Cage the Elephant, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, CSS, Roky Erickson & The Explosives, The Roots

CAGE THE ELEPHANT
This quintet from Bowling Green, Kentucky dubs its sound rock ‘n’ roll/punk funk and cranks out fast, hard and catchy tunes you can physically feel — and they feel good. Cage the Elephant’s recorded tracks emit so much energy you could substitute them for your morning Red Bull. With acts like The Roots playing around the same time, it could be a tough call, but do yourself this one favor: try something new and exciting this Lollapalooza. (Saturday, 4:15-5:00, BMI Stage) –text: Jen Fischer–photo: Sharjo / The Pound Gallery

CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH
Alec Ounsworth and company may not be the first band to credit their success to the internet, nor are Clap Your Hands Say Yeah the internet’s most successful spawn, but they are, at the very least, one of indie rock’s most acclaimed cyber warriors. Taking the “Do It Yourself” motto to heart, CYHSY is the equivalent of a self-taught Northwestern University grad. Their self-titled, self-released debut album mixed Talking Heads-esque crooning with Yo La Tengo-like beats to create a primal sound that resonated with both angst-ridden suburbanites and pretentious hipsters alike. Like many bands that exploded onto the scene on the back of the internet’s immediacy, CYHSY faced a steep mountain to climb when producing their sophomore album, Some Loud Thunder. It is a daunting task to keep a level head in the midst of such chaos and fame, but so far it seems that CYHSY are still doing okay. They’ve officially crossed the musical chasm and survived — for one more record at least. (Saturday, 4:30-5:30, AT&T Stage) –text: James H. Ewert Jr.–photo: Mattias Elgemark

CSS
Cansei de Ser Sexy (meaning “tired of being sexy”) consists of five art school girls and a multi-instrumentalist gay music producer from Brazil. If you missed the party ’til now, their self-titled Sub Pop debut was probably the funnest album of last year, with of-the-moment jams like “Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death from Above” and post-electroclash dance-punk invitations to suck on their art-holes. (Saturday, 5:00-6:00, Citi Stage) –text: ELR–photo: Mariana Juliano

ROKY ERICKSON & THE EXPLOSIVES
It’s hard to tell whether it was the marijuana and LSD or the thorazine and electro-shock he received in a Texas mental health facility while dodging a prison sentence for drug possession that made Roky Erickson’s schizophrenia manifest itself. All that’s clear is that Roky will always be best-known for being crazy, which is a shame, since his song “You’re Gonna Miss Me” was one of the first (and best) songs from the psychedelic era. Since then, he’s been in and out of treatment facilities, writing songs about love, demons, aliens, and a whole cache of b-movie monsters. Throughout the seventies, his music laid the blueprints for heavy metal and the type of country-tinged arena rock that made CCR and Skynyrd kick so much ass. His appearance at Lollapalooza will be just his second in Chicago in over 30 years. (Saturday, 5:00-6:00, PlayStation Stage) –text: ELR

YTHE ROOTS
Since MC Black Thought and drummer ?uestlove met in a Philly high school in the late ’80s, the core of The Roots has dropped severally critically acclaimed albums and racked up a slew of Grammy awards and nominations, cementing their status as the pioneers of socially conscious hip-hop. They’ve also prided themselves on their live performance; 1994′s Do You Want More?!!??! was produced without any samples and their collaboration with Cody Chestnutt on “The Seed (2.0)” is the quintessential example of their live instrumentation-rap fusion. Their most serious album Game Theory, released last year on Jay-Z’s Def Jam, touched upon the fucked up state of America with rhymes such as “It looks real fucked up for your next of kin/that’s why I don’t rhyme for the sake of riddlin.” This year’s Lollapalooza set brings them full circle — in 1995, they killed the second stage. (Saturday, 4:30-5:30, Bud Light Stage) –text: Dorothy Hernandez–photo: Justin Francis of Saline Project

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

I like the idea of withdrawing from the standard logic which has dictated the music industry through the years…There’s a lot to be said for security for certain people. But as far as I’m concerned, it’s much more interesting and exciting to not know what could happen.

story by Don Bartlett
photo by Mattias Elgemark

In the brave new world of modern music, days are the new months. New bands burn through their life cycle in a fraction of the time of eras past, creating a strange and chiefly disingenuous climate in which bands can rise to prominence and peak before even releasing an album. Perhaps no band understands this new era more than Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, one of the most hyped bands of recent years which is already experiencing a backlash — even without a record label pushing their product and even before their first national tour. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s self-titled, self-released debut dropped in late summer 2005 and spread like wildfire throughout the indie community on the strength of its catchy and refreshingly endearing sound. By the time of New York City’s CMJ Music Marathon in early October, they had been anointed the second coming of Christ long enough that the trend-monkeys were already scoffing at the notion of seeing such a “mainstream” band. This sort of cred-sniping has been around as long as music itself, but could a band really be born and eaten by their young in just 60 days time?

