Ulu
London
Words by Marisa Brickman
Photos by Brian Sweeney

There’s hype and then there’s HYPE. And I must say that I wasn’t having any of it when it came to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. In fact, I was intentionally ignoring the CYHSY because of the seemingly obsessive fan base and sudden, unreal success. However, once I actually got around to listening to their self-titled debut (which I couldn’t get through on first listen) repeatedly, it really grew on me (the harmonica and the synthesizers are totally my favorite parts)!

CYHSY nod back to the Talking Heads–it doesn’t take a genius to hear a bit of David Byrne and hurky jerky goodness in there–but they’re also influenced by contemporary acts like the Walkmen and Clinic. But whatever the references, this Brooklyn-based five-piece have managed to sell over 25,000 copies of their self-released debut all on their own. That’s without a label and without a distributor.

I went to go see the band at ULU in Central London and by the time I got there, they were three songs in. The crowd was ultra jam-packed with an eclectic crowd ranging from pimple-faced 16-year-old kids to old grandpas representin’ with grey hair. While they cranked through their songs pretty much just replicating the album, they did add some pink balloons full of feathers. Was it to compensate for the fact that they haven’t quite mastered the art of the slamming rock show?

Regardless, it’s pretty obvious that people dig them! And we just found out they’re playing New Years Eve at Irving Plaza in NYC – 1000 capacity. That’s pretty awesome, right? Yeah!