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Karon O - vocals
Brian Chase - drums
Nick Zinner - guitars
For a relatively new band to have an opportunity to
jump on the coattails of the likes of Jon Spencer's
Blues Explosion, it was the chance of a lifetime. Such
was the case of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, New York
three piece art-punk garage band that has drawn the
attention and admiration of their veteran peers, from
Girls Against Boys, to Jerry Teel from Boss Hog, who
worked with them on their first self-titled E.P.
It was that Boss Hog connection that also led them
to a tour with Jon Spencer. Brian Chase , YYY's
drummer, explains the good and the bad of life on the
road and traveling through uncharted territory, "Some
of the physical conditions of the tour were kind of
rough for us. Other than that, that tour was a real
godsend. It was our introduction to Europe, and there's
no better way to do it…Jon Spencer is such a real
inspiration."
Although their first yet-to-be-named full length has
been delayed until next January, the actual music has
been completed, aside from a few touch ups and finessing.
Now it's just the logistics of getting it made into
a finished piece. In the meantime, fans will be able
to get a taste of what's to come through their first
single release, "Machine", in November. According
to Brian, "It's dark but dancey at the same time,
kinda longer than some of the songs on the E.P."
The self titled E.P., released towards the end of 2001,
presents us with a "Wham, bam, thank-you ma'am"
persona, packed with five songs that features Karen
O on lead vocals, with a range than runs hot and hotter,
from seductive serenades to screams. The first track,
"Bang", leaves the starting gate armed with
some chunky Kinks guitar, and Karen sporting some shakin'
late 80's style female sex pot vocals, "I need
the real thing tonight". "Mystery Girl"
with its surf guitar licks, leads us to a Beach Blanket
Babylon, complete with party favors of Jack & Coke,
and Camel unfiltered cigs. "Art Star" is a
raging poetry recital that falls face first into a fury
of screams and thrashing sonic stampedes, than falls
off the stage to slowly picks itself up and continues
the performance in a gitty sort of way.
When searching for the producer of their new album,
YYY's looked to one of their favorite bands out of Baltimore,
Love Life (www.templeoflovelife.com), who had used Dave
Sidtj in the past. Brian tells us how it all worked
out, "He's definitely got his own his own style
and unconventional mic-ing methods - like up on the
ceiling and the walls… capturing the energy we
have live and the sound of the band as a whole, then
putting that tape."
The YYY's have made no bones about blatantly leaning
on their influences for songwriting inspiration, even
using samples as a foundation to create the song's personality,
as with "Our Time", a psychedelic "Haight
Street meets lower NY" track that takes it's rhythms
from The Shondells' "Crimson and Clover".
But they are definitely moving forward in discovering
their own identity. Brian sees their new material as
having more, "diversity, [we're] doing more slow
songs, complex pop songs… dancey to the straight
ahead garage thing. We still feel like we're looking
for our own sound." And after only two years, he
still sees a pretty clean slate and a world of songwriting
and musicianship development ahead of them, "Who
knows what next year will bring? It could be radically
different from the stuff we're doing now. So yea, we
still see ourselves as a pretty young band."
www.yeahyeahyeahs.com
Kim
Owens, kim@kaffeinebuzz.com
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