Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an Americanindie rock band formed in New York City in 2000. The group is composed of vocalist and pianistKaren O (born Karen Lee Orzolek), guitarist and keyboardistNick Zinner, and drummerBrian Chase.^[4] They are complemented in live performances by second guitaristDavid Pajo (formerly ofSlint andTortoise), who joined as a touring member in 2009 and replacedImaad Wasif, who had previously held the role. According to a 2004 interview that aired during their appearance on ABC'sLive fromCentral Park SummerStage series, the band's name was taken from modern New York Cityvernacular.^[5]

Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Yeah Yeah Yeahs in 2006. L–R:Karen O,Brian Chase,Nick Zinner
Background information
Origin	New York City, U.S.
Genres	Garage punk[1] garage rock indie rock art punk[2] dance-punk post-punk revival
Years active	2000–2014 2017–present
Labels	Touch and Go Wichita Interscope Fiction Modular Polydor Secretly Canadian[3]
Members	Karen O Nick Zinner Brian Chase
Website	yeahyeahyeahs.com

The band has recorded five studio albums; the first,Fever to Tell, was released in 2003. The second,Show Your Bones, was released in 2006 and was named the second-best album of the year byNME.^[6] Their third studio album,It's Blitz!, was released in March 2009. All three albums earned the band Grammy nominations for Best Alternative Music Album. Their fourth record,Mosquito, came out in April 2013. In September 2022, they releasedCool It Down, and the album was also nominated for a Grammy award.

Karen Orzolek andBrian Chase first met as students atOberlin College in Ohio in the late 1990s, where Chase was a jazz student at the conservatory. Karen then transferred toNew York University and metNick Zinner, a student atBard College, in a local bar, where they formed an "instant connection". During this time, they also shared a loft with future members of the bandMetric.^[7] Orzolek and Zinner formed an acoustic duo called Unitard but soon decided to "shake things up a bit" by forming a "trashy, punky, grimy" band modeled after the art student,avant-punk bands Karen O was exposed to at Oberlin.^[8] After the drummer they initially recruited bowed out, Chase joined the lineup.

The band wrote a slew of songs at their first rehearsal and soon wound up supportingthe Strokes andthe White Stripes, earning a significant buzz for their arty and garage punk scene. In late 2001, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs released theirself-titled debut EP, which they recorded withBoss Hog's Jerry Teel, on their own Shifty label.^[9] Early the next year, they stepped into the international spotlight, appearing atSXSW, touring the U.S. withGirls Against Boys, and Europe withJon Spencer Blues Explosion, and headlining their own U.K. tour.Wichita Recordings distributed the group's EP in the U.K. andTouch and Go reissued it in the States.^[10]

In 2003, the band released their debut album,Fever to Tell, which received several strong critical reviews and sold more than 750,000 copies worldwide. The album's third single, "Maps", received significant airplay onalternative radio. In 2010,Rolling Stone ranked "Maps" as 386th in their list of the500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The video for their 2004 single "Y Control" was directed bySpike Jonze. In October 2004, the band released their first DVD,Tell Me What Rockers to Swallow. The DVD included a concert filmed atThe Fillmore in San Francisco, all of the band's music videos to date, and various interviews. Later the same year, they were featured inScott Crary's documentaryKill Your Idols.

In November 2009,NME ratedFever to Tell the fifth-best album of the decade.^[11]

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' second album,Show Your Bones, was released on March 28, 2006. Karen O toldonline zineDrowned in Sound, "Show Your Bones is what happens when you put your finger in a light socket", crediting "9-year old antigenius wonder-kid Drake Barrett for the insight."^[12] The first single from the album, "Gold Lion", was released on March 20, 2006, reaching number 18 in theOfficial UK Singles Chart. It has been noted by Leah Greenblatt that "Gold Lion" sounds startlingly similar to "No New Tale To Tell" from 1980s alternative bandLove and Rockets.^[13]

The band toured throughout Europe and the United States during much of 2006, and also helped to curate an edition of the BritishAll Tomorrow's Parties festival.

