Yeasayer () was an American
experimental rock
Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with ...
band from
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, New York, formed in 2006. The band consisted of Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton, and Anand Wilder. They announced their split on December 19, 2019.
History
Formation
The band's three core members, Chris Keating (born ), Ira Wolf Tuton (born ), and Anand Wilder (born ), first came to attention after appearing at the
SXSW
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...
festival in early 2007.
Keating and Wilder had previously met and begun performing together while in high school, at the
Park School of Baltimore
The Park School of Baltimore, known as Park, is a private, coeducational, non-sectarian, progressive day school for children in Pre-Kindergarten (age 4) through grade twelve. Park is located in Brooklandville, Maryland, near the city of Baltimo ...
(the alma mater of fellow experimental musicians
Animal Collective
Animal Collective is an American experimental pop band formed in Baltimore, Maryland. Its members consist of Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Geologist (Brian Weitz), and Deakin (Josh Dibb). The band's work is characterized ...
).
Chris Keating attended
Rhode Island School of Design
The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...
(RISD), graduating from the Film, Animation, Video department in 2004. While attending RISD, Keating started experimenting in playing a new type of musical sound.
He reached out to Anand Wilder and they started playing music together again, eventually forming the band.
''All Hour Cymbals''
The band's lineup is relatively unique, with Keating and Wilder both serving as lead vocalists and principal songwriters and the band producing the songs together as a unit. Wilder, who began playing cello when he was four, described their songwriting styles to
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
: "When I write a song, I'm always thinking of the harmonies; for me the song doesn't really exist without the harmonies. For example, Forgiveness would be a really boring melody without the choir behind it. Chris resisted any formal musical training, but his sense of melody and songcraft is just astounding."
Their first single consisted of a
double A-side
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...
of the tracks "Sunrise" and "2080." Both songs appeared on their debut album ''
All Hour Cymbals
''All Hour Cymbals'' is the debut studio album by Brooklyn-based experimental rock group Yeasayer. It was released by We Are Free on 23 October 2007, and 24 March 2008 in the UK.
Reception
''All Hour Cymbals'' received positive reviews from ...
'', which was released in October 2007 via
We Are Free
In Modern English, ''we'' is a plural, first-person pronoun.
Morphology
In Standard Modern English, ''we'' has six distinct shapes for five word forms:
* ''we'': the nominative (subjective) form
* ''us'' and ': the accusative (objective; ...
. The band has self described their sound as "Middle Eastern-psych-snap-gospel."
Wilder has referenced influences including "
Bollywood
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
soundtracks from the 70s,
Mapfumo
Thomas Tafirenyika Mapfumo (born July 3, 1945) is a musician nicknamed "The Lion of Zimbabwe" and "Mukanya" (the praise name of his clan in the Shona language) for his immense popularity and for the political influence he wields through his mu ...
records, and
Celtic music
Celtic music is a broad grouping of music genres that evolved out of the folk music traditions of the Celtic people of Northwestern Europe. It refers to both orally-transmitted traditional music and recorded music and the styles vary considerab ...
."
[ Many critics described the album as having "spiritual" influences. Wilder expanded on this in an interview, stating: "When you lack any specific religion, you become open to all sorts of religious music. And I think everyone can agree that some of the most beautiful music ever written was done so in the name of God or gods."][
While supporting their debut album, the band became well known for their live performances, which often include psychedelic visuals. In 2008, Yeasayer toured with ]MGMT
MGMT () is an American indie rock band formed in 2002 in Middletown, Connecticut. It was founded by multi-instrumentalists Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser. Alongside VanWyngarden and Goldwasser, MGMT's live lineup currently consists of ...
and Man Man
Man Man is an American experimental rock band from Philadelphia currently based in Los Angeles. Their multi-instrumental style is centered on the piano playing of lead singer, songwriter, and lyricist Honus (Ryan Kattner). Honus is accompanied ...
and supported Beck
Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi music, lo-fi style, and became ...
. The same year they performed a public a cappella
''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...
concert, "Take Away Show", on the Paris metro
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Sin ...
. The band also played at Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza (Lolla) is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991 but several years later made Chicago the permanent location for the annual music festival. Musi ...
, the Pitchfork Music Festival
The Pitchfork Music Festival is an annual summer music festival organized by ''Pitchfork Media'' and held in Union Park in Chicago, Illinois. Starting in 2011, the festival announced a branch staged in Paris at Grande halle de la Villette. The fe ...
