Clap Your Hands Say Yeah may forever be pigeonholed as one of the first “blog bands.” Its self-titled, self-released debut became popular through word-of-blog acclaim upon arrival in 2005. The Philly/Brooklyn quintet, led by Alec Ounsworth, navigated the success well, but 2007’s Some Loud Thunder revealed that CYHSY was as interested in outsider weirdness as it was in indie-pop hooks. Yet it suffered a seemingly inevitable backlash from the fickle blogosphere, as did 2011’s Hysterical. In that LP’s aftermath, the band shed members and disappeared until late last summer, when Little Moments arrived. That four-song EP set the tone for the vibe that threads through Only Run, the new CYHSY album, which updates one of the EP’s songs as its title track. Ounsworth will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com. Read our new CYHSY feature.
Ounsworth: We have had the same upright piano in our family since I was a kid. It is right over there against the wall. It is a converted player piano with the name “Ounsworth” carved inside. It works fine. The piano is my first and often favorite instrument. My favorite pianist is Vladimir Horowitz. I began studying piano when I was five or six and switched to guitar around 13 and have been going back and forth since. If I had the money, I would buy a Steinway. No offense, Grandma.
