Jarnow does a good job of charting YLT's dilatory progress toward band-dom: They become part of an enviable scene in Hoboken involving weekend softball games, barbecues, and lots of music at Maxwell's; in Massachusetts they meet Gerard Cosloy, who along with Georgia starts contributing to New York Rocker.
Also fun to observe from today's perspective is YLT's long search for the right bass player.
It's equally fascinating to follow the development of YLT's sound.
Soon after McNew joined the band, YLT released 1993's Painful, their sixth album, and began to make a significant mark on the indie scene, which had already gone far beyond its underground beginnings.
When YLT play Lollapalooza in 1995 and encounter former riot grrrl Kathleen Hanna, Jarnow comments that Georgia feels no kinship with that movement: Though she was a female drummer who sang and played an equal part in the band's creative process, not to mention guitar and keyboards--and would soon manage the band's books--Georgia Hubley's role in Yo La Tengo was simply to be part of Yo La Tengo.
If you really use YLT in your life, you'll start to notice emotional thinking all day long.
And I used YLT for the rest of the evening--when the captain informed us that we were going to sit for a while on the runway before takeoff, when we circled Newark for 45 minutes, when we were told to hold on tight because of major turbulence.
Main sponsors of the event are IATEFL
YLT, Garnet Education, Heinle Cengage Learning, Macmillan Publishers and Oxford University Press.