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Yo La Tengo  

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Yo La Tengo is an indie-rock band formed of husband/wife Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley originating from Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S.

The name Yo La Tengo means “I have it” or “I’ve got her” in Spanish and is due to the band not wanting a name with any English connotations.

The band’s first two LP entitled “Ride The Tiger” and “New Wave Hot Dogs” released on Coyote Records were the first glimpse of real potential for the band, and their follow up to it “President Yo La Tengo” almost sealed their fate in becoming a seriously well-acclaimed band.

The band is defined by their experimentation, their unwillingness to repeat past successes, their proclivity for space-rock drone sounds, jagged guitar, and unorthodox covers. They epitomise the obscure complexities of garage rock without any of the pretence familiar with indie-bands attempting to achieve cult status.

In 1993 Yo La Tengo joined forces with Matador Records and their first album on the new label “Painful” was produced by Roger Moutenot, who continued to produce all of their subsequent albums until 2013’s “Fade.” It was also the first album to feature James McNew on all of the songs. James McNew had been drumming solo under the moniker Dump before joining Yo La Tengo and his arrival gave the band a new emphasis, taking them to new heights.

After more than 30 years Yo La Tengo's albums have hit double figures, most of which were received with universal critical acclaim, yet the band are still challenging themselves, finding new ground to tread and new perspectives to view from.

Live reviews

Tuesday 20th October. Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Yo La Tengo. I have written before about what makes a great gig and there are many variables; beer, the music, friends, energy, lights and personal frame of mind. I come to this gig with my son in hospital but decided to still come to provide a temporary distraction.

Yo La Tengo have been going for years and have a produced a fine array of esoteric albums taking in a whole variety of styles sometimes within the same album. They are over touring in support of their new largely covers album.

Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals opens the night with a solo acoustic set that was difficult to hear and even more difficult to see as he was sat down and Shepherds Bush Empire has at best a flat floor and at worst an inverse camber.

The stage is sparsely dressed with easels of paintings from the band and friends and family and we await what will be an acoustic show complete with upright bass and drums just played with brushes. The only exception the electric guitar of on off band member Dave Schramm.

It’s a quietly hushed affair as the band cover songs by everyone from the Cure to the Bonzo Dog band. The music is beautifully played and works well particularly for the three part harmonies but ultimately the first hour doesn’t really go anywhere. It’s all a bit one paced and with no real variation in tone or mood. Second half picks up after Friday I’m in Love but ultimately we’re not taken on any sort of journey. Highlight was probably Rhys joining the band for Rings around the world.

We talked in the pub beforehand about seating in the Empire and afterwards I felt that this particular gig would have really benefitted from being all seated. The lack of energy on stage translates to the audience and I was surprised that anything tonight generated the odd woop after each song.

I maybe doing the band a disservice as my mind could have been distracted but isn’t that the whole point of music. To take you to another place. It did but unfortunately for me the blandness overtook the beauty in this grey countryside that lacked any other colour.

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Yo la Tengo is one of the most hardworking bands in the music industry consistently cranking out great albums and touring regularly. Their music translates best when performed live as the band experiments with bold and interesting sounds that keep the audience thoroughly engaged. For a three-piece band, Yo la Tengo holds its form quite well. Drummer, Georgia Hubley, holds down the rhythm with her atmospheric style of playing and often lends her vocals to create a beautiful Nico-esque quality of singing, James McNew plays intricate rhythms on the bass helping put form to the song when guitarist, Ira Kaplan experiments with crazy, howling tones on his guitar. Yo la Tengo are masters at taking complete cacophonic sounds and turning them into a beautiful, catchy melody. Perhaps the best part about a Yo la Tengo show is when they veer off from traditional form into an impromptu jam session incorporating shoegaze guitar playing into the mix. This band has been together for quite some time and knows exactly how to play off of each other.

It is quite clear from a Yo la Tengo performance that they are not only incredibly knowledgeable about how to play their instruments, but they are also incredibly knowledgeable of their musical history incorporating many different styles of playing into their performance. They also have a wide range of obscure covers they perform live including artists such as Daniel Johnston, Booker T. & The MG’s, and Small Faces. Yo la Tengo is always doing something unique when they perform live, whether its splitting up their set into acoustic and electric sets or using a giant spinning wheel to dictate the songs they perform. Yo la Tengo was also very accommodating to their audience when I saw them perform by honoring the wishes of the audience’s song selections.

