Early in 2013, Hoboken NJ’s seemingly inexhaustible indie-rock titans Yo La Tengo will return with their thirteenth studio album, and the band’s current EP Stupid Things provides a taste of what’s in store. Three versions of the same tune might infer a record containing mainly completist appeal, but there is plenty of diversity on offer here, and when matched with another terrific plunge into the heart of the band’s well defined sound, it all translates into an extremely worthy listen.
Yo La Tengo were initially thought of by this observer as a critic’s band. Let me restate that; they were considered by yours truly as a band featuring a music critic in its lineup. While as a rock writer, Ira Kaplan was never accurately described as famous, he was certainly notable, for in addition to his scribing for New York Rocker and The Village Voice, it’s his liner notes that figure on the back cover of the ROIR self-titled Bad Brains release, an essential LP if there ever was one. So, if not as well known as critic-musicians Lester Bangs and R. Meltzer, he was working in the same tradition, at least somewhat.
I add that qualifier because as much as I enjoy Bangs’ work with the Delinquents and Birdland, or Meltzer’s participation in the proto-Angry Samoan group Vom, those instances were essentially but blips on the radar screen of punkish lore along with being modest chapters in the stories of those two heavyweight writers. The fact that Lester never managed a follow-up LP with either group fits his legendary rep like a knee high tube sock, and the antagonistic snot of Vom, like so much of Meltzer’s storied career, was truly built for brevity.
