In the early 2000s, New York City’s Yeah Yeah Yeahs began carving out their space in the complex music scene of the new millennia, bursting onto the map with electrifying live performances in support of bands like The Strokes and The White Stripes. Music fans were ready for a new generation of artists to take over, yearning to hear the signature sounds they fell in love with blended with new and exciting styles. 20 years ago this week, Yeah Yeah Yeahs were at the forefront of this new movement with their debut record, Fever To Tell.
The years following the turn of the millennium proved to be a transformative era for music of all genres. The internet changed how we consumed music on a daily basis and drastically shortened the amount of time new songs or albums held the spotlight before something fresh came along. Websites like Napster were allowing (albeit, illegally) people to share their music libraries online for others to download, and the birth of MP3s allowed people to carry a lot more music on the go, without the burden of skipping CDs and bulky listening devices. Modern music needed to evolve in order to stay relevant with a listener base that was exploring new music at a rapid pace.
Music made for those modern, well-versed listeners had to have intriguing elements in order to stand out amongst the flood of new music emerging on the internet. Screamo bands were injecting heavy metal with duelling melodic and screaming vocal passages, industrial bands were flooding any genre with noise and density, and punk bands were mixing pop and disco with garage rock guitars. With a seemingly infinite audience from a connected world, whatever an artist was willing to make found a home somewhere.
Fever To Tell was a prime example of this new trend. Punk rock in New York City had been going strong since the 1980s, but it needed a shock to the system and a fresh face. Karen O, drummer Brian Chase and guitarist Nick Zinner, were ready for the spotlight. The punk-laced backbone of the record was derived by harnessing the band’s energetic live performances, with art-pop and dance-punk experiments adding to the flavor. The songs on Fever To Tell are infectious; the listener battles the urge to mosh and dance simultaneously, all while being held captive by Karen O’s signature vocal delivery.
As with any retrospective dive into a band’s debut, one of the most interesting elements is our introduction to all of the characters that are part of the band and how their personalities come through their music. What atmosphere is created by those first notes, and what kind of attitude does the vocalist bring to the track? On Fever To Tell, the opening track “Rich” starts off with a slinky yet distorted guitar arpeggio before a driving drum beat picks up. When we first hear Karen O, gorgeous texture and gritty energy soak the vocal delivery as she makes quite a statement to kick off the band’s catalog:
“I’m rich/Like a hot noise/Rich rich rich/I’ll take you out boy/So stuck up/I wish you’d stick in me/Flesh ripped off/Ahhhh….”
The song takes on a driving garage punk vibe, marching along to the command of Karen O’s voice. Punk rock always had a raw feel to the song structure and vocal delivery, but immediately on Fever To Tell, we see Yeah Yeah Yeahs take a new approach. Traditional punk segments are surrounded by pop-like sections of rambling vocal mantras and dreamy guitar arpeggios.
Elsewhere, “Man” harnesses the blues rock vibes of The White Stripes but elevates the punk attitude with Karen O’s wide vocal dynamics. “Tick” is straight out of the late 1960s British pop-rock craze but is again transformed into the modern era with scattered and forceful vocal deliveries. Woven together with the consistency of Karen O’s charismatic, raw vocal presence, Fever To Tell is able to bounce between so many different elements of rock and punk without ever feeling disjointed or messy.
Establishing its presence with a raucous first leg, the album’s true staying power finds its foundation in the back end. “No No No” kicks off in much the same way as the rest of the record, but halfway through the song, the driving punk rhythm comes to a sudden stop. We suddenly hear a dissonant voice shrouded in reverb as a psychedelic array of sporadic drum and bass beats fill the air. The song takes a deep dive into an eerie psychedelic jam reminiscent of early Pink Floyd (and even future The Mars Volta). The transition is pulled off extremely well; the devolving music we hear in the background fits the rest of the record, just warped into a new acid landscape.
The sudden change of pace is the perfect pretense to the song that would define the band for decades to come. “Maps” creeps into the speakers with a soft, yet shimmering guitar. A simple drum beat fills the void, layered with a sliding guitar progression as Karen O sings those iconic lyrics:
“Pack Up/I’m Straight/Enough/Oh say, say, say…/Wait they don’t love you like I love you/Wait they don’t love you like I love you/Maps/Wait they don’t love you like I love you”
“Maps” will always be at the top of any “Best of Indie Rock” list. The tense, angsty rhythms are cleverly surrounded by vocals overflowing with exuberance. You can’t listen to Karen O sing those words and not feel her emotion flowing through you as the track instantly gets stuck in your head. The beauty of this seminal song stems from the overwhelming emotion delivered to the listener via simple, yet well-crafted songwriting.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs helped to define a new generation of music with their legendary debut. The band would be at the forefront of the “indie sleaze” movement; an era of music in the digital age that flipped long-standing genre isolation on its head with contagious mashups of musical styles. These songs are timeless, a notion that is harder to define in the modern technology age.
The success of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ debut would kick start a career leading to four more records and countless world tours. Another iconic moment came from “Heads Will Roll” off their 2009 LP It’s Blitz!. The song has been remixed and reworked by DJs and other musicians ever since its release and will dominate any audience with the killer mantra “Off, off with your head/Dance, dance ‘till you’re dead!”
The indie punk icons never strayed too far from their signature sound crafted on Fever To Tell but rather doubled down on it . Cool It Down features more of an anthemic, summer festival feel to the production, but the raw punk backbone and deliberate vocal delivery shine as bright as ever.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs are about to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their legendary debut with a lengthy world tour. The trek kicks off on May 3 at The Anthem in Washington, DC, and continues with festival appearances all over the world. idobi Radio will be catching their headline set at California’s Just Like Heaven Festival on May 13; check back then to see how Fever To Tell holds up live after 20 years.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs are also marking this special anniversary by releasing a short documentary. The 30-minute film was shot and directed by collaborator Patrick Daughters during the band’s 2002 tour.
Check out the rare footage below.
