It's not often that someone on the NPR Music team gets to see his or her favorite band perform a Tiny Desk Concert. After all, you can only have one favorite band, and NPR Music supports a staff of about 20; that means that, of the 250-plus Tiny Desk Concerts we've produced, fewer than 10 percent could possibly have qualified for favorite-band status.
All of which is to say that my favorite band, , actually played a Tiny Desk Concert. For those who aren't familiar with the Hoboken trio, Yo La Tengo's members — guitarist Ira Kaplan, drummer Georgia Hubley and bassist James McNew — have been doing their own thing (which, granted, can sometimes sound like ) for more than 20 years. The band epitomizes, sheepishly, why so many were drawn to indie rock in the 1990s: the casual resolve to be yourself and let everything else sort itself out.
The Yo La Tengo sound has evolved quite a bit since Hubley and Kaplan first jammed together in 1984; the feedback has subsided as they've grown older, replaced by a more contemplative vibe. The release of the band's 13th album, Fade, earlier this year marked a natural time to invite Yo La Tengo behind Bob Boilen's desk for an acoustic set.
Set List
Credits
Producer: Otis Hart; Editor: Denise DeBelius; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Lizzie Chen, Denise DeBelius, Gabriella Garcia-Pardo; photo by Marie McGrory/NPR
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