Yo La Tengo To Play Requests Live On WFMU

Tomorrow, Yo La Tengo will reprise their annual tradition of playing live cover songs on air in exchange for pledges to freeform radio station WFMU. Based in Jersey City, New Jersey WFMU is one of the few remaining independent freeform radio stations operating in the U.S. and it receives the majority of its funding through donations made during its annual on-air fundraising marathon.

Here’s how Yo La Tengo guitarist Ira Kaplan explained how the requests set works:

On Saturday, March 12, from 3 pm to 6 pm EST, Georgia, James, me, and our pal Bruce Bennett will be playing live from WFMU’s Monty Hall, while your host Todd-O-Phonic Todd and his co-host Gaylord Fields fundraise. Anybody who pledges $100 or more can make a song request. We will attempt to play it. It’s that simple. And as anyone–make that everyone–who’s heard any or all of the previous 20 (that’s right) installments of this train wreck know all too well, it’s not the least bit simple.

The requests set will be streamed live on Saturday, March 12 from 3 – 6 p.m. ET at wfmu.org and on radio at 91.1 FM, but it won’t be archived. Pledges and requests can be made during the set, but according to the announcement the best shot at having a desired song performed is to make a pledge in advance of the show via this link. The WFMU marathon continues through Sunday, March 20.

For a sample of what goes down during the requests sets, stream YLT’s 2006 LP Yo La Tengo Is Murdering The Classics, which featured 30 cover songs performed during past WFMU marathon pledge drives: