Shaker

Thirty-three years ago today, Matador Records released Shaker by Yo La Tengo. August 24, 1993. The album it came from did not arrive until October. Painful was still six weeks away. Shaker arrived first. Three and a half minutes of haze and measured dissonance. Ira Kaplan’s voice barely above the level of the guitars. Georgia Hubley’s drums pulled back and patient. Everything quiet but nothing quite still. It did not announce itself. It simply arrived.

Yo La Tengo formed in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1984. Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley are the founding members and are married. Kaplan plays guitar. Hubley plays drums. Both sing. James McNew joined on bass in 1992 and completed the lineup that would make Painful. Before that record they had released five albums. Respected in small circles. Credible and underheard. Painful was their debut on Matador Records and the first full album with McNew. Produced by Fred Brockman and Roger Moutenot at Water Music in Hoboken. AllMusic would later call it their first masterpiece. Kaplan said the band they became is traceable to that record more than any that came before it.

Painful arrived in a moment when indie rock was being redefined. Shoegaze, noise, and intimacy all competing for space. Yo La Tengo found a way to hold all of it at once. The album moved from noise jams to hazy ballads to drone experiments without sounding scattered. Shaker is one of the ballads. A song that moves slowly without stalling. The kind of song that rewards a patient listener. The band that released it is still active. Still making records. Still on Matador. Thirty-three years later, it sounds like the beginning of something that has not finished yet.