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ACL: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Much has been made of how indie posterboys and DIY darlings Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are faced with the challenge of transcending the bubble of buzz that lofted their debut album into the stratosphere two years ago. Their new album, “Some Loud Thunder,” is a determined riposte to all those half-whispered questions about whether there was life beyond the blog.
But less has been written about how much unalloyed fun these five guys from the Right Coast are to watch onstage. Bolting onstage, they flung themselves into their set (via “Heavy Metal”) with a punkish intensity and a bracing enthusiasm.
I’ll grant you that frontman Alec Ounsworth’s adenoidal whine (reminiscent of David Byrne — yes, he’s heard it before) isn’t an immediately acquired taste, but it becomes part of the sonic landscape within a few songs. In any event, since he writes all the lyrics, composes nearly all the music and co-produces the new album, he isn’t exactly dispensable.
Splitting the difference between their two discs, the band moved with efficient dispatch through “Foreign Land,” “Satan Said Dance” (the first big crowd-pleaser) and “Over and Over Again (Lost and Found).” Dance beats and washes of trancelike synthesizer competed with punching-bag drums and emphatic guitar to yield a mixed pallet of sound. There were some jarring juxtapositions: “Over and Over Again,” which is nothing if not a pretty little melodic machine, clashed glaringly with the dirgelike, forboding “Yankee Go Home.”
The band ended the way they began, with a punchy, upbeat 21st century honky-tonk track with the unfortunate moniker “Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood.” Even Cole Porter would have a hard time making that title sing, but CYHSY seemed happy just to leave ‘em dancing.
(Photo by Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: ACL Festival
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By Rocket88
September 18, 2007 3:04 PM | Link to this
Was I at the same show? This was one of the most boring performances at ACL.