Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Twin Canadians: The Connection

In my admittedly belated review of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs album Fever to Tell (which I posted early last year), I mentioned how Karen O managed to pull-off uncanny impressions of Siouxsie Sioux and Chrissie Hynde. I bring it up again now because (1) As always, any mention of Karen O or the Yeahs will automatically increase my hit-count by 40%, and (2) The new Yeahs single, called "Gold Lion" is out now.


(Obligatory YYY pic guaranteed to increase web hits)

First, let me say that "Gold Lion" is a brilliant song, and I absolutely love it. I usually prefer to have the context of an album before I make such proclimations (Show Your Bones, the forthcoming YYY album, drops March 28), but "Gold Lion" could be my favorite Yeah Yeah Yeahs song. It doesn't sound like Siouxsie and the Banshees, or The Pretenders, or anything else on Fever to Tell.

In fact, it sounds exactly like Tegan and Sara.

Right. So, is it actually a good thing that Karen O and the Yeahs can sound like so many other bands? I really don't know. I do know that Rock music desperately needs Karen O right now, since she is basically the only one in the genre who is flying the female flag and getting major airplay. So I can't criticize her too much. Hell, I'm as mesmerized by her as most people seem to be.

Therefore, I will leave that conversation for another time, and come to the real point of this post: To talk about the comparatively (and unfortunately) under-appreciated Tegan and Sara.

I've been playing tracks from their album So Jealous (the only one I own right now) for months. The first time I heard them was probably over a year ago, when "Walking with a Ghost" was getting airplay on Indie broadcast and satellite radio stations. And if you haven't heard any Tegan and Sara songs, that right there may be the reason. "Walking with a Ghost" is one of the two quirkiest songs on the album, the type of song that Indie stations like to play because it's too quirky to cross over.


Tegan and Sara. No, wait...
Sara and Tegan? Wait...

But the rest of the album is so catchy and so appealing, that if any other song had gotten airplay initially, it would've had a good shot at crossing over. Not that "crossing over" is or should necessarily be the goal of a band like Tegan and Sara, but it would be a shame if a potentially large fanbase missed out on T&S just because they weren't listening to the right radio stations.

Tegan and Sara, the people (I don't know their last names, and I'm not sure anybody does) hail from Calgary, Alberta, but because they are identical twin sisters, they now live on opposite ends of Canada from each other, in order to avoid driving each other (more) crazy. You can find this info and more at the website linked to above. Each sister wrote the other's amusing bio, and even the band's official press release for So Jealous has the sisters' distinct stamp on it: "The band is happy to report that no one cried during the recording process, except of course Sara (identity crisis on the second day of mixing) and Tegan (she cries whenever Sara starts crying)."

That these unique (except for being identical twins) women managed to make an album that is peculiar yet totally accessible, speaks volumes about their songwriting skills. "We Didn't Do It" sounds a bit like Missing Persons, but not in the way that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs sound like Tegan and Sara. It's not so much a matter of familiar melodies as it is of vocal references. Nobody sounds like Tegan and Sara, but occasionally Tegan and Sara use the same vocal inflections as in certain Police songs. Or, if you really want to get into minutiae, pay close attention and you'll notice that they frequently use the exact same inflections as the lead guy from Thompson Twins. (No, I am not insane; just listen to how they pronounce their "D" words!)

I also love "You Wouldn't Like Me", a paen to insecurity, and "We Didn't Do It", a beautifully-produced track that builds up to some surprising heights.

(Sidebar: Actually, there is one person who sounds a bit like Tegan and Sara: The comedienne (and occasional singer) Sarah Silverman. Enough so that when I first heard "Walking with a Ghost", and the announcement of the band name "Tegan and Sara", I thought that it might be a musical side project of Ms Silverman's! Alas, the world still awaits for that potential to be realized.)

The bottom line is, Stop ignoring Tegan and Sara, buy their albums, visit their website, etc., etc., etc.

And thanks to all YYY fans for the traffic. ;)