Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Yo La Tengo

My wife is a practical Midwesterner and doesn’t have a lot of patience for songs that go on for more than three minutes. If we’re playing a CD in the car and a guitar solo stretches on for more than eight bars, she’ll hit the skip button. She doesn’t mind if a song gets noisy or weird, so long as it’s over quickly. One of her favorites is Guided By Voices, that band of Midwesterners who indulged their every drunken whim but were polite enough to end each song before it repeated itself.

Yo La Tengo, on the other hand, presents problems. She loves Fakebook, the band’s (mostly) covers album, and she likes sweet, pop-ish original songs such as “Sugarcube” and “Hey Mr. Tough.” But when we last saw Yo La Tengo together a few years ago, she got antsy whenever one of Ira Kaplan’s skronky guitar solos stretched on for a while, or when Kaplan, Georgia Hubley, and James McNew locked into a krautrock- or Sun Ra–inspired groove and held it until time seemed to stand still.

Sponsored
Sponsored

She’s got a point: Yo La Tengo gets more than a little self-indulgent at times. The new album, Popular Songs, ends with a suite of three songs with a combined running time of more than 36 minutes — much of it with no vocals, no drum beats, and only minimal guitar and bass.

But I like that side of Yo La Tengo almost as much as I like the “Sugarcube” side. And to me, the remarkable thing is that Yo La Tengo has mastered these two seemingly incongruous styles, and many more. If you don’t like one song, just wait a minute — or 36. You’ll like the next one.

YO LA TENGO: Soma, Friday, October 16, 7 p.m. 858-226-7663. $20.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Flowering pear trees in Kensington not that nice

Empty dirt plots in front of Ken Cinema

My wife is a practical Midwesterner and doesn’t have a lot of patience for songs that go on for more than three minutes. If we’re playing a CD in the car and a guitar solo stretches on for more than eight bars, she’ll hit the skip button. She doesn’t mind if a song gets noisy or weird, so long as it’s over quickly. One of her favorites is Guided By Voices, that band of Midwesterners who indulged their every drunken whim but were polite enough to end each song before it repeated itself.

Yo La Tengo, on the other hand, presents problems. She loves Fakebook, the band’s (mostly) covers album, and she likes sweet, pop-ish original songs such as “Sugarcube” and “Hey Mr. Tough.” But when we last saw Yo La Tengo together a few years ago, she got antsy whenever one of Ira Kaplan’s skronky guitar solos stretched on for a while, or when Kaplan, Georgia Hubley, and James McNew locked into a krautrock- or Sun Ra–inspired groove and held it until time seemed to stand still.

Sponsored
Sponsored

She’s got a point: Yo La Tengo gets more than a little self-indulgent at times. The new album, Popular Songs, ends with a suite of three songs with a combined running time of more than 36 minutes — much of it with no vocals, no drum beats, and only minimal guitar and bass.

But I like that side of Yo La Tengo almost as much as I like the “Sugarcube” side. And to me, the remarkable thing is that Yo La Tengo has mastered these two seemingly incongruous styles, and many more. If you don’t like one song, just wait a minute — or 36. You’ll like the next one.

YO LA TENGO: Soma, Friday, October 16, 7 p.m. 858-226-7663. $20.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Flowering pear trees in Kensington not that nice

Empty dirt plots in front of Ken Cinema
Next Article

OSHA rules wall falls our fault

Who, U.S.?
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.