, the Austin City Limits Festival
The Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival is an annual music festival held in Zilker Park in Austin, Texas on two consecutive three-day weekends. Inspired by the KLRU/ PBS music series of the same name, the festival is produced by Austin-base ...
, Bonnaroo
The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an American annual four-day music festival developed and founded by Superfly Presents and AC Entertainment. Since its first year in 2002, it has been held at what is now Great Stage Park on a farm in M ...
, Sasquatch! Music Festival
Sasquatch! Music Festival was an annual music festival held at The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington, United States. It took place on Memorial Day weekend, running for three to four days.
In 2018, it was announced that the festival was ...
, and the Reading and Leeds Festivals
The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Festiv ...
. In 2009, Yeasayer contributed "Tightrope" to the AIDS benefit album ''Dark Was the Night'' produced by the Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization (RHO) is a not-for-profit, 501(c) 3, international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture.
Since its inception in 1989, over 400 artists, producers and directors have contributed to over 15 compilati ...
.
''Odd Blood''
Backed by labels Secretly Canadian
Secretly Canadian is an American independent record label based in Bloomington, Indiana, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin. Secretly Canadian is a label included in Secretly Group, which ...
and Mute Records
Mute Records is a British independent record label owned and founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller. It has featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Einstürzende Neubauten, Fad Gadget, Goldfrapp, Grinderm ...
, Yeasayer released their second studio album, ''Odd Blood
''Odd Blood'' is the self- produced second studio album by American experimental rock band Yeasayer. Recorded in the state of New York during 2009, it was released on February 8, 2010 in Europe and a day later in North America, with Secretly Canad ...
'', in February 2010, featuring more pop music influences than earlier work. The band addressed the changes sonically in an in depth interview with ''The Quietus
''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics.
Content
''The Quiet ...
'', with Wolf Tuton stating: "I think the similar influences are there, but we have not focused on the same tones. We also wanted to focus on 90s dance music and production-wise get the low end thumping a little bit better. We also wanted to be more concise with our song writing and arrangement." Keating continued, "The first album was such a wall of noise and we couldn’t do anymore with it so we tried to strip it away ... Creatively it was a departure and it was a challenge to try and do it and simplify ... it was ... fun to try and not hide behind the haze."[
In February 2010, Yeasayer first appeared on the cover of ''The FADER'' in its 66th issue.
The album was well received critically and commercially, with high placements on several notable year end best album lists including '']Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'', ''Spin
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning
* Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis
* Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...
'', and '' Under the Radar''. In January 2011, The Hype Machine
Hype Machine is a music blog aggregator created by Anthony Volodkin.
History
Hype Machine was originally a music database created in 2005 by Anthony Volodkin, then a sophomore computer science major at Hunter College.Heilemann, JohCapturing the ...
named Yeasayer the most blogged artist of 2010. Songs from ''Odd Blood'' were featured on several TV shows and films, including '' 90210'', ''America's Next Top Model
''America's Next Top Model'' (abbreviated ''ANTM'' and ''Top Model'') is an American reality television series and interactive competition in which a number of aspiring models compete for the title of "America's Next Top Model" and a chance to b ...
'', ''The Good Wife
''The Good Wife'' is an American legal and political drama television series that aired on CBS from September 22, 2009, to May 8, 2016. It focuses on Alicia Florrick, the wife of the Cook County State's Attorney, who returns to her career in law ...
'', and the 2012 film ''Pitch Perfect
''Pitch Perfect'' is a 2012 American musical comedy film directed by Jason Moore and written by Kay Cannon. It features an ensemble cast, including Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Skylar Astin, Anna Camp, Brittany Snow, Hana Mae Lee, Alexis Knap ...
''.
The band toured extensively behind ''Odd Blood,'' with appearances at several major festivals, including Coachella Music Festival
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (commonly called the Coachella Festival or simply Coachella) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert ...
, the Dutch Pinkpop
The Pinkpop Festival is an annual music festival held at Landgraaf, Netherlands. It is usually held on the Pentecost weekend (''Pinksteren'' in Dutch, hence the name). If Pentecost falls on an early date in May, the festival is held later in June. ...
and Lowlands festival
A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise (commonly called Lowlands or Lowlands Festival), is an annual three-day music and performing arts festival, held in the Netherlands. The festival is held east of Amsterdam in Biddinghuizen, at Spijk en Brem ...
