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Monday, April 06, 2009

O Joy!


Today I bring you 'Zero,' the most delicious nugget yet by NYC-based art-punk trio Yeah Yeah Yeahs, led by the electric vocal talent of Karen O, buttressed by Nick Zinner's angular guitar and Brian Chase's staccato drumming.

Third time's the charm for the YYYs.   Their first two albums were of high quality, but the new 'It's Blitz' will surely vault them higher.  

This time, the trio add an edgy synthesized sheen to their taut, lean songs, and weave some memorable riffs around Karen O's earnest vocal wallop. Hard to describe, but easy to listen to...

Let's start with 'Zero...'



Karen O and Brian Chase met at Oberlin College in Ohio (like my ex-sister-in-law Carolyn and her husband Kelly!) - Karen transfered to NYU where she hit it off with Nick Zinner and formed an acoustic duo they called 'Unitard.' 

Later, the threesome decided to go punk and create a 'trashy, punky, grimy' art-student group, and wound up warming up for the Strokes and the White Stripes, the two most prominent bands of the early 2000s garage movement.

Their debut album was a critical juggernaut and scored an alt-rock hit with its odd, skeletal but affecting single 'Maps.''

Here they are performing Maps live at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards....


From their second album, 2006's 'Show Your Bones,' the memorable single 'Gold Lion,' performed on Letterman...

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