Yo La Tengo Biography
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This New Jersey, USA-based band has crafted a formidable reputation within the US alternative rock community with their succulent, Velvet Underground -inspired melodicism. Comprising the central husband and wife duo of Ira Kaplan (vocals/guitar) and Georgia Hubley (drums/vocals), plus various associates including regular member James McNew (bass), the band has built a strong reputation with critics worldwide in a career spanning over 20 years. Yo La Tengo took their name from the cry of a Spanish-speaking baseball outfielder (strictly translating as ‘I Got It’), and had their 1986 debut album produced by Mission Of Burma bass player Clint Conley. Recorded with guitarist Dave Schramm and bass player Mike Lewis, the set included a cover version of Ray Davies’ ‘Big Sky’. The oft-stated comparisons between Kaplan’s vocals and those of Lou Reed were further endorsed by a version of the latter’s ‘It’s Alright (The Way That You Live)’ on the subsequent New Wave Hot Dogs collection, recorded with bass player Stephan Wichnewski. Two live songs from a CBGB’s set were included on the band’s best early recording, 1989’s mini-album President Yo La Tengo. This saw the introduction of bass player Gene Holder, who also produced, on an esoteric set that included two wildly different versions of Kaplan’s famed composition ‘The Evil That Men Do’. Schramm returned alongside double bass player Al Greller for 1990’s Fakebook, primarily a collection of cover versions drawn from the canons of the Kinks, Jad Fair, John Cale and Cat Stevens. Schramm also worked with Greller as Schramms the band - who recorded Walk To Delphi for OKra Records in 1990. Bass player McNew joined up in time for 1992’s May I Sing With Me, which featured lead vocals from Hubley for the first time. A new recording contract with Matador Records preceded the release of Painful, an album that contained the usual assortment of beautiful pop moments, notably ‘Nowhere Near’ and ‘The Whole Of The Law’. Kaplan joined Dave Grohl onstage for his post- Nirvana return as Foo Fighters in 1995. The same year’s Electr-O-Pura, Yo La Tengo’s seventh album, saw the band picking up mainstream UK press for the first time, following a London gig performed under the title Sleeping Pill. Both the melodic indie pop outing I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One (1997) and the coyly romantic and mellow follow-up, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out (2000), gained excellent reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. Yo La Tengo spent the next two years indulging their experimental leanings, working with members of New York’s ecstatic jazz scene and recording two instrumental projects. The Danelectro mini-album collected three sketches and their remix counterparts overseen by Kit Clayton, Nobukazu Takemura and Q-Unique, while The Sounds Of The Sounds Of Science served as a live soundtrack to the undersea documentaries of French filmmaker Jean Painleve. In marked contrast, the 2003 studio album Summer Sun was a sophisticated and highly slick collection that at times steered dangerously close to blandness. Two timely career overviews were released by Matador in spring 2005.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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