Best Record of 2001: Day 50
Good morning!
Today we’re taking a quick look at Yeah Yeah Yeahs self-titled EP.
Yeah Yeah Yeah’s self-titled, 5-song EP was self-released on their own Shifty label in 2001.
Their decidedly garage-punk sound featured guitarist Nick Zinner, drummer Brian Chase, and no bassist. No matter; even in these early days, everything orbits around frontwoman Karen O. Her vocals are hard to pin down– she coos one minute, screams the next (see also: the entire chorus of “Art Star”), and occasionally works in a sort of disaffected monotone
The synths and more polished sound would come in time, but here they’re still incubating, and it’s very much rough around the edges. Whether that was because they were still finding their legs or an intentional aesthetic choice, the end run is the same. Nick Zinner’s riffs do a lot of weight-bearing. They’re basic, but that’s all that was called for here.
The first thing we hear is Karen O repeating “the bigger, the better” on “Bang.” Signing to a major… Fever to Tell (or It’s Blitz!- whichever’s your fave)…a bazillion kids being introduced to “Maps” by whoever picked it while playing Rock Band and then being bewildered by the rest of their catalog…and so on. That would all come in time.
But it all starts here in peak “Meet me in the bathroom” New York… You don’t need to know this is their first EP to know it’s some of their earliest work. And like anything, if you stare too long or overthink it, you can find nits to pick. But it’s ‘01 in the hippest quarters of NYC. Who tf has time for that?!
This is up against Lightning Bolt’s Ride The Skies, and I gotta tell ya, I’m really struggling to reach for positives here. I know there’re plenty of noise rock people out there, but this is not my tribe. Nothing wrong with that, of course. We like what we like! But god damn this whole thing felt like a test. It probably didn’t help that I was listening at work. At any given time I have 6 monitors, two radios, a teletype printer, and about 30 tabs open, and it can feel like what this record sounds like.
There’s a spot on “The Faire Folk” where I thought the noodling was reminiscent of AC/DC’s riff on AC/DC’s Thunderstruck. That was about all I could salvage from this.
Bottom Line: Karen O & co for the W.
Any thoughts on either of these records? Agree/disagree with my take? Sound off in the comments!
Kevin Sent 