Yo La Tengo is an American indie rock band based in Hoboken, New Jersey. With more than 15 albums released since 1984, they have demonstrated unusual longevity for the indie-rock scene. They are frequently regarded as one of the definitive indie rock groups of the 1990s. Though Yo La Tengo has achieved limited mainstream success, the band has become a critical favorite with a devoted fan base.
The band’s name comes from a baseball anecdote.
During the 1962 season, New York Mets center fielder Richie Ashburn and Venezuelan shortstop Elio Chacón found themselves colliding in the outfield. When Ashburn went for a catch, he would scream, "I got it! I got it!" only to run into the 160-pound Chacón, who spoke only Spanish.
Ashburn learned to yell, "¡Yo la tengo! ¡Yo la tengo!" which is "I have 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 (90.7 kilograms) left fielder Frank Thomas, who understood no Spanish and had missed a team meeting that proposed using the words "¡Yo la tengo! as a way to avoid outfield collisions.
After getting up, Thomas asked Ashburn, "What the heck is a Yellow Tango?".
The band wanted a name that sounded foreign in order to avoid any connotations in English. Kaplan is also a devoted baseball fan. However, it still irks the band when they are asked the origin of the name. 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. A track on I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass is called "The Story of Yo La Tango" in apparent reference to an all-too-frequent misspelling of the band’s name.
Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley, a husband/wife duo, formed the band in 1984. They went through several other band members before stabilizing with lead guitarist Dave Schramm and bass player Mike Lewis (founding bass player of Boston garage-punk mainstays DMZ and 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 Stephan 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. Wichnewski left the band after this.
1990 saw the release of Fakebook, an album of mostly acoustic tunes, including covers from Cat Stevens, Gene Clark, The Kinks, Daniel Johnston, among others, 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 relationship 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 the station’s annual fundraising marathon, performing (with guitarist Bruce Bennett of Norton Records The A-Bones, and occasional additional guests like Hamish Kilgour of New Zealand’s The Clean and Pacific Northwest folk-punk chanteuse 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 titled 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 Painlevé, entitled The Sounds of the Sounds of Science. Yo La Tengo also provided the soundtracks for the films Junebug, Game 6, Shortbus, as well as Kelly Reichardt’s award-winning 2006 feature film Old Joy. Three songs from May I Sing With Me ("Always Something", "Sleeping Pill" and "Some Kinda Fatigue") were featured on the soundtrack to American indie filmmaker Hal Hartley’s 1992 movie Simple Men. Their song "Tears Are In Your Eyes" was also in the "Family" episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The track ‘Autumn Sweater’ off I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One was in an episode of the third season of 24.
The group collaborated with Yoko Ono as well on the 2003 album Wig in a Box, Songs From and Inspired by Hedwig and the Angry Inch, made as a charity album to support the Harvey Milk High School.March 2005 saw the group release a 2-disc greatest hits package, entitled Prisoners of Love. A bonus edition included a 3rd disc of rarities and unreleased tracks. Perhaps the most confusing band name tour EVER occurred in 2005, when Tempe, Arizona’s "No Tengo El Oso Negro Desko" toured with "Yo La Tengo" in support of their "split-single" release – "Riki Tiki Tembo – Live at Budokan".
The album I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass followed in September 2006.
In 2007, Yo La Tengo’s covers of the Bob Dylan songs "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and "Fourth Time Around" were released on the 2-CD/4-LP soundtrack album for I’m Not There.