A review by The 941 and Tampa Calling blogger and Creative Loafing Sarasota editor Cooper Levy-Baker.
For all intents and purposes, the Condo Fucks’ Fuckbook is the 13th studio LP from Yo La Tengo, even if the Matador Records website for the “band” never mentions the words “Yo,” “La” or “Tengo.”
There are plenty of clues to go around. One: The name “Condo Fucks” comes from a fake promo card Matador printed up and inserted in Yo La Tengo’s 1997 classic, I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One. Two: In 1990, Yo La Tengo released a covers disc titled Fakebook (the name comes from musical sheets that outline the bare essentials of a tune — melody, chords, lyrics — and allow performers to learn new songs on the fly). Three: The Fucks website lists the band’s members as “Georgia Condo (drums), Kid Condo (guitar) and James McNew (bass)”; the members of Yo La Tengo happen to be Georgia Hubley, Ira Kaplan and James McNew.
And, four (as if you needed it): Recording a half-hour’s worth of fuzzy, Nuggets-like garage rock covers under an in-joke assumed name and then making a short “documentary” about the impact of the fake band on the music scene of southern Connecticut, well, that just seems like the kind of thing Yo La Tengo would do.
“I have no intention of explaining things more fully,” Yo La Tengo guitarist/singer Ira Kaplan told me in an interview two years ago, and that sentiment runs all through the band’s history: the Spanish-language group name (”I have it”), the beguiling album titles (I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass), the jokey songs (”Georgia Vs. Yo La Tengo,” “The Story of Yo La Tango”). This is a group unafraid to leave its audience guessing, and they never seem interested in clearing things up for definitive interpretation.
So Condo Fucks. Fuckbook. Yeah, it kind of makes sense.
This article appears in Mar 25-31, 2009.