Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Is Is (EP) -- Review

Ayo, dun, I feel like Henry Bemis up in this piece! Where did everybody go?*

Anyway, between marathon bouts of sex and Nintendo DS (the latter is not a running gag; that shit be callin' me like the crack be callin' Pookie), I managed to peep the Yeah Yeah Yeahs new EP, Is Is. And because lead singer Karen O is a Psychedelic Homegirl, I thought I'd post a review...right after I finish the Forest of Doom stage in Castlevania.

(Still playing)

Back!

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs debut, Fever to Tell, is, like sex with your younger sister (yours, not mine), both naughty and intriguing. It's also a testament of frenetic guitargasm the likes of which I'm still awaiting Nick Zinner -- aka Psychedelic Doppelganger -- to top.

I am a patient man, after all. But waiting 3 years for the YYYs to follow up Fever was trying, dog. I found myself scouring Geocities and shit, hoping to glean more about a group, which, at the time, was being all JD Salinger as far as releasing records goes. Hell, The White Stripes make a new album every weekend compared to these cats. Karen O was getting Image Comics on my ass.

Then Show Your Bones was released, and for half a day I was content. A tight little package, that was; but it left me wanting more, and I knew more wasn't coming anytime soon. Word to Reese Peanut Butter Cups and Munchos.

When I was in the hospital with Japanese encephalitis, however, I prayed to any deity who would listen -- props, Ninhursag -- that the YYY would sate my need for new material before I was consumed with madness. Praise that Sumerian goddess, 'cause this month the Yeah Yeah (motherfucking) Yeahs dropped an EP on your stinkin' asses. I can now rest in Resse's Pieces.

Is it guten? Definitely. Guitars, Karen O shouting (missing: screeching), propulsive drums...the team's all here. But maybe it's the EP's brief running time that turns me into a nitpicker. Containing five tracks in total, 4 are album worthy (sorry, Kiss Kiss, you're riding pine), yet still I don't feel sated. Is Is is -- apologies for redundancy -- a great little treat; it's just too bad that this is the last we'll hear from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs until, by my estimation, 2010. (word to the Watchmen film and the Vancouver Winter Olympics) I hope I'm wrong.

But I never am. Rarely.

_____


* Roll Call:

IDJ: on strike. Check.

K-Hot: composing the 2nd half of the greatest piece of Samurai fiction never told (hurry up; I'm dying to see how it reads. Don't miss a single detail). Check.

T Meat Hammer: Where you at? (Besides bound for glory, I mean.)

Denz Justifies the Means: that nick alone is worthy of a post. C'mon, doctor, I got a fever, and the remedy is Vitamin D.

Invisible Girl: no pressure, but K-Hot and I have you a 5-to-one favorite for beating Idealjetsam's record of posting twice in a calendar year. Don't let us down, hot stuff.