Is Is

YEAH YEAH YEAHIS IS

On a long-forgotten hunch I ordered the Yeah Yeah Yeahs self-titled debut EP before it was released in the U.S. By the time it arrived in my mailbox months had passed and I’d moved onto some great new hope that probably felt very significant at the time. It’s called youth, and it’s fickle and fleeting. It’s a time where things always tend to seem much better (or worse) than they really are; Yeah Yeah Yeahs, thankfully, is still as good today as it seemed to younger, happier headphone heads looking for new rock n’ roll heroes.

At only 13 raucous minutes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs was wholly worth the high shipping price and lengthy wait; that says a lot, considering how impulsive my former self was. Until hearing the opening track, “Bang,” for the first time, I could only dream of what it would’ve been like to have bought The Stooges’ Raw Power on the day it was released, only to be blown away completely within the first minute of “Search and Destroy.” “Bang,” and, really, the entirety of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, hit me that hard. I was floored by its high art creativity and, umm, raw power. And while their first full-length album, Fever To Tell, was the best album I heard in 2003, the band seemed best served in small, stiff doses. An EP band if there ever was one. Five years, one other half-assed EP, two albums and a slew of b-sides later and we finally have a proper follow-up with Is Is, the band’s second masterful EP. Just listen to the first minute, I dare ya.

Sounding nothing at all like their previous, slightly disappointing, professionally-produced release, Show Your Bones, Is Is sees the band back in their comfort zone as an under-produced, riot-inducing trio armed with nothing more than a drum kit, a microphone, a self-altered guitar and a whole lot of purposefully outlandish, repulsive outfits. More than anything else this year, Is Is plays out like a true rock n’ roll mutiny, complete with screaming guitars taller than the Sears Tower and the kind of frenzied vocals that only a few people - Iggy Pop and Karen O, to name two - have ever been able to sell.

While O’s presence is always the dominant factor, guitarist Nick Zinner and drummer Brian Chase are not to be overlooked. One of the rare bands around today with an all-star-worthy line-up, Chase’s jazz background offers him the range to hang with Zinner and O’s artsy posture. And Zinner, oooh, Zinner. It’d be a stretch to call him the best guitar player of his day (though many have done just that), but he’s certainly one of the most imaginative, and maybe the loudest. Zinner’s art is not in the way he makes his guitar riff or rock or roll, but how he makes it scream, soar and blare, almost always sounding like a one man army, similar to Tom Morello’s best moments, circa his Rage Against the Machine years. Both Zinner and Chase are as good as ever on Is Is, leaving behind the passive, uninspired sound of Bones (which actually wasn’t too bad of an album) in favor of the attention deficit-friendly fire of Yeahs and Fever.

All the songs on Is Is were featured a few years ago on the band’s Fever To Tell-era tour DVD, Tell Me What Rockers to Swallow. For whatever reason the Yeahs left the nine or so new songs from the DVD behind in favor of a more “Maps”-friendly set. Lucky for Fever fans, most of the best songs from that DVD are here, and they’re bigger and better than ever. “Down Boy” and “Rockers To Swallow” even manage to hit “Bang”-like heights, while “10x10” sounds straight off of Fever. The two remaining tracks, “Kiss Kiss” and “IsIs,” aren’t quite as first-rate, but they’re certainly worth the disc space, especially for fans of loud, epic, resonating guitar riffs.

While Yeah Yeah Yeahs was 90 percent art and fire and 10 percent competence, Is Is is much more balanced, displaying the band’s usual intelligence, though this time their stew is both sophisticated and arty. And, at times, Is Is is an all-out riot, which is just what the Yeahs needed to keep from becoming a flash in the rock pan.  8/10

Written by G. William Locke