Yo La Tengo frontman Ira Kaplan and drummer Georgia Hubley have worked together to write music for 10 years. The two also work together to clean their peaceful Hoboken, New Jersey home, wash the car and take out the trash.

United by marriage and rock ‘n’ roll, Kaplan and Hubley have managed to create one of the most successful underground bands of this decade.

“Forming a band was completely unplanned,” Kaplan said in a recent press release. “It was something I had always wanted to do, but it seemed unattainable.”

The duo quickly fit right into the New York artpunk scene of the 80s and 90s. Tengo completed four full length recordings before adding bassist James McNew to their lineup. “We played in the basement along time before we thought of having a band,” Kaplan said. “And even after we had a band, we didn’t think of writing songs for a long time. It was very … gradual.”

Gradual, maybe, but with seven full length recordings and numerous appearances on compilations, Yo La Tengo has proven to have had a great influence on the alternative music scene.

“Yo La Tengo is Spanish for ‘I got it,'” Kaplan said in a press release. “It comes from the phrase Mets’ shortstop Elio Chacon would yell when going for a pop-up.”

There is no doubt that Yo La Tengo has got it. Influenced by such acts as The Velvet Underground and Thurston Moore, the trio’s sixth release Painful, was fourth on Entertainment Weekly’s Best Music of 1993 list and their latest release, Electr-O-Pura is receiving great reviews by press around the nation.

Yo La Tengo will bring their atmospheric lushness to the Iowa State Memorial Union’s Maintenance Shop on Sunday for an 8 p.m. performance. Admission is $5, $6 the day of the show. Tickets are available at any Ticketmaster outlet.