Yo La Tengo’s model career: This is how to survive as an indie rock band — salon.com

Eternal indie rockers Yo La Tengo celebrate their 30th anniversary this week with a reissue of their game-changing 1993 album “Painful.” Most bands don’t celebrate such a milestone year with a reissue of a recording from nine years after their birth, but Yo La Tengo didn’t make it to 30 by following the usual script. The band launched on December 2, 1984, opening for Antietam at the legendary Maxwell’s in Hoboken, where they would continue to play holiday shows every Hanukkah for years. “Painful” might not be their first record, but—and don’t take my word for it—it was their first best record. According to co-founder, guitarist and vocalist Ira Kaplan, “anyone who ever said they liked our older records more than ‘Painful’, I just told them they’re wrong.”

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