Sleepless Night -- a six-song EP with one new tune (“Bleeding”) plus covers of songs by The Byrds, The Delmore Brothers, Bob Dylan, Ronnie Lane, and The Flying Machine.
The tracks on Sleepless Night were initially released as one side of an LP included within a limited-edition catalogue (published by LACMA and DelMonico Books/Prestel) for the LACMA exhibition, Yoshitomo Nara, the first international retrospective for the Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara (b. 1959). A longtime YLT fan, Nara worked in collaboration with the group -- Georgia Hubley, Ira Kaplan, and James McNew -- to choose the EP’s songs.
This Matador version of the EP is a single-sided 12” with original cover art by Nara, a drawing of the band by Hubley, and an illustration by McNew etched on the record’s flip.