But what's a "hipster?"

So this will be a running column of sorts, hopefully, and in it I will talk about albums I like, or music in general, or other music blogs. Or whatever.

So I got the newest Yo La Tengo recently, and let me be not the first to say that it kicks much ass. In fact, it's called I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass, so I guess technically it beats much ass. YLT is a pretty quintessential OG indie/hipster outfit, but for whatever reason this is only the second album of theirs I've actually procured. The first, The Sounds Of The Sounds Of Science, I got based on how much I liked heavy-duty guitar freakout "Lovelife of the Octopus," which I downloaded from and then purchased from YLT's website, not long after I first got my laptop and some dial-up action going. But I never even loaded the whole thing into iTunes, which shows how much I actually listened to it (there were some other good songs, but still).

Anyways, besides that I only occasionally heard YLT via roommates, parties, etc., some of which I liked (a track near the end of I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One, one of their droney motorik songs but way more mellow than "Lovelife of the Octopus"; it probably sounds a lot like "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind," the opener on the newest) and some of which I didn't (pretty much all of And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out, which struck me as solid and accomplished but ultimately too polite (or something like that; however I indicted it at the time now seems more like an indictment of who I was at the time)).

And perhaps I'm understating my point by having made that last bit (extra) parenthetical, because it's I Am Not Afraid...'s more fragile and atmospheric tracks that have really wowed me. True, "Pass The Hatchet" is and will probably remain my favorite, and sometimes their softness veers deep into what I consider Sufjan territory (I realize the chronology is off). Shit, basically I'm trying to say I think "Daphnia" is really, really wonderful -- a track I might not have liked four or five years ago but that I think is breathtaking in the here and now. There's plenty more to like, too; YLT's experience really comes across and they nail lots of moods: jangly throwback punk, shorter and poppier '60s psychers, still others that are hard to tie down to one genre.

So you should all go out and buy it and love it, and play "Daphnia" on a cold and wet day. Trust me.