ARTIST OF THE WEEK #2 YO LA TENGO playing Thursday

Copied from one of our Discord users! Background: Starting in 1984, the husband-wife duo of Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley - with longtime bassist James McNew joining eight years in on May I Sing With Me - have made ever-changing guitar-based rock that feels like it was designed to fit you like a glove. Every album sounds the same, and every album sounds different: from the nocturnalia of Painful and (arguably their masterwork) And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out to the eclecticism of I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One and I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, you never know what you're going to get. Sometimes they're a throwback pop band, sometimes they're an ambient instrumental act, and sometimes they're a noise-indebted psych-rock menace.

You can also find them soundtracking films like Adventureland and Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy, or performing at the Bowery Ballroom every Hanukkah, where they play eight nights of guest-filled shows that, more often than not, only repeat a small handful of hits.

Sounds like: The Who, the Beach Boys, Neil Young, Can, Dinosaur Jr., Sun Ra Arkestra, Built to Spill, and a ton of other rock bands under the sun. They're the greatest chameleon act on Matador Records, where they have been mainstays since their 1993 breakthrough record Painful.

Similar To: The band that you imagine in your head when you learn that Pitchfork once described Yo La Tengo as "the greatest indie rock band in the universe. They're every record clerk's favorite band - and every record clerk aspires to one day have a relationship as creatively fruitful as Ira and Georgia's.

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