Yeah Yeah Yeahs plan to play their first concerts in four years this fall at the Growlers Six and Sound On Sound music festivals. The group’s has enjoyed an illustrious touring career in which it’s headlined major festivals and worked as supporting act for groups such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Björk, The White Stripes, Liars, and The Strokes. They are one of the first major western rock bands to play a concert in Beijing, at the Modern Sky Festival, and have done Coachella, Letterman, and every other event fans expect a popular band to attend. However, this is a band that formed in 2000, and not all seventeen of their years have been spent touring: especially not the last four.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs social media existence buzzed back into life with talk of a reissue of their 2003 debut album, Fever To Tell. The group’s been showing off pictures from their 2003-era lives on their accounts. They posted a six-minute lo-fi recording that they call “Phone Jam.” The cassette tape image that goes alongside the song reads “June 2002,” suggesting plans to rehash some old work. These posts, hash-tagged #FeverToTell, make the prospect of a reissue seem likely.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an indie rock group from New York City. Their name comes from typical New York vernacular; “I’m walkin’ here!” is another stereotypically New York phrase. The group consists of vocalist Karen O, guitarist and keyboardist Nick Zinner and drummer Brian Chase. David Pajo usually accompanies the trio for live performances, although that hasn’t really happened in four years. Their four studio albums have received wide critical acclaim despite their artistic and indie sound. NME named their second album, Show Your Bones, album of the year in 2006. With their third album, It’s Blitz!, the band completed its trio of Grammy awards for Best Alternative Music Album. Their fourth album, Mosquito, came out in April of 2013.
The song, “Phone Jam,” sounds like a jam session conducted over the phone. Soulja Boy could asked for a kiss; Yeah Yeah Yeahs orchestrated a jam. The recording didn’t happen over the phone, but the lo-fi seemingly out-of-rhythm drums, guitar and bass accompany recordings from an answering machine. One message describes how the caller left a pack of cigarettes at the answering machine’s house. As the message ends, the backing music erupts into a blistering synth experiments of screams and high frequency noises. The track is fun and interesting, a welcome addition to a glowing discography. Fans excited about the reissue secretly hope that a brand new album will one day be on its way. They will have to wait and see.
Photography Credit: Raymond Flotat
Leave a Comment