About Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is an indie rock band active since the early 2000s in and out of Philadelphia. The band was founded as a collaboration between singer-songwriter Alec Ounsworth, Sean Greenhalgh, Robbie Guertin, Lee Sargent, and Tyler Sargent. Ounsworth now performs under the name, as a solo artist.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah has released a total of six albums. Their self-titled debut album appeared in 2005 and their most recent, New Fragility, in 2021.
Ounsworth first started writing songs during high school, and by 2003 was playing small gigs and pursuing various opportunities to get his music heard. Working in his basement studio in Philadelphia, he would test new material on acoustic guitar at a weekly, two-song slot at a drag performance at local venue L'Etage. He then worked on the songs further in his basement, using a drum machine, bass, guitars, keyboards, and vocals.
He soon formed a band, consisting of drummer Sean Greenhalgh, keyboardist/guitarist Robbie Guertin, and brothers Lee and Tyler Sargent, and would frequently commute to New York for rehearsal.
The chosen name derives from some graffiti spotted in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn, huge letters on a wall: "Clap Your Hands Say Yeah". Initially planned as an interim name for one show only, the moniker stuck and was never changed.
The band started to record their material and initially planned a four-song EP. Yet granted extra studio time, more songs were written, and the EP expanded to become their self-titled debut album, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Recorded between Providence, RI and Red Hook, Brooklyn, it was made for under $5000, Produced and Mixed with Adam Lasus, and was first released – completely independently – in 2005.
With an independent DIY and direct-to-fan ethos, the band hand-delivered copies of their debut album to stores in New York and Philadelphia, where they also developed a fanbase including celebrities such as David Byrne and David Bowie, both of whom attended their shows. Early social media exposure on sites like Myspace, and favorable reviews in the then up-and-coming online media, particularly from music website Pitchfork, helped Clap Your Hands Say Yeah build a constant following, a dedicated audience, and commercial success. "CYHSY is...deserving of the hype for what is – quite possibly – a nearly perfect album" .
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