, Latitude Festival
The Latitude Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Henham Park, near Southwold, Suffolk, England. It was first held in July 2006 and has been held every year since, apart from 2020, when it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 ...
in England, and the Australian music festival Splendour in the Grass, where they were asked by the organizers of Laneway Festival to return and play in 2011.
In April 2011, Yeasayer released ''End Blood
''End Blood'' is a two-track EP by Brooklyn-based experimental rock group Yeasayer. It was released by the record label We Are Free on 16 April 2011 for Record Store Day on an exclusive 7" vinyl format, and subsequently released digitally on 3 Ma ...
'' in participation with Record Store Day which the band described as "two ideas that didn't fit on ''Odd Blood
''Odd Blood'' is the self- produced second studio album by American experimental rock band Yeasayer. Recorded in the state of New York during 2009, it was released on February 8, 2010 in Europe and a day later in North America, with Secretly Canad ...
''".
''Fragrant World''
In May 2011, the band premiered their brand new song "Devil and the Deed" on Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for having hosted late-night talk shows for almost 28 years, beginning with ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' (19 ...
's late night talk show. During their subsequent tour of North America, the band played this song at shows along with two other new tunes, "Demon Road" and "Henrietta". All three of these songs appeared on the final track listing for the band's next album.
On August 21, 2012, Yeasayer released ''Fragrant World
''Fragrant World'' is the third studio album by American psychedelic pop band Yeasayer, released on August 21, 2012, on Secretly Canadian.
Critical reception
The album has received a provisional score of 71 from Metacritic indicating "generally ...
''. The band leaked the album version of "Henrietta" directly to 200 random fans by mailing them physical CDs. On where the inspiration for leaking the single directly to fans rather than via traditional channels came from, Keating stated: "I think #1, it's hard to do something secretive in the oversharing, Instagramming culture that we live in, so I liked the idea of a musical object you send to people ... I was actually interested to see if no one would share it at all. I thought that would be really cool. But I guess that doesn't happen anymore. Like 10 seconds after the first dude got the first envelope, I think he was in Belgium or the Netherlands or something, that guy was sharing it, and there it goes." The rest of the album was leaked via an online scavenger hunt where the band gave fans clues as to where each song and an accompanying visual directed by Yoshi Sodeoka could be found. To further promote the album, Yeasayer performed single "Longevity" on ''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by comedian Jimmy Fallon.[ About pag ...](_blank)
'' the night before its commercial release.
In much the same way that ''Odd Blood'' was a departure from ''All Hour Cymbals'', ''Fragrant World'' saw the band continuing to expand their sound. According to Wolf Tuton, while ''Odd Blood'' featured pop influences, ''Fragrant World'' deliberately shied away from them: "If the tone of something veered too closely to a random pop song or to something on our previous records, we’d immediately steer it in a different direction. It’s easy to swerve back into your comfort zone without even realizing it, so we were very conscious of trying to stay away from that and take this into some different sonic direction." Wilder confirmed this, stating: "The music, the rhythms are a little bit more abstract. We allowed ourselves to experiment more, not really worrying about making the most catchy, anthemic pop songs for the Lollapalooza crowd ... We definitely wanted it to be a little bit darker than the last record."
Although the band began the touring before the album's formal release, the set list for shows during this cycle consisted of many tracks from ''Fragrant World.'' The band worked to rearrange older songs so that they would fit better in the set, with Keating saying the main thing the band asked themselves in rehearsals was "What could we do to make an obvious change but still preserve the integrity of the song, and to give the song new life not just for us but also for the audience?"[ The band partnered with ]Casey Reas
Casey Edwin Barker Reas (born 1972), also known as C. E. B. Reas or Casey Reas, is an American artist whose conceptual, procedural and minimal artworks explore ideas through the contemporary lens of software. Reas is perhaps best known for having ...
and The Creators Project to develop an interactive set for the Fragrant World tour. The set consisted of mirrored prism-like structures that "utilize elements of reflection and refraction to produce an immersive, multi-layered experience that ... subsume audiences in color and light."[
On June 21, 2013, the band posted a message on their ]Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
page that they were going to be working on their fourth album after the end of the summer. Wilder later confirmed this in a July 2013 interview, stating that the band had already started writing and plans to enter the studio this winter.
On November 12, 2013, the band released ''Good Evening, Washington D.C.'', a collection of live tracks recorded at the 9:30 Club.
''Amen & Goodbye''
On January 7, 2016 the band announced that they would release their album called '' Amen & Goodbye'' on April 1, 2016. They also released a video for the song " I Am Chemistry".
