Hoboken!! No, it’s not a Street Fighter Two retro move. It’s a place in New Jersey, USA where indie band Yo La Tengo formed in the 1980’s.
Yes, that paranoid, thermo-nuclear obsessed time where a Hollywood actor reigned over a Superpower, Rocky was poppin’ and there was enough cocaine snorted to power entire industries.
Now on Matador Records, they’ve consistently put out albums which have always bubbled beneath the surface and put in enough road hours / line-up changes to crush the creative process of most ordinary bands.
“Ohm” is rinsing the most out of a three-piece Rock N Roll band’s sonic output without it being impossible to perform as a live entity and this would suggest the band’s own comfort in their abilities as songwriters and musicians.
The drums sit perfectly, pushing the track through a psychedelic minefield and the lyrics suggest such a perception “But if nothing ever stays the same, nothing’s explained”. A peak-time LSD solo drips on to the fretboard, giving a Magical Mystery Tour B-side feel.
Since 2006 they have consistently charted higher with every release, so this cut from current album Fade and the accompanying viral should add to this commercial and creative highpoint.
With the current heatwave here in London, it’s perfect served chilled in a park with a pinch of blue sky and a dose of kaleidoscopic freedom to watch the world go by.