There are evident reasons why Yo la Tengo has a strong cult following and are recognized as “the quintessential critic’s band”. When going to a Yo la Tengo concert you will never know what to expect, except a great time of music making.

Yo La Tengo is an indie rock band formed of trio Ira Kaplan (guitars, piano, vocals), Georgia Hubley (drums, piano, vocals), and James McNew (bass, vocals). Although the band haven’t exactly hit the mainstream, they nonetheless have a great cult following and their fans are some of the most devoted, crazy fans around. And you can see why. The band is magnificent live. They incorporate a spacey rock sound with experimental instrumentals and obscure and complex arrangements. They are not your typical indie sound by a long shot. I was not expecting such a distinct sound from a rather plain looking band, in all honestly. And while their image may be nothing significant, their music certainly makes up for this. Jam sessions, impromptu shoegazing, haunting vocals and steady drum beats only start to summarise this band. They have been together for a long time and their chemistry and connection with each other is apparent from the very start. In fact, two of the band members are actually married so that probably answers just why they appeared so intimate with each other…

Indie rock outfit Yo La Tengo are the original critics darlings with the majority of their studio albums achieving high ratings on Metacritic indicating universal acclaim from the global media. When you carry a reputation of this weight, a fanbase materialises with very little need of promotion mainly due to the curiosity to find out if there is substance and reason to the hype.

Fortunately the way in which the New Jersey instrumentalists conduct their live show is more than reason enough to believe the high acclaim. Despite having gained a reputation as one of the most innovative cover artists of recent years, the band sticks mainly to original work tonight and hold the crowd in a curious concentration as they remain entranced by the three musicians recreating their work. Perhaps it is due to the high level of proficiency and skill they all attain as every instrumental seems to become more complex and the applause grow ever louder. The cover of 'Behind That Locked Door' by George Harrison ends the evening of musical ingenuity perfectly.

Second time that I watch a concert from Yo La Tengo, really amazing musicians that play for the love of playing and not just for the public. The first part of the concert was really calm while in the second part the rhythm was more energetic and vivacious: the group surprised us with a very beautiful and intense musical journey .

I suggest this concert to people that are looking for a concert were they want to appreciate the performance of three very good musicians. They tends not to replicate in an exact way their songs but each time they give a new interpretation.

Yo La Tengo were every bit as good as I hoped. I liked the relative delicacy of the first half and then the very different, more anarchic sound of the second half. Overall it was great but I personally would have liked more quieter songs in total.

Georgia is amazing - so efficient in driving the band forward and providing the platform for the guitars. She has a lovely voice too.

The venue was interesting but the advance warning/news about the gig should have included a warning that those with relatively skinny backsides would need to bring a cushion.

The review by garryw66 sums up the night. Not many other reviews actually mention the concert that night. Probably for good reason.

I found it lacklustre unfortunately and as they are such an amazing band I sincerely hope that this road that YLT are travelling along with the new album and live shows is just a tributary and that they rejoin the main road of their inventive and joyful music soon.

Just left the Stone Pony after a mesmerizing show! Yo La Tengo doesn’t disappoint! The playlist featured old and new ,.. loud and soft,... sweet melodies and screeching feedback. The music was- as always crisp and inspiring and built up to a riotous crescendo that rocked the audience producing palpable joy!! Watching/listening to these artists is a thoroughly inspiring experience- don’t miss it!

Mesmerizing show. They were SO smooth and groovy. The fact that Schramm was back for thrilling guitar solos was icing on the delectable cake. Pantages Theatre downtown Minneapolis had amazing acoustics. It was 26 years ago YLT last played in Minneapolis and my husband was there. I hope it doesn't take another quarter century to get them back to the Midwest. How about Sioux Falls, SD?

Yo La Tengo is an American treasure. Getting to see them in an intimate setting was a chance of a life time. My favorite part of the show was when they went into a heavy noise rock jam and the rich old people who didn't know what to expect starting covering their ears and shaking their heads. It was great. Thank you YLT for keeping it real and rocking the fuck out.

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Yo La Tengo is not due to play near your location currently - but they are scheduled to play 11 concerts across 3 countries in 2024-2025. View all concerts.

