Yesterday and Today: Y & T

by Derric Miller
Staff Writer

Dave Menikitti Picture appears courtesy of

Everything old is new again … especially when it’s been unearthed.

Y&T recently bombarded their faithful with two CDs, replete with unreleased tracks, titled UnEarthed I and II. UnEarthed I offered 17 tracks, and UnEarthed II 18 tracks. While it may have been a nod to the past, a career spanning more than 30 years, what it actually did was whet appetites and exhume the fans who once considered Y&T the best rock and roll band out there. When UnEarthed I came out, Y&T was basically a lame duck band; there was nothing new to look forward to. But their shows the last two years at the Sweden Rock Festival and the success of UnEarthed may be the impetus needed to see Y&T rise again.

“Playing the Sweden Rock Fest was the crowning moment of getting us back on our feet,” said Meniketti. “We got on a plane, went over there, played for however many thousands of people there were, and we were really taken aback. It had been 10 to 15 years since we had been back in Europe. It was a combination of things, really. All the European press that was there, they were really giving us a boost, saying that our band, out of all the great bands that were playing there, had one of the biggest buzzes around. People were wondering, and saying ‘Hey, let’s see what Y&T are about now!’”

“We were blown away by the response,” Meniketti continued. “The people were amazing: before, during, and after the set. It really spurred us on. After that gig, we were on a much different level, both as band members with each other and … it just made us feel great.”

Y&T hasn’t released a new studio album since 1997s Endangered Species, but frontman Dave Meniketti hasn’t exactly been quiet since Y&T’s hiatus, releasing two blues’ albums. On the Blue Side was released in 1998, and the self-titled Menketti came in 2002.

And now, the stage might be set for a new Y&T studio album. But that’s heavy on the “might.”

“I would give that about a 50/50,” Meniketti said. “When we got back together in 2001 to start playing again, our intentions were just to do some local gigs. And then, of course, when we started doing all of these dates in Europe, and started getting asked back, the fans were driving us, the gigs were driving us, so that was all new again.”

Here comes the “might.” “Generally speaking, I think the fans really care more about the old stuff, that they listened to, and it was a part of their life. They want to see and hear that, most of all. I know some big name bands right now that are just saying ‘No,’ to coming out with new material. It’s a lot of work for very little reward because the fans really just want to hear the old stuff, all the time live. They’d rather see an old CD re-released or remastered” Meniketti explained.

Would digging up the past and re-mastering or re-recording a classic Y&T album like Contagious be the seed to get fans back and interested in a new studio effort? (Much like Twisted Sister recently did with Still Hungry.) Perhaps. But Y&T fans, unlike other legacy bands‘ fans, typically enjoy hearing the entire body of work, regardless of recording date. It’s called timelessness. Do Def Leppard fans enjoy hearing Slang as much as they enjoy cranking Pyromania?

Y&T fans drink in songs like “Lipstick and Leather” and “Long Way Down,” released 11 years apart, with equal fervor. There is no weak Y&T album, no stutter along the way. Although, they do take their chances.

“If you sat down someone who wasn’t familiar with Y&T and played back to back ‘Mean Streak’ and ‘Black Tiger,’ they’d really be confused,” Meniketti joked, in regards to the bands diversity and standard of playing whatever kind of music they want.

Y&T formed back in the 1970s, choosing their name by abbreviating the Beatle’s Yesterday & Today. After two releases with the full name, 1981s Earthshaker saw the band find themselves, with their own name. On that LP, they unleashed songs like “Dirty Girl,” “Rescue Me,” and “I Believe in You,” songs that sound as relevant today as they did more than 20 years ago. Albums like the Contagious, In Rock We Trust, Mean Streak and possibly the greatest Y&T album of all time, Ten, are all reasons enough for Y&T to start taking the coincidentally titled Unearthed literally.

If Meniketti and Phil Kennemore (the other genius behind the Y&T entity) find themselves in the studio, coming up with fresh ideas in the classic Y&T sense, they may be spurred on to doing a new record. That’s the extent Meniketti is allowing the fans to hope for at this time. But the curious thing about calling yourself “Yesterday & Today” is that right now, they are only living up to the “yesterday” part.

What about “today?”

“I have a feeling it’s going to give its own answer,” said Meniketti.

So in a weird, self-fulfilling prophecy sort of way, that might be Meniketti letting us all know that they, too, are taking the title “Unearthed” literally.

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