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

vocalist Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

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 themselve ...

and songwriter in the American

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band

Yo La Tengo Yo La Tengo (Spanish language, Spanish for "I've got it"; also abbreviated as YLT) 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 ...

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

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York, United States. Founded as a Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in 1926, Sarah Lawrence College has been coeducational ...

, 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 m ...

for the ''

SoHo Weekly News The ''SoHo Weekly News'' (SWN) was a weekly alternative newspaper founded by music publicist Michael Goldstein and published in New York City from 1973 to 1982. Positioned as a competitor to ''The Village Voice'', it struggled financially. T ...

'', '' New York Rocker'', '' Village Voice'' and ''

Matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which are made up of interacting subatomic pa ...

'', 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'' named Kaplan the 97th greatest guitarist of all time. Kaplan's vocals were featured in

Eluvium In geology, eluvium or eluvial deposits are geological deposits and soils that are derived by ''in situ'' weathering or weathering plus gravitational movement or accumulation. The process of removal of materials from geological or soil horiz ...

's 2013 album '' Nightmare Ending'' in the song "Happiness". He occasionally 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 netw ...

WFMU WFMU (91.1 MHz) is a non-commercial educational station, non-commercial, listener-supported, independent radio, independent community radio station city of license, licensed to East Orange, New Jersey, with studios in Jersey City. It is owned by ...

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 Musicians from Queens, New York Guitarists from New York (state) SoHo Weekly News people