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Yo La Tengo Announce Summer 2023 North American Tour

In support of their latest album, This Stupid World

Yo La Tengo have unveiled a Summer 2023 tour in support of their latest album, This Stupid World .

Following a string of dates in the UK and Europe, the North American run kicks off on June 9th in Jersey City, New Jersey, and will make subsequent stops in Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, and DC before wrapping in Atlanta on June 28th. See Yo La Tengo’s full touring schedule below.

Tickets for the North American tour go on sale on Friday, April 14th at 10:00 a.m. local time via Ticketmaster . Once tickets are on sale, you can also find them at StubHub , where orders are 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s FanProtect program. StubHub is a secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand.

In March, Yo La Tengo members Ira Kaplan and James McNew performed in drag during a Nashville show in apparent protest of a recently passed Tennessee law banning drag shows in public. The band also recently stopped by Seattle’s KEXP for a four-song acoustic live session, which you can watch below.

Yo La Tengo 2023 Tour Dates: 04/12 – Manchester, UK @ New Century Hall 04/13 – Bristol, UK @ SWX 04/14 – London, UK @ The London Palladium 04/16 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique 04/18 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso 04/19 – Rotterdam, NL @ LantarenVenster 04/20 – Hamburg, DE @ Uebel & Gefaehrlich 04/21 – Copenhagen, DK @ Bremen Teater 04/23 – Cologne, DE @ Gloria Theatre 04/24 – Prague, CZ @ MEETFACTORY 04/25 – Berlin, DE @ Huxleys Neue Welt 04/27 – Paris, FR @ La Cigale 04/29 – Barcelona, ES @ Sala Apolo 04/30 – Murcia, ES @ WARM UP Festival 05/02 – Madrid, ES @ Warner Music the Music Station Príncipe Pío 05/03 – Bilbao, ES @ Santana 27 05/04 – Bordeaux, FR @ Rockschool Barbey 06/09 – Jersey City, NJ @ White Eagle Hall 06/10 – Washington, DC @ The Atlantis 06/13 – Portland, ME @ State Theatre 06/14 – South Deerfield, MA @ Summer Stage at Tree House Brewing Company Western Mass 06/15 – Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre 06/16 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre 06/18 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club 06/19 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club 06/21 – Homer, NY @ Center For the Arts 06/22 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre 06/23 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Bell’s Beer Garden 06/24 – Chicago, IL @ Metro 06/26 – Knoxville, TN @ Bijou Theatre 06/27 – Birmingham, AL @ Saturn 06/28 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse 07/28-07/30 – Yuzawa, JP @ Fuji Rock Festival 2023 08/12 – Oslo, NO @ Oya festival 08/16 – Paredes de Coura, PT @ Paredes de Coura festival 08/18 – Saint-Malo @ FR @ La Route du Rock

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O2 Academy Leeds | Leeds, UNITED KINGDOM

Latest setlist, yo la tengo on march 31, 2024.

This Stupid World

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Note: Part of: "United Musicians and Allied Workers presents: Living Wage for Musicians featuring Yo La Tengo, Slaughter Beach, Dog, Heems, The Ophelias, Christelle Bofale"; Yo La Tengo played an acoustic set.

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Published: 2021/12/24

Yo La Tengo Cancel New Year’s Show Shows

Yo La Tengo have cancelled their New Year’s Eve shows at New York’s City Winery. The trio were slated to perform both early and late sets at the Manhattan space on December 31. Though City Winery now requires fans to both be vaccinated and show a negative COVID for entry, the venue has posted, ” Due to rapidly changing circumstances the Yo La Tengo early & late shows scheduled for Friday, December 31st have been cancelled. As always, our number one priority is the safety and well-being of our guests, artists, and staff and we hope you will join us again at City Winery soon. Full refunds are available from the City Winery box office.”

Los Lobos also cut their City Winery run short due to concerns stemming from Omicron. Yo La Tengo recently concluded an eig ht-night Hanukkah run at New York’s Bowery Ballroom.

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Yo La Tengo Brings ‘This Stupid World’ to Brooklyn With Loud-Soft Set: Concert Review

By William Earl

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After nearly 40 years of playing together, the group’s musicianship is just as sharp, with McNew’s percussive basslines adding structure for Kaplan’s guitar and keyboard experimentation. Meanwhile, Hubley is one of rock’s great drummers, constantly experimenting with rhythms, textures and volume. One of the night’s defining sounds was the crack of her snare drum during tracks like “Breakdown,” cutting hard against Kaplan’s guitar.

