In House #1797: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's Some Loud Thunder

Oh, the dreaded sophomore slump, perhaps even more diffcult than getting your debut noticed and subsequently adored is following up that unexpected gem with something that improves upon it. Two notable cases facing this music, as it were, early in 2007 are Montreal's Arcade Fire (Neon Bible drops March 6th), and Brooklyn's Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, each of whom came out of nowhere over the past couple of years to capture hearts and minds. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, as you may recall, are the poster boys for what a band without a label can achieve these days. Their self-titled, self-released debut has at last count sold over 200,000 copies, with the online buzz created largely through the blogosphere propelling them to a national tour, major festival appearances, and a performance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Now, with the release this week of their second album, Some Loud Thunder, the theme appears to be that the blogosphere giveth and the blogosphere taketh away (likely meaning that a solitary blogger somewhere had detracting words for the new effort and everyone else said "Yeah," without hearing much of the music). In any case, it's a different kind of outing, with the distorted low-ends of the title track opener and the deliberately cavalier production values throughout signaling anything but more of the same. It's a bold move for the band to make at this point, the kind of move that a label, even an indie, may have frowned upon. As good a reason as any for why it just might work.

In House #1797.
Airdate: 1/31/07
Focus: New release from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Some Loud Thunder, plus new music from the Arcade Fire, The Shins, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, Cloud Cult, and more.

BONUS MP3s-
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, from Some Loud Thunder:

"Love Song No. 7" (MP3)

"Underwater (You & Me)" (MP3)

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, from Living With the Living (due 3/20):

"The Sons of Cain" (MP3)

PLAYLIST

In House PODCAST #249