Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! Review 02/09/06

[Guest Low Roller]

For those of you who do not know Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, you are missing out on quite the oddity in modern rock 'n roll. Never having released a video or a single,this band has been selling out shows all over the UK and the US solely based on the strength of it's debut indie album and through the power of word of mouth. Not unlike Phish back in the day (I suppose)...

I first heard their album last summer, after being drawn to the curious band name on Limewire and deciding to see what these jokers sounded like. I was more than impressed with their mature and catchy Joy Division sound and quickly shed the impression of a joke band. Unlike bands like the Killers that annoy the living hell out of me for all their senseless rock posturing and needless androgenous lead singer Brandon Flowers, Clap Your Hands sounded like five guys that played some honest music, much like Modest Mouse or Interpol. Their self titled debut album was my album of the year for 2005.

Fast forward to yesterday. Clap Your Hands were playing in Brighton to a packed house. They were currently in the middle of a sold out UK tour, the likes of which hasn't been seen for a US band since the White Stripes back in 2001. The hype surrounding this band is becoming ridiculous as they have been featured in every major music magazine in the UK without support from a major label or even a UK distributor for the indie release. The album only became available in the UK last month.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! was extrememly tight, especially the drums which never missed a beat, with the only shortfall being the vocals. If you've heard the album, you know that the vocals are very nasaly and challenging to pull off even on record. I was worried about how they would sound live. The best way to put it would be "hit and miss", but for the most part it was good mainly because the mix was rather poor, so you couldn't hear the vocals that well overtop the drums and bass.

They played an hour set, mostly sticking to songs off of their album, jamming out some tunes, reminiscent to something Jimmy Swift might do. One song that I've never heard before was shades of New Deal which drove the crowd into a frenzy.

On a side note: I am convinced that bands like New Deal, Jimmy Swift Band, and maybe Grand Theft Bus would hit it BIG in the UK. The whole disco beat on the drums is huge here. The Slip are dead in the water if they tried coming here. Sorry.

There was a rock poser standing next to me that sang to all the lyrics, actually clapped his hands all show (because of the band name I guess), and was really annoying in a sort of "I'm not with that guy" sort of way. I just wanted to smack him.

Overall a really fun show, and probably the best indie show I've been to since Modest Mouse in 2004.

[DevO]

Cool! Thanks for the review Roller. I didn't know they were from the States.. For some reason I assumed the band was FROM the UK.

[Del]

Nice! CYHSY! are one of my favourite new bands. It's a little disappointing to hear that the vocals were hit and miss but I'm glad to hear that overall they were a solid live band. Hopefully I'll get the chance to check them out in the near future.

[fluffhead77]

been listening to their album for the last 4-5 months... they're definately one of the reasons i'm going to Bonnaroo this year