The band who had a formative influence on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs: “It oozed with so much city swagger”
New York City in the 2000s was a breeding ground for indie rock outfits. Amidst the burgeoning garage-rock and post-punk revivals, the Big Apple emerged as the epicentre of this new movement, spawning some of the biggest bands of the era. It gave rise to riff connoisseurs The Strokes, led by the indie it boy Julian Casablancas, to Manhattan-born marauders Interpol and to the increasingly beloved Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
While many artists from this era have been written off as landfill indie, it feels as though Karen O and her bandmates have only amassed more respect in the years following the garage boom. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have earned Grammy nominations and widespread acclaim for their more recent work, while their signature track ‘Maps’ has experienced a resurgence after receiving the TikTok dance treatment – perhaps the highest compliment in the age of social media.
As people look back with rose-tinted glasses on the era of indie sleaze, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have become a dependable reference point for budding bands and nostalgic fans. From the Dare to Japanese Breakfast, their influence continues to extend across modern music, but who did Karen O and her bandmates first look to for inspiration? During an interview with The Guardian, the frontwoman answered that very question.
While discussing formative albums from throughout her life, Karen O named A South Bronx Story by ESG as the record that was most influential on her work with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Like Karen O and her bandmates, ESG formed in New York City, only a couple of decades earlier. They emerged in the late 1980s, unleashing their debut album, Come Away with ESG, in 1983, pairing danceable grooves with post-punk influences.
ESG’s sound was almost a precursor to the indietronica movement of the 2000s, so it’s easy to see why Karen O fell in love with it. She discovered the record earlier in the year decade while the city was “shedding the dead skin of a later 90s shoegazer EDM phase.”
She continued, “Garage rock and post-punk reissues were breaking through the membrane. I picked up A South Bronx Story at my local record store, Kim’s, in the East Village.”
The compilation featured some of ESG’s signature tracks, including ‘Dance’ and ‘My Love For You’, and it immediately became a muse to Karen O. “I listened to it and I decided I wanted to be like those Scroggins sisters,” she remembered, “I danced to the record in front of a mirror. It oozed with so much city swagger, with its spark-plug lead vocals and minimal hooks.”
When Karen O came to writing and recording her self-titled debut EP with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, ESG served as one of her main inspirations. “I was trying to be like ESG but with guitar instead of bass,” she explained. This influence certainly came across in the band’s early sound, which sat somewhere between dance punk and garage rock.
Running with the influence of ESG, Karen O eventually made this danceable, guitar-driven sound entirely her own, finding her own New York City swagger. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs emerged as one of the most exciting bands of the 2000s indie rock era, forging record collection staples like Fever To Tell. They provided a breath of fresh air amidst a scene that could have quickly gotten stale, but they never stopped penning odes to ESG, even including parts of ‘Moody’ on their most recent album.
