Yo La Tengo

Yo La Tengo started out in the mid-1980s and became perhaps the ultimate critics' band. Led by former NYC rock journalist Ira Kaplan, they combined numerous, often esoteric influences to eventually create a distinctive sound. They started out in heavy debt to the Velvet Underground, but by the late '90s, they were incorporating ambient electronic textures and more experimental song structures for a transcendent, dream-pop sound that brought them a whole new audience.