The Zimmermann Note

I think that if there was ever an award given out to a band based on their credibility, Yo La Tengo would be your band. Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley have been there since the start and after the band had gone through several members before that, the sound truly began to gel, after James McNew had joined the band since 1992’s May I Sing With Me.

For a band that has almost been in existence for 30 years, they are the only band that I am aware of that does not have a crappy release. I do have to say that I have a preference for their material since McNew joined the band, as I think that the combination has offered something sublime. There exists, quite possibly an aura over their music, or maybe it is over me when I listen to them. They seem to have the similar problem that the Feelies have is that they spent way too much time in their parents basement as kids and so they capture a fairly endearing quality.

Also, you cannot claim that this band has sold out and now that Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon have separated, Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley have become the official first couple of bands.

‘I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One’ is the definitive career album for Yo La Tengo, the moment where they have a perfect blend of rock, pop, shoegaze and noise. For me, Yo La Tengo have always had an urban feel to their music, the backgroud of the smoke-filled room, they have always created an ambiance in their music. I want to turn on lava lamps and drive boulevards lined with neon signs. The music feels fresh, with all of three of them sharing the lead vocals on some tracks.

We also see that this is a culmination that occurs between McNew signing and them starting to feel like a band with a distinct sound. While I think there are moments on both Painful and Electr-O-Pura that feel a bit more jazzy and not as garage rock-ish, it comes together on I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One.

There are some very quirky moments like ‘Stockholm Syndrome’, with McNew on vocals, which sounds more like a folksy tribute to Neil Young than an album featuring Shoegaze and Noise.

The band still keeps it real by showing their passion for their favorite tracks, taking the Beach Boys’ ‘Little Honda’, and adding a little Jesus and Mary Chain to make it their own.

Songs like ‘Autumn Sweater’ feels like it should be 40 degrees and chilly. However, it is not just the ambiance but the method at which every song feeds off each other. By the time you get to the psychedelic ‘Spec Behop’, an epic 10+ minute song that takes a page from Spaceman 3. Every song is perfectly placed and by the time you get to the final track Georgia Hubley is doing her best “Moe Tucker” impersonation with ‘My Little Corner of the World’, the second cover song on the album.

I admit to the fact of being a seasonal listener or should I say, having the appreciation of music that seems to prefer cold weather, and generally, here in Chicago, our colder months outlast our warm ones so it just so happens that Hawaiian music is just not going to be all that attractive. But there is something about the warmth that this music possesses. Maybe it’s just that the voices are so warm. Sweeter than a drop of blood from a sugarcube.