Time Has Come Today

Last year The Yeah Yeah Yeahs played their first gig. Singer Karen O came out slicked down in oil wearing only heart-shaped pasties on her breasts, and the band played so hard they blew headliners the White Stripes off the stage.

Now, a year later, the band finds itself on a European tour supporting the John Spencer Blues Explosion, on Rolling Stone’s “Next Wave” list, proudly displayed on the lapel of the Strokes’ Julian Casablanas on Saturday Night Live, and in the studio recording their full-length follow-up to their self-titled debut. Oblivious to the media attention, they’ve retained the brutal honesty that comes across in their live show: a mixture of volcanic angst, unpretentious drama, and full on cock rock bravado.

Sonically, the band is a loose cannon. Held up by a powerful rhythm section and fueled on by an average of one hook every eight bars, Karen sings like a girl who just snapped as the rest of the band holds on tight. “We’re babies,” Karen explains. “There’s no way we want to be ‘represented.’ We haven’t been through any shit yet. What you see on stage is what we are.”

What really excites the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is having a fucking great fucking time, preferably drinking tequila and knocking shit over. All in the name of what could be your last night on earth. “What I hate is when you get off stage and you want to go out with your friends, but the rest of the night is anticlimactic,” she says, almost tragically. “I fucking hate that.”

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are so cool to be around - so honest and disarming - that I kind of abandoned this interview halfway through and talked about my family problems and how I have no money for the train sometimes. “I know what you mean,” laments Karen who, like the rest of the band, is as broke as me despite all the media hype. “The collector hates it when you pay for your tokens in nickels and it pisses off everyone in the line too.”

By the time the next year has passed the Yeah Yeah Yeahs will be snorting coke off of crystal coffee tables and eating le Saumon au sel gris, but on the way to the top it’s obvious they are going to keep doing what they love and loving what they do. As their song “Our Time” puts it: “It’s the year to be hated/ So glad that we made it/ It’s our time, sweet baby, to break on through!”

The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s self-titled EP is available on Shifty Records through Revolver distribution, and a full-length is forthcoming. For tour dates in the US and Europe check out www.yeahyeahyeahs.com.