Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah

Anyone who has had a chance to peep my music collection, knows that I have a very deep appreciation for the Talking Heads. I became familiar with them at a very young age when their videos for "Burning Down the House" and later "Wild Wild Life" were on heavy rotation on MTV...

It wasn't until I was in my teens when I sought out their earlier works, specifically their debut album (and in my opinion their finest hour): Talking Heads:77, that I really began to appreciate them.

A few months ago, while on a road trip to Dayton, Ohio... I picked up the a self titled debut record by a Brooklyn based band called Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah. I read in several write ups that their sound was very similar to that of the Talking Heads. I naturally became a bit dismissive... but opted to pick up the disc when I couldn't find anything else at the record store.

On my drive back to Detroit, I threw the album on for almost the entire duration of my trip back home. While many have lazily pointed out the David Byrne/Talking Head similarities (the D. Byrne ones by the way are spot on... vocally a first time listener will wonder if D. Byrne is fronting the band or not @ times) I think that ClapYourHands have unjustly been painted into a box. Hailing from the same city and having a angular sound doesn't help... but the soundscapes and structures are very different from the Talking Heads. To me they remind me very much of New Order... (listen to: The Skin of my Yellow Country Teeth and tell me other wise)

The album is possibly the finest effort I've picked up in 2005 and one of the better debuts I've picked up in recent years. I highly recommend checking out their website and picking their album.

Here's an MP3 of one of their more TalkingHeadesque tracks:Over and Over Again (Lost and Found)

.Resaca City Rollie.