With the development of the Internet, indie musicians could finally make do without the benefit of a large organization behind them. Even so, it wasn't until the Philadelphia/Brooklyn-based quintet Clap Your Hands Say Yeah released their self-titled debut album in the summer of 2005 that the Net's full potential was tapped.
Not only did the band sell the album through their Web site, they did so initially without a distributor or publicity. There wasn't even a press release until some foreign record companies licensed the album in the fall after its release, but by then online pundits had praised it to the skies and the band members were spending more time filling orders (some 25,000 copies of the album were shifted out of bass player Tyler Sargent's apartment alone) than playing gigs. For once, the hype was justified.
Though CYHSY's debt to ramshackle indie-rock trio Modest Mouse is clear, and leader Alec Ounsworth's vocal resemblance to Talking Heads' David Byrne unavoidable, the music is exuberant and melodic in ways that aren't easy to compare with anyone. The infectiousness of their sound is based on repetition and a delicate layering of elements. The band's name conjures up gospel-like release, and appropriately many of the songs build to an epiphany.