Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley are a nice, mellow couple in their mid-40s from Hobokken, N.J. They like homemade peach pie, watching TV and going to the occasional baseball game. Oh, and they also founded one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the last decade, Yo La Tengo.
Through their 20-year career, Yo La Tengo have been one of rock's most consistent bands, never experiencing the break-ups, burnouts or sell-outs most bands their age face. They've never put out a bad album, either -- each new release maneuvering within the parameters of rock 'n' roll, yet embracing chance and originality at every turn. YLT are equally at home with jangly pop and hushed, organ-driven duets as with the crushing feedback freakouts usually associated with another influential indie-rock couple, Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth.
Unlike their Manhattanite contemporaries across the river, however, Kaplan and Hubley have spent considerably less time in the spotlight, which suits them just fine. They look more like your neighbors than rock stars, and never really go out of their way to promote themselves anyway, seemingly content to play, as Kaplan puts it, "for their own amusement" wherever people want to hear them.