The Little Band That Could
Where to begin? I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One finds
the Hoboken, NJ-based trio of James McNew (bass, vocals), Georgia Hubley
(drums, synths, vocals) and Ira Kaplan (guitar, synths, vocals) in
alternatingly meditative and ultra- rockin' moods, fashioning agreeable
sounds that are simultaneously beautiful and gnarly -- and incomparably
smart. Never retro, nearly uncategorical, yet genre/stylistically all
over the map, totally mixing and matching stuff from one rock template
with another, Yo La Tengo's ninth album in twelve years is hands-down
their best effort to date.
This is what Keith Richards must feel like after one of his blood
transfusions--overcome with vigorous energy, but tempered by a hard-won
worldliness. He might be totally ready to rock like a kid in a garage,
but he also knows some of the things one can only know from being a
dedicated student of music history for multiple decades. Yo La Tengo's
Ira Kaplan is also well-known as a connoisseur of cool stuff. He wrote
for the excellent New York Rocker in the late seventies/early
eighties, and is super knowledgeable about lots of music, from
free jazz to psychedelia to post-punk to folk-rock to early instrumental
combos to space-synth weirdness.
But just because your palate is refined don't mean you're gonna be able
to cook when you
get behind the
stove. Precursors do exist for the well-developed split personality of
rock critic/rocker -- Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye and Peter Laughner come to
mind (though Laughner might be disqualified for straightfacedly
Dylan-ing the lines "Sylvia Plath/ Was never too good at math/ Though
they tell me she graduated/ At the head of her class"). And so does Ira
Kaplan. From the very start (sticking a punky rendition of Love's
"A House Is Not A Motel" on the b-side of the country-folk flavored "River
Of Water" on their first, self-released 7" in 1985), this group wore
their rock knowledge on their sleeves. They were favorites of college
kids and rock cognoscenti of all ages, and you went to their shows
wondering what cool obscure cover would be next, thoroughly energized by
the band's ability to reap new fruit from fields first sown by the
Kinks, Modern Lovers, Gram Parsons and the Velvet Underground. But they
were never a cover band; they just used those pre-existing great songs
as a protective covering.
I'm mesmerized by the ease with which Yo La can switch gears from the seemingly
incompatible genres of country-rock, bossa nova, folk, pure pop, noise-rock,
beach blanket
bingo, and space-mantra, and the fluidity of the segues on I Can Hear
The Heart
Beating As One. The way the
opening one and a half minutes -- the melodic, twangy, atmospheric
desert soundscape of "Return To Hot Chicken" (the title is sort of a
reference to the Flying Burrito Brothers, and probably an in-joke from
a
cross-country tour) -- slides right into the delicious track "Moby
Octapad," with its catchy, walking bassline and hepcat, mid-tempo human
breakbeat which is soon covered with a light mist of feedback and weird
sound effects (hey, that horn sound is the same one the Who used on
The Who Sell Out), the words leisurely sung by all three members
in turn. I'm in love with the way the melodies intertwine, the
reference-heavy lines ("Cease To Exist" was the title of that Beach Boys
song co-written with Charles Manson) underscored and supported by the
cool, California breeze of rock & roll building-block
bah-bah-dee-bahhhh's. In the middle of the song, an angular piano line
jump-starts the tune back to its rockist, healthy, all-too-brief life.
The album is filled with brilliant songs and sounds, from the languid
synth-pop of "Autumn Sweater" to the revved-up, meth-aggro assault of
"Spec Bebop," and just two, cute little cover songs. This is such an
energizing record. When Ira sings "I'm feeling like a kid again" on
"Damage," I most enthusiastically concur. Even I Can Feel The Heart
Beating As One's most moody, contmplative moments are suffused with
pure melodies and subtle invention, the product of active minds pumped
with the eternal teenage sounds of rock music. Yo La Tengo aren't out to
re-invent the wheel, but when they stick those hand-crafted
silver-plated hubcaps on, it sure looks a lot prettier, doesn't it?