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Art stars: (L-R) Nick Zinner, Karen O and Brian Chase
of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
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With the so-called Rock Revival now fully engaged, add one more band to the list of blinding hype: the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Hell, even that afro'd dude in The Strokes wore a YYY button on Saturday Night Live.
Not so fast.
Unlike the current crop of Garage Rock darlings, the YYYs come from a slightly different place, a place where arty sonic detours mean as much as a righteous riff. Formed in New York in late 2000, the YYYs -- guitarist Nick Zinner, drummer Brian Chase and singer Karen O -- are all art school veterans. Chase and O met at Ohio's Oberlin College, where Chase was a Jazz studies major and O was undecided. She later transferred to New York University (to study film), where she met Zinner, a Boston native and photography buff.
"Karen and I both have a visual art background, so that is going to inform anything we do in some way," says Zinner by phone from his loft somewhere in New York City. "Most of my favorite musicians are former art-school kids. Film or photography is another way of getting something out that urgently needs to be released ... (long pause) I'm not sure what I'm trying to say. I'm gonna move on. I need coffee."
From the opening moments of "Bang," the first track on the band's self-titled debut EP, you know this stuff ain't for the faint of heart. Karen O pants "bang, bang, bang, the bigger the better" with orgiastic menace in the background while Zinner cranks out a bluesy, skronk riff in the foreground. The song then blasts off with this inviting lyrical introduction from O: "You ain't a baby no more, baby. You ain't no bigger than before, baby. I'll rub that cheek off your lips, so take a swallow as I spit, baby." She sounds like PJ Harvey on Viagra.
Zinner distinctly remembers the first time he met the brash singer. "It was at the Mars Bar in the East Village. I was really scared of her actually (laughing). It was like, 'This girl's out of her mind.' "
Is she as sexually aggressive as she seems on record? Zinner begs off. "Hmmm.... You'd really have to ask Karen's boyfriend, Angus (Andrew, singer for The Liars), about that one."
The YYYs' musical influences are almost as overt as the sexual tension O exudes. From the Punk roar of Bikini Kill (whose frontwoman, Kathleen Hanna, has no doubt been an influence) to the early guitar noise of Sonic Youth to the Rockabilly-infused sounds of X to the aforementioned Harvey, the YYYs have all the Art Rock bases covered.
Like the late '70s, early '80s No-Wave/New Wave/Punk sound they often conjure, the YYYs' aesthetic is just as faithful. O favors fishnet stockings and strapless dresses decorated with safety pins, often spattered with gobs of white paint which offset her short, jet-black bob of a haircut. Zinner's hair is artfully tousled into a high pompadour; he's perpetually clad in black. Chase is the odd man out: He looks like a Bible salesman.
It's all very New York. They look like they just walked off the set of a late '70s, Jim Jarmusch NYU student film.
"That's sort of the Garden of Eden period in Punk Rock: It's never gonna get that close in New York again -- everyone is too self-conscious," Zinner says of the most storied era in New York Rock history.
"New York is the United Nations of music," he continues, explaining New York's unique effect on musicians. "It is impossible to not be confronted with interesting sounds -- be it from the jackhammer outside to our pal Dan playing 23 Skidoo at our favorite bar. I like to think NYC is confronting, alluring and brutally honest.
"We're definitely a New York band in multitudinous ways," says Zinner, clearly getting excited at the thought. "The city really embraced us early on. The people in the press were totally supportive. It's something I feel like couldn't have happened anywhere else. There's something that's sort of exuded from the sidewalks that inspires music. There's so much you're exposed to on an hourly level living here. It's a huge factor in what we do."
There's a reason everyone's been so supportive. The band's notoriously powerful live shows -- and Karen O's off-stage antics -- have led to a great deal of buzz, something Zinner hopes doesn't overshadow the music.
"When things first started to blow up we were totally freaked out and were overly self-conscious," he says. "Then at a certain point we realized that that was a no-win situation, and kinda stupid, 'cause if you're doing art for someone else, you might as well just get a day job.
"When something receives a lot of attention, you lose interest in discovering it for yourself. It raises people's expectations to this ridiculous level. It counteracts the pure, instant interaction between the viewer or listener and us, the band," an interaction Zinner desperately doesn't want to lose.
"I think any performer feeds off their audience. It's something that's very important to us. If the crowd is stiff and crossed arms and arched eyebrows, then it feels forced. But if it's like kids jumping up and down dancing, that inspires us to play better, and it feels great."
It didn't take long for YYYs' peers to take notice. Over the last 16 months the band has toured with the likes of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The White Stripes, Girls Against Boys and, most recently, Sleater-Kinney.
"The Explosion have been incredibly supportive and parental to us," says Zinner. "That band really whipped us into shape, they're like our personal trainers. And Sleater-Kinney, they're the only band who can make 2,000 people feel like they're watching something very intimate -- every space becomes a basement or living room. Carrie Brownstein is my new guitar hero."
The band took a break from touring during August and September to concentrate on recording their full-length debut before heading out on their current tour with a fellow NYC band, The Liars.
"It (the new record) was shrouded in doubt for a while there, because we were working so hard and totally lost perspective. But now I'm really excited. It sounds great," Zinner says. "You'll hear a wider scope in general -- some of that may be nods to earlier artists, some may just be us experimenting and doing what seems new to us. And it's going to sound a little bit better. Not that it's overproduced or anything, but there should be some sonic improvement. The EP is pretty varied, but I think this one is even more varied. There's some dancy things on there, there's some love songs and ballads."
Ballads?
"Yeah, they're very sincere. They're touching."
THE YEAH YEAH YEAHS play the Southgate House Sunday with The Liars and No Doctors.
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