If they’d been born a generation earlier, Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley — the husband-and-wife core who founded Yo La Tengo in 1984 — might have worked in the Brill Building and earned a nice living writing hits for people who can actually sing. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, and instead they ended up composing their own great American songbook — a 14-album catalog (less compilations, EPs, etc.) that for all its stylistic wanderings has maintained a remarkable standard of quality control. more ›

Photo and story by DCist contributor Valerie Paschall Leave it to Travis Morrison to throw a CD release party, but forget to order CDs. Morrison shrugged it off, offering up several suggestions of places online (including a half-kidding nod to Napster) from where the audience could pick up his latest release, All Y’all. It’s this quirky charm that makes his live show so engaging; Saturday night’s show at Iota would’ve been worth the ticket price... more ›

Yo La Tengo’s latest record is confrontationally titled I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass. Last night at the 9:30 Club, they did seem like a band unafraid, comfortable in their skin, and enjoying being on the road again. Whether or not they’re going to beat anyone’s ass is less certain, even just musically. more ›

MONDAY >> If you like your electroclash sample-free, head to the 9:30 Club for Liverpool's Ladytron. $20 >> Not quite sure what to make of it, but the Bodog Battle of the Bands rolls on this Monday and Tuesday at DC9. $15 each night >> The last time Architecture in Helsinki came to the Black Cat, they tested the stage's human-holding capacity. Though Lambchop and the Tosca String Quartet may have given them a run... more ›

MONDAY Eliot Spitzer, current New York Attorney General and likely Democratic nominee for governor, is known to have a “quick temper” and a “passion for reform,” but he just might be the only state attorney general in the history of the United States to share a stage with Yo La Tengo. And to at least two dozen East Village record store clerks, that means a whole lot. Brooke Masters will tell you a lot... more ›