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah arrived on the scene just as the music industry was approaching a critical mass of sorts. The structures that held the business together had been crumbling for the past few years while new ones were quietly being constructed. In the traditional model, musicians needed labels for three primary reasons. First of all, they would bankroll the recording process, something that was prohibitively expensive for most bands. Secondly, labels provided money for promotion…magazine ads, giveaways, websites, and other luxuries a band could never afford. Lastly, record labels had ties to major distribution networks, so that when a band from Brooklyn breaks big, the guy in L.A. can find their record in his local store. Taken together, these factors made a label a virtual necessity for a band to achieve any level of success.

By the time CYHSY showed up, the landscape looked vastly different. The advance of PC-based home recording meant that a band could record their own material in the basement for a few grand. Traditional marketing channels continued their march towards obsolescence, replaced by inexpensive DIY options like myspace.com, e-mail, and music blogs. There was a new breed of music media that based their coverage on merit, rather than how much advertising revenue a label pumped into a magazine. It was becoming harder and harder for a label to justify the large chunk they were taking out of a band’s sales. Yet the one nut that no one had cracked was getting around the labels’ powers of distribution. CYHSY frontman Alec Ounsworth and band thought they’d give it a shot.

As it happened, the burgeoning hipster backlash at CMJ didn’t have legs. At show time there were not one, but two enormous lines spewing out of New York’s Mercury Lounge in opposite directions down the block. They didn’t exactly blow the doors off in a live setting that night, but the record remained one of the freshest sounding debuts in years, and fans and critics alike were crowding onto the bandwagon. Their quirky brand of pop draws endless comparisons to The Talking Heads that are hard to argue with, but the album is much too direct and melodic to take that comparison quite literally. Ounsworth’s vocals display a brash, almost nasal tone that you’d despise if it didn’t sound so goddamn good. (If only they had restrained themselves from including the title track which leads off the record. Think of a rural circus on all the wrong drugs, and you’re close. The legions of music fans who like their iPod on shuffle should file a class action against any band that dares to include such a track. Blissfully, it is the only real misstep on a record that is filled with gems.) It was clear very quickly that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah had a winner on their hands, and the music industry knew it. Suddenly a band that was still making trips to the post office to ship their CDs was being courted by the industry’s biggest names.

With a deep confidence in their record and perhaps a touch of innocent naiveté, Ounsworth and his bandmates politely declined the offers and stuck to the DIY path that had gotten them this far. In a move that may well turn out to be the blueprint for future generations, the band signed directly with a major distribution company, functionally breaking the last stranglehold of major labels. In a recent interview with Chicago Innerview, Ounsworth demurred when asked if that was his plan all along.

“I don’t think the idea was fully formed at the time. I did have a vague position that I may want to approach things in a particular way, but was idealistic…kind of a fantasy. It was fueled by an idea of maintaining a certain degree of independence…I think that I was lucky enough that one thing led to another,” he continues. “We recorded the album and released the album as something that you can either take it or leave it, and that’s the way it should be. That’s really the bottom line. I mean, what are we talking about when we’re talking music, when we’re talking about an album? We’re talking about what intrigues us on a level that has nothing to do with anything but the album itself. We didn’t give it up to people and what they think. And that’s all there is to it. It was important to do that.”

Ounsworth claims a degree of ambivalence when asked about the implications of his move on the industry as a whole. He is tentative to speak for anyone other than himself, but it’s clear that he understands the concepts at stake. “I don’t quite understand the industry, and I try not to,” the singer explains. “But to do the distribution deal…I like the idea of withdrawing from the standard logic which has dictated the music industry through the years. Right now, it seems pretty obvious that there needs to be some sort of withdrawal and I think that’s the only way anybody should conduct themselves.”

The singer readily admits to being tempted by the offers being thrown at the band. Thick wads of currency have a way of making people’s principles a bit shaky, especially musicians who have been practicing their craft in poverty and obscurity for years. In the end, though, Ounsworth had the balls to put his money where his mouth was. Every band talks smack about labels…until one of them finally comes calling. Suddenly they can’t find a pen fast enough to sign away their next five records. CYHSY believed in their music and felt that once they signed, that it would no longer be completely theirs.

“There’s a lot to be said for security for certain people. But as far as I’m concerned, it’s much more interesting and exciting to not know what could happen. I mean sure, yeah, there were some offers that kind of suggested that we needed that. Then you think, ‘wait, what does that mean exactly?’ You’re set on that level, but are you really set? As far as I’m concerned success means actually living from moment to moment, working from moment to moment, not looking down the line and saying ‘I’m set for x amount of years’.”