With a third of the evening’s songs coming from “World,” it was clear the crowd held as much revereance for the new material as signature songs like “Autumn Sweater” and “Stockholm Syndrome” — no small feat for a band with an enormous back catalog.

Yet it seems silly to quibble with any decision Yo La Tengo makes: They’ve been creating their idiosyncratic music for longer than much of the crowd had been alive, so it’s probably best to trust them.

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Q&A: Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan on the challenge of playing 8 straight nights

Nearly every year since 2001, the band Yo La Tengo has lit up the menorah and taken the stage for eight nights of Hanukkah shows, with proceeds from each night going to a different charity. Founded in 1984, the band is one of the most beloved and long-running groups in rock, but these marathon shows have always offered fans something a little unique. 

Each night features the band, made up of Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley and James McNew, supported by surprise openers ranging from comedians to musical acts, as well as a litany of other special guests from Big Star’s Alex Chilton to the Sun Ra Arkestra . These shows are beloved by fans for their one-of-a-kind, one-time-only performances, and the annual scramble for tickets is nothing short of absolute chaos. As if the band hadn’t already created enough of a logistical nightmare for themselves, all of it is weighed with an additional challenge — no repeated songs for the entire run. 

WSN spoke to Kaplan about how the band manages to navigate the madness every year. It’s daunting to have a catalog so extensive that you have to research your own music to make the setlist, but that careful curation doesn’t scare the band away from plucking their fans or friends out of the crowd to join them — at times with little to no prior rehearsal. A healthy dose of last-minute planning and a “what’s the worst that could happen?” attitude seems to be key to keeping the whole thing running. 

Although the band has performed some of these songs hundreds of times, the loose and improvisatory nature of these shows imbues them with something new, year after year.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

WSN: I’d love to talk a little bit about the Hanukkah shows that are coming up. I’m wondering what you’re doing for preparation right now? 

Kaplan: Yeah, that’s what we’re doing right now — our planning gets later every year. Right now, we’re learning cover songs for our guests and even thinking about what we might want to do with them with our own stuff. There are probably some of our deeper album cuts we’ll need to refresh our memory on, but right now we’re thinking about covers, mostly.

WSN: You just came off a pretty long tour for the record “ This Stupid World ,” and now you’re about to go into those. What’s it looking like?

Kaplan: At this point, I tend to write the setlist, get James’ and Georgia’s input, and then rewrite it based on what they have to say. There are so many songs that I’ll look at lists of previous shows to remind myself of and see, oh, right, there’s that one. There’s like one we didn’t even do at the Hanukkah shows at all last year, so maybe we’ll pull that out.

WSN: You’ve said you were a big fan of the Grateful Dead — you guys covered “Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad” on the last tour. Is there any chance that their philosophy of digging back deep into their catalog, or throwing in unexpected covers, might have influenced you?

Kaplan: I don’t think that’s too far-fetched. Personally, back in high school, when I started to go to shows, I always wanted to see bands do different things. I would go see The Kinks any opportunity I had, even though their setlist was pretty static. When they would change something, it’d be really exciting. You never knew what they were going to pull out. That was definitely a huge part of the appeal.

WSN: That’s a big draw with the Hanukkah shows, for sure. There is also something to be said for a really static setlist with a couple rotating songs. I know people are going crazy for Bob Dylan’s tour right now — he’ll play the same songs for three years, switch one song, and it’s like headline news, but obviously you guys are kind of doing a 180 of that.

Kaplan: It’s funny, because Dylan used to be the other way. I mean, if you go back, I guess it’s quite a few years at this point, to where the setlist changed radically every night. Even when I wasn’t going to see him, I was always looking online to see what he played.

WSN: Is there anybody with whom you’ve performed with that you’ve been particularly excited about, or maybe even surprised that they said yes?

Kaplan: The thing that still seems impossible to believe happened was when we got The Strangeloves to reunite. Three guys who live in three different cities, who were barely a band in the first place, and then about 50 years later, got on stage with us. I mean, that’s just… we’ve got photos, so we know it happened, but otherwise, I wouldn’t be convinced… you know, maybe I dreamed it.

WSN: You don’t release any live recordings from the shows. Do you think it’s important that it’s purely an in-person, intimate experience for you?

