#377 Yeah Yeah Yeahs, 'Fever to Tell' (2003)

New Entry

At the fore of the Garage Rock revival exploding out of the New York music scene along with The Strokes, Interpol, TV On The Radio and LCD Soundsystem. While working in a Brooklyn clothing store, vocalist and guitarist, Karen O and Nick Zinner met TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek who would go on to produce this record. The production is sparse and raw. Thankfully Sitek never stripped them of their raw playing-in-your-parents’-garage type soud. Karen O’s energy just oozes through the speakers, she’d have to be one of the great frontpeople of the past 20 years.

Their sound would change in later albums, shifting towards a more produced, dancey sound, and I’m a fan of that too, but this is the garage rock album and its energy is awesome. Nick Zinner’s guitaring is simple, yet effective, and Brian Chase’s drumming is solid and relentless. Random story – in 2003 I was working in a CD store. 3 American men in suits walked in and asked me if we had Yeah Yeah Yeah’s new record. I walked them over to ‘Y’ in the Rock Section and handed them a copy of the album. The one of the men said to the other two – I can’t believe we’ve found this record here. This is my son, Nick’s band!

#rs500albums