On February 10, 2016 Yeasayer released a music video that explored the set on which the album art was shot, as well as new single "Prophecy Gun." The music video included sculptures of public figures such as Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
, Caitlyn Jenner
Caitlyn Marie Jenner (born William Bruce Jenner; October 28, 1949) is an American media personality and retired Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete.
Jenner played college football for the Graceland Yellowjackets before incurring a kne ...
, and Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
, and was described by the band as "Sgt. Pepper
''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Released on 26May 1967, ''Sgt. Pepper'' is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the roles of sound composi ...
meets Hieronymous Bosch
Hieronymus Bosch (, ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch/Netherlandish painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on oak ...
meets Dali meets Pee-Wee's Playhouse
''Pee-wee's Playhouse'' is an American television series starring Paul Reubens as the childlike Pee-wee Herman that ran from 1986 to 1990 on Saturday mornings on CBS, and airing in reruns until July 1991. The show was developed from Reubens's po ...
."
On March 2, 2016 the band released the third single "Silly Me," a track with a decidedly more pop inspired sound described by the trio as being "from a different spectrum."
''Erotic Reruns''
On April 10, 2019 the band announced their fifth album ''Erotic Reruns
''Erotic Reruns'' is the fifth and final studio album by American experimental rock band Yeasayer. It was released on June 7, 2019 through the band's own label, Yeasayer Records. Recorded between 2016 and 2019 the album was self produced by the b ...
''. The album was released on June 7, 2019 via their own Yeasayer Records.
Split
The band announced it had split via its social media accounts on December 19, 2019, with the statement: “We have decided that Yeasayer has reached its end.”
Influences
Yeasayer's leader Chris Keating stated he got "a lot of inspiration and lyrics from books that I've read, poetry, or lines from a movie. Art is a constant back and forth, everyone is responding to someone else. Every song that you think is an original idea, someday you’re going to come across something in a children’s book that has the exact words you heard in your favorite song on the radio. Art is constantly curating this vast history of music, art and literature." Keating has cited as other music genres and artists that inspired him, Mystikal
Michael Lawrence Tyler (born September 22, 1970), better known by his stage name Mystikal, is an American rapper.
Early life and education
Tyler grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana's 12th Ward. His father, who ran a small neighborhood store, d ...
, Siouxsie and the Banshees
Siouxsie and the Banshees were a British rock band formed in London in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bass guitarist Steven Severin. They have been widely influential, both over their contemporaries and with later acts. ''Q'' magazine in ...
, Talk Talk
Talk Talk were an English band formed in 1981, led by Mark Hollis (vocals, guitar, piano), Lee Harris (drummer), Lee Harris (drums), and Paul Webb (bass). The group achieved early chart success with the synth-pop singles "Talk Talk (Talk Talk s ...
, Dead Can Dance
Dead Can Dance are an Australian music duo first established in Melbourne. Currently composed of Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry, the group formed in 1981. They relocated to London the following year. Australian music historian Ian McFarlane des ...
and classical music.
Discography
*''All Hour Cymbals
''All Hour Cymbals'' is the debut studio album by Brooklyn-based experimental rock group Yeasayer. It was released by We Are Free on 23 October 2007, and 24 March 2008 in the UK.
Reception
''All Hour Cymbals'' received positive reviews from ...
'' (2007)
*''Odd Blood
''Odd Blood'' is the self- produced second studio album by American experimental rock band Yeasayer. Recorded in the state of New York during 2009, it was released on February 8, 2010 in Europe and a day later in North America, with Secretly Canad ...
'' (2010)
*''Fragrant World
''Fragrant World'' is the third studio album by American psychedelic pop band Yeasayer, released on August 21, 2012, on Secretly Canadian.
Critical reception
The album has received a provisional score of 71 from Metacritic indicating "generally ...
'' (2012)
*'' Amen & Goodbye'' (2016)
*''Erotic Reruns
''Erotic Reruns'' is the fifth and final studio album by American experimental rock band Yeasayer. It was released on June 7, 2019 through the band's own label, Yeasayer Records. Recorded between 2016 and 2019 the album was self produced by the b ...
'' (2019)
References
External links
*
*
*
{{Authority control
Musical groups established in 2006
Musical groups disestablished in 2019
Musical groups from Brooklyn
Mute Records artists
Rock music groups from New York (state)
Rhode Island School of Design alumni in music
Secretly Canadian artists