25 years ago, in 1990, Yo La Tengo released Fakebook, their 4th studio effort and an important moment for the alternative rock legendary act that has been known for its covers – there’s a Spotify playlist with all the songs that Yo La Tengo covered throughout the years and currently there are 248 songs listed! We’ve spoke with Ira Kaplan about the band’s newest album Stuff Like That There – an album mainly made up of covers and a continuation of Fakebook – and the reunion with guitarist Dave Schramm.
Stuff Like That There is being released 25 years after the release of Fakebook. I’m curious to know where these two experiences are similar and where they differ.
Well, the biggest difference is that this record was done on purpose. Fakebook was almost an accidental record. Georgia [Hubley, vocalist] and I didn’t have a bass player anymore so we kind of had this repertoire of songs that we would sing together at radio stations and record stores and we thought, “Why don’t we call up Dave [Schramm] and see if wants to play?” Dave had his bass with him, played bass on it. We would practice in our living room and it just kind of grew almost before we knew it. We didn’t intent to write… I think we only had a couple of original songs but Gene Holder [producer] would say, “Do you have another one?” and before we knew it we’ve made Fakebook. And this time we thought about getting back together with Dave and James [McNew] volunteered to learn how to play upright bass and… We just wanted to see what would happen doing it again. I think that’s the big difference. And the thing that is the same is the fact that is really fun. I love singing with Georgia, I love playing with Dave. That hasn’t changed.
I’m guessing that is different for you guys since this is not what you normally do when you record an album. It’s almost like you’re driving using a different gear.
Yeah. In fact that has been one the things that has been really fun. We have barely played for other people – we did a radio show and played a few shows but mostly it has been just practicing. Even though we played quietly all the time and James and I, we would both play acoustic guitars… it’s been interesting that is not even like doing that. When Dave is in there, when the upright bass is in there, it does give it something of an unique feeling. So, it’s more different from other things we do, even more than we thought it was going to be.
Fakebook is YLT’s fourth studio album. Can you pinpoint the effect that that record had on Yo La Tengo?
It was definitely our most successful record at the time. I mean, that happen a lot. Our group has never been massively successful and we’ve never really… Especially for the first seven or maybe eight records. Every record was a little bit more popular than the one before. Fakebook was more of a jump. I think that record got more attention and then we did a very high-profile tour opening for The Sundays, so with that record there were more people who knew we were.
It basically increased the platform for Yo La Tengo.
Yeah, people knew who we were. It wasn’t… [pause] The reason that I’m hesitating is because it only represented one side of what we liked to do. It also confused people when we did the other thing. [laughs] I mean, there was a story that I remember of playing an electric show – just a few weeks after we did our show opening for The Sundays… We had played at CBGB’s big fuzz box extravaganza and at the end of it there was a woman looking extremely confused at me, just kind of staring at me to the point that I was, “Can I help you?”, and she finally said, “Did you open for The Sundays two weeks ago?” [laughs] So, it, like most things, created opportunities but also created a couple of other things a little trickier. But overall it was great for us.
You’ve covered more than 200 songs over the last 30 years. Was the process of choosing which song to cover for this record any different from the process that you usually go under?
Not really. The only big difference was that we knew we had to find them. With covers is usually something like, “Oh, that would be fun. Let’s do that.” But if we don’t have a cover in mind it’s not like we have to cancel the recording session until we come up with some cover songs. So, in that sense it was difference. But choosing was kind of the same. We started with things we had played over the years that we thought we might wanted to record and then once we had the record and started rehearsing… I’m not sure we had rehearsed with Dave yet. James, Georgia and I, we were rehearsing on our own. It just kind of started, “Oh, we should try that,” and then you’d go home from practice with the sound of us playing in mind, which would kind of change the way you were thinking, and come back for practicing or send an email, “Let’s learn this song.” There’s quite a few songs on the record that we have never played before we started rehearsing in this album.
You decided to rework three previously released tracks from your back catalogue. Were you trying to create a bridge between Yo La Tengo songs and the songs that you cover in this record, which I assume are influences in one way or another?
I wouldn’t say so. I think it’s one of the reasons we like… It’s one of the opportunities of playing shows, like you do songs in a different order and they sound different because you’ve played them in a different spot. When you open with a song it kinds of gives it a different slam than when you do it in the middle or do it as an encore… and playing songs in different arrangements brings out different aspects of the songs. I think that just happened and it’s one of things that make continuing to play live and continuing to make records exciting. It’s not like the goal of it. I think it just can’t help but happen.
