Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Performer: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Engineer: Adam Lasus; Tyler Sargent; Keith Souza; Adam Lasus
Producer: Adam Lasus
Distributor: Alternative Dis. Alliance

Notes: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: Alec Ounsworth, Lee Sargent, Robbie Guertin, Tyler Sargent, Sean Greenhalgh. Audio Mixer: Adam Lasus. Recording information: Fireproof Recording, Brooklyn, NY; Machines With Magnets, Providence, RI. One of 2005's most lauded indie rock releases, the self-titled, self-released debut by Brooklyn's Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is an engaging and energetic album that pulls listeners into its charming world where things sound instantly familiar, yet strangely indescribable and unique. The neo-vaudeville intro ("Clap Your Hands!") carries a percussive Tom Waits vibe, but is distinguished by frontman Alec Ounsworth's David Byrne-like yelp. While the Byrne vocal comparisons are inescapable, Ounsworth, the band's main songwriter, isn't intent on recreating the Talking Heads' sound--it's just one aspect of many in the group's restless aesthetic. The record really kicks in with the one-two punch of the surging "Let the Cool Goddess Rust Away" and the chiming "Over and Over Again (Lost and Found)," while "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth" is its gloriously uplifting centerpiece. Throughout the disc, keyboards drift in and out of the highly rhythmic, guitar-driven tunes, creating a playfully urgent atmosphere that gives credence to the album's remarkably warm reception.

Spin (p.61) - Ranked #34 in Spin's "40 Best Albums Of 2005" - "Retrofitting Talking Heads' nerd funk with Fisher Price xylophones..." Q (p.116) - Ranked #95 in Q Magazine's "100 Greatest Albums of 2006." Uncut (p.79) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Often, the lyrics are barely decipherable, but the lines that do stick, ring with strange wisdom." Mojo (Publisher) (p.92) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Their songs exude a precious democracy, composed of elegant, non-rockist guitar lines, trebly synths and busy but never distracting drums."

Playing smartly crafted indie-pop that is instantly accessible yet defies easy categorization, Brooklyn, NY's Clap Your Hands Say Yeah took the music world by storm in 2005 on the strength of a single self-released album. Seemingly overnight, the band became talk-of -the-town fodder (David Bowie acknowledged himself as a fan) and started playing to sold-out crowds. A major-label bidding war followed, the offers from which the band famously turned down.

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