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Party
at
Ground
Zero
Yeah Yeah Yeahs show the
hipsters how to feel for real

By Charles Aaron

YOU’RE A ZERO-OHH... No matter how breathily Karen O exhales, or how temptingly the synths drone and swell around her, it’s a curious rallying cry. And as the opening track on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ third album unfolds, it’s unclear whom she’s addressing, where she’s going, or what’s gonna happen when she, or we, arrive. “Get your leather on” is the only real directive. Is this a party, an initiation rite, or a club-kid rendition? But as the band surges to an electro-rock whoop, there’s a profound catch in Karen’s voice: “Get to know whether you’re cryin’, cryin’, cryin’ alone / Can you climb, climb, climb? Oh-ohh,” she entreats. Time to stop pretending, kids.

In many ways, Karen O is the spiritual den mother of the late-aughts Facebook strays who embraced MGMT’s “Time to Pretend” and “Kids” as winkingly misty, Linus-blanket hymns. But like so many

implicated in New York City’s emergence as a stylishly
scruffy rock mecca, and then as a post–Ground Zero
sandbox of retro-kitsch and nü-rave denial, she bailed
(to Los Angeles, coincidentally, where an even more
starfucked version of the same scene was oozing
around culture-hustler Steve Aoki). Now, responding
to the laptop new-wave and neo-disco detritus that
washed up in her wake, Karen’s back, offering a
couch to crash on, but also issuing challenges: The
fog-machine stormer “Heads Will Roll” all but wields
a riding crop. With the Yeahs’ sound
adjusted accordingly (less guitar grit, more
synth sparkle), she’s plainly invigorated
and ready to reclaim the streets she made
(too) safe for ironic headbands and glitter.
It’s been a long-delayed transformation.
As far back as 2004, Karen was working on
a solo album with Squeak E. Clean (a.k.a.
Sam Spiegel, of N.A.S.A.) and told fellow
YYY Nick Zinner that she didn’t want him
contributing guitar. That project stalled,
but for 2006’s poignantly sketchy Show

[RATING

••••••••••

YEAH YEAH YEAHS It’s Blitz!

•••••••••• MYSPACE AMAZON

Trash Classic

ILLUSTRATION BY ALEXANDRA COMPAIN TISSIER

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