Kaplan: If somebody ever came to us and said that they wanted to go through and listen to stuff, it just seems like it would be such a daunting task. I don’t know what the recordings sound like, but I’m sure that a lot of the audio recordings of some of the things that seemed amazing in the moment might not seem that amazing on a second listen. 

The thing we are against is webcast and live streaming, stuff like that. That, to me, is contrary to the experience of seeing it. All three of us are kind of maybe a little out of touch with today in that regard — the idea that it’s considered somewhat of an equivalent to stream something, as opposed to actually being there. In that sense, I would agree with the way you framed the question. But as far as a live record, if Georgia wants to do it, I’m all for it!

WSN: You’ve been playing some of these songs for 30 years at this point, but you seem to maintain an enthusiasm for playing some of these songs — especially what might be considered your classic songs — that a lot of other bands don’t seem to have. How do you keep it exciting to play these songs over and over?

Kaplan: I don’t know, maybe we’re lucky — I’m sure we’re lucky. In terms of these Hanukkah shows, not only are people willing to put up with these really wacky setlists, but so many people are looking forward to it! I mean, that’s a gift. To a certain extent, we’ve cultivated it — people aren’t demanding that we do “Stockholm Syndrome” every night. There’s not a tug of war going on, where we’re refusing and people are mad about it. 

I’m sure we would have a different audience if we were the kind of band that did play a more static set of songs. But at this point, those people who would have wanted that have figured out that that’s not what we’re going to do. If we don’t want to play a song, we don’t play it. We’re not doing it for any reason other than that we’re choosing to.

WSN: It’s certainly a special environment. I mean, even opposed to other shows I’ve seen you play you don’t really hear people screaming out requests from the audience. You do hear a weird amount of people heckling about the Mets, but I’m not really sure what to say about that.

Kaplan: Yeah, well, people want to be involved. [laughs]

WSN: I was wondering if you had any thoughts on what TikTok, or other social media, has been doing for some bands right now — particularly indie rock groups from a couple of decades ago. For example, suddenly bands like Duster and Acetone have these huge followings of 16-year-old kids. Do you have any thoughts about these records from 20 years ago coming up again?

Kaplan: You know, I really don’t — I’m so cut off from that world. I’m not surprised by what you say, but it’s not like I knew that. It just isn’t where my brain is.

It is remarkable to me that people keep discovering our band. We look out at the audience, we see a lot of people that are surprisingly young. It certainly makes it easier to do what we’re doing, when new people keep discovering you. As you get older, you don’t go out as much as you used to, so if we were just working from the same number of people who liked the band for a long time, you know that number is going to dwindle at your shows. And we’re very fortunate that it’s not like that.

Yo La Tengo’s annual Hanukkah shows will run from Dec. 7 to Dec. 14 at Bowery Ballroom.

Contact Holden Lay at [email protected] .

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Yo La Tengo Announce Tour and New Album This Stupid World , Share New Song “Fallout”: Listen

By Allison Hussey

Yo La Tengo have a new album on the way. It’s titled This Stupid World and it’s out February 10 via Matador . They’ve shared one song from the album, “ Fallout ,” and announced several tour dates in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe next year. Check out the tracklist for This Stupid World , along with “Fallout” and the band’s tour itinerary, below.

This Stupid World is the first new full-length from the band since 2020’s We Have Amnesia Sometimes . Between those two albums, Yo La Tengo have reissued 1995’s Electr-O-Pura and 1997’s I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One . The band released another EP in 2020 titled Sleepless Night and, earlier this year, joined David Byrne for a cover of Yoko Ono’s “ Who Has Seen the Wind .”

Coming up, in December, Yo La Tengo will play eight shows at New York’s Bowery Ballroom for their annual Hanukkah series. Find those dates below, too.

Read the Sunday review of I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One .

This Stupid World :

01 Sinatra Drive Breakdown 02 Fallout 03 Tonight’s Episode 04 Aselestine 05 Until It Happens 06 Apology Letter 07 Brain Capers 08 This Stupid World 09 Miles Away

Yo La Tengo:

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Concert review: yo la tengo.

