Tag Archives: yeah yeah yeahs

#808: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Maps

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I saw the video for this track the first time on TV a long time ago. Wasn’t through MTV2, but through some other channel. I think The Amp, if anyone out there remembers it. There was no message or sign showing the band name or the song name, so I remember being confused as to whether this was a music video or a really long advert for a dramatic music television show or something. I was quite young when this happened, so forgive me. Wasn’t until a bit later that it was revealed to me. ‘Maps’ was a very much a real song by a real band, Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Could do with a new song by them.

The track’s quite an emotional one. The music video even more so. Lead singer Karen O’s boyfriend at-the-time was meant to show up the shoot, but he was very late and she was about to go on tour and didn’t think he was going to show. During the performances, the tears start falling from her eyes while all these warm lights of fluorescent colours are glaring in the camera and she sings, “They don’t love you like I love you.” Sometimes I go on about songs that can be made so much more emphatic with the right music video. This is another of those instances.

Amidst Brian Chase’s rolling drum pattern and O’s silky vocals is Nick Zinner’s guitars which really keep the track moving. The one note loop is the first thing you hear and the last as the song fades out. In between, he provides that staccato line during the verses and those twinkling high notes in the choruses. I guess he also provides the bassline in those sections, even though the band don’t use a bass guitar. His playing is a highlight for me on this one. ‘Maps’ is a bit of an indie classic, and its cultural legacy cant be understated. Beyoncé took the chorus’ main lyric and used it in one of her songs. So there you go, I guess.

My iPod #540: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Honeybear

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Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ second album Show Your Bones signified a change in the the band’s style. Determined not to make a “Fever to Tell Part 2”, songs written for the then-upcoming album were scrapped and the three members decided to re-invent their sound. The result was an album with a larger sound, a bit more mystique, and one that tended to embrace the country/folk aspects of rock rather than the dirty/punk of the group’s debut.

“Honeybear” is one song on Show Your Bones which the latter part of that statement applies to. Karen O sings about her loathing for phony LA A-List parties and her plans to gate crash them against a rocking Country-Western sounding instrumental including jumpy synthesizers and sandy electric guitars. Listen to that instrumental break and try to tell me that it doesn’t sound like the music preceding the final showdown between two cowboys. That is all I can imagine, and it will be hard for you to tell me otherwise.

So yeah, I like this track. It’s a cool deep cut from a decent LP. Rock on Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

My iPod #452: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Gold Lion

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I also remember the first time I heard “Gold Lion”, and the second time, the third, the fourth and so on….. The music video for it was repeated upon every hour one day in 2006, because Yeah Yeah Yeahs were back and it was the group’s brand new single from the forthcoming album Show Your Bones. At the time, the band hadn’t released an album since their cool 2003 debut Fever to Tell. Of course I didn’t know that. As a result, “Gold Lion” is the track that properly introduced me to Yeah Yeah Yeahs. (Though I have a feeling I might have heard “Maps” somewhere before.)

And so “Gold Lion” starts the album off with a lone “We Will Rock You” drum pattern that lasts for seconds before Karen O’s vocals and acoustic guitar of Nick Zinner enter the mix. The song carries on and builds as electric guitars and keyboards are introduced, the drums become more free-flowing with busier execution leading into the track’s wordless refrain and the following instrumental breaks. All in all, it sets the tone for the rest of the album and was a good way to mark a return of a killer group.

The track’s okay. Never thought about its meaning. But I like it. Reminds me of being in Year 6 again.

My iPod #245: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Date with the Night

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How’s everybody doin’.

I didn’t know Yeah Yeah Yeahs until 2006, the year the band’s second LP came out. It was that year that my sis started to like the one-woman-two-men group and borrowed “Fever to Tell”, the band’s first album released in 2003, from a friend.

“Date with the Night” was Fever’s first single. It is about getting ready for a night out, looking forward to what awaits and wishing to fulfil expectations.

This song is noise. It isn’t one you want to listen to if you need to relax. Guitars are screeching, drums are booming, lead singer Karen O moans and howls endlessly at various points of the track. Pretty hot stuff. Very hot actually.

I’ll stop there.

My iPod #180: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Cheated Hearts

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It is 2006 again, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs release their new album “Show Your Bones”. MTV2 were really happy that the band had returned. It was three years since YYYs released their debut, and the channel dedicated a day to the band by showing the video for “Gold Lion” every hour.

But this post isn’t about that song. No. Obviously. It’s about “Cheated Hearts”. Fast forward a few months later after the album’s release, and the video for the new single was being shown quite frequently.

The band appear in it for a few seconds, but it is mostly made up of clips of fans who are imitating them. They make a real effort of it too.

MTV2 censored a part when some dudes look like they are using an iron on someone’s back, and when the same three people each show the ‘fuck off’ sign to the camera, even though they are meant to be symbolising the YYY sign. It was all very strange.

But yeah, the video would play on the channel and I eventually grew to like the song. I present it to you now.