This post is from Out the Other's 2009 Bonnaroo Artist Previews, where I will be posting previews of all the musical acts playing the 2009 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. Please check out and subscribe to the full site to learn more about all of this year's performers.
Editor's note: This is a guest preview from contributor Lance Conzett, a Nashville-based photographer and music writer who also edits the Belmont Vision. Lance can be reached via his website, lanceconzett.com, or via email at conzettl@pop.belmont.edu.
I have this theory about Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but it takes some explaining. So gather ‘round y’all, it’s time for a punk rock history lesson:
Evolutions in music genres tend to happen in waves. As punk rock steadily took hold in America in the late 1970s, it warped into what would eventually become known as hardcore punk—a loud, abrasive, terminally pissed off mutation of the original which included Bad Brains and Black Flag on the east coast and Dead Kennedys in the west. Hardcore punk shows quickly became a venue for macho aggression and, in some cases, outright misogyny, which left punk chicks in an awkward position—either try to overcome the scene that didn’t want them or do something different.
As hardcore punk was on its way out in the early 90s, Riot Grrrl bands like Bratmobile and Bikini Kill started to pop up. Riot Grrrl was a feminist punk movement that attempted to give women in the punk subculture better representation through self-publication of zines and creation of all female bands who took on feminist topics in their lyrics. This went on for a few years until it crumbled due to in-fighting. Kathleen Hanna, singer for Bikini Kill, started doing dance punk mixed with the socio-political edge of Bikini Kill with Le Tigre and that’s where we are now.
So, why did I tell you all this? Yeah Yeah Yeahs work as a band because they embody all of that history. The first time I had ever heard them was when a friend of mine sent me a link to the video for “Y Control” off their debut Fever to Tell. The video starts a dozen little kids who may as well have been plucked off the set of Children of the Corn—one of them cuts off another’s hand, a miniature Asian Dracula drinks Karen O’s blood and the video ends with total destruction and ritual disembowelment. I had no idea what the hell I had just watched, I just knew that I wanted to see more. The whole record is an incredible throwback to the early 90s coupled with charisma that not even Kathleen Hanna could muster. The songs aren’t as overtly political as their predecessors, but the feeling is all there.
Unfortunately, they followed that up with the totally weak 2006 effort Show Your Bones. The less said about that, the better. It started to move into dance punk with songs like “Honeybear,” but it never felt like they totally committed to it. It lost a lot of the vocal tics that defined Fever to Tell and didn’t nearly have the energy of the original. The closest you get is that last 20 seconds of “Mysteries,” and that wasn’t good enough.
A couple months ago, though, the band put out It’s Blitz! and won me back absolutely. They threw themselves without reservation into synth dance punk, especially on “Heads Will Roll” and “Dragon Queen”, and ditched the wishy-washiness of the previous record. The music video for "Heads Will Roll" even recalls the disturbing violence of "Y Control," except with less creepy children and more dancing werewolves.
Overall, it’s a more “grown-up” album from the band and it’s quite as aggressive as Fever to Tell but that’s all moot when they play live. The songs take on new life when Yeah Yeah Yeahs are on stage, mainly thanks to how incredibly dynamic Karen O is. The mainstream music press loves to obsess over her quirky fashion sense, but that always comes second to the performance. I’ll be damned if she isn’t the best frontwoman in 20 years, bizarre glowing facemasks or not.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs will play the Which Stage on Friday from 4:45-6:00 p.m. Check out the full Bonnaroo schedule on the official Bonnaroo website.