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With Yo La Tengo, it’s all about the groove. It’s a stretch to say that they’re a “groovy” band, but if you’ve been to a Yo La Tengo show, you know what it looks like: when guitarist Ira Kaplan, drummer Georgia Hubley and bassist James McNew all dial into the same frequency and utilize the 30+ years they’ve spent making music together to play something in which you can lose yourself. Sometimes, it’ll be just a segment of a song, but most often, it’s a whole song, or even a whole stretch of songs, where their patient jamming and impeccable chemistry create a space capable of making every audience member — no matter how familiar they are with the band — feel like they’ve entered a sonic space designed just for them.

At some point in their third decade as a band — somewhere around the release of their 2013 album Fade — the Hoboken, NJ trio, largely stopped playing with openers. Instead, they used that time to play two sets: one of their quieter, more vibey material, and another of their louder, faster, heavier stuff. The music of Yo La Tengo has always held space for both of these ends of the spectrum, but this shift in the shows they play together allows each of them to exist without stepping on each other’s toes. Why try to force those two ends of the YLT Spectrum to play nice with each other, when they’d be better off allowing them to be their own separate experiences?

The Wonder Ballroom is a venue that Yo La Tengo have played enough now that their comfort on the stage is almost a given — this is their eighth time in the Northeast Portland mainstay, a streak that has only been interrupted by a single Revolution Hall performance (and, okay, a visit to Pickathon ‘16) since the aughts. All of this stat-mindedness is to say: the fact that they were completely on fucking fire shouldn’t be that surprising. Yet, it still is: this particular evening felt like the work of a band that had tapped into a night-long groove that made watching the trio completely intoxicating.

“It’s President Yo La Tengo Day!” joked Kaplan a few songs in, after thanking people for coming out on the federal holiday to see them play. It’s hard to tell when a group of soft-spoken strangers is having a great time, but many moments made them seem like they were in high spirits. Like when Kaplan shouted out Portland native/Tortoise drummer/Enjoy Your Life guest John McEntire on the hopes that he was in the building; or when he dedicated the encore cover of The Urinals’ “Black Hole” to Death Cab for Cutie for no other reason than that they’d had a great time opening for them at some shows in California. The highlight came when they each went around the stage and said what their first concerts were; McNew’s was The Pretenders, Hubley’s was The Raspberries, and Kaplan’s was Tim Buckley (“That’s the kinda man you’re dealing with!” he said, almost as though he didn’t understand how cool it is that he saw Tim Buckley live).

Having seen the band a solid eight times, it’s easy to say that Yo La Tengo are seemingly incapable of not putting on a good, or even great, show. But where did this show come from? Maybe it’s the fact that it was their second night at the Wonder. Maybe they were just in an especially good mood. Maybe it’s the fact that their week-and-change-old 17th album, This Stupid World , is the tightest work they’ve done since Fade . At one point, Kaplan joked that he’d gotten some heat the night before from an unnamed member of the band (my money is on McNew) for calling This Stupid World “our great new album” onstage, a slip-up that makes it seem like even he knows that they dialed into something special on the record. It’s hard to say, but even the old-heads in the audience took note: the pride of Hoboken was just crushing it.

Luckily for everyone, the songs of This Stupid World fit exceedingly well into both of the band’s sets — the four songs from the first set, especially openers “Sinatra Drive Breakdown” and “Tonight’s Episode” slot effortlessly into this side of the show alongside “Is That Enough” and an acoustic “Deeper Into Movies.” But the first real curveball came from “Demons,” a deep cut from the I Shot Andy Warhol soundtrack (and the rarities/B-sides collection Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo ), which set the tone for the remainder of the night in terms of quality and song reach. A few songs later, they’d treat us to a stunning quiet, acoustic version of “Big Day Coming,” and then in the second set they hit us with “Flying Lessons (Hot Chicken #1)” and May I Sing with Me ’s “Some Kinda Fatigue,” a song they’ve only played about a dozen times in the last 30 years. And yeah, “Shaker” has been played a lot live, but that wasn’t even on an actual album!

The true highlight came in the form of a one-two punch of a second closer, “We’re an American Band” from I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One and Electr-O-Pura ’s classic closer “Blue Line Swinger.” Was the former absolutely awesome? Oh, you bet it was — it was even more captivating in the flesh than it is on the album. If had it been anywhere else in the set, it would have been just pretty good. But when combined with “Blue Line Swinger,” it created a preamble for Yo La Tengo’s noisy mammoth of a song. The album version is just under 10 minutes, but they stretched it beyond the 15-minute mark, their unimpeachable thirst for slow-shifting squalls of guitar chaos blending in with their knack for feather-soft harmonies. As Kaplan tortured his guitar before seamlessly moving into the meat of the song, I noticed two completely unrelated people at the edge of the stage, their eyes wide with amazement, laughing and grinning from ear to ear. The look was unmistakable: they’d fallen deep into that groove. We all had.

