Ira Kaplan (born January 7, 1957) is a co-founder,

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themsel ...

and songwriter in the American

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produ ...

band

Yo La Tengo Yo La Tengo (YLT; Spanish for "I have her") is an American indie rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan (guitars, piano, vocals), Georgia Hubley (drums, piano, vocals), and James M ...

. He is married to the band's co-founder Georgia Hubley. A graduate of

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sarah Lawrence scholarship, particularly ...

, Kaplan formed Yo La Tengo in the early 1980s. Previously, he worked as a

music critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mu ...

for the '' SoHo Weekly News'', '' New York Rocker'' and ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

'', as well as serving as a soundman, roadie and backup musician for Mofungo and other New York-area bands.Booth, Vachel (1988) "Yo, Dudes! - Home runs and headbutts with Yo La Tengo", ''Underground'', February 1988 (Issue 11), p. 21 Kaplan's life, family, and musical development were chronicled in the book ''Big Day Coming: Yo La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock'', by Jesse Jarnow (Avery Books, 2012). In 2012,

Spin Magazine ''Spin'' (stylized in all caps) is an American music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione, Jr. Now owned by Next Management Partners, the magazine is an online publication since it stopped issuing a print edition in 2012. Histor ...

named Kaplan the 97th greatest guitarist of all time. Kaplan's vocals were featured in Eluvium's 2013 album '' Nightmare Ending'' in the song "Happiness". He hosts a free-form

radio program A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode. Radio netwo ...

WFMU WFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station, licensed to East Orange, New Jersey. Since 1998 its studios and operating facilities have been headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey. It broadcasts locally at 91.1 Mhz FM, i ...

under the name "Ira the K."WFMU archives for Ira Kaplan
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References

External links

Official Yo La Tengo site

Matador Records' official Yo La Tengo site
American rock guitarists American male guitarists 1957 births Living people Sarah Lawrence College alumni American indie rock musicians Jewish American musicians Yo La Tengo members American radio DJs Jewish rock musicians 20th-century American guitarists {{US-singer-songwriter-stub