“It’s not like we set out to do something different this time but we like doing lot of different things and so different things keep coming up, and they’re always different enough from each other for us to find new doors opening or new ways of thinking.”
Did you ever consider the possibility of re-imagining or re-work an entire album?
Not really. That conversation has actually occurred but I don’t think anyone… I think more as something to talk about not something that would really happen.
Dave Schramm has a strong presence in this latest album and he will tour with you guys. Why did you decide to work with him again and how was it like?
We made the decision that we wanted to do like a sequel to Fakebook. That meant playing with him. If he hadn’t wanted to do it, if he hadn’t been available to do it, then I don’t think we would have done it. Working and playing with him again was great. As I was saying, we played a session on WFMU last Sunday and it was very informal. James played his bass, Georgia didn’t play at all, and me and Dave, we played acoustic guitars. So, it was very quiet in the room and I was sitting next to Dave and just listening to him play – this happens when we’re practicing too… sometimes I just have to laugh at how good he is. [laughs] The things is coming up with are so beautiful.
You on acoustic guitar, Georgia up-front on a small kit, and James on upright bass. What does this incarnation of Yo La Tengo brings to the table that the other does not?
I think I’m just going to answer that with like: we’ll see… or, you’ll see. [laughs] We’re in the process of discovering that and I think we’re continuing to discover. It’s one of the things that is fun and interesting about it. We’ve practiced, we’ve been learning more songs so that we could play shows the way we wanted to play them, not having to play the same twenty songs every night. And it is really interesting to like pull out, and try all these different things. Just hearing… You know, we’re kind of forming a new group in a way and so it’s been very interesting and exciting.
I think we can say that this a different experience from you. Even though it is a sequel the truth is that 25 years is a long time and Yo La Tengo and its members have changed since then.
I would say so. In 1990, that was really the first time Georgia ever… not ever, but she started singing for people repeatedly whereas before she wouldn’t do that, as I said, in record stores or in a radio station. So, it was very different the idea of Georgia becoming like one of the singers was kind of like a new experience and now it’s now. That changes… You’re right, all the experiences we’ve had change this experience. But I was going also say that in some… when Fakebook came out we were playing two different sets live in kind of different equipment. We would do a quiet set and Georgia would have a small drum set, a different keyboard arrangement… It was still just the three of us but even that – changing the approach to playing live that would be specifically quiet for the first half and specifically loud for the second half – felt, at times, like a different group. It’s not like we set out to do something different this time but we like doing lot of different things and so different things keep coming up, and they’re always different enough from each other for us to find new doors opening or new ways of thinking.
Did the fact of Georgia’s singing being so important and central to this record made the process with the arrangements more challenging or at least different from what you’re used to?
Only that she had more lyrics to learn. [laughs] I think without really talking about it… I don’t remember if it came up in conversation, but I think everybody had the idea that she would sing more than ever on this record. This record she probably sings more than I do, which had never happen in one of our records. And I think that either consciously, or unconsciously, we were looking at this format and this record as an opportunity to put more of the spotlight on her.
It’s kind of an obvious one but I’m curious what made you choose “Friday I’m In Love” by The Cure.
Some of the songs we have done over the years and some we learn for this record. And then there were songs kind of in the middle where maybe we had played them once or twice. “Friday I’m In Love” was one of those. We did it at a show… I don’t know, like fifteen years ago, or something, and then never played it again. That was sort of enough. And then we were doing a show, we were on a radio in London – we do this thing every year for WFMU where we try to raise money for the station and people who donate money for the station can make a request and we try to play it. So we just tried to play songs without practicing them. [laughs] I mean, we practice them for like one minute and then we try to play it. People frequently encourage us to that in other venues and we don’t want to do it in other venues, but we let ourselves get talked into doing it on this radio station in London and one of the requests was for “Friday I’m In Love”. We didn’t remember it from then, but we knew it a little because we had played it once a couple of years earlier, and it was very low key. We played it quietly and just the quality of Georgia’s singing on that stuck on my mind… I don’t know to what extent James and Georgia remember that experience. So it was just something I wanted to try. But it all started with the sound of her voice.