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Yo La Tengo: New Century Hall, Manchester – live review

Yo La Tengo New Century Hall, Manchester April 12th 2023

An epic, two-set, catalogue-spanning show from the New Jersey trio reminds us to cherish this indie rock institution while we can.

“We’re playing some songs from our new album. It could be our fourth, it could be our 47th, I can’t remember.”

Ira Kaplan’s tongue is in cheek, but he could be forgiven for such a lapse in memory; it’d be reflective of the degree to which Yo La Tengo are part of the indie rock furniture. Next year, remarkably, they will celebrate 40 years since Kaplan and his wife, drummer Georgia Hubley, started out in Hoboken, New Jersey; in the decades since, they have fused art rock and noise pop with poise and constant invention, earning them the kind of diehard must fanbase that saw one journalist dub them “the quintessential critics’ band”. They are so beloved by rock geeks that satirical US newspaper The Onion once ran the headline: “37 Record-Store Clerks Feared Dead in Yo La Tengo Concert Disaster”.

They have a reputation for that kind of playfulness themselves, especially as a live band; long known for supporting themselves by playing two sets, they have, in the past, toured with a wheel-of-fortune that would be spun at the start of each show to decide what form the first set would take; it could have been anything from a run of tracks beginning with the letter ’s’, covers set from their alter-egos The Condo Fucks, or even the band acting out a classic sitcom episode. They even once, in 2002, faked a stage collapse while playing at The Onion’s Christmas party, in order to turn the gag back on the writers; incredibly, happening as it fits in with the pre-smartphone era, no photos or video of it exist.

All of which is to say that they are very much a purist band and it is no wonder then, that New Century Hall is packed out before the start of the first set of the evening. The general understanding of the two-set structure of a Yo La Tengo show is that the first is quiet and the second is loud, as was certainly true of their 2013 show across town at The Ritz, where they played acoustically first and electrically second. Tonight, though, a better distinction might be that the first set is impressionistic, experimental and that the second is rockist.

There’s a hint of what’s to come later in the squalling guitar work on opener Sinatra Drive Breakdown, the first track from their latest album, This Stupid World, which, to answer Kaplan’s earlier question, is their seventeenth. The opening set, though it draws from across their catalogue, is in the same tone as that album, which is as impressionistic and loose of form as anything the band have done in quite some time; Tonight’s Episode, led by bassist James McNew, is whirring, wonky alt-pop, while Until It Happens is Kaplan’s own take on off-kilter melody. Those cute, as well as the murky, atmospheric closer Miles Away are complemented by some suitably oddball choices from the back catalogue, like the similarly evocative Madeline and The Point of It, plucked from albums released over a decade apart but sharing the same sense of gentle melancholy.

By the time the band return for set two, they’re ready to give the volume dial a sharp clockwise spin, beginning with the ominous maelstrom of feedback of the new album’s title track and continuing with the classic, freewheeling likes of Stockholm Syndrome and Double Dare, and energetic new material, like the fizzing college rock of Fallout. Kaplan, a sort of conductor of avant-garde indie during the first set, is recast as a furious, flailing guitarist, and no more so than on an epic one-two to close the second half; first, a latter-day Yo La Tengo classic in the soaring, hypnotic Ohm, and then, twelve minutes that alone justify the price of admission, as they air one of their heaviest recorded moments, the epic, reverb-laden The Story of Yo La Tango. It is fast, furious and, for the last couple of minutes in particular, absolutely apocalyptically loud, the sort of thing that My Bloody Valentine might come up with if they were ever tempted to enjoy themselves.

It’s such an attack on the senses that the customary encore of covers feels like it might be about to be anti-climactic, but instead, it’s a moving affair evoking a number of ghosts of the past There’s a moving tribute to the lately departed Tom Verlaine in the form of the legendary New Yorker’s Breakin’ in My Heart, a haunting version of Sandy Denny’s By the Time It Gets Dark, and then a cover so beloved by Yo La Tengo fans that they’ve almost made it their own – a gorgeous, fragile rendition of Daniel Johnston’s Speeding Motorcycle, a track they’ve been playing here in Manchester as far back as a show at the now-closed Roadhouse in 1997.

