Release Date: 07.24.07
I would never want to meet Karen O in a back alley. As interesting, yes interesting, of a performer as I find her, she scares the shit out of me. (Anyone remember this little ditty?) Regardless of my ever-present fear of Ms. O, I do dig their music and was happy to see that the New York threesome have returned with their art punk rock on a small EP, Is Is.
The release is comprised of five songs that were originally written in 2004 during the Fever To Tell tour, and were performed often during that stint. Kicking things off with the brash “Rockers To Swallow,” Nicolas Zinner’s guitar chugs along while Karen O’s vocals shred. “Down Boy,” the best track on the release, follows and builds into a provocative chorus with blazing electric guitars. I’d love to hear a remix of this… Shy Child, are you listening?
The more straightforward “Kiss Kiss” is energetic and intense as is the title track, “Is Is.” “10×10″ starts off slow, but finally gets in gear about halfway through with aggressive guitars and crashing drums. That’s when it becomes a great song.
While it would be nice to actually have some new material from the trio, Is Is makes a nice companion piece to the rest of our Yeah Yeah Yeahs collection. If nothing else, at least we have real recordings of these tracks rather than a crappy bootlegged version. Now if we could only find the peeps we knew that showed up to the video shoot.
