Pop Quiz: Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Pop Quiz: Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Aidin Vaziri | What a difference a major heart-wrenching breakup makes. When the Yeah Yeah Yeahs sold 500,000 copies of their 2003 debut album, "Fever to Tell," Karen O would appear onstage every night ripping a knit replica of her intestines out of her silver leotard and screaming like a banshee. On the New York dance-punk group's latest album, "Show Your Bones," however, the half-Korean, half-Polish singer is spilling her guts in an entirely different way. Having smashed through two serious relationships (with Liars singer Angus Andrew and film director Spike Jonze), O makes an unexpected dash for sincerity on the new disc with quieter but no less intense songs such as "Gold Lion" and "Cheated Hearts." This time it's for real.


Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Q: What's your favorite breakup album of all time?
A: Well, the one I was listening to in my breakups recently was "Imagine" by John Lennon. "Jealous Guy" was pretty much played on repeat every night and morning when I woke up for three months or something. If it wasn't actually playing out of a speaker then I was humming it.
Q: Which person do you relate to in that song, John or Yoko?
A: I don't know. I guess the guy, whoever the voice was singing.
Q: The "I didn't mean to hurt you" guy?
A: Exactly.
Q: Did you sometimes mix it up with the Roxy Music version?
A: No. You know, Roxy Music's version, I tried it out a few times, but it didn't do it for me. Maybe down the line a little bit. I needed the real thing.
Q: If you feel up to it, I'd love to hear you do it at some point.
A: It would be my pleasure. I just can't give you a specific time or place. Are you Asian, by any chance?
Q: Yes. I mean, no.
A: You don't have any Asian in you?
Q: I wish!
A: I'm trying out my, what would you call that, my ethnic radar?
Q: That's amazing because if you go back enough generations, everybody is Asian. So technically, yes. Maybe if the music thing doesn't work out you can be like an ethnic psychic.
A: Yeah, but in parentheses, "Only if you're Asian."