Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their self-titled debut album with a huge tour and a vinyl reissue. The dates kick off in spring 2025 with a North American run that includes shows at New York’s Webster Hall and Los Angeles’ Regent Theater, before Alec Ounsworth and the band head to Europe, Australia, and New Zealand to wrap things up. To go with the announcement, Ounsworth has shared the original, 2004 version of “Heavy Metal”—a recording he says captures “a special moment in time—a young group of guys all piling into one hotel room to wake up and go to a real studio (!) to try to come up with something special just for the fun of it.”
Ounsworth added, in press materials:
At the time, “Heavy Metal” was meant to appear alongside a small collection of songs to be used for an EP to be shopped around to label. We never thought that an album was possible at the time. Later, during the mixing of the EP, a decision was made to add other songs. This final collection of songs went on to be the first album.
I guess I didn’t think this original version of “Heavy Metal” sat very well on the album once we started recording some of the later songs (“The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth,” “Is This Love?,” etc.) so I decided the song should be changed even though the original (as a standalone single) had always worked. Now that I listen to the original “Heavy Metal” remixed and mastered, I realize it very well could (should?) have been on the album itself.
I really like both versions of “Heavy Metal,” but, 20 years later, I think I’ve come to appreciate this one a little more. The rest of the album has this excitement too of course but the earliest songs speak even more to a certain innocence around that time which I try hard not to forget.
Read “Blog Rock Revisited: Musing the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah 10th Anniversary Tour” on the Pitch.
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Clap Your Hands Say Yeah:
01-31 Washington D.C. – The Atlantis04-01 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle04-02 Atlanta, GA – Terminal West04-04 Ft. Worth, TX – Tulip’s04-05 Austin, TX – Scoot Inn04-07 Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom04-08 Los Angeles, CA – Regent Theater04-09 San Francisco, CA – Independent04-11 Portland, OR – Aladdin Theater04-12 Seattle, WA – Crocodile Café04-13 Vancouver, British Columbia – Biltmore Cabaret04-15 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge04-16 Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater05-02 Saint Paul, MN – Amsterdam Bar and Hall05-03 Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall05-04 Grand Rapids, MI – Pyramid Scheme05-06 Toronto, Ontario – Great Hall05-07 Albany, NY – The Egg05-08 Somerville, MA – Crystal Ballroom05-09 New York, NY – Webster Hall05-10 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer09-14 Leffinge, Belgium – Leffingeleuren Festival09-16 Dublin, Ireland – Button Factory09-18 Paris, France – Gaîté Lyrique09-19 London, England – EartH09-20 London, England – EartH11-05 Sydney, Australia – Metro Theatre11-07 Melbourne, Australia – Northcote Theatre11-08 Brisbane, Australia – The Triffid11-11 Auckland, New Zealand – The Tuning Fork
