YYYs 101 (by request)

and now because of a request made by this one, here is the extent of my knowledge and simple love for the yeah yeah yeahs. honestly, i don't know too much about them, but i have always loved their contribution to music: a three-piece, chick-led, indie rock band without a bass player. normally this kind of band wouldn't make it passed the middle school talent show. i'm a bass player myself and if i had a dollar for every time someone told me they didn't realize which part i was contributing to the song until either i dropped out or everyone else in the band dropped out, i'd probably have about $27, but i don't play too often so that's saying a lot. so it has always amazed me that the band could have such a full sound with just guitar, drums, and vocals.

for my 15th birthday my dad took me to my first concert, live 105's BFD. it's an annual, all-day concert consisting of three different stages and the subsonic tent. that year the yeah yeah yeahs were the first band on the main stage. a friend of my dad's warned him of their performance calling the lead singer's, karen o, stage antics "orgasmic". it was hard to picture what exactly that meant in my naive 15-year old mind, but after watching the show i'm pretty sure i figured out what was meant by the comment.

their sound is chant-heavy, filled with tight snares, danceable beats, and jagged riffs, enough to get anyone out of their seat and moving. here are a few of my favorite songs:

-maps (all the components of this song are superb. it includes one of my favorite drum beats ever causing me to fall slightly in love with brian chase, the echo of nick zinner's guitar, and, though i don't know if i fully understand what might be intended by them, the lyrics are beautiful. the video is simple and perfect)

-date with the night (because it makes me feel like i should be up to no good.)

-mystery girl (i just really like the sillyness of lyrics. "take a deep breath, babe, cuz we just started".)

-gold lion (though the lyrics aren't easy to figure out like so many other artists out there, i love looking at each song in bits and phrases. especially for this one.)

and finally here's an "track by track" interview they did for their newest album "it's blitz!"