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Live Review
by Sam 'Oz' Zabriskie
8-6-2003
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| Yeah Yeahs Yeahs and then back to NYC |
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Live: Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Forum, London
Saturday, June 7, 2003
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – mistel* Matrix propagators
Karen O is flanked by her two band-members for their biggest London show and everything appears to be right in its place and yet, magic is misplaced. As much as ‘Fever To Tell’ is an album that’s given us number of pleasurable hours, it certainly is missing something live. Karen is singing her heart out and looks as sussy as Siouxise Sioux (of ‘… And The Banshees) crossed with Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders) but this is the sound of something… within the industry’s Matrix.
Alas, the best example is Yeah Yeah Yeahs and their debut album, ‘Fever To Tell’, that only managed to enter/peak at No. 22 of the UK’s Top 40. It has simply failed to ignite mass interest despite all the hype, deluge of promos and NME-‘mentoring’ it… The reason is the prolonged and overkill shove that is backed by a very large, Jurassic kinda, beast at the end of its usefulness. The major labels are simply unable to be efficient; the conglomerates work like dinosaurs and find it hard to engage the top (reality) gear.
It might be unforutane for YYY but only last night we saw the unbelievable AFI and this appears to be like a feeble attempt, or a rehearsal. Sex is not enough, attitude – what attitude, are you mistel-ing me? – but a pose. Even Evanscence, that yet have to prove their true worth, at least sound like no-one else in the biz, right now. (Just wait a few months and you’ll have different clones on each label.)
YYY suffered from the same predicament Marilyn Manson did playing London a few days earlier, he did everything expected of him which was precisely the problem; for an intelligent man he is, it is incredible he hasn’t realised that both his music and his performance would benefit from variety and some subtlety. YYY’s additionally started talking of possibly not making their next album; what sort of a f**king pretence is this? We don’t wanna waste taste on part-time wannabe rockers!
Rephrasing John Lennon’s quote from the end of The Beatles’ last show atop Savile Row’s Apple offices, “You haven’t passed the audition!”
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* Mistel is an old Anglo-Saxon word for dung, which makes the origin of mistletoe far from the traditional association with kissing. It actually derives its name from the common belief that the plant was propagated from bird droppings. ‘Toe’ is derived from ‘tan’, meaning twig. So, effectively, it is ‘dung-on-the-twig’.
Sam 'Oz' Zabriskie
8-6-2003
Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ album ‘Fever To Tell’ is available now on Polydor/UMG
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