First, a link to their site I just recently got into the band and I must say, they’re excellent. Something totally new and yet, still familiar. I’m terrible at describing music, but they’re fantastic. Even better, they’re coming to Chicago and my friend scored tickets!
Anyone else a CYHSY fan?
A friend of mine raves about them, but I haven’t had the chance to check them out. I’ll have to ask him if he knows about the show, thanks for the heads up.
…or not! According to their site, the show is sold out. Oh well.
I didn’t know they were that popular but they were sold out within a day, apparently.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah played at my college a few months back, and were lots of fun. I’ve read many criticisms that they’re not a good live band, but I didn’t see it… despite nobody knowing their songs, the venue was packed, and there was lots of cheering and dancing, plus two encores. Definitely a positive crowd response in my book.
IMO, their sudden popularity can be attributed to three things:
They’ve had a lot of buzz for the last six months or so. I love their album, and I’m hoping to catch them at SXSW.
I’m a huge fan. I managed to snag myself a copy of their debut album (it was originally a very limited run, although I see that it’s now available new from Amazon), and have been recommending them to just about everyone I know. I haven’t gotten a chance to see them live yet, but would jump at the opportunity to do so…
I find them irritating and unimpressive in general. I was curious about the hype that started over the summer and downloaded the record. I listened to it a few times, and was just completely uninterested. More than anything, I just thought that the actual songs were very weak and unmemorable, and these days songwriting is what makes or breaks a band for me. There are so few people out there actually writing great songs.
I also found the influences-on-the-sleeve thing - in this case, the music of the Velvet Underground matched up with what can only be described as an intentional, affected imitation of David Byrne’s singing voice - to be very off-putting.
I think they’re all right, but not great - I like “By The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth”, but like most indie (or any other kind of) hypes, they’re nowhere near as good as the buzz would lead you to believe. The vocals are somewhat “unique”, but anybody who’s been listening to indie rock/pop for more than a year has heard it all before.
I’m a pretty big fan. Haven’t caught their live show yet, although I saw them on Conan about a month ago. The only thing I didn’t like much about it was the singer’s voice. I’m generally very tolerant about singing voices, and I actually like the singing on their album, but he was just kind of letting his voice crack a lot during the song. It wasn’t too pleasant.
They’re coming to town in April, so I’m probably gonna check 'em out in person.
I would say more Gordon Gano of the Violent Femmes, but other than that I agree with you completely. They are an ok band, but they aren’t anything I haven’t heard before, and it was usually better. They and Wolfe Parade were the two biggest indie bands to come down the pipe in 2005. They both give me that, “well it isn’t bad music, but I don’t actually like it that much” feeling.
Man, Wolf Parade - talk about underwhelming! That band is basically what happens if you take everything uninteresting about white male indie rock of the past two decades and put it into a blender.