Band draws international attention

The cover of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s self-titled debut album.

Though they have played together for only a year, independent rock band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (the name comes from a graffiti message the band saw on a Brooklyn wall) has gained a fervent following of underground listeners with their jangly, effervescent guitar pop. The New York-based quintet met while students at Connecticut College.

While fans and critics are quick to make comparisons to the Talking Heads, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah has found a sound that is genuinely singular — a challenge in today’s flooded pop market.

According to Ben Johnson ’04, music reviewer for The New London Day, the band’s lead singer Alec Ounsworth ’00 “yodels post-modern lyrics like a hyperventilating five-year-old who can’t decide whether he’s ecstatic or about to throw a tantrum.” Though Ounsworth’s voice may take some getting-used-to, the band’s music is ultimately winning.

Johnson writes, “With clean, circular guitar and bass lines courtesy of Ounsworth and twins Lee and Tyler Sargent, both Class of ’00, the music is driven by the incredibly tasteful dance-speed drumming of Sean Greenhalgh ’01 and the inventive synthesizers and keyboards of Robbie Guertin ’02. You will be blown away by the pop appeal and skilled songwriting.”

Their self-titled and self-produced debut album has created such a stir — thanks to the Internet — that the band recently hired a record distributor. Previously, twin brothers Tyler and Lee Sargent, members of the Class of ’00, were shipping the discs out of their Brooklyn apartment. The band’s recent national tour has been playing to sold-out audiences, one of which included David Bowie. The rock legend attended their June show at the Knitting Factory in New York City.

The music e-zine, “Pitchfork,” reports that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah recently signed to Wichita Recordings in the UK, home of Bloc Party, Bright Eyes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The band will appear on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” on Dec. 16.