This epic show, which sees the band onstage for more than two hours, encompasses every aspect of their enduring appeal, striking a delicate balance between the universal appeal of noisy guitars and the esotericism of their experiments. They feel as if they’ll be around forever, but the poignant playing of a Low track over the PA immediately before the show began was a reminder that nothing is permanent. We should celebrate this indie rock institution while we can.

Yo La Tengo can be found at their website  |  Facebook  |  Instagram

Words by  Joe Goggins : find him on Twitter  here .

Photo credit:  Helen Millington

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Crescent Ballroom PHX

Yo la tengo.

Time keeps moving and things keep changing, but that doesn’t mean we can't fight back. Yo La Tengo have raced time for nearly four decades and, to my ears, they just keep winning. The trio’s latest victory is called This Stupid World , a spellbinding set of reflective songs that resist the ever-ticking clock. This is music that’s not so much timeless as time-defiant. “I want to fall out of time,” Ira Kaplan sings in “Fallout.” “Reach back, unwind.”

Part of how Kaplan, Georgia Hubley, and James McNew escape time is by watching it pass, even accepting it when they must. “I see clearly how it ends / I see the moon rise as the sun descends,” they sing during opener “Sinatra Drive Breakdown.” In the séance-like "Until it Happens,” Kaplan plainly intones, “Prepare to die / Prepare yourself while there’s still time.” But This Stupid World is also filled with calls to reject time – bide it, ignore it, waste it. "Stay alive," he adds later in the same song. "Look away from the hands of time.”

Of course, times have changed for Yo La Tengo as much as they have for everyone else. In the past, the band has often worked with outside producers and mixers. Yo La Tengo made This Stupid World all by themselves, though. And their time-tested judgment is both sturdy enough to keep things to the band’s high standards, and nimble enough to make things new. 

Another new thing about This Stupid World : it’s the most live-sounding Yo La Tengo album in a while. At the base of nearly every track is the trio playing all at once, giving everything a right-now feel. Take the signature combination of hypnotic rhythm and spontaneous guitar on “Sinatra Drive Breakdown,” or the steady chug of “Tonight’s Episode,” a blinkered tunnel of forward-moving sound. There’s an immediacy to the music, as if the distance between the first pass and the final product has been made a touch more direct. 

The songs on This Stupid World were still journeys, though. An example is the absorbing, three-dimensional “Brain Capers.” To construct this swirl, the band blends guitar chords, bass loops, drum punches, and various iterations of Hubley and Kaplan's voices into shifting layers. Simpler but just as dense is closer “Miles Away." A dubby rhythm lurks below Hubley’s vocal, which brushes across the song like paint leaving bright blurs. Throughout the album, these touches, accents, and surprises intensify each piece. It’s a rarity – a raw-sounding record that gives you plenty of headphone-worthy detail to chew on.

This Stupid World gives your brain a lot to digest, too. All the battles with time drive toward some heavy conclusions. In the gripping “Aselestine,” Hubley sings about what sounds like a friend on death's door: “The clock won’t tick / I can’t predict / I can’t sell your books, though you asked me to.” In “Apology Letter,” time turns simple communication into something fraught and confusing: "The words / Derail on the way from me to you.” Not everything is so serious, though. The absurdist “Tonight’s Episode" helps McNew learn to milk cows, steal faces, and treat guacamole as a verb. And somehow Alice Cooper, Ray Davies, and Rick Moranis show up in “Brain Capers,” all telling us time isn’t finished yet.

So I guess everyone on This Stupid World grapples with how time keeps steamrolling and how we keep trying to do something about it. It’s there in the title, a weary but clear-eyed pejorative that suggests determined resignation, a will to fight despite the grim odds. It’s there in the title track too: “This stupid world – it’s killing me / This stupid world – is all we have.” Such realism leads to the resolute optimism of This Stupid World’ s parting shot, “Miles Away,” which sees time’s passage and life's impermanence as things to deal with rather than reasons to despair. “You feel alone / Friends are all gone," Hubley prays softly. "Keep wiping the dust from your eyes.”

Marc Masters

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