To paraphrase the introduction at the beginning of each episode of Brian Fellow's Safari Planet on Saturday Night Live: "CoolDad is not a trained music journalist, nor does he hold an advanced degree in any of the media arts. He is simply an enthusiastic middle-aged man with a masters degree in economics and an abiding love for popular music."
Placed up against the encyclopedic knowledge of the members of Yo La Tengo or their biographer Jesse Jarnow, my personal level of indie music knowledge should disqualify me from ever writing another word about it. One outcome of reading Mr. Jarnow's book for me, therefore, has been to add to my reading / listening list many of the selections in Big Day Coming's bibliography. Jarnow's knowledge, research, and attention to detail help take what could be a relatively narrow subject and expand it to show the part that New Jersey, and Hoboken in particular, have played in the development of the musical genre we now describe with the catchall term "indie."
Yo La Tengo have meant a lot to me over the years. Part of their appeal for me, I think, has been their low key public persona and their "normalness." Understandably, this makes for probably the tamest rock biography ever written. Anecdotes range from the band's annoyance with the constant misspelling of their name to singer/guitarist Ira Kaplan's losing his wallet in the snow upon jumping out of the car. While this may not make for a voyeuristic page-turner, the story of Yo La Tengo and their steady persistence over nearly 30 years is inspiring on a certain level.
Jarnow points out that, at any given point in time, Yo La Tengo could be a cover band, a folk duo, a power pop trio, or a shoegaze noise machine. Kaplan is usually the guitarist; spouse Georgia Hubley is usually the drummer; James McNew is usually the bassist. But they may change that around at any time. Basically, Yo La Tengo are a group of people who have been able to make a living doing what they love pretty much the way they want to do it for almost three decades.
In order to provide some context for his main subject, Jarnow also chronicles the development of indie rock. He discusses the elements that were present in Hoboken (and Minneapolis and Athens, etc.) that made the development of a scene possible: a low cost of living, a college radio station in nearby WFMU, and a homebase in the form of Maxwell's. In addition to individual biographies of each member of Yo La Tengo, Jarnow covers fanzine culture, the history of the important Matador records, the effects of the Internet, MP3's, and indie taste-making sites like Pitchfork.
Jarnow does sound (justifiably) wary of the developments in the world of indie rock over the past decade: NPR's purchasing of much former independent college radio bandwidth, blog culture, coporate sponsorship of artists, the importance of a Pitchfork rating, and the compartmentalization of music via outlets like SiriusXM; but he doesn't come off as overly curmudgeonly.
Everything is covered with an impressive level of detail. That detail, while valuable, can also make the book drag in some places; but I'm glad it's all in there. And a book about a band who, according to the author, have performed over 1,000 different covers in their career just couldn't skimp on the minutiae.
Fans of Yo La Tengo or those interested in the part New Jersey has played in popular music beyond Frank Sinatra, Bon Jovi, and Bruce Springsteen will get the most out of this book. And if you think you know your indie music history, Big Day Coming could provide you with a nice reality check.
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