Friday, October 13, 2006

Yo La Tengo















Yo La Tengo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Origin: Hoboken, New Jersey
Country: United States
Years active: 1984–present
Genre(s) - Indie Rock

Label(s) -


Members:


Yo La Tengo is an American rock band. Based in Hoboken, New Jersey, they have demonstrated unusual longevity for the indie-rock scene. A critical favorite with a devoted fan base, they have achieved only limited popular success.

Origin of name
Their name comes from a baseball anecdote. During the 1962 season, Richie Ashburn, the center fielder of the New York Mets, was crashing again and again with Venezuelan Elio Chacón. When Ashburn went for a catch, he would scream, "I got it! I got it!" only to collide with the 160 pound (73 kg, 11 stones 6 pounds) Chacón, who spoke only Spanish. Ashburn learned to yell, "Yo la tengo! Yo la tengo!" which is "I've got it" in Spanish. In a later game, Ashburn happily saw Chacón backing off. He relaxed, positioned himself to catch the ball, and was instead run over by 200 pound (91 kg, 14 stones 4 pounds) left fielder Frank Thomas who understood no Spanish.

The band wanted a name that sounded foreign in order to avoid any connotations and Kaplan is a devoted baseball fan (and a fan of the New York Mets in particular). However, it still irks them when they are asked the origin of the name. [1] The band once performed a cover of the Mets theme song "Meet the Mets" during a benefit appearance on radio station WFMU's pledge drive.

History

Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley, a husband/wife duo, formed the band in 1984. They went through several other bandmembers before stabilizing with lead guitarist Dave Schramm and bass player Mike Lewis (founding bass player of Boston garage-punk mainstays DMZ and The Lyres, and a member of Brooklyn garage band The A-Bones throughout his tenure in Yo La Tengo) for their debut recording, "The River of Water". In 1986, their first LP, Ride the Tiger, was released.

Schramm and Lewis left the band, and Stephen Wichnewski joined, with Kaplan taking on the role of lead guitar. New Wave Hot Dogs (1987) did much to establish the band's reputation among rock critics, though it sold poorly . President Yo La Tengo (1989) continued this trend, with rave reviews yet poor sales.

1990 saw the release of Fakebook, an album of mostly folk tunes, including covers from Gene Clark, Cat Stevens, Rex Garvin & the Mighty Cravers, the Escorts, the Flamin' Groovies, the Scene Is Now, the Kinks (1990), the Pastels, and several songs by Yo La Tengo themselves. May I Sing with Me (1992) included new bassist James McNew (of Christmas and Dump), who has stayed with the band ever since. Painful (1993), Electr-O-Pura (1995) and I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One (1997) marked a steady progression towards a sprawling, multi-faceted style, which included such disparate elements as folk, punk rock, shoegazing, long instrumental noise-jams and electronica oriented songs. Painful was also the beginning of the band's fruitful creative realtionship with producer Roger Moutenot, who has produced every subsequent Yo La Tengo album release. During these years their cult grew and, thanks to almost constant touring and unrelenting critical praise, they became one of the most prominent American indie rock bands. They released And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out in 2000 and Summer Sun in 2003.

The band is renowned for its encyclopedic repertoire of cover songs, and every year plays live on the New Jersey freeform radio station, WFMU, as part of its annual fundraising marathon, performing (with guitarist Bruce Bennett of Norton Records A-Bones, and occasional additional guests like Hamish Kilgour of New Zealand's The Clean and Pacific Northwest folk-punk chantuese Lois Maffeo) impromptu cover-song requests from listeners who call in to pledge money to the station. In 2006 the band released an album compiling performances from the marathons between 1996 and 2003 entitled Yo La Tengo Is Murdering The Classics.

In 1996 Yo La Tengo appeared briefly (along with their friend Tara Key of the band Antietam) as the Velvet Underground in the film I Shot Andy Warhol. In 2001 they recorded an instrumental soundtrack for eight short undersea documentaries of Jean Painleve, entitled The Sounds Of The Sounds Of Science. Yo La Tengo also provided the soundtrack for the acclaimed 2005 indie film "Junebug" and Kelly Reichardt's award-winning 2006 feature film "Old Joy."

The group collaborated with Yoko Ono as well on the 2003 album "Wig in a Box, Songs From & Inspired by Hedwig and the Angry Inch," made as a charity album to support the Harvey Milk High School.

In March of 2005 the group released a 2-disc greatest hits package, entitled Prisoners of Love. A bonus edition included a 3rd disc of rarities and unreleased tracks.

Trivia

  • The band was mentioned in a 2002 front-page headline for the satirical newspaper, The Onion ("37 Record-Store Clerks Feared Dead In Yo La Tengo Concert Disaster"). They were later asked by the
    newspaper to perform live at a staff party, and re-enacted the events of the article at the end of their set, complete with a staged roof collapse.
  • They are big fans of The Simpsons and performed the psychedelic version of The Simpsons theme that appears at the end of the episode D'oh-in In the Wind. Actor Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer Simpson) was present during the recording of the theme.
  • Their song "Today Is The Day" is featured on the Major League Baseball 2k6 soundtrack.

    • Selected discography
    The Matador Records web site has a detailed discography up to 1998, available [3].

    Singles and EPs [3].

    Albums

    • Ride the Tiger (Coyote, 1986)
    • New Wave Hot Dogs (Coyote/Twintone, 1987)
    • President Yo La Tengo (Coyote, 1989)
    • Fakebook (Bar/None Records, 1990)
    • May I Sing with Me (Alias Records, 1992)
    • Painful (Matador, 1993)
    • Electr-O-Pura (Matador, 1995)
    • Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo (outtakes and rarities compilation) (Matador, 1996)
    • I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One (Matador, 1997)
    • Strange But True (with Jad Fair) (Matador)
    • And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out (Matador, 2000)
    • The Sounds of the Sounds of Science (Egon, 2002)
    • Summer Sun (Matador, 2003)
    • Prisoners of Love: A Smattering of Scintillating Senescent Songs: 1985-2003 (Best of Compilation) (Matador, 2004)
    • Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics (Egon, 2006) - a compilation of cover songs recorded during the last 8 annual WFMU telephons
    • I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass (Matador, scheduled for September 2006)

    Matador Records reissued New Wave Hot Dogs, President Yo La Tengo and The Asparagus Song on a single CD in 1996.

    External links

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