Indie pop hipsters Yo La Tengo play Detroit tonight

Yo La Tengo's Ira Kaplan wishes that "more people would follow their hearts." Or so he said in a recent interview with The Michigan Daily.

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	Yo La Tengo Tonight The Magic Stick Detroit

Kaplan, singer, guitarist and one-half of the husband-and-wife pair that accounts for two-thirds of the band's membership, is in many respects a textbook example of that ethic in practice: Though he began a career as a music writer, he really wanted to create rather than critique.

"I was a cliche," Kaplan admitted, "somebody who wanted to be in a band. And now that I am, I don't need to (write) anymore."

To be truthful, Kaplan's not just "in a band" he's at the helm of the oh-so-hip indie-pop trio Yo La Tengo, who played the Blind Pig on Saturday and will appear at Detroit's Magic Stick tonight.

While Yo La's new album, "I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One," has elicited nothing but pandering paeans to its greatness from music critics nationwide, the band was initially less confident about its chances for critical and commercial success.

"We were pleased with it, but there was also a sense of, 'Gee, I wonder if anyone's gonna like this,'" Kaplan said.

Yo La Tengo frontman Ira Kaplan

Perhaps some of this uncertainty stems from the band's hermit-like approach to recording.

"We hole up in a room and work for a really long time. Then we come out and blink our eyes because it's sunny out," Kaplan laughed.

Though Kaplan's often viewed as the band's 'leader,' Yo La's songwriting and recording process is marked by a spirit of collaboration among the band members that has only increased in recent years.

"All but two songs on the new record were written (as a group)," Kaplan said, explaining that "the lyrics tend to come last. What will really happen is somebody will start playing and we'll all fall in and play for a long time. We'll finish playing an hour later and kinda say, 'Oh, do you remember what you did?' Then we'll write something down - or maybe we won't," he concluded with a laugh.

Featuring plenty of both the slightly off-kilter pop gems and artsy, feedback-laden jams the band is known for, the new album sprawls more than 70 minutes, something that Kaplan says was not planned.

"The long record wasn't our intention. (But) we decided that 'Spec Bebop' was going to be on the album by hook or by crook ... and we couldn't find any other way to make it flow except to make the record really long," Kaplan said.

Of the typically dynamite Yo La live performances, Kaplan said, "In this MTV age, I think many bands just try to recreate the sound of the record. That's never been our goal. We try to make the shows different - different from the record and certainly from each other. We are playing in Ann Arbor and Detroit, and we will consciously play two very different sets, hoping that people will come to both."

Consider that an invitation. And consider this a challenge: Kaplan said that the title of the album, "I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One," is taken from a line in a movie, but won't reveal the source.

"I think it's a nice, evocative title - it seems to mean a lot but it doesn't really mean anything," he said coyly. "It comes from a movie, but I'm not telling what movie. You'll have to see it one day and say, 'Eureka!'"

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