Yeasayer have always been a band with an identity crisis. As good as All Hour Cymbals was, it wasn’t the most coherent of works. Whilst the Eastern and African inspired elements were constant throughout, they never seemed sure whether they wanted you to dance, or stroke your chin in a moderately cerebral fashion. New album Odd Blood furrows a similarly schizophrenic path, flitting between ultra-distorted experimentalism and undiluted upbeat pop. But, overall, its charms are more immediate than its predecessor. This move toward the mainstream was always bound to split critical opinion, and certainly the album has attracted both ardent praise and vicious scorn in equal measure.
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Anyone who claims that Odd Blood, the new record from Yeasayer, is all over the map or a tad uneven clearly hasn’t had much exposure to All Hour Cymbals, the bands untamed, genre-blending debut. It’s quite clear they’ve been musically schizophrenic right from the get go. And that unpredictable, unsettled quality was what a lot of listeners gravitated towards and identified with, intrigued by never entirely knowing what the next song was going to sound like. But the scene Yeasayer returns to with their first full-length in three years is noticeably different and perhaps even more jaded than they remember, now even more entrenched in the ‘what have you done for me lately?’ mentality. The multi-generational terrain that the band has mined so successfully over the years has been scorched by overuse, and their 80’s-aping, international sound isn’t quite so unique anymore. But the band is persistent, and, to both good and bad effect, they remain pretty true to their roots while still delivering a mostly fresh, modern twist on a familiar style and sound. Continue Reading

Odd Blood, Yeasayer’s follow up to 2007’s All Hour Cymbals is due out on the 8th day of February in this bright, fresh new year. Peter Bloxham spoke to Ira and Chris about pop music, visual aesthetics and if the American indie music scene has started to lead the way over the British.
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Out of nowhere comes details of a new home AND a new album from New York’s Yeasayer.

They’ve now signed to the Mute label everywhere except North American, where Secretly Canadian will be looking after them.

On top of this, the band have announced a new album, entitled Odd Blood, which will see the light of day on 8th February 2010!

On the 30th October 2009, Yeasayer will be headlining the Guggenheim Museum in NYC and will expand their lighting globe set up in the famed Frank Lloyd Wright rotunda to create a more interactive affair.

If you can’t make the show you will probably be most entertained by visiting these sites that night from 3am (UK time) for surprise details: yeasayer.net | twitter.com/OddBlood |www.myspace.com/yeasayer

Track Listing
1. The Children
2. Ambling Alp
3. Madder Red
4. I Remember
5. O.N.E.
6. Love Me Girl
7. Rome
8. Strange Reunions
9. Mondegreen
10. Grizelda

Photo by Valerio Berdini

Before the imminent release of their corking new album The Century of Self, we made some time for a chat with art-noise supremo Conrad Keely from the band, and got to hear his views on art, science, religion, musical inspiration, the joys of relocating to Brooklyn and much more. Continue Reading

Dark Was The Night is a fundraiser for the Red Hot Organization, an international charity dedicated to raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS, comprising 31 exclusive tracks. Moreover, though, much like a previous Red Hot effort, 1993’s No Alternative (Nirvana, Patti Smith, Sonic Youth, Beastie Boys, Smashing Pumpkins, Pavement, Jonathan Richman), it acts as a snapshot of a certain time and place in North American alternative music (Stuart Murdoch, Devastations, Riceboy Sleeps, Antony Hegarty and Jose Gonzalez company excepted). The record takes in a healthy cross-section of the major players in the scene over the last couple of years; a period of unbridled creativity and critical hosannahs shone upon the music that not so long ago would have been quietly left to fend for its own cult following on the underground. So how do you approach something like this, with no thematic link or stylistic even keel, just a hell of a lot of proven quality intended, as the producers Aaron and Bryce Dessner (of The National) have reinforced, merely as a showcase for “the best in independent music, with an emphasis on traditional themes played and arranged in a contemporary way” (whatever that means)? By throwing traditional review narrative form out of the window and tackling it sequentially, I guess. Continue Reading