In the end, Ounsworth may end up being indie rock’s own little version of Oprah. Now I’m none too pleased to be writing about the woman who brought us legions of squealing sycophants intoxicated with pashminas and Dr. Phil, but she taught everyone a thing or two about having the balls to turn down the early payday. Goddamn, I’m even more uncomfortable talking about Oprah’s balls, but I think you get the point. If Ounsworth keeps writing songs like these, he’ll be “set for x amount of years” and then some, and he’ll do it because he had the confidence and determination to create his music the way he wanted it…within his own brave new world.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah :: with The Brunettes :: Metro :: April 3.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Idlewild, Social Distortion, The National

CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah might be a strange name for a band, and while being from New York may be redundant, these guys are truly doing something different. First of all, the band released their self-titled debut themselves. As of this writing they currently are not signed to a label, but that’s about to change. The buzz on them started out as word of mouth around New York and once the critics heard the album, the buzz began to gain more momentum than Tom Cruise’s ego. Luckily, they live up to the hype. Lead singer Alex Ounsworth sounds like David Byrne if Byrne was going through a Peter Brady transformation. With their punk/new wave sensibilities, comparisons to the arty-ness of the Heads is obvious, but their convivial blend of harmonies and occasional strangeness spawn an affable uniqueness as they vie for cult status. One of the most highly anticipated Schubas shows in quite some time. (Appearing with The National at Schubas at 10:30 pm on Sept. 23. The National will play an early show at 7 pm) –text: Garin Pirnia–photo: Jasper Coolidge

IDLEWILD
Since 1995, this Edinburgh quintet has steadily climbed out from the Scottish underground where they financed their first 7-inch with college loans. Idlewild’s second album, 100 Broken Windows, borrowed from early R.E.M. and was crowned Spin’s “Number One Album You Didn’t Hear in 2002.” Parlaying the hype, they toured incessantly with many of their idols, playing Robin to big league Bat-bands like U2, Pearl Jam, and the Stones. Sadly, the lads peaked early and have gradually replaced the distorted guitars and rangy vocals with slower, melodic releases like 2002′s The Remote Part. On this year’s Warnings/Promises, they alter time signatures between radio-ready singles and pedal steel dust-ups, chasing the elusive quest of trans-Atlantic success. Although recently voted the third-best Scottish band of all time (behind Travis and Belle & Sebastian) by their native press, Idlewild will need more than a studio spit shine from Warnings producer Tony Hoff (Beck, Air) to earn space on many Yankee iPod shuffles. (Appearing at Metro on Sept. 22) –text: Sean Foran–photo: Danny Clinch

SOCIAL DISTORTION
Mike Ness looks like an auto mechanic from the shitty part of town. He seems as likely to take a swing at you as he is to take an interest. He’s a jailbird who’s ingested more drugs than most cancer patients. And he writes music as uplifting as a hydraulic jack. The lead singer and primary songwriter for veteran punk outfit Social Distortion’s trials are well known, perhaps more so than his recent sober work, which wraps heroic-outsider lyrics around a bluesy/punk cadence that is immediately recognizable as his own. From “Angel’s Wings,” off 2005′s Sex, Love and Rock ‘n’ Roll: “I triumphed in the face of adversity/And I became the man I never thought I’d be/And now my biggest challenge, a thing called love/I guess I’m not as tough as I thought I was.” If you don’t listen closely, Ness’ messages can get lost in the heavy crunch of distorted guitars. But that only makes them more poignant and more valuable, like salvation after a shitty start. (Appearing at House of Blues from Sept. 23-25) –text: Chris McNamara

THE NATIONAL
Cincinnati-come-Brooklyn band The National finally received some much deserved attention with their third full-length release, Alligator. The quintet consisting of two sets of brothers and lead singer Matt Berninger formed in the late ’90s and released their first album in 2001. Their 2003 album, Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers, focused on alt-country melodies, while the new album is more rock-centric. Berninger’s earnest and intense vocals (he sounds like the singer from Crash Test Dummies) elevate the songs ranging from laconic narratives about the melancholy of people and places to more anthemic rock tunes. Highlights on Alligator include the apologetic “Baby, We’ll Be Fine” and the ecstatic energy of “Abel.” The National seem to subscribe to the “misery loves company” adage, but the music never becomes too moody and at times can be inspirational as the band progresses with more musical assurance and deftly-structured songs. (Appearing at Schubas on Sept. 23 for two shows at 7 and 10:30 pm. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah will open the late show) –text: Garin Pirnia–photo: Sonya Kolowrat