 Book
Review:
Big Day Coming:
Yo La Tengo & the Rise of Indie Rock
by Jesse Jarnow (Gotham Books)
by Jim Testa
When music journalist Jesse Jarnow (a casual acquaintance
whose work I read occassionally in the Village Voice), asked
to interview me for a book he was writing about Yo La Tengo,
I readily agreed. I love telling stories about the good old
days, but honestly, I wondered how the hell he’d get
a whole book out of Yo La Tengo. True, the band’s been
around since the mid-Eighties, released over a dozen albums,
traveled the world, and has lots of interesting friends. But
was there a story there? All the usual juicy parts of a rock
bio – The drugs! The sex! The meteoric rise up the charts!
The ruinous major-label doublecross! The subsequent plunge
to ignominy and rehab! None of those things happened here.
So what Jarnow does is tell the story of Ira Kaplan and Georgia
Hubley, a pair of diehard rock fans who met, fell in love,
went to a lot of their friends’ shows, and then decided
one day to join in on the fun and start a band of their own.
There’s very little drama in any of it, but oh so much
history. It’s the second half of the book’s title
– “…and the rise of indie rock” –
that makes Big Day Coming so compelling. This isn’t
just the story of what happened in the lives of Ira and Georgia,
but all that happened around them, as their little pop dream
somehow navigated its way through the music industry of the
halcyon Eighties, the booming Nineties, and the-party’s-over
00’s.
Caveat emptor: Jesse Jarnow did interview me, and I turn up
as either a minor character in the narrative or a quotable
source throughout the book. In a way, that colors my objectivity.
On the other hand, since I was there, I have a unique perspective
on the story that Jarnow tells, and can vouch for the fact
that he pretty much nails the details t just as I remember
them.
Plus there’s a world of knowledge in this book that
I was never privy to.
Jesse Jarnow
Photo by Ted Barron
For instance, I knew that Georgia’s
parents were filmmakers, specifically animators; I did not
know that her dad invented the character of Mr. Magoo, or
came up with the hugely successful “I want my Maypo”
TV commercials while working in advertising.
Yes, Big Day Coming is the story of Yo La Tengo,
from the revolving-door who’s who cast of indie musicians
who played with Ira and Georgia in the band’s early
years to the saga of how they eventually recruited bassist-for-life
James McNew. Jarnow goes into fastidious detail about how
each album, EP, and single was written and recorded, how
the release of each was negotiated with all the different
labels involved. And through it all, you get a sense of
how the music changed over the years, as Ira’s increasing
musical prowess and Georgia’s growing confidence as
both a drummer and vocalist allowed Yo La Tengo to perpetually
tweak, expand, and experiment with its songwriting and performances.
Really, though, my favorite parts of the book are Jarnow’s
historical asides; as, for instance, when he details life
in 19th Century Hoboken and the port city’s role in
the birth of baseball. Or how a clique of editors at New
York Rocker magazine helped birth the Mile Square City’s
nascent music scene. Jarnow also reveals previously unreported
details of how Steve Fallon and his family bought, fought
to keep, and eventually chose to sell Maxwell’s. You’ll
also meet fanzine editors, booking agents, record store
owners, and dozens of musicians who played a role in Yo
La Tengo’s career, and learn a little something about
all of them.
Ironically, the most impenetrable subjects in the biography
remain Ira, Georgia, and James. Yes, Jesse Jarnow will tell
you the names of Georgia’s cats or the address of
the parking lot where James earned his first paycheck. But
those are only details. You’ve probably already forgotten
more juicy stuff about the private lives of any five or
six Kardashians than anyone will ever really know about
Yo La Tengo.
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