In December 2006, the album was named second-best album of the year byNME magazine, and "Cheated Hearts" was voted tenth-best song.Rolling Stone magazine namedShow Your Bones the 44th-best album of 2006, whileSpin magazine ranked it number 31 on their 40 best albums of 2006.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs' third EP, titledIs Is, was released on July 24, 2007. It includes 5 previously unreleased songs and a short film, which was recorded and filmed at theGlasslands Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. The songs were written in 2004, during the Fever To Tell tour, and performed live often.^[14] Three of the five tracks were featured on theTell Me What Rockers to Swallow DVD.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' next album was released in March 2009 and titledIt's Blitz!.^[15] The band stated the album sounds different from their previous ones but "still [sounds] like Yeah Yeah Yeahs". It was originally set to be published on April 13, but following aninternet leak on February 22, the band's label, Interscope, pulled the release date closer to reduce the leak's impact.^[16] The album spawned three singles: "Zero", "Heads Will Roll", and "Skeletons".

It's Blitz! was named second-best album of 2009 bySpin Magazine and third-best byNME, along with "Zero" from the album listed as the best track of the year by both.^{[17][18][19][20]}

On December 9, 2011, Karen O reported toNME that she had been working on new music with the band, hinting a new album was possibly in the making.^[21] On January 14, 2013, it was announced via their official Facebook page that the new album would be titledMosquito. It was released on April 16, of the same year.^[22] The album features production byTV on the Radio'sDave Sitek,Nick Launay, and LCD Soundsystem'sJames Murphy.^[23] The first single, "Sacrilege", was released on February 15, 2013.^[24] "Despair" was released as the second single on July 23, 2013.^[25]

In December 2014, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs went on hiatus.^[26] In 2016, the band received writing credits on theBeyoncé single "Hold Up".^[27]

On June 20, 2017, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs announced that they would be headlining the Austin "Sound on Sound" festival on November 10, adding: "Watch for more news coming soon"^[28] The Sound on Sound festival was subsequently cancelled.^[29]

On May 26, 2018, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs played at All Points Festival in Victoria Park, London.^[30]

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs released a deluxe remastering of their debut albumFever to Tell on October 20, 2017, through Interscope / UMe. It features previously unreleased demos, B-sides, and other rarities from the era.^[31]

In a press release, the band announced, "A friend of a friend kept asking if we were ever gonna putFever to Tell out on vinyl as it hasn't been on vinyl in 10 years. That's not right. So here it is on vinyl for the first time in 10 years plus a time capsule of photos, demos (1st ever recorded,) a mini film documenting our near downfall and other fun memorabilia, from the turn of the century NYC, made with love + the usual blood, sweat + tears of Yeah Yeah Yeahs."

To celebrate the reissue, the band performed a small series of shows in October and November atThe Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles, California, theFox Oakland Theatre in Oakland, California, andKings Theatre in Brooklyn, New York.

In June 2022, the band announced that they would be releasing the albumCool It Down on September 30, making it their first record in nine years.^[3] They released the first single, "Spitting Off the Edge of the World", featuringPerfume Genius, on June 1.^[32] On September 29, 2022, the band performed their second single, "Burning", onJimmy Kimmel Live! as part of the show's weeklong residency at theBrooklyn Academy of Music.^[33][34]

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' style has been described as "an art-rock trio who made an edgy post-punk, dancefloor-friendly racket that mixed upBlondie,Pretenders, andSiouxsie and the Banshees".^[2][35]

• Karen O – vocals, piano, keyboards
• Nick Zinner – guitar, bass, keyboards, synthesizers
• Brian Chase – drums, percussion

Antville Music Video Awards

BMI London Awards

Best Art Vinyl

D&AD Awards

Grammy Awards

International Dance Music Awards

Libera Awards

MTV Video Music Awards

MVPA Awards

mtvU Woodie Awards

NME Awards

New York Music Awards

Rober Awards Music Poll

Shortlist Music Prize

UK Music Video Awards

Virgin Media Music Awards

Žebřík Music Awards

Studio albums

• Fever to Tell (2003)
• Show Your Bones (2006)
• It's Blitz! (2009)
• Mosquito (2013)
• Cool It Down (2022)

• Official website
• BBC artist page
• YYY Pins, early list of links to interviews, photos, etc.
• "Yeah Yeah Yeahs: The